Re: The problem with not owning the software

On 1/4/2025 9:52 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Sun, 5 Jan 2025 01:10:42 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote:
 

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
>

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 02:19:07 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote:
>

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
>

On Thu, 2 Jan 2025 12:09:28 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote:
>

... suggests that people don't do much other than open up Word and
Excel.

>
In the professional world that's pretty accurate.

>
Doesn’t sound like that adjective “professional” extends to the actual
quality of results, then.

>
Based on what, exactly?

>
Based on the known issues with over-reliance on Microsoft products.

>
Such as? Excluding the gene name issue, which is pretty niche.

 It’s affecting a whole lot of research work
<https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7>.

I entered a gene named 'March 2' (no apostrophes) into LO Calc and it converted to a date.
That egregious data mangling issue would affect a whole lot of genetics research work... if anyone was crazy enough to use LeeberOffice.

Then there was the massive screwup over underreporting of COVID-19
figures in the UK, which went undetected for months
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/excel-glitch-may-have-caused-uk-to-underreport-covid-19-cases-by-15841/>.
 The Austrian Social Democratic Party’s botched election of a new
leader
<https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/06/austria_election_excel_blunder/>.
 How many Excel screwups can you commit in just one job?
<https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/12/excel_anesthetist_recruitment_blunder/>.
 Is it a good idea for a Formula 1 team to use Excel to manage its
parts inventory?
<https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/formula-1-chief-appalled-to-find-team-using-excel-to-manage-20000-car-parts/>.

You're literally blaming human error on Excel.
There's a good Linux advocate.

There are entire websites devoted to compiling errors caused by using
Microsoft Excel.

I notice you didn't say 'caused by Microsoft Excel'.  Why stop lying now?
On the other hand, here's a partial list of websites devoted to compiling errors that were actually caused by GuhNoo hobbyware  (or in a minority of instances human error).
https://bbs.archlinux.org/
https://www.centos.org/forums/
http://forums.debian.net/
http://fedoraforum.org/
http://forums.gentoo.org/
https://forum.manjaro.org
http://forums.linuxmint.com/
http://forums.opensuse.org/
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/forumdisplay.php?forumid=14
http://ubuntuforums.org
MS is doomed
Excel is doomed