Related Articles
CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. And find more great buys on the CNET Deals page.
Quick housekeeping note: If you grabbed the VPN deal I mentioned the other day (or its even better successor) and you’re having trouble with activation, the folks at StackSocial have assured me they’ll help get you straightened out. Just e-mail [email protected].
A few years back, I dubbed Kingsoft Office the best free Microsoft Office alternative. Then the developers renamed it WPS Office, built in a bunch of clunky online features and added a watermark to all printed and PDF documents. Talk about ruining a perfectly great freebie! (To be fair, developers gotta eat, and the free version really was almost too good. I’m guessing few users bothered to pay for the pro version.)
So what’s the alternative to that alternative? Ladies and gentlemen, the 2016 Cheapskate Award for Best Free Office Suite hereby goes to LibreOffice 5.1.
Enlarge ImageLibreOffice 5.1 has an interface that’s streamlined and familiar.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
This is, of course, a decidedly old-school option. For many a user, word processing, spreadsheet management and presentation creation work just fine in a Web browser, thank you. Tools such as Google Docs and Microsoft’s own Office Online afford plenty of basic features, without extra software to install or money to spend.
So why bother with a desktop office suite? I can think of any number of reasons: mail-merge, text boxes, change-tracking, custom styles… shall I go on? Plus, and let’s be honest, Google Docs is a really ugly place to spend your time. Interface isn’t everything, but it’s something.
LibreOffice, for its part, borrows heavily from Microsoft Office circa 2003 — and that’s just fine. (I know plenty of folks who despise the Ribbon interface that’s prevalent across newer versions of Office.) I do wish it offered a tabbed view for multiple documents, though, of course, Microsoft Office doesn’t, either. Which is ridiculous.
That gripe aside, I like pretty much everything about LibreOffice. It’s fully file-format compatible with Microsoft Office (read: it can open and save .docx and all the other “x” files), and it offers some of the more obscure features (macros, track changes, etc.) not typically found in freebie suites.
If you’re a regular Cheapskate reader, you know I’m a bit conflicted about this. I like Microsoft Office, and in fact I rely heavily on Outlook because it’s the only desktop mail client worth a damn. (Yep, I said it.) But I still think it’s overpriced, and Microsoft shenanigans like this drive me insane.
That’s just me. If you’re looking for a free (technically, open-source) office suite that can handle the big-three productivity tasks with aplomb, look no further than LibreOffice 5.1. Your thoughts?
Enlarge ImagePassword Boss
Bonus deal: I almost made this today’s featured deal, because it’s singularly awesome. But I also know many of you are probably sick of password managers, because they’re a regular fixture around here. Just in case you haven’t yet adopted one, though, here’s your chance to get a lifetime subscription to Password Boss for $19.99. Regular price: $29.99 for one year. Password Boss is a relative newcomer, but as PC Mag pointed out in its very favorable review, “it’s full-featured enough that you’d hardly guess it’s version 1.0.”
Bonus deal 2: Calling all Mac users! Roadmap Planner is a highly rated project-management app that normally runs $24.99. Ending tonight, you can get Roadmap Planner for free! This “strategic communication tool [lets you] build your marketing, business development and product vision roadmap, and show off it to your team and stakeholders at a glance. It will take you where you want to be in one, five, or 10 years.”
Bonus deal No. 3: Want to see what kind of local stations your TV can pull in, but don’t want to spend a lot to find out? Depending on where you live, a flat antenna can work minor miracles. And today you can get one on the cheap: Dealfisher (via Amazon) is offering the refurbished Mohu Leaf 30 for $14.99, shipped free with Prime. As you’ll see from the (mostly positive) reviews, performance definitely varies depending on your location — but for many, the Mohu is a fantastic tuner.
