Linux'sNOTDeskTopReady:Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: $1000, $1082425, $11600, $127, $250

Help with installation and general system troubleshooting questions concerning the office suite LibreOffice.
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Penguin_In_Circles
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Linux'sNOTDeskTopReady:Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: $1000, $1082425, $11600, $127, $250

Post by Penguin_In_Circles »

Why Linux is NOT on avg. user's desktops:
This is one on (many) reasons.
Thankfully, hundreds of other large details have been resolved over the decades,
but THIS when I was talking w/ a business owner...
off a LinuxMint USB Ventoy mutilboot ISO on his laptop...
is bluntly (embarrassing) that I was suggesting a Linux migration.
.
Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: (in a CSV! )
$1000
$1082425
$11600
$1173
$12380
$127
$250
.
Anybody see (anything) wrong?
And anyone know how LONG
& how many GateKeepers it takes to get to a (Decision Maker's) desk,
to only get hit w/ 50 seat(for a demo city rollout) migration killing BS like (this)?
& if any dimbulb is going to say "You only have to jump through these half-dozen hoops, THEN..." ...I'd have to wonder how many jobs they've been "career adjusted" from....
OpenOffice 2.4 on Ubuntu 9.04 Libre 6.0.7.3 on LinuxMint 19.3
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Villeroy
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Re: Linux'sNOTDeskTopReady:Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: $1000, $1082425, $11600, $127, $250

Post by Villeroy »

Exactly the same sort order as with Excel when you import numbers as text. The sort order is alphabetical.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
Ubuntu 18.04 with LibreOffice 6.0, latest OpenOffice and LibreOffice
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floris v
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Re: Linux'sNOTDeskTopReady:Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: $1000, $1082425, $11600, $127, $250

Post by floris v »

First, all people posting here are users like you, the developers rarely visit here. I understand that you are irritated, but you could try to express yourself somewhat more diplomatically. It will definitely help you get more answers.
The sorting is alphabetical because the data are considered as text. This is definitely a bit odd about Calc, but once you get rid of the $ signs and format the cells as Currency with US dollar, the sorting works just fine in LibreOffice. Development of OpenOffice has come to all but a standstill, you might give LibreOffice a shot.
LibreOffice 24.2.7.2 on Ubuntu Linux
If your problem has been solved or your question has been answered, please edit the first post in this thread and add [Solved] to the title bar.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Linux'sNOTDeskTopReady:Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: $1000, $1082425, $11600, $127, $250

Post by Hagar Delest »

Penguin_In_Circles wrote: Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:58 pm Why Linux is NOT on avg. user's desktops:
This is one on (many) reasons.
Thankfully, hundreds of other large details have been resolved over the decades,
but THIS when I was talking w/ a business owner...
off a LinuxMint USB Ventoy mutilboot ISO on his laptop...
is bluntly (embarrassing) that I was suggesting a Linux migration.
.
Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: (in a CSV! )
$1000
$1082425
$11600
$1173
$12380
$127
$250
.
Anybody see (anything) wrong?
And anyone know how LONG
& how many GateKeepers it takes to get to a (Decision Maker's) desk,
to only get hit w/ 50 seat(for a demo city rollout) migration killing BS like (this)?
& if any dimbulb is going to say "You only have to jump through these half-dozen hoops, THEN..." ...I'd have to wonder how many jobs they've been "career adjusted" from....
Quoting to keep the record of this misplaced ranting.
LibreOffice 25.2 on Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE Faye) and 24.8 portable on Windows 11.
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keme
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Re: Linux'sNOTDeskTopReady:Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: $1000, $1082425, $11600, $127, $250

Post by keme »

Penguin_In_Circles wrote: Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:58 pm Why Linux is NOT on avg. user's desktops:
This is one on (many) reasons.
You post a particularity of LO Calc as a reason for Linux non-prevalence. While LO is indeed preinstalled by default on most Linux distributions, it is not an inherent Linux component. You can use other office suites on Linux (e.g. WPS Office which behaves similar to MS Office) and remove LibreOffice from the system if you like. This is, in my view, easier than doing the switch away from MS Office on Windows.

I believe that the primary reason for the prevalence of Windows and MacOS over Linux (and also the prevalence of MS Office over OpenOffice/LibreOffice) is to do with cashflow.
Penguin_In_Circles wrote: Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:58 pm & if any dimbulb is going to say "You only have to jump through these half-dozen hoops, THEN..." ...I'd have to wonder how many jobs they've been "career adjusted" from....
The one "hoop" you need to jump through is in the data import step when you need to tick "detect special numbers". Call me a dimbulb!

For what it is worth, I have had it with Microsoft's "intelligent" import which hides the options for adjusting the interpretation of data. More than once I have had to install other software (usually LO/AOO) for users who need to import class schedules, price lists, bank statements etc, because MS Excel insists on converting random subject codes, item numbers, accont names etc. into dates or fractions. Do that on a large list (tens of thousands of rows) and you will appreciate the added control that Calc provides. Or perhaps you won't.

My point is, Excel is good (yes, really good) at some tasks. Calc is good at other tasks. (On my systems I usually have both MS Office and Libre Office - and often Apache OpenOffice - installed side by side.) Granted, the areas where Excel really shines are often where it "second guesses" what you need, which is correct 95% of the time. In the one-out-of-twenty case where it is wrong, it is often very difficult to defeat that second guessing. Sometimes it even goes undetected for a while.

Learning to use your tool, which is then more of an issue with Calc, is an initial bias in favor of Microsoft Office. This may be a good reason why MS Office is the chosen product. I still there is more to it (marketing efforts on many levels, cf. the aforementioned "cash flow").

I may of course be wrong ;-)
Penguin_In_Circles
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Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:32 pm

Re: Linux'sNOTDeskTopReady:Calc is (BrainDead) Ascend sorting cash: $1000, $1082425, $11600, $127, $250

Post by Penguin_In_Circles »

I was awaiting to see how many would claim alphabetical.
Click on the column & set all the cells to numeric.
In this case it was set to Currency, THEN Numeric & repeated.
The hint of $ alone should be good enough.
Solution:
Data/Sort/Options/Enable Natural Sort
The (sheer) fact that THAT is disabled by default....
& not listed w/ the column selector
(instead of the option submenu)
& there is no (something's wrong) help feature...
As much as I dislike Clippy, it helps w/ *** developer mistakes like this.
sidenote:
NOT showing the 3rd digit , commas (despite that being flagged)
Go ahead:
let any non-tech adult (esp CEO) sit down & try to figure out why a **** spreadsheet refuses to sort #s,
even when Calc is TOLD they are currency or numbers.
THEN try telling them,
yep, you should migrate all your employee machines, in mult. States, to Linux. "Trust me bro"
OpenOffice 2.4 on Ubuntu 9.04 Libre 6.0.7.3 on LinuxMint 19.3
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