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?
Are you required to use the Microsoft Suite or do they only care about the resulting file type? I would just use Libre if the latter, although I’d suggest spending a day or two getting used to the slightly altered workflow before introducing it to your work life.
If the former, keep it in the browser like others have mentioned. Web apps are kinda the direction they’re moving anyway, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re all getting used to them in a few years anyway