Spreadsheets...
This is a fair criticism. Spreadsheet power users still have good reason to stick with Excel... unfortunately. However, LibreOffice is probably well ahead of PowerPoint for presentations, and close to par for word processing (though it could be a bit snappier with very long documents). LibreOffice also gets the nod for flexibility (fully configurable toolbars, programmable in numerous scripting languages).
Also, you have to weigh the drawbacks of LibreOffice against the very real and ever-mounting drawbacks of MS Office. Installation of Office is malware-like and impossible to troubleshoot, with hundreds of Registry keys and intentionally mysterious system ties, and increasingly intrusive activation technologies. The user interface has become a disaster, emphasizing white space, ugly fonts and non-configurable Ribbons.
Finally, you have to weigh the importance of free and open source software. MS products contain an unknown but clearly non-zero amount of spyware and backdoors (if only for DRM purposes). They use proprietary formats, which Microsoft can and does alter on a whim. They're closed source, offering no opportunity for customization or vetting by the user base, making them less secure.
If I were running a government department... I'd put 90% of users on Linux+LibreOffice, and 99% of those users would never know the difference. I'd maintain a few cubicles with MS Office, for advanced spreadsheets and such, just down the hall from the two or three Macs that die-hard desktop publishing or graphics wonks would insist upon. Aside from the immediate savings on MS licenses (which might, admittedly, be offset by purchase of a commercially-supported Linux distro), I'd have a far more manageable system, a far more future-proof system, and a far more secure system - at equivalent, or probably lower, cost.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
