Winapps for work stuff
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Maybe so, but then there's still Excel and OneNote.
Regarding OneNote in particular, I'm not using that for any collaborative work; but I do have extensive notes and useful past work there. I reckon OneNote is pretty good - but I regret using it now because of the lock-in effect. And there doesn't seem to be any Linux analogue at all. (What I need is xournal++ integrated into Joplin. I sometimes fantasize about trying to hack that together myself; but that's just a dream really.)
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Is there a reason why you've suggested qeumu in particular for the VM? (winapps suggests two different VM options)
I've never heard of OnlyOffice before. The wikipedia page seems to imply that they are web-apps; and the OnlyOffice website talks about pricing for businesses and personal severs or something, listing team collaboration features. So I'm not yet entirely sure exactly what OnlyOffice is - but I suspect it isn't really what I'm looking for.
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The winapps link in my post says it is a hard-fork of the one you linked to (and my one has updates as recent as yesterday). So it isn't abandoned.
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Qemu/kvm is the default way of running a VM on Linux. Virtualbox or winapps or vmware are secondary options.
Onlyoffice is a newer kid on the block compared to libreoffice/openoffice. Yes, it's web based but it operates as if its a native app. It works well, and it has very good Ms office compatibility. So definitely download its .appimage and try it out. You don't lose anything to try it out. It's super easy to run: you download the appimage, you right click on the file to go to its properties and make it executable, and then you can run it. Test it with your files to make sure it supports them well.
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Fair enough. Thanks for the info.
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The office format or something else? About the format; OOXML (.docx etc.) was "standardized" (whole drama here) in reaction to standardization of ODF. But that "standard" relies mostly on proprietary extensions and MS reprtedly doesn't fully keep to it anymore, causing repeatedly issues with formating in everything else aside MS Ofgice/365.
Some more details here.
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I would separate those all together. I think there’s should be a distinct line between the two. If they have you install special software. You need to make the split right away. You don’t want them to spy on you.
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This is exactly what I was looking for. The more I read it, the angrier I get. The fact that something as simple as a text document format can be force standardized, monopolized, and overcharged for is ludicrous. All because of a proprietary extension loophole.
Thank you for the info.
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As this is for work you want reliability and as Microsoft have a habit of changing stuff so stuff breaks I would suggest the web apps or if you need advanced features from the apps, a Windows VM. The latter is what I do, admittedly I manage and develop for m365 so my needs are greater than someone just using Office.
The web apps are pretty good, not a 100% feature match but good enough for most people, some things are actually better now in the web app. I would only write them off if you have really shitty unreliable internet or really need something not yet supported in the web app.
Otherwise go with a VM, but it will push up the specs of your device as you will need a decent amount of RAM and cores that you can dedicate to the VM if you want responsive behavior from Office clients particularly with large files. I assign 16Gb RAM and 4 cores (I have a 8945HS) and its pretty snappy. I can run it in 8Gb but its a bit shit when working with large spreadsheets, power bi, or trying to multi task with multiple office apps open.
You don't say if you need to use Teams but there is a Linux port of Teams, which is ok, not great, just ok. Personally run the web app of teams for chat on my Linux host and use Teams on my phone for meetings. Works much better for me.
Final thing to be aware of are the policies implemented by your company. Some require that your PC is "trusted" before you can fully connect to m365. This is far easier to work around with a Windows VM.
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It also has a Flatpak release, which I prefer for the ability to restrict permissions like internet.
