Which components do you use most?

jdh111 · May 13, 2014, 1:50am

Virgil Arrington wrote

I'm curious to find out what components of LO are used most by the
people on this list. I think it helps to know different folks' area of
experience. It might also help us in learning new ways to integrate the
different components. For myself, my approximate usage is:

Writer 80% (using Styles and Templates whenever possible)
Calc 10%
Base 7%
Draw 3%

john

JOE_Conner · May 13, 2014, 3:38am

Virgil Arrington wrote

Tom_Cloyd · May 13, 2014, 5:06am

Virgil,

I have a considerable background in inferential statistics, and have done formal survey research, in a variety of social and cultural contexts. I want to warn you that this sort of self-select, opt-in survey is NOT the way to go, if your question is serious.

You ARE only going to get a subset (sample) of your population of interest, and you'll have no way to relate that subset to the population, thus no way to draw any valid conclusions from the subset. It's pseudo-research, which creates the impression of creating knowledge without actually doing so.

Just something for you, and others, to think about.

Hope it's helpful.

Tom

Tom_Davies1 · May 13, 2014, 11:48am

Hi
It's just a "just for fun" survey of what people think they use.

The modules can't be split up and removing any wouldn't reduce the
code=base by much at all so the usual sinister hidden-agendas behind this
sort of question are entirely absent. It's just for fun.

For a lot of us this sort of thing is very difficult because answering
would require us have really measured usage and give accurate answers
rather than guesses. It's the type of question that neurotypicals and
mainstream-press articles seem to enjoy but that are ultimately fairly
pointless. It's just for fun and it's interesting to see people's
estimates of what they do and to see how they handle giving answers to this
sort of thing.
http://musingsofanaspie.com/2013/01/10/what-is-neurotypical/

If we wanted a formal vote then there are various tools such as "Survey
Monkey", or we could set-up something in LinuxQuestions.Org" or "Ask LO" or
somewhere.
Regards from
Tom

Tom_Cloyd · May 13, 2014, 12:17pm

Tom,

Good morning.

I bothered to comment at all about this for a three reasons.

First, I have a long standing serious interest inductive logic - as you know, this is the logic upon which all scientific endeavor depends. Not a "fun" topic for me, but a vitally serious and important one.

Second, I see an enormous number of these "opt-in" surveys - commercial enterprises and websites are doing them all the time. People participate as if something meaningful is happening. But it isn't. One ends up with data that has no known or identifiable relationship to any population of interest. It's all a big ruse. It APPEARS as if someone is seriously ignorant about what they're doing. OR, these efforts are a disingenuous attempt merely to induce customer involvement in an activity that brings them into contact with "the brand".

Third, as a cultural anthropologist (my first serious intellectual commitment, before clinical psychology), I'm keenly aware that there is a base of cultural knowledge in all societies. In the 16th and 17th century, that knowledge included the fact that witches were real and that at times they constituted a genuine threat to society. In our own time, respect for expertise, science, and real knowledge is such that all major potential presidential candidates for one of our two political parties are busy either disavowing the reality of rapid climate change or that it has anything to do with human activity. Scientists be damned - full speed ahead. God wants profits, not sustainable economies!

That last one scares me half out of my mind. My species may not have what it takes to survive in the long run.

So, it appears that one of my principal roles in this world is to be an educator, whenever and where I can.

I don't think Virgil is doing this "for fun". I don't think the respondents think their responses are meaningless. Seriously now: who in their right mind is interested in the practices of those who bother to respond to this would-be survey? What possible importance can be attached, at all, to their responses? I don't get it. If there isn't some degree of belief that this matters (which is cannot, as I've previously explained), what's the point?

So, I am induced to think that they really DO belief that this has significance, and so I posted what I did.

That's what's behind my post, for what it's worth.

I could be completely cynical and just shake my head and move on. I choose not to.

About other matters, I'll respond, next, now that I'm up and half way through my first cup of coffee!

Tom

Virgil_Arrington · May 13, 2014, 1:42pm

Yes, Tom D., this was just for fun, and given the response from so many people, I think most have taken it in the way I intended.

Virgil

Ruth_Ann · May 13, 2014, 2:32pm

Useless or not
Going by the number of files used,
Calc = 90%
Writer = 9%
Base = 1%

And yet, I consider that one base file the most important.

I also have a few files that I work with in Corel. When I have time, I will switch them over to Draw, but for now I have other things to do.
I have not used Impress or Math yet, but am sure I will find use for them one of these days.

Ruth Ann, Cincinnati, OH USA

Tom_Davies1 · May 13, 2014, 12:07pm

Hi
Actually a mainstream press article might lead with a heading such as
"Which module is best" and then make dumb remarks such as "Writer doesn't
handle pivot tables quite so well as Calc so therefore Calc is the best".
Such an article would carefully avoid pointing out that each module is the
best for a specific set of purposes.

We see many articles weighing up "which is best" distro or "which is best"
OpenOffice or LibreOffice (or google-docs or Abiword&Gnumeric, AndrOffice).
The aim usually seems to be to suggest that it is possible to make a wrong
choice that becomes irrevocable.

Virgil neatly dodged that sort of idiocy.

Making these tools seem fragmented rather than all part of the same
eco-system and able to fully co-operate with each other plays into the
hands of proprietary giants that dominate markets and squish all
opposition. Having a more open market means people can choose tools that
suit a specific set of circumstances and still work with others who may
have made different choices.

