# Microsoft Office 256 Hacker News commenters recommended Microsoft Office and 407 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 12 years (11 owners). **Verdict:** The default business office suite, hard to replace for Excel macros and enterprise governance, though critics dislike the Copilot push, the ribbon, weak Linux support and the limited web version. ## Why people recommend it - Hard to replace in business (5 comments): "Mountainous VBasic monstrosities are sometimes the way things get done in orgs I am personally familiar with and that can be hard to switch away from." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47716328)) "Excel standalone I think is the hardest to replace if you have lots of macros with business logic inside them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47164276)) "The $30/mo looks cheap compared to all of the time spent trying to teach end users how to use something else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50044552)) - Older versions fast and sufficient (4 comments): "works just fine on win 10 or under wine, and has the benefit of being written 28 years ago so on a modern computer everything happens imperceptibly fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46202630)) "I could never switch to this braindead “ribbons” UI and refused to learn this idiotic new scheme so I stayed with office 2k" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48343550)) "I don't think there's anything missing in Office 2000 for upwards of 90% of users' word processor/spreadsheet/etc needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47203448)) - Enterprise integration and governance (3 comments): "This gave add-ins portability between all supported Office platforms, increased security, and made administration much easier." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47497205)) "What Microsoft sells to enterprise is governance, and they really don't have any competition in this area." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514052)) "They sell it with the promise of total platform integration for every single software an office needs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48976088)) - Web version mostly works (3 comments): "you can edit the same document with the full office at work and the browser version at home and it won't mess things up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48977777)) "Microsoft Office Online works fine on Linux. In fact, it's superior to native MS Office in terms of stability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46350745)) "they still have relatively nice tools, and though their online versions mostly work, it's not nearly as good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49038085)) ## What people warn about - Web version is limited (4 comments): "They never bothered to implement this Preview functionality on the Web version of office, and I bet only a few ever noticed this inconsistency." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264465)) "Yeah Web version will do, if everything you need is doable with Microsoft Works, and no collaboration with others is required." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48538431)) "they still have relatively nice tools, and though their online versions mostly work, it's not nearly as good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49038085)) - Cloud, subscription and Copilot push (5 comments): "tying. Countless millions are forced to use Copilot because their IT department has contracts with Microsoft, and those same contracts are why they use Office, Teams" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195077)) "they burnt down one of the most famous brands in the world, MS Office, for zero reason other than to try and whitewash their Copilot name" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46855182)) "Microsoft which is lackadaisical about the subject, like maybe they think Office is a place to stuff with thoroughly unwanted AI features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49631609)) - Ribbon UI disrupted workflows (4 comments): "I could never switch to this braindead “ribbons” UI and refused to learn this idiotic new scheme so I stayed with office 2k" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48343550)) "Then Office 2007 happened, tossing out the waffle menu for the ribbon and people started receiving e-mails with strange docx/xlsx files that nobody could open." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47584219)) "MacOS did not have ribbon shortcuts until a few months ago. That's simply insulting that such a core function for users would be missing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48397187)) - Poor Linux support (3 comments): "Those beholden to MSO and the One True Excel, which of course is not guaranteed to work well (or at all) under Wine / Proton" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46567409)) "just to give our Linux users a Windows VM with Office on it if they need to do any significant docs or drawings." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578268)) "MS Office is the last roadblock for Linux desktop. It's literally the last thing holding back many users from moving to anything else." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975844)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [LibreOffice](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libreoffice.md): 345 recommend - [Microsoft 365](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-365.md): 151 recommend - [Google Workspace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-workspace.md): 107 recommend - [OnlyOffice](https://hackerapproved.com/p/onlyoffice.md): 58 recommend - [La Suite numérique](https://hackerapproved.com/p/la-suite-num-rique.md): 25 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Microsoft+Office+2024+Home+and+Student&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Microsoft Office", https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-office/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).