this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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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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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I use Fedora 40 workstation (Gnome) , run everything (Outlook, OneDrive, etc.) on browser, Teams as a FlatPak, and use Only Office for Excel, which I then upload to One Drive.

So far it's all worked like a charm.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You can also use OneDrive on the native file explorer if you sign into GNOME with your Microsoft account

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah, that too, but for my work account that didn't work for some reason, so I just use it over a browser.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

Office 365 runs out of the box on Crossover.

[–] [email protected] 2 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Outlook is a client. Do you mean Exchange?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 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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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 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)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Teams can be installed as a native app.

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 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.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.”

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You can run teams in linux. I don't know if the same goes for Outlook, but I found that accessing the web version via portal.office.com was sufficient.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (2 children)

But I'd recommend the unofficial one from flathub. The official one has stopped receiving updates in 2022 in favour of the web app, which is what the unofficial one is.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Micro$oft LOVVVESSS Open-source.. RIght?? right??

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The non web app is probably just a web app and browser wrapped in one.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You can also just install the pwa right from your browser (for both teams and outlook web)

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