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    Default MS Office on Ubuntu 18.04

    Hey guys,

    Has anyone here ever installed MS Office (e.g. via Wine) on their Linux distribution?

    I have both the option of Unity desktop or Gnome desktop, and running 18.04 Ubuntu.

    I've seen it's possible with MS Office 2013, but I have Office 365 too. Can 365 work on Ubuntu? Has anyone tried?

    I like LibreOffice that came pre-installed, but there are just some things that I'd like to do that one can only do in Office. And I use the graphics/engineering drawing package called Visio which does not have an equivalent really.



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    Just install open office. It’s compatible
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    Quote Originally Posted by porkop View Post
    Just install open office. It’s compatible
    Yes....kind of. I really like LibreOffice and its related products. I use LibreOffice regularly on my main Linux system and it opens most MS Office documents. I much prefer its menus to Micro$oft’s horrible ribbon. The big problem is that it is compatible*. It’s kinda sorta compatible until you start seriously using it and then you find there is always that annoying little speck of sand in your eye.

    Try this: create a spreadsheet in Excel with a graph (chart) in it, then open it in LibreOffice Calc. The graph has gone. Now make a small change to the spreadsheet. Click “Save” in LibreOffice and close the document. Open it again in Excel and you will find that your graph has gone forever! Eek.

    I have got around this by running VMWare Workstation on Linux, with a full blown Windows machine in it. Very big, cumbersome and heavy solution, but it works well until you upgrade Linux and VMWare barfs on the new kernel.

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    Codeweavers Cross-Over Office supports Office 365. Apparently it runs well but not perfectly.

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    Use a Virtual Machine rather like VirtualBox and run it from there. It is way better than Wine. A lot of stuff that I had did not port well into Libre Office, but, as I am not sharing with others, so 100% M$ Orifice compatibility was not critical I have just about finished converting everything over. Even LibreOffice Base is catching up to M$ Accsux.
    The ODF format should be able to be read, and fully accessible in M$ Orifice anyway without any issue. M$ use undocumented "features" which makes it difficult sharing with other non M$ products. Once you use the ODF format. that largely disappears. IIRC M$ actually reads it quite well (haven't done it in over 12 months so cannot verify now).

    The only program that I am still waiting on a native Linux version is SketchUp.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Thanks guys for the input.

    What I don't like about OpenOffice is how they want you to remove or disable things in LibreOffice before installing. Like you guys, I like LibreOffice too much to want to get rid of it or do whatever to it.

    The main thing was actually that MS Visio program I was talking about. It's an extremely good program and I've used it so long I know where all its functions and everything is, and AFAIK there isn't anything else that can do the same things. I often make complex drawings and this package makes it very easy.

    Then there's just the familiarity of Word, Excel, etc. Used it so long, it makes any task take only a few minutes. Again, I know where everything sits, etc. and TBH don't feel like learning a whole new suite at this point.

    I mean, I'll give credit where it's due -- MS Office is a pretty damn good package. If an Apple Mac of all things decides it's a good idea to be able to run it, that says a lot.
    Last edited by irritant; 01-08-19 at 07:51 PM.

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    I'm 61 and have only been really using Linux full time for around 12 months. Yes, there is a learning curve, but, as long as you know a program (or OS) is capable of performing a task, it's just a matter of asking the right questions. I take it one step at a time. My biggest hold up was conversion of an Access database when I found an flat file alternative that did most of what I wanted. Libre Office Base, after seeing some example databases covered everything I needed so I moved there, otherwise it would have been SQL backend with a a front end written in Java, C++ or some other high level language. As for Writer, I had a 500 odd page document that relied upon many, and varied page, paragraph, and character styles. That was most critical. My finances were on a very complex, and macro driven spreadsheet, and even that was not as complex as I'd initially thought. So, please persevere with the Open version. I use Libre Office, Open Office is almost identical, so much of what works in one will work with the other.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    Use a Virtual Machine rather like VirtualBox and run it from there. It is way better than Wine. A lot of stuff that I had did not port well into Libre Office, but, as I am not sharing with others, so 100% M$ Orifice compatibility was not critical I have just about finished converting everything over. Even LibreOffice Base is catching up to M$ Accsux.
    The ODF format should be able to be read, and fully accessible in M$ Orifice anyway without any issue. M$ use undocumented "features" which makes it difficult sharing with other non M$ products. Once you use the ODF format. that largely disappears. IIRC M$ actually reads it quite well (haven't done it in over 12 months so cannot verify now).

    The only program that I am still waiting on a native Linux version is SketchUp.
    The only one I'm waiting for is MediaMonkey Gold, then I'd ditch windows completely.

