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If you follow this blog (thank you!), you might know I’ve been working on de-googling my life for a while now and it occurred to me I should do the same thorough review of how I use Microsoft (MS) software next. I made this list of all of their stuff I have used, and I am starting to work on alternatives to the apps I still rely on.
And NB: I won’t be suggesting any Goog cloud apps here, since those are not good alternatives. See my other De-Goog posts for more on that.
| MS Product | Where I use it | Alternatives | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Nowhere! | Any real database or NOSQL DB | |
| Excel | PC (work) | LibreOffice Calc, SmartSheets, etc… | |
| OneNote | PC (work) | Memos, LogSeq, Obsidian, etc… | I use Memos and LOVE it |
| Outlook | PC, Phone (work) | Thunderbird, Tuta mail, Proton, etc… | I use Tuta |
| PowerPoint | PC (work) | LibreOffice Impress, Marp, etc… | |
| Word | PC (work) | LibreOffice Writer, OpenOffice, etc… | I wrote an entire book in LO Writer |
| OneDrive | PC, Phone (work) | NextCloud, Syncthing, File Browser, etc… | I use Syncthing and File Browser |
| Teams | Nowhere! | Slack, Element (Matrix), Jitsi meet, etc… | |
| SharePoint | PC (work) | Any wiki software, such as NextCloud, OwnCloud, Media Wiki, etc… | |
| To Do | Nowhere! | Any to-do app, such as Vikunja, Karman, ToDoList, Planka, etc… | I like Planka |
So to summarize, at home and on my mobile, I am almost completely free of MS software. But at work, not so much. And of course, everywhere I wrote “LibreOffice” above, you could substitute another of the great office suites which are also available. Here’s a list if you need some pointers: https://alternativeto.net/software/libreoffice/?license=opensource
To be sure, my employer is too reliant on MS. We still use Exchange server for email, Outlook and the standard MS Office apps every day. It would be very difficult to convince my non-tech co-workers to try LibreOffice or anything else at this stage, and that of course is the problem: MS has had a de-facto monopoly on office work for so long now - especially in the US - that most people don’t even know there are many great competitors available. It’s frustrating for sure, but I do bug my IT team to change things, as much as I can.
Which MS tools do you need to move off of? What MS products or alternatives did I miss in this list? Share your thoughts in the comments.
:)
(Thanks to Pexels for the image)