One Month of The Dark Side

It has now been roughly a month since throwing myself headlong into the world of Microsoft and, yes, part of me is thinking I should have taken the blue pill.  Here is the interim update:

• Windows 10: Not a bad operating system, stable and updates haven’t gotten in the way.  Hooray!  I have had to forego my favourite feature of multiple desktops due to Microsoft Office wanting to be on *all* of them.  I still prefer the Linux “Store” to the Windows Store and think the decision to drop support for porting Android apps was a bad one.
• Microsoft Office: I still don’t get on with the ribbon interface, although it is no longer a complete hinderance.  I shall break my review of this suite into its trinity:
  • Word: is a poor piece of software.  There are so many superior methods for document generation that I am rather amazed that anyone uses Word.  It might be that little bit more user friendly for the *complete* novice, but it lacks finesse; it is very GUI.  Perhaps its best redeeming feature is it has a good keyboard shortcut for inserting equations (Alt+=).
  • Excel: is a good piece of software.  Which is a damn good thing as a lot of my life is spent in spreadsheets and needing Excel is the main driver that forced me into this experiment.  There are certain features that LibreOffice Calc has that I miss, but I can understand why they are not there (as they have the potential to cause havoc).
  • Powerpoint: is something that I have not had to use yet.  On a similar note, Sway is pretty swish, but is unfortunately named coincidentally with a song that I can’t help but hear every time it is mentioned.
  • As a conclusion to the Office saga, I have installed LibreOffice to open historic files as Office’s handling of ODF is dire.  So far I’ve resisted temptation to use it for everything, but there are no guarantees that will last.
• Outlook: lets me stay organised and stays out of my way, just the way I like it.
• OneNote: is the best thing since sliced bread.  I am surprised more people aren’t raving about this brilliant tool.  There are so many nice little touches to this that I just love; consequently I have only done a few paper notes in the past month, all of which I have scanned into my notebooks.
• Edge: does not feel like a finished product, it is laggy, buggy and gives a poor user experience.  Worst of all, it doesn’t appear to have proper keyboard shortcuts.  I’m afraid when it comes to browser choice, I have reverted to type and ultimately gone with Chrome.

So to conclude, given the choice, I would keep: Excel and OneNote.  I am also not disappointed by Windows 10 and Outlook, but if only Excel and OneNote were available for Linux I know what my ideal set-up would be.