So, I am done with Libreoffice. Not because Libreoffice is bad, quite the contrary. But I am doing more and more work with Excel, Powerpoint and Word @ work, and I have become to old to learn two different programs for the same purpose. So I have to have MS Office on my EndevourOS. turns out: There ain’t one. No suprise, I knew that.
I checked all the alternatives, and the only thing that really fits seems to be Softmaker Office. I am totally fine with paying for something, but proprietary closed source is quite a bummer. I will take it, nevertheless. But before I pay for it I have the following two questions:
Is there any other alternative which runs Excel Macros, renders Word templates correct, does work with Powerpoint fine (as in 100% correct rendering) and has the same UI as MS Office?
Which license shall I go? I need it for me and the wife…
Excel macros are a pain in the butt. Most other office apps work fine, but macros, yeah. Online MS Excel can handle many of them, but not all.
Have you tried OnlyOffice? It is open-source and has solid desktop versions with a similar feel to MS Office. I do not do a lot of macros, so cannot speak to that regarding it. However, it is FOSS and easy to try. Softmaker Office is a nice product. We tried it out in my company and everyone really liked it, but we ultimately went with OnlyOffice as it felt better to my team.
Hi @milkytwix
Though I am not that expert with any office app, but I understand you use some macros that need to be run only on MS Office!
I wonder why didn’t you think of something like Wine to run MS apps on it.
(I believe I read there are some alternatives to wine), but I am not that expert with these as well. I am fine with only Linux apps.
There is no other application that has 100% correct rendering for powerpoint. I did some testing a few years ago and while softmaker was among the best, nothing was perfect for every presentation. Even office online failed to render some presentations fully correctly.
If you are interested in Softmaker Office. You can use freeoffice for free. There is also a 30-day trial of SM Office so you can test it out.
It is a nightmare trying to keep MS Office running on Wine. Even Crossover, which is a commercial version of Wine struggles to keep Office support working.
If my memory serves me correct, I did use Office 2010 on Ubuntu. Installed it though PlayOnLinux and had no problems. Was able to use official key I bought. But I have understood that later versions are almost impossible to run through Wine.
Before I start I must shout out a thx2all of you, fast and helpfull, this forum keeps up it’s own standards, as always - kudos!
I forgot to mention: Must work offline!
I tried. It is incompatible with at least one Word template with makro that I intend to use. So it is out.
Wine was my first try. The pain is unbearable AND it is not working after 3 hours full of pain…
Which license do you use? I can’t find a one-off license for two workstations…
Freeoffice seems great and all, functionality wise. But UI lacks ribbon customisation - which I absolutely need, couse my corp does so with MS Office, unfortunately.
See above answer, sorry for forgetting this requirement
At least not for me - 3 hours of pain were enough!
Worst case, you can set up a VM with a MicroWin or similar debloated version of Windows, just for those office apps. You don’t even have to register Windows for it to work. If Softmaker Office works, it is a solid option, even if it is proprietary.
Here’s a heretic thought: Any chance to switch your work to LibreOffice?
I actually succeeded twice with that approach (being CTO, though). We couldn’t get rid of Windows (Merchandise Management System required Windows), but everybody was happy when I terminated MS Office licenses and switched everybody to LO. Rather minimal changes (except darn Excel macros, of course), we could even convince our suppliers to send “LO-compatible” Excel data, donated to LibreOffice instead.
This might not be feasible in each and every situation, but was a good (and accepted) move in our case.
