@david_chisnall No disagreement that other tools are better, or that Excel isn't the ideal solution to most problems. However, despite the very popular Excel bashing in the tech world, I think it is actually one of the better software products in the past few decades. It's overused, sure, but a spreadsheet program can address a huge range of tasks for a pretty large range of users, and Excel is arguably the best spreadsheet out there. Calc is not bad, but it does, objectively, have limitations compared to Excel. I personally very rarely run into them, and they are mostly of the "UX/UI" variety, but they exist. Telling the world to stop using Excel is a slam dunk, social media-wise, in a tech space. There really isn't an alternative (or set of alternatives) to address most spreadsheet users' needs, though. Most people would be served well by Calc if they put some time into learning its UI differences, but most people would not be served well by simply abandoning spreadsheets.
despite the very popular Excel bashing in the tech world, I think it is actually one of the better software products in the past few decades.
I don't disagree. It's just that Excel sets a very low bar. The fact that most alternatives are worse says far more about the state of the industry than it does about Excel.
The fact that Excel's calc language is the only programming language with a billion users says a lot more.
@david_chisnall I agree. I teach intro statistics and research methods to psychology students (i.e., math- and code-phobic students). I have come to believe one of the more helpful things I can do for them is just to teach them that formulas exist and can make some of their tasks easier. It is not an exaggeration to say that >95% of these students have never interacted with anything remotely like "code" before this experience. They tend to be confused, at first, by concepts like "select the whole column" or "copy-paste 4 cells instead of just one." The only reason I'm not aggressively selling them on Calc is that my little university has invested heavily in Excel (previously gSheets), and has declared it an "official" software product, so I will literally get in stupid, annoying trouble if I am too vocal about any alternative.