Regards from
Tom

Felmon_Davis · May 13, 2014, 3:05pm

it's called 'getting acquainted with people in a group'. people do this at parties too.

hard to see what's objectionable about it unless one doesn't like parties. (I don't mean political parties.)

F.

Virgil_Arrington · May 13, 2014, 3:25pm

That was part of my thought process in asking the question. In the past, for example, we have discussed the relative merits of paragraph styles. Some of us love them; some of us hate them. My (totally unscientific) guess is that styles lovers will tend to be primarily Writer users and styles haters will tend to be primarily Calc users (or Base, but it seems that *nobody* primarily uses Base).

If I know that a user is a 95% Calc user, then it will do me little good to try to convince them to set up a bunch of Writer paragraph styles. They don't have time for that, just like I don't have time to learn the power moves of Calc--I just don't use it enough to justify that type of investment.

So, as we discuss various topics, it will helpful (at least for me) to know that awe for the power of Writer may not be shared by one who emphasizes Calc.

It also underscores for me the immensity of our office suite. To make it do wonderful things, we must learn it, but it's like trying to comprehend the universe. I doubt that any single human being truly understands it, which is why a list like this is so helpful (aspergers, OCD and all).

Virgil

elderdanlewis · May 13, 2014, 6:29pm

I think it is helping because it helps us understand what kind of level of expertise we can expect from certain posters. So when i try to answer questions about Calc, or Base there are clearly limits on how much i understand or have stumbled through myself.

That was part of my thought process in asking the question. In the past, for example, we have discussed the relative merits of paragraph styles. Some of us love them; some of us hate them. My (totally unscientific) guess is that styles lovers will tend to be primarily Writer users and styles haters will tend to be primarily Calc users (or Base, but it seems that *nobody* primarily uses Base).

Actually, no one has yet to respond that primarily uses Base. You would probably say that I don't either considering the amount of time that I use Writer. Yet, my primary use of LibreOffice is writing what should become the future Base Guide. I am also experimenting with Base to see all of the things that it can do.
Then there are the personal uses I have for Base. The purpose of a database is to store data and then access or manipulate the date to obtain information that is needed. Just some of the databases that I use includes Bible study, schedules, grocery lists, medical tests, financial (income and expenses), calories consumed (amount by food type, record of the over a period of time), and utility consumption including statistics about it. the queries in these databases can reveal quite a bit of information.

--Dan

Virgil_Arrington · May 13, 2014, 7:13pm

Dan,

Thanks for the ideas about Base. I've used it for arranging and printing mailing lists, but I haven't gone beyond that. I can only imagine what I'm missing by doing something manually that might be better done with Base. I'm intrigued in how you use it for Bible study. My Sunday school notes are typically a mass of disconnected thoughts written in Writer. If Base can help organize this, I'd love to learn it.

I look forward to your Base Guide

Virgil

hstoellinger · May 13, 2014, 9:37pm

Hello,

I use Base EVERY DAY! I mentioned before that I manage a wind band and this
means storing info about pieces of music, players, arrangers, business contacts,
uniforms, attendance at practices and performances (for statistical and money
reasons), supporting members, musical programmes and many more things.
For zillions of reasons (such as only storing pieces of information once and
ONLY once as against scattering info (such as names, addresses, telephone numbers
or e-mail addresses) across dozens of spreadsheets), databases are the logical
way to go. Base is one of the indispensable links between the pieces of the puzzle.

So - I use Writer, Calc and Base in an integrated way every day and couldn't
imagine leaving out ANY of the pieces of the puzzle.
Regards
H. S.

Tom_Davies1 · May 13, 2014, 2:16pm

Hi
Yes, i was one of the respondants. If i had thought it serious or "leading
somewhere" in anyway at all then i would have carefully avoided
responding. At a guess i'm not the only respondant thinking that way.

I think a few answers, such as Tom C's, are interesting because it kinda
shows what we were talking about in another recent thread. Even people who
don't have aspergers often exhibit signs of it often due to their expertise
in a particular area. Also if there seem to be rules some of us feel
compelled to rebel (such as Gavin's response being in order but not giving
percentages) or do so accidentally.

I think it is helping because it helps us understand what kind of level of
expertise we can expect from certain posters. So when i try to answer
questions about Calc, or Base there are clearly limits on how much i
understand or have stumbled through myself. it's part of why i try to
stick to "waggle the wires" and generic answers rather than diving into
specifics and why i drop questions once they start getting expert answers
(or at least better ones than i am likely to be able to help with).
Regards from
Tom

Tom_Davies1 · May 13, 2014, 3:12pm

Hi
It is a classic neurotypical thing that many in IT find really tough to
cope with. So i can both see why some people are having trouble with it
and why others find it fun.

The "getting acquainted with people in a group" is an excellent summary of
it. It's fun for some and difficult for others. [shrugs] No-one has to
join in and not joining in doesn't exclude you from the
group/team/whatever.

I agree with Tom C that we can't use these stats as meaningful, unbiased
research!
Regards from
Tom

Tom_Cloyd · May 13, 2014, 2:51pm

You mean I'm the only deadly serious one here? Ah...alone at last!

t.

V_Stuart_Foote · May 14, 2014, 12:48am