So, at school we use the whole Office 365 suite for a myriad of tasks.

Teams is used as the main way to share exercises and lesson material, Outlook is used as the resident email service, and you’re expected to use OneDrive to store all/most of your data. There are some additional apps that require Windows, but beyond the office 365 suite they are all replaceable.

What I’m wondering is, what distro can run/access those apps without too much hassle and set-up?

I’m looking to do this on a HP probook x360, upgraded to 32 GB of ram. The only peripheral of note I’ve got is a Ugee drawing tablet, but I can use the openTabletDriver or their own on some distro’s.

Edit: Thanks guys!

User helpimnotdrowning recommend Mint! This’ll be my first real daily foray onto Linux, so it’s definitely a good option. I’ll also have a look at Gnome Vs KDE. I’ve been looking at KDE in the past, but gnome is definitely worth a peep as well.

User BearOfATime, thanks for giving the software name that allows for a seamless VPN transition! I’ll also look into the win 10 LTSC. Not sure it’s a right fit, but it’s always fun to learn more!

As a couple of you recommend, there seems to be a teams flatpak to download, so I’ll have a look into that!

Finally, I’d like to thank y’all for the useful and helpful answers! Many of you said to try the webapps, so I’ll be doing that! My current plan is to use VMWare (alt is Vbox. VMware works (and looks) better) and try to actively use a mint VM. Not sure If I’ll be able to stick to it, and not unknowingly switch to windows, but having it as a starting app should solve a couple issues. Slower start times, sure, but that’s not the worst. Your advice is very much appreciated! It’s given me a good confidence boost to start. Thanks for that :D

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
    1·
    4 months ago

    From all the comments it looks like it’s quite a challenge to go native Linux.

    One option, run a VM using KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine, native to some distros).

    You can install Windows IOT LTSC (Long-term Servicing Channel), which receives only security updates 2x/year, no others. It also doesn’t have all the bloat. It’s what I run for daily use.

    Win10 LTSC. It gets updates 2x/year, has very minimal bloat.

    Windows LTSC Downloads, don’t forget to grab the key.

    Then get O&O Shutup to reduce bloat even more (mostly just to limit telemetry on Windows).

    And you can permanently license it using Microsoft’s own scripts. - Scripts on Github.

    At one time you could directly launch apps in VMs using SeamlessRDP, I’m not sure if that still works or if there’s something new.

    As others have said, wtf is wrong with the school - requiring OneDrive? FFS

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
        0·
        4 months ago

        Pro gives you Group Policy, which is essential for controlling things any more (especially telemetry and automatic updates, for example).

        And yea, gonna need some ram to run a VM. Linux may run OK on lesser amounts, but even a VM of Windows can get pretty hungry. It’ll run ok with 8 allocated to it, and it’ll slog along with less, but still run.

  • Sina@beehaw.org
    1·
    4 months ago

    Basically it doesn’t matter if you can use the webapps.

    Mint is the best traditional noobie distro, while I would suggest Silverblue, if you just want to use a robust system that requires far less maintenance effort than a traditional distribution with limitations that may are may not affect you at all.

  • fachpersonal@lemmy.ml
    0·
    4 months ago

    For teams specifically I’m just using the web version with chromium. Installed as a chromium app so I have quick access to it and have it on my taskbar. Rest of Office 365 works just fine in any browser. (Outlook, SharePoint, Power apps etc) For OneDrive Sync you can use https://abraunegg.github.io/ which should work on most distros.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    0·
    4 months ago

    I have the same situation at work, where I’m actually the CTO and have the power to change that but… It’s been like this for two years before I came in and right now there are a lot of dependencies to fix. It’ll take at least a year to prepare tos switch away, it sucks.

    Having said that.

    I’m running kubuntu myself and use the web version of teams and office, which both are hilariously bad to the point where you really have to ask the question why people pay money for this shit.

    Google is an evil company but at least their software works to a reasonable point. Teams and office365 and outlook are so bad that I could write a multi page bug list and that is ignoring the fact that its just so hard to get anything done. Everything requires extra clicks, teams call connection lost? Sucks to be you, you can’t simply reload like in Google Meet, you have to ask your client to include you again in the call which is just sad. Outlook go back to the previous message with the browser back button which is there for exactly jat reason? Yeaaahhh, sucks to be you, buddy. Just a few random design issues from a long, long list.

    Fuck everything about Microsoft

    Edit: teams requires chrome, video calls won’t work on firefox for the moment, causing a crash in some codec library

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
        0·
        4 months ago

        Have already before and would love to again but…

        I want it integrated with next cloud, and it MUST have perfect compatibility with Microsoft Office.

        The former, so far, has always been a hellscapr to setup, even with the help of developers.

  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    4 months ago

    365 admin here. Use whatever distro you want and just use the web versions of Office apps. They’ve been greatly improved and are nearly identical to their desktop counterparts. Especially if you’re leaning heavily into OneDrive/Sharepoint.