Another issue is that Excel uses VBA code which is essential to get the most out of Excel, Libre uses something similar but is it compatable with existing Excel workbooks ?
My guess is probably not, but then VBA has been inconsistent with itself (between different releases) down the years. That said, it's a
very long time since I did any serious VBA, and that was mostly within MS Access (Access was very good, but also very quirky).
Access and MS Project are the two things that might get me to use Windows again sometime (I haven't yet found an easy RDB front end for Linux - MySQL is fine as the back-end but I really struggle with LibreOffice Base, and I'm too old/lazy to hand-code web apps anyway), and it's a long time since Microsoft 'repositioned' Project such that it's unaffordable for non-professional use.
I used to love using Sound Forge for audio editing and Vegas for video (I still think both are best in class over >30 years - Audacity is an annoying toy in comparison to SF, but I have yet to try Blackmagic video software). I am getting a smart new PC for Christmas, which should let me experiment with some of the 'more heavyweight' media applications for Linux, and possibly even run SF in a VM or using Wine. Sketchup 2015 runs well, and meets my need for 3D modelling presently.
My Windows enthusiasm dimmed (and finally went out) when I left a big US company and started having to pay for my own hardware and licences at full rate, and no longer had a support desk and programmers that I could pester for help when necessary.
I also love the fact that Linux is really flexible with hardware, and I rarely if ever have to deal with the "Xxx is no longer supported" issue. For example, my main printer is a (literally) 30-year-old HP laser, because it takes a ream in one gulp, has three paper trays, prints A3 and has a duplexer and will do fairly thick card too. It also has a decent RAM buffer on a memory card and a fairly fast network card. Under Linux it just works, consistently, even though I can't update its built-in Postscript interpreter. That printer will probably outlast me: it started jamming when duplexing recently - about 40 minutes with cotton buds and IPA, and it's now running faultlessly again. I think the most recent prior cleaning was probably 10 years ago. I also refill its toner cartridges with generic black dust and they've lasted, too. Presently, both the iPad and my Android tablet print to it via a linux print server, to take care of encryption issues caused recently by Google and Apple.
The other big thing that's hugely helpful is that I use a Wacom "Intuos" graphics tablet instead of a mouse on my main PC. The tablet's driver is in the main Linux distribution, and it's scriptable. My Intuos has nine buttons and a scrollwheel as well as a stylus (with effectively three buttons and an eraser), and I can script these to work exactly as I wish (and the code is really simple). For example when hand-coding, I have an entire, empty, web page set up on one of the static buttons, also some other common bits of code, so one click saves a lot of typing. I also use the tablet 'left-handed' (i.e. upside-down), and that's a simple toggle. There's really no complexity required, and I even get pressure sensitivity when it's driving GIMP and Darktable (for photo editing).
The stylus thing is a real biggie, as I can't tolerate use of a mouse for long periods because of deformed fingers. I can go all day with a stylus though, and Wacom stuff has been superb (Samsung uses Wacom's tech in their 'Tab' series of stylus-driven Android tablets).
E.
