- cross-posted to:
- linux@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- linux@programming.dev
Mirko Brombin, the creator of Bottles, has got Microsoft 365 running on Linux. His posts on X showcase an installation that completes on a Windows 10 or 11 Wine prefix, signs in with his existing license, and launches at least one editor.
He achieved this using two things, an unreleased version of Soda and Bottles 67.4. If you remember, Soda is a Wine-based runner that facilitates easy running of Windows games and applications.
On first glance, what he posted might look like a developer-focused log, but these changes are the foundation of what full Microsoft 365 support via Bottles will one day hopefully look like.
The results of his work
Mirko was able to login into the MS 365 app using his credentials and was able to launch MS Word and use it. Of course that’s not the only thing he got working; since two-factor authentication passed, the suite detected his license, and OneDrive integration was functional.
The memory footprint of the office suite was less than 500MB, so this should be light on your Linux system.
The build he is currently testing is 2608 (20326.20144), which he says is the last build the installer will offer for Windows 10 and 11. And before you get all hyped up, wanting to try this out on your computer, know that you will have to wait.
Soda 11.0-11 (error 404 for now) has no release yet, and the component catalog that ships with Bottles 67.4 stops at Soda 11.0-10. Even the long-standing community request for a Microsoft Office installer in Bottles is still open.
Do we need Microsoft 365 on Linux?
Till date, there’s not been an official Linux desktop build of Microsoft 365, and seeing how Microsoft currently operates, I don’t expect one to appear anytime soon.
What’s been achieved here is remarkable. Once fully implemented, this will help draw in people into Linux, as many shudder at the thought of switching to the platform because their preferred office suite doesn’t work here.
For context, CodeWeavers sells a paid Wine product, CrossOver, and its database still lists Microsoft Office 365 on Linux as “Installs, Will Not Run,” last tested against CrossOver 26.3.0.
Which is why I hope the fix travels further than Bottles. Wine sits beneath every one of these projects, including Soda. So a patch that lands upstream reaches all of them at once, and you would not need a particular runner to get Office working.
I guess I’m the only here, but after years of running LibreOffice, I still miss MS Office.
Don’t get me wrong, I can do everything I need in LO, but MSO is still better imo.
Nothing is like Excel and it’s macros (I know, old school, but I can’t get macros as complete in LO). And I miss Word’s “page layout” where you can just center a text to a page vertically. Details, but still things I miss.
Same. And LO cannot do everything MS office does.
It can do major things and Writer is probably 98% there (Calc much lower) but as an example of an obscure feature: Word can do nested tables and last I checked LO cannot. As a major feature Calc cannot do proper tables with headers and sorting and the opinion of the devs is to just use a database which for large sets is fair enough but I semi-often work with smaller sets where it doesn’t make sense and I just need a quick CSV sort. I have also tried to convince not so computer literate people to switch to LO and some of them have missed the proper tables support and telling them to learn to use databases isn’t an acceptable solution as many of these people are older and their needs are things like finances or lists of their collections of stuff.
Word’s styling options are also just leagues ahead if you’re preparing documents for the office it’s just easier to get better looking results. Same with Powerpoint.
Excel is the one. They’ve tried but they can’t truly replace it.
It and perhaps Word are the two things the competition can’t really land a punch on
I’ve tried a bunch of spreadsheet programs. They are all painful to use compared to excel.
Sure, you can type up some basic calcs in LibreOffice or Numbers or whatever, but none of these could replicate the stuff I do daily for work in excel unfortunately.
That said, the lack of suitable alternatives did get me to learn Python for personal use. And that opened up a whole new world for things I do at work too. Things that would have been a headache in excel are a couple lines in Python. It’s great (obviously very different use cases from typical spreadsheets)
Fucken Calligra yeah I want all the cells to be dark themed like my OS fuck being able to see my data. Dead on arrival. Libre office was better.
You know we should start migrating (or porting) our complicated spreadsheets from VB to python. This is a wise move for future proofing.
But I’m also very busy, and a little lazy, so I procrastinate and never do it. Some VMs now are so good that I just open these big visual basic spreadsheets in a windows VM, further delaying the necessary task.
Yeah I’ve done that in a few cases where python is the better tool for the job (pulling new data, cleaning up in a consistent way, and generating reports), but it’s not a great solution for certain workstreams. Especially if you are collaborating with other people who aren’t tech savvy
Yeah, this is pretty much my experience. I don’t really use Excel, but anytime I brush up my resume LO makes me a little sad.
You did your CV in Excel? Why not LaTeX or typst?
CV in LO Writer; my bad.
For the latter two: never really paid mind to latex and never heard of typst. I’ll give typst a shot :)
I have used https://typst.app/universe/package/brilliant-cv/ in the past, can recommend. Customised it to my liking though, never cared to upload it.
Thank you! Apparently my wife has used LaTeX previously, so I might even have a leg up. Thanks again, I’ll check out that template :)
Try Baserow as Excel alternative. Sad that it doesn’t have a desktop version.
S(preadsheet)aaS does not sound like a good replacement for excel. I’m all for alternatives, but giving up even more control is the wrong direction.
And yes there is a self-hosted option, but that’s not the main pitch on their website.
Have you tried OnlyOffice? It functions much more like MS Office, though I haven’t tried the features you’re talking about.
I tried it in the past, but many other advanced functions I use in LO and MSO aren’t available. It’s been a while though, I should probably give it a try again.
And I don’t even think about it. Only Office is, unlike Libre Office, not opinionated with respect to the UI and is therefore so similar to MS Office that I can switch between both apps and not miss a beat.
Although Only Office has the advantage of implementing a bunch of QOL improvements that MS Office still has not implemented after all these years. One example that comes to mind is that the default image resize maintains aspect ratio, while in MSOffice you still need to hold SHIFT while resizing.
I wanted to like only office, but it’s just not as good. Better than libre, I think. O365 is still the best (as much as I hate it).