Work use. The are hardware requirements (XRD machines, potentiostats, CNC machining) and software requirements (3D design). My workshop asks for files in Autodesk Inventor, if I send it in any other format, they just won’t fabricate my pieces, and I completely understand, who am I to change the workflow of a complete department just because I refuse to use Inventor (which is provided at work).
Beamer has a very high steep learning curve, especially when you just want a few slides to show preliminary results. In PowerPoint you literally drag the image, resize, and that’s it.
Also I feel that beamer pushes the user towards the “bullet point” presentation, which sometimes can be very boring.
For documents, I love latex, but I actually prefer LibreOffice or onlyoffice when it comes to presentations.
Like or not, it’s a de facto standard. Good luck trying to convince your colleagues to change their workflow.
I love Linux, but I would never recommend using Microsoft Office on Linux especially if you work in a collaborative environment. Saying that Linux can run Microsoft office without any issue is a blatant lie. I run virtual machines basically so I can run Microsoft Office, but I don’t think everyone wants to go though that much hassle.
Or reference managers. I’m in academia and it’s a pain because I can’t edit anything on Linux without breaking the fine, I tried everything, LibreOffice, Only office… Nothing works.