Looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office for the Linux.
I’ve already tried:
- LibreOffice (It doesn’t have the same experience as Microsoft’s apps.)
- OnlyOffice Desktop Editors (I like it)
What else would you recommend?
Get used to LibreOffice. It’s the most actively maintained, well-made opensource office software.
An underrated feature of LibreOffice is the ability to insert the original document inside a PDF when exporting. If you reopen that PDF in LibreOffice, it will grab the embedded copy for editing instead of trying to guess how to convert the PDF into its original.
That’s monstrous. When I send a PDF I don’t want it to be editable, if I wanted an editable format I’d use an editable format. Exporting to PDF is supposed to be a digital equivalent to printing.
Exporting to PDF is supposed to be a digital equivalent to printing.
It really isn’t. Even without this feature (that I’d never heard of before) it is a format that is very easy to edit.
If you need PDFs to be tamperproof, you can however digitally sign them. (And then the recipient needs your public key to verify).
Then don’t embed the document in the pdf. Easy.
Which is why it’s optional I suppose.
Honestly, if your willing to learn to use LibreOffice, it’s way more powerful than OnlyOffice. It took me a minute to get used to it too, but once you do, it’s pretty awesome. And if your worried about UI, you can change some of those things in the settings, like you can make it have a MS-style ribbon at the top. If I were you, I’d spend two weeks trying LO, I think you’ll get used to it pretty quick
LibreOffice, it’s way more powerful than OnlyOffice
How so? More features? If so, some people just use a small handful in MSOffice, and just want those for their office clone. Maybe OOP is willibg to sacrifice feature-completeness for a similar UI.
In fact, based on their negative assessment of LibreOffice for not being enough like Microsoft, I’m willing to be that’s the case.
much prefer the ribbons for the UI. it’s much more convenient imo and I was lost otherwise. glad libreoffice had that as customisation options!
Nothing has exactly the same experience as MS. I don’t think there is a clone project for it.
The two you listed are your best options.
Does LibreOffice have any issues that prevent you using it? If not, it’s probably that your expectations are set by your comfort and familiarity with Office and that is the problem you need to solve.
Microsoft has a history of being sue happy against people that have tried to ape MS’s cash cows in the past, so you won’t find a clone project
honestly, I’ve only clicked on this post because of your username
“Foss Microsoft Office for Linux actually it isn’t in Opensource”
Look at my username, then at my displayname 😉
I think you’ll be pretty disappointed with anything else that’s available. Of those two I’d say stick with OnlyOffice.
You can easily change LibreOffice to have a tabbed layout like MSOffice (view > user interface). The only thing to note is that LibreOffice has great documentation, but it can be a bit difficult to follow with a different layout.
If you pay to crossover, they will help you to install Microsoft Office on Linux. https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/microsoft-office-365
And I think you need to pay for the support because Microsoft is always doing changes to break the compatibility, and they need to do many patches to make it work. Microsoft is not going to make it easy.
At that point, just use their browser based products.
They have extensive “telemetry” either way.
You can block telemetry requests.
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You could always do in-browser Office if nothing else works. Or g-suite
I can’t speak for the whole suite, but Excel sucks in the browser. The browser version do not have all the same features as desktop. I only use Office if I’m forced to and use LibreOffice or Latex otherwise
I am currently forced to use Excel online for work. Such a frustrating experience. And I can’t even edit it offline, because the conversion between two languages and two versions doesn’t work properly.
Libreoffice has it’s problems too, but it feels much more ‘friendly’ somehow.
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@mypasswordis1234
OnlyOffice is good. Very similar to MS officeI found onlyoffice to have the best compatibility with documents imported from/exported to MS Office. For most people, their coworkers/teachers/professors or whatever will be using MS office, and if the formatting is borked everytime you move the file between libreoffice and ms office users, it gets old fast. That was my experience with libre office and why I ended up on onlyoffice. Of all the suites i’ve tried it has the best compatibility between itself and ms office for formatting.
@TheSun
Good to know. Thanks for that insight
I don’t use these kinds of tools in private unless I have to, and when I do, I found that OnlyOffice has better compatability with .docx-files. I recently had to make some changes and format a .docx-file, and after struggling to make it look correct in LibreOffice*, it did not show up correctly in Word. Output was more or less the same in OnlyOffice as in Word, and after redoing it in OnlyOffice, it looked almost completely correct in Word.
- This is, however, always a problem with these kinds of programs in my opinion.
Between the two I recommend OnlyOffice because it has better export compatibility, a PDF editor, seamless interchange between their desktop, mobile, and web versions, and a nicer UI. You’d only need LibreOffice if you’re doing very advanced document formatting or very niche scientific or financial formulas. LibreOffice has been around for a lot longer than OnlyOffice so its got more edge use cases figured out. Onlyoffice is more modern and IMO feels like a smoother experience with the UI.
Is there a reason a few are being developed rather than focussing on one? Are there key differences/use cases for each of them?
LibreOffice vs. OpenOffice vs. OnlyOffice
I remember once reading that one of them (or some other FOSS alternative) was bad for privacy/FOSS, but I can’t find that anymore
Basically the only commits to OpenOffice now are things a full project lint would catch. There are some security updates here and there. Last I looked it’s basically one dev fixing spacing.
Open Office has been dead for a while now. Libre Office is the only active one. And Only Office for the MS clone with fewer features.
Why did Linus start developing Linux when he could have just contributed to FreeBSD which already existed?
No, it didn’t. FreeBSD didn’t exist until 1993. 386BSD wasn’t until 1992. Linus has said that if a free, unencumbered BSD for PCs existed in 1991, he indeed would not have made Linux.
Well I’m an idiot then.
Lol, https://gondwanaland.com/meta/history/interview.html if you want to read more.
I remember once reading that one of them (or some other FOSS alternative) was bad for privacy/FOSS, but I can’t find that anymore
Not sure if you’re thinking of WPS Office (formerly known as Kingsoft Office). It’s development is funded by the Chinese government, but although Kingsoft claim that the Linux version is developed by the community, they haven’t really published the source code anywhere, so it’s considered a high-risk software.
I recommend installing Windows 8.1 in VirtualBox, and putting MS Office 2013/16 in it. You can get both these MS products at massgrave.dev with safe activation methods. If you can get by with MS Office 2007, use in Windows XP in VirtualBox like I do.
I figured out years ago that fighting with these FOSS alternatives is not a wise battle to pick. MS Office is one of those few necessary evils you need to work with others.
Any reason why you recommended Win 8.1 in particular?
It is the latest version of Windows that is not crippled on a HDD. Windows 10 seems to be artificially intentionally crippled for I/O if it detects a HDD, which is why it is only tolerable on SSDs. Windows 8.1 was also the fastest ever Windows to run on a HDD, faster than 7 or XP. It also conveniently happens to allow to run newer Office versions.
Ok that makes sense
There is WPS office (from Kingsoft based in China).
WPS Office is just spyware
https://www.wps.com/privacy-policy/
