I used to use Word quite a lot and was -- overall -- not too unhappy with it. I used it, for instance, to typeset my diploma with >120 pages and plenty of figures. All this worked quite well, but as I said, I already was an experienced Word user at that time so I knew how to do it.
I guess the main (non political nor domain-specific) problem many people have with Word is its /pretended/ simplicity. Yes it is simple to get a good-looking, personal letter out of it. However, if one wants to use it to write a more complex document, one really has to know the fundamental concepts and principles to be successful in the end, as well as some best-practices and work-arounds. The hierachical style system, for instance, is quite powerful, but evenly complex. Word leaves the illusion that writing a thesis is technically not different from writing a letter. And that is why many people fail (and get frustrated) using it. It is a complex tool with strengths and weaknesses; as any such tool it requires a reasonable familiarization before people can use it productively. So why did I switch to LyX? Basically I did so when I started to work on documents collaboratively in an academic community. - Platform-independence (Windows, Linux, MacOS) is a big plus here. - Even more important is BibTeX-Support, which is clearly the standard format for bibliographies used by computer scientists. - As LyX uses a text-based format we can manage our papers with a source-control system. (However, LyX could become a lot better for this by not storing editor context information in the document.) Later, I discovered are some of these nifty LaTeX packages, such as hyperref, listings or ps-tricks, that provide me means that would be nearly impossible to achieve with Word. Today I don't want to miss that power! On the other side: At times, I am still surprised how much effort it takes in LaTeX to change just a subtle detail such as a font. The things I am missing most from Word are the spell checker and the table editor. Even after four years LyX/LaTeX experience, I think that developing tables with LaTeX (and LyX) is just a big PITA. Especially if I have to present plenty of data on as-few-as-possible space, both LyX and plain LaTeX drive me crazy. Maybe this just takes another four years :-) Sometimes, I have to admit it, I still "draw" tables with Word or Excel and export them as EPS figures into my LyX document... Just my two cents. Daniel
