this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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I really don’t like Microsoft, but the two products I think Microsoft got mostly right are Microsoft Office and Visual Studio. I really can’t find comparable products.
Open office and forks feel like Microsoft Office 97. While usable, it takes me twice as long to do things. I would almost prefer to use a LaTeX editor over word. Excel? Idk
From a business perspective, it doesn’t make sense to switch to libre office. W10 support also ends 10/25. It is highly irresponsible for an IT department to continue to use EOL products so they should be changing to W11 and new Microsoft office
For individuals, I mean…. I just installed a W10 VM to give me more time to find a Linux compatible alternative to turbo tax and to use visual studio so idk
OneNote is honestly a really awesome product as well. Especially for use with a pen.
If you're in any of these states:
You can use the IRS' new Direct File service. It's what we should've had ages ago, letting citizens file their taxes directly without a for-profit middle man. There are still a couple of scenarios they don't support, since it's still in development and is only in it's second year of use, but in my experience it's already competent and helpful.
And, as a bonus, you don't have to give any money to Intuit/TurboTax to keep lobbying the government to make our tax code as arcane as possible so that people need their services to file taxes.
Apparently my state is lagging behind the times
Freetaxusa.com does pretty much what turbo tax does. Federal filing for free, pretty sure they just charge $15 for state. If your taxes are too complex for freetaxusa you probably shouldn't use turbo tax anyway.
Another vote for Freetaxusa. TurboTax might be marginally easier to use, but it is far more expensive and Intuit is a horrible company. If you hate filing taxes (because of the complexity), that is because Intuit and H&R Block lobby congress to keep things complicated so they can sell you their products.
To replace TurboTax I reccomend freetaxusa.com.
Works exactly like TurboTax without giving any money to Intuit. Federal filing is free but you do have to pay to file state taxes through them ($14.99). It will ask several times if you want to buy their audit protection but you can just select no and keep going.
So I did consider that before going with the VM. My big issue with that is that it looks like a lot of sensitive information is stored online, whereas TurboTax stores my information on the local machine and only transmits as needed.
Any feedback to the contrary would be appreciated
You shouldn't trust TurboTax so much.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/01/turbotax-privacy-tax-return-2024/
They also keep trying to trick you into giving consent:
https://www.moneytalksnews.com/are-turbotax-and-hr-block-sharing-your-personal-info/
They also lobby to keep taxes complex.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
Sounds.. typical. The last one is really why I don’t like TurboTax to begin with. But I don’t know how to find a tax consultant so… TurboTax it is for me
Visual studio code has vs codium, which is a free and open source alternative. I've tested it a bit and it's really nice! But yeah, not vs
Yeah I tried vscode but it’s just similar enough to vs yet different enough to be frustrating