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    Would media monkey gold work in a VB? It looks like quite a comprehensive piece of kit. I'm certain that there are Linux apps that will do all it claims, but just not in one integrated package like that.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    OK -- an update -- tried to install Office 2013 from the DVD using PlayOnLinux (Wine) and failed. Basically just keeps on crashing in the middle.

    From what I read you have to install the 32-bit version (even on 64-bit Linux) for it to work, made sure I did that and it still failed.

    Also no installation profile for my version (2013) of the MS Visio package, only the older versions.

    I do notice though they have a profile now for Office 2016 too, but still not 365 as such.

    But, besides that, I feel similarly to you guys, maybe more. I've just totally fallen in love with this OS.

    I honestly thought the day I installed it, that knowing Windows for so long I would never really get into it. Boy was I wrong. Once you learn how the terminal works, etc. it's just the most streamlined, fast, stable and user-friendly OS I've come across (granted I've never used mac OS yet, so don't know it).

    I can hardly believe just the improvements in speed, stability, reliability and overall performance. My PC has never worked this well in years. An all the customisations one can do is just amazing. If you had to try doing the same in Windows 10, it would probably immediately crash, or totally stuff up the registry, etc.

    It annoys me to no end when I have to boot into Windows just to do something. I basically treat it like you would when visiting a site where there was a nuclear accident -- get in, do what you have to do, and get the hell out as fast as possible!
    Last edited by irritant; 02-08-19 at 07:35 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_m_54 View Post
    ...then I'd ditch windows completely.
    Ah, what a glorious day that would be!

    Goodbye to slowness, horrible looking interface (no matter what theme you choose), errors, stupid and annoying/childish communication style where the computer uses pronouns and talks to you like it's a person/people/team attending to your problem/request...the list goes on.

    On the last point especially, every time I see their style of "talking to you" I think to myself Geez, these people are full of sh*t.

    The last Windows I liked was Windows 98, not because of how it looked, but how it worked. Looks-wise, Windows 7 and maybe XP was nice. As you can spend your whole day sometimes working on the PC, to me, being an aesthetically nice place to work in and not annoying is also important.
    Last edited by irritant; 02-08-19 at 07:49 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    Would media monkey gold work in a VB? It looks like quite a comprehensive piece of kit. I'm certain that there are Linux apps that will do all it claims, but just not in one integrated package like that.
    It might run on a virtual box, it won't run reliably under Wine though (well not with over a TB of music). Yeah, there are quite a few Linux products that will do most of what MM does, but none of them will do all that MM does. The other thing is, there are quite a few scripts written for MM that make it excellent for managing very large music collections, especially for tagging consistency. One really good script creates a report in HTML format, of all the Albums you want shown, by a certain criteria. I use this to keep a copy on my phone, of all the CDs I have ripped to flac, so that when checking out op shops and garage sales and I see one I'm not sure I have, it's very easy just to check the report. With over 2,100 CDs I've ripped, it saves trying to remember.

    I really only use it for Managing my collection too, I very rarely use it to play from, or as a server.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr_Mohs View Post
    Thanks guys for the input.

    What I don't like about OpenOffice is how they want you to remove or disable things in LibreOffice before installing. Like you guys, I like LibreOffice too much to want to get rid of it or do whatever to it.

    The main thing was actually that MS Visio program I was talking about. It's an extremely good program and I've used it so long I know where all its functions and everything is, and AFAIK there isn't anything else that can do the same things. I often make complex drawings and this package makes it very easy.

    Then there's just the familiarity of Word, Excel, etc. Used it so long, it makes any task take only a few minutes. Again, I know where everything sits, etc. and TBH don't feel like learning a whole new suite at this point.

    I mean, I'll give credit where it's due -- MS Office is a pretty damn good package. If an Apple Mac of all things decides it's a good idea to be able to run it, that says a lot.
    According to a randomly selected website, they claim the Draw packages from Libre and Open Office are full replacements for Visio:


    Of course they and we don't know what you are actually doing with Visio.
    I use QCAD on Linux for some drawing but I mostly use my Mac which also runs QCAD.
    That works for me because, like you I am used to it over the years but sometimes I find it worth while to explore the new and find sometimes interesting alternatives, that might require a learn curve but offer new abilities I was not aware of.

    It should go without saying but I can't hold it back, like vomit, I hate MS Office.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 03-08-19 at 08:33 PM.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_m_54 View Post
    The only one I'm waiting for is MediaMonkey Gold, then I'd ditch windows completely.
    When it comes to media I can do everything with K3b and VLC on Linux.
    Never even heard of MediaMonkey but sometimes I think there are more media/player/organiser apps than fish in the ocean.
    For me the only reason to fire up a native Windows these days is the bloody PICbasic compiler and testing stuff for other ppl.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    According to a randomly selected website, they claim the Draw packages from Libre and Open Office are full replacements for Visio:


    Of course they and we don't know what you are actually doing with Visio.
    I use QCAD on Linux for some drawing but I mostly use my Mac which also runs QCAD.
    That works for me because, like you I am used to it over the years but sometimes I find it worth while to explore the new and find sometimes interesting alternatives, that might require a learn curve but offer new abilities I was not aware of.

