tl;dr : Does Office 365 work well on Linux via winapps?


longer version:

At my work, I’m currently using my own (Windows) laptop. But its getting a bit long in the tooth, and my tolerance of Windows continues to drop… So I’m considering my options.

One option is to buy myself a new laptop and use Linux. The main barrier to this is that I use Office 365 stuff a lot for work. (Specifically: Word, Excel, and OneNote).

In my brief look around, my impression is that the only reliable way to get those products running on Linux is using winapps; which, as I understand it, basically runs the apps in a virtual machine but tries to make them look like they are running on the host OS.

(The alternative option is that my work will lend a Windows laptop to me indefinitely. But I generally like my stuff to be my own, and I don’t like to create waste by accepting cheap and crap laptops with short life-spans.)

I’m writing here to ask if anyone has any experience using winapps. Does it work reliably? Is it easy to open and save files without any weirdness? Will I be able to use a stylus to write notes in OneNote?

  • @A_Union_of_Kobolds
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    310 hours ago

    I keep forgetting that’s a thing.

    I’ve been using LibreOffice since switching to Linux and that’s working plenty fine for me. But I’m a one-man business with nobody else to please so 🤷‍♂️

    • @lordnikon
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      39 hours ago

      Also 90% issues people say they have with Libre Office making docs look weird is is fonts. Unless you are power pivot master Libre Office covers all you need.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        fedilink
        38 hours ago

        I’d be happy enough to move to Libre Office exclusively; except that I need to be able to collaborate with others who are using MS Office - and that’s a battle I don’t really want to fight right now.

        • @lordnikon
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          36 hours ago

          That’s what I’m saying at this point if you update to use default windows fonts you can save docx files no problem the formatting will be 99% there