When comparing Calligra vs Microsoft Office, the Slant community recommends Microsoft Office for most people. In the question“What are the best office suites for Windows?” Microsoft Office is ranked 2nd while Calligra is ranked 5th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Huge list of efficient and capable office components
Calligra consists of 9 tools. In addition to word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, it includes tools for project management, sketching/painting, database management, vector graphics, diagramming and brainstorming.
Pro Free and open source
Pro Unified design language
Pro Calligra offers cutting edge applications for artists to work on 2D drawings and illustrations
Calligra includes Krita, a sketching and painting application, and Karbon, a vector drawing application. Both offer end-to-end solutions. Krita is also available as a standalone program.
Pro Made for KDE
Designed in Qt for KDE plasma (but will also work in other DEs), hence the appearance is consistent with it.
Pro Incredible apps and completely free to use
Cons
Con Bloated
Very bloated as it requires way too many dependencies to install. This is especially prominent in non-KDE desktops which may require over 100 dependencies to install.
Con Subpar compatibility
Microsoft office proprietary formats are not always accurately rendered
Con Slow development
Development is slower and less active than competition.
Con Over priced and being slowly forced to 365
Con Loaded with bugs
Program hangs can occur with 365 and tons of high CPU thermal loading from this package to the point of requiring uninstall of this package. Word hasn't gotten any better since they refined it in the early 2000s - it's only gotten far more bloated and crash prone, not to mention the horrible GUI appearance and lack of functionality that their older, stand-alone packages once had.
Even XL (formerly, Lotus 1,2,3), was ruined and degraded to where, 101 functions ceased to function properly.
Outlook - what a debacle that turned out to be. About the only useful application in the suite turned out to be PowerPoint in daily use.
Con Next step down the path of constant surveillance
At least with standalone and a good packet filter you can limit what telemetry is being sent back to Microsoft.