I mean, saying LibreOffice is better than Microsoft Office is like saying eating toothpaste is better than eating soap. You'll never get a Michelin star for serving Colgate, so I'm not sure I'd call LibreOffice "stellar".
But I don't think it's surprising that highly complex UI-driven applications aren't as plentiful in open source, where the sweet spot (from my perspective) has been smaller applications that scratch particular itches. Would an open suite of office tools even get off the ground today, built from scratch without funding from Sun and then Oracle?
Maybe I was just burned too hard by trying to figure out GIMP.
For most users MS Office is a nightmare program to learn and use. It's functionality is incredibly extensive, having accumulated the kitchen sink, stove and refridgerator over its long life. But this doesn't make it actually very usable for people coming to it at this point. LibreOffice, while certainly not matching the functionality of MS Office, is much closer to the subset of what most people need most of the time.
But I don't think it's surprising that highly complex UI-driven applications aren't as plentiful in open source, where the sweet spot (from my perspective) has been smaller applications that scratch particular itches. Would an open suite of office tools even get off the ground today, built from scratch without funding from Sun and then Oracle?
Maybe I was just burned too hard by trying to figure out GIMP.