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submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Balthazar@sopuli.xyz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

So, at school we use the whole Office 365 suite for a myriad of tasks.

Teams is used as the main way to share exercises and lesson material, Outlook is used as the resident email service, and you're expected to use OneDrive to store all/most of your data. There are some additional apps that require Windows, but beyond the office 365 suite they are all replaceable.

What I'm wondering is, what distro can run/access those apps without too much hassle and set-up?

I'm looking to do this on a HP probook x360, upgraded to 32 GB of ram. The only peripheral of note I've got is a Ugee drawing tablet, but I can use the openTabletDriver or their own on some distro's.


Edit: Thanks guys!

User helpimnotdrowning recommend Mint! This'll be my first real daily foray onto Linux, so it's definitely a good option. I'll also have a look at Gnome Vs KDE. I've been looking at KDE in the past, but gnome is definitely worth a peep as well.

User BearOfATime, thanks for giving the software name that allows for a seamless VPN transition! I'll also look into the win 10 LTSC. Not sure it's a right fit, but it's always fun to learn more!

As a couple of you recommend, there seems to be a teams flatpak to download, so I'll have a look into that!

Finally, I'd like to thank y'all for the useful and helpful answers! Many of you said to try the webapps, so I'll be doing that! My current plan is to use VMWare (alt is Vbox. VMware works (and looks) better) and try to actively use a mint VM. Not sure If I'll be able to stick to it, and not unknowingly switch to windows, but having it as a starting app should solve a couple issues. Slower start times, sure, but that's not the worst. Your advice is very much appreciated! It's given me a good confidence boost to start. Thanks for that :D

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[-] Kit 28 points 4 months ago

365 admin here. Use whatever distro you want and just use the web versions of Office apps. They've been greatly improved and are nearly identical to their desktop counterparts. Especially if you're leaning heavily into OneDrive/Sharepoint.

[-] KillerWhale@orcas.enjoying.yachts 6 points 4 months ago

I always find 365 word does not format correctly particularly with tables and text.

[-] Kit 6 points 4 months ago

Format your document? Format your expectations. Fuck you, that will be $35/mo. -Microsoft, probably

[-] Cwilliams@beehaw.org 3 points 4 months ago

I needed a laugh today, thanks, lol

[-] monsterpiece42@reddthat.com 6 points 4 months ago

This is your answer, OP.

As a backup you can have a VM with Windows and the full apps if you need them (like Access for instance).

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[-] Railison@aussie.zone 3 points 4 months ago

I often use fields, so I have to go back to desktop Word eventually to add them in. 🥲

Users only use a fraction of the feature set but everyone uses a different fraction 😂

[-] ipacialsection@startrek.website 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Personally, I've had no problems whatsoever running the Office 365 apps needed by my school on Debian's version of Firefox ESR. Aside from Outlook and Teams, I'm not asked to use them very often, as most assignments are turned in as PDFs, but when I have been required to use Word and Excel, I have had no problems.

Apparently GNOME 46 introduced support for Microsoft 365 accounts including OneDrive support in the file manager, so a distro that runs a recent GNOME version, such as Fedora or Ubuntu, may be your best option. But without that, you can still use a third-party project like onedriver or abraunegg's OneDrive client.

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 3 points 4 months ago

I'd like to chime in that Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon and most other DEs support OneDrive log in, on some OS's you might need to install the package, first. XFCE doesn't support it OOTB IIRC

[-] mxl@lemm.ee 21 points 4 months ago

I use the web version of all O365 apps, even Teams, and I also have a Windows VM in case I need the desktop apps for whatever reason.

[-] Jayb151@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Ya, this comment is way too far down. All 365 apps with within the browser. Problem solved.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

Except it sucks...

[-] fachpersonal@lemmy.ml 13 points 4 months ago

For teams specifically I'm just using the web version with chromium. Installed as a chromium app so I have quick access to it and have it on my taskbar. Rest of Office 365 works just fine in any browser. (Outlook, SharePoint, Power apps etc) For OneDrive Sync you can use https://abraunegg.github.io/ which should work on most distros.

[-] drwho@beehaw.org 3 points 4 months ago

That's what we do at $dayjob, also.