    It should go without saying but I can't hold it back, like vomit, I hate MS Office.
    Yeah, you guys are right, it's about time I learn something new and stop being so stubborn. I'm sure these packages, when you really try, will probably do the same things as the MS Office packages I insist on using, due to, I'll admit it, familiarity.

    Thanks nomeat, I've never heard of QCAD, I'm going to check it out.

    Just on another note, speaking of media players, etc. Do you guys perhaps know why my default linux video player and VLC don't want to display the video on my .mp4 files? The audio works fine on both.

    I've downloaded all the codecs and everything like you're supposed to, and it used to work, but doesn't anymore.

    I did play around with the VLC preferences menu under Video tab, tried to use Open GL and many of those options, but still no luck.

    Edit: Also doesn't matter if I switch between Unity desktop and GNOME desktop, still does it. Oh yes, and don't know if this is significant, but trying to play them directly from my external USB HDD where I have them archived.
    Last edited by irritant; 03-08-19 at 09:12 PM.

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    You may like to try downloading a free trial version of Crossover Linux, install office and see if it works for you.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr_Mohs View Post
    Just on another note, speaking of media players, etc. Do you guys perhaps know why my default linux video player and VLC don't want to display the video on my .mp4 files? The audio works fine on both.

    I've downloaded all the codecs and everything like you're supposed to, and it used to work, but doesn't anymore.

    I did play around with the VLC preferences menu under Video tab, tried to use Open GL and many of those options, but still no luck.
    In VLC make sure "Enable video" is on in the Video settings under Preferences !

    If it already is read on:

    You are not supposed to download anything, VLC comes with all the codecs you need. I have never downloaded any external codecs at least not manually.
    So what you downloaded might have messed up VLC, although I have never actually heard of that.

    Completely removing VLC including dependencies might help:
    sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove vlc

    removing old archive files might be a good idea here too:
    sudo apt-get clean

    then a proper fresh install:
    sudo apt-get install vlc
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 04-08-19 at 11:44 AM.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    When it comes to media I can do everything with K3b and VLC on Linux.
    Never even heard of MediaMonkey but sometimes I think there are more media/player/organiser apps than fish in the ocean.
    For me the only reason to fire up a native Windows these days is the bloody PICbasic compiler and testing stuff for other ppl.
    Yes, they can do a fair bit, but nowhere near as comprehensive as MM Gold.

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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    According to a randomly selected website, they claim the Draw packages from Libre and Open Office are full replacements for Visio:
    Haha yes, not a chance. There's a reason why it's like a $1,000 for the latest proper standalone one.

    I was very lucky in that I was able to buy mine through my university for a lot less. Although it has become pretty old by now. But, it doesn't change much from what I've been able to gather, and from judging by the other Office programs.

    The only things that have really changed has been the connectivity to work in the cloud and what not. The basic functionality of Office is still pretty much the same as back to 2007. Even 97 if you take away the layout changes.
    Last edited by irritant; 04-08-19 at 07:08 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr_Mohs View Post
    Haha yes, not a chance. There's a reason why it's like a $1,000 for the latest proper standalone one.

    I was very lucky in that I was able to buy mine through my university for a lot less. Although it has become pretty old by now. But, it doesn't change much from what I've been able to gather, and from judging by the other Office programs.

    The only things that have really changed has been the connectivity to work in the cloud and what not. The basic functionality of Office is still pretty much the same as back to 2007. Even 97 if you take away the layout changes.
    Yeah, I can't do much with LibreOffice draw either but there are plenty of other pretty good open source draw software.

    I still don't know what you use it for but it looks like Viso is some sort of Vector graphics app where you put objects together and for that you need a library.
    Doesn't exactly get raving reviews, especially for the cost if you have to rent it.

    Inkscape is pretty good for that but has no own library.
    A massive source of free Vectors you will find here, which you should also be able to use in Visio:


    For real drawing and art Krita is quite effective and easy to use.

    I mainly do technical drawings but not very often, so QCAD serves me well, not only because it is free but it is a lot simpler to use than it's expensive counterparts.
    Then there is Blender, totally free but that is something that could be compared with $1000 3D-Modelling software.

    So that completes my standard Linux setup for graphics.

    I didn't mention GIMP because it usually comes with Linux distros. It does a lot like Photoshop but Photoshop users will disagree, while I don't like Photoshop.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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