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Winapps for work stuff (lemm.ee)

submitted 18 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

tl;dr : Does Office 365 work well on Linux via winapps?

longer version:

At my work, I'm currently using my own (Windows) laptop. But its getting a bit long in the tooth, and my tolerance of Windows continues to drop... So I'm considering my options.

One option is to buy myself a new laptop and use Linux. The main barrier to this is that I use Office 365 stuff a lot for work. (Specifically: Word, Excel, and OneNote).

In my brief look around, my impression is that the only reliable way to get those products running on Linux is using winapps; which, as I understand it, basically runs the apps in a virtual machine but tries to make them look like they are running on the host OS.

(The alternative option is that my work will lend a Windows laptop to me indefinitely. But I generally like my stuff to be my own, and I don't like to create waste by accepting cheap and crap laptops with short life-spans.)

I'm writing here to ask if anyone has any experience using winapps. Does it work reliably? Is it easy to open and save files without any weirdness? Will I be able to use a stylus to write notes in OneNote?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

In my experience winapps doesn’t work well enough to use for work. I had almost constant issues with it.

That's a disappointing to hear - but it's exactly the experience I hoped to avoid myself by asking about it. So thank you!

Your setup for getting nice *nix stuff on Windows sounds good, but for me it isn't so much that I want to use *nix stuff but rather that I want to avoid Windows stuff. For example, today I got a popup notification from Microsoft suggesting that I should install an xbox app. ... I said 'no', and quickly disabled those kinds of suggestions. Easy - except that I've disabled various 'suggestions' in Windows countless times. Its a constant chore keeping up with new anti-features constantly being added. So that's really what I'm trying to avoid.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

For example, today I got a popup notification from Microsoft suggesting that I should install an xbox app.

Ahh! If that's the case you've come to the right place! I've been begrudgingly using Windows for 2 decades and I've found two utilities that help you disable 99% of that nagware.

Using these 2 applications you can basically gut Windows down to nothing. You can also use Windows Update Blocker to completely disable Windows Update, so features aren't added or re-enabled without you knowing about it. Make sure you enable "protect services settings!" This breaks winget, but I just pull the wub.exe up, enable updates, use winget, then re-disable updates. Only takes a second.

Doing this will completely change your Windows experience.

If you want to get even more crazy, you can do Windows 10/11 IoT which is a version of Windows designed for embedded devices (which still has windows enterprise level features, including telemetry disabled by default) which comes without a significant portion of the bullshit you get with consumer versions of Windows. Typically, you can selectively enable or install things it doesn't have if you end up needing them, but I've never run into any issues.

If you wanna give it a try you can download Windows 11 (26100.1742) IoT here, or Windows 10 (22H2) IoT here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

completely disable Windows Update

Since this is a work thing, I'd maybe check with whomever is in charge of your shit that you're not violating any compliance shit by turning updates off.

If you're not, cool, then whatever, but compliance bullshit is awful and sucks and it