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[-] bravemonkey@lemmy.ca 8 points 4 months ago

I would highly recommend against installing a pirated version of Windows like BearOfATime suggests (at least via the second link he provided) - it could cause trouble for both you and your school.

[-] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I would go with the web apps for the office stuff and recommend Thunderbird as a client for outlook.

[-] bsergay@discuss.online 3 points 4 months ago

Sorry, I tried to search it but to no avail. What are the WRB apps?

[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Outlook is a client. Do you mean Exchange?

[-] helpimnotdrowning@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Office won't run on Linux or through Wine (AFAIK), I've converted to using LibreOffice on both Linux and Windows, which has yet to give me any issues.

Teams, as part of O365, also doesn't have a Linux app, however... with the (paid) Thunderbird addon Owl for Exchange, you can read+send Outlook emails; it also adds a Teams icon to your Thunderbird sidebar that acts as a link to the web client.

Thunderbird, by default, can only read from Exchange mailboxes, but can't send from them. If you don't want to pay, the developers are working to add full Exchange support as stock. (There are also less legitimate ways to get Exchange support, like cracking Owl, but out of respect for the addon dev, you'll have to find it yourself)

Edit:

If you're new to Linux as a whole, I've seen many recommendations for Mint (a Debian and Ubuntu derivative), but I've never tried it myself. I started with Debian since I wanted a stable system that wouldn't break down by itself or something. It's rock solid on my Framework 13 Ryzen.

As for a Desktop Environment (DE), you can't go wrong with GNOME or KDE. I prefer KDE since I don't like the "look" of GNOME and it's more "Windows-like" (but still it's own thing), but it's really just personal preference.

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 4 months ago

Office used to work via Wine in the past (using older versions of Office), but the latest versions of Micr$oft Office is so badly written, it's hard to setup and run office under Wine indeed.

[-] EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

I was wondering the applicability of Libre to the officeland as I haven't really used either in a number of years.

On the DEs: I've been gnome based pretty much always, almost never used gnome itself, directly. Xfce is my workhorse. Recently tried & dig cinnamon. Am ready to convert for a few months, at least.

I've tried KDE a few times, always short-lived as I can't abide lack of keystroke windows management (I'm guessing they have them & I never took the 5 minutes to learn them). Mostly tried years ago. It was heavy and made my trash PCs choke. Felt like chrome does now.

Ubuntu's native DE I can't stomach for similar lack of common keystrokes and bad colors (again, a few minutes to change & learn because something else probably put me off enough that I wasn't interested). Corporate construction has to be pretty awesome to get me to want to use it. No corporations come to mind that fit that.

[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

From all the comments it looks like it's quite a challenge to go native Linux.

One option, run a VM using KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine, native to some distros).

You can install Windows IOT LTSC (Long-term Servicing Channel), which receives only security updates 2x/year, no others. It also doesn't have all the bloat. It's what I run for daily use.

Win10 LTSC. It gets updates 2x/year, has very minimal bloat.

Windows LTSC Downloads, don't forget to grab the key.

Then get O&O Shutup to reduce bloat even more (mostly just to limit telemetry on Windows).

And you can permanently license it using Microsoft's own scripts. - Scripts on Github.

At one time you could directly launch apps in VMs using SeamlessRDP, I'm not sure if that still works or if there's something new.

As others have said, wtf is wrong with the school - requiring OneDrive? FFS

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[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 6 points 4 months ago
  1. Install the user Flatpak for Teams
  2. Log into your OneDrive online account, use the file manager plugin for the files
  3. Use any mail client you like for the e-mail, Thunderbird for example works fine
  4. Use the web version of Office, sadly
[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

The web version of office is very bad and mostly unusable. You can supplement it with libreoffice but that sounds like it isn't an option.

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 3 points 4 months ago

In my experience it's most of the installed version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It's leagues above Google Docs.

While the web suite is not as feature rich as the installed version or as LibreOffice, I've experienced some compatibility issues between LibreOffice and MS Office. (but most importantly, their school requires MS Office)

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[-] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago

Any distro that can run Chromium / Chrome. And everything other than Teams will work even on Firefox.

[-] helpimnotdrowning@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 4 months ago

Teams works for me as long as I'm not taking calls, just have to switch the user agent to pretend to be Chrome (but only sometimes)

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 4 months ago

Teams can be installed as a native app.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 months ago

So I'm confused. Wouldn't you want Windows? Also outlook can be replaced by Thunderbird.

So basically I see two options. First, if your device has 4 or more cores and 16gb of ram you can run Windows in KVM. If that isn't the case you need to pickup another device or not use Linux.

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[-] boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 months ago

No distro can just do that.

Try crossover, which is said to have best Windows app support. But Microsoft is actively fighting it, on their apps.

Your school is very, very, very shitty.

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 4 months ago

Wine support of Office is horribly bad, so yea maybe only crossover can save us.

[-] Gemini24601@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Any distro should work just fine, so the typical three: Debian, Fedora, Arch, or something else. Gnome 46 supposedly added support for Microsoft accounts as well as onedrive in the Nautilus file manager, so you should be able to “store all of your data.”

[-] boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 months ago

Second GNOME. They have the best account integration.

And Thunderbird will soon have Exchange integration for Calendars, Mail etc. Until then you can use the Exchange addon.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago

None of those things you've mentioned require you to install something to your system. Outlook has a website which works perfectly fine on Firefox, and you can access OneDrive on web. As for Teams, I've had varying amounts of luck with the web app, but I think that's more to do with my myriad browser addons than my system? I dunno though

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[-] greyw0lv@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago

I'm using arch Linux. But for the most part I don't think it really matters.

Flatpack Teams, and web version the rest of the M$ software.

It works well enough. Though web versions of M$ software is weirdly limited for reasons I can only understand as arbitration.

For instance very large excel files don't load in web excel, and iirc you cannot insert formulas in web word.

[-] HumanPerson@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago

Any distro you'd like. Use the office / outlook stuff in a browser. I believe kde has a way to use onedrive in dolphin, though personally I would keep my data on my computer unless it is for a group project, just make sure it's backed up. I'd also have a VM handy with the spice guest tools. It is good to have at least for when you have to hand your computer to someone who may be uncomfortable with linux. I would use debian on a school computer for the ludicrous stability, but use whatever floats your boat.

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 4 months ago

Micro$oft loves Open-source... Well, .. not unless they need to support it, instead of ripper off all the open-source developers.

[-] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 4 months ago

When I had to use Office and LibreOffice wasn’t sufficient, I just had a Windows VM running. The web versions are hot garbage (or at least used to be 3 years ago and I doubt that’s changed). I’m not sure if there’s a direct way to mount OneDrive on Linux (rclone maybe?) but if there isn’t you could do that via a network share over the VM.

KMail can connect to Exchange mailboxes. KOrganizer might even be able to access the calendar from one, I don’t remember.

[-] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 months ago

The web versions are hot garbage (or at least used to be 3 years ago and I doubt that’s changed)

It's better, less hassle than run a VM just for that.

[-] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 months ago

I'd rather take the hassle of doing initial Windows setup once than the hassle of continuously fighting against awful software.

[-] bamboo@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

continuously fighting against awful software

Arguably this is why some people don’t bother with a VM and use the web apps instead.

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[-] Suoko@feddit.it 3 points 4 months ago
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[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Any distro.

Use a Windows VM for things that are unavailable or don't work well as a web app. The absolute easiest way to run a Windows VM is VMware Player especially if you use a stable OS like Debian or Ubuntu LTS. The built-in KVM hypervisor works fine too but it requires more work to setup a Windows VM with all the drivers, shared folder, etc. And it won't have graphics acceleration of any sort. With that said I've personally migrated from VMware to KVM in anticipation that Broadcom who recently purchased VMware will turn their software to shit or start asking for more money, or both.

[-] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Linux won't give you much more privacy in your case. I would recommend storing and manipulating your personal data on a separate Linux machine and please don't store anything except what's absolutely necessary on OneDrive. Though if you can't afford a separate machine, you can run Linux to get at least some improvement. I think the only DE that has good MS cloud support is the latest version of GNOME so you need a distro with that DE. It can be Ubuntu 24.04 (or something based on it) or a rolling release. The last one may be more difficult to use in some cases but idk any other somewhat user friendly options.

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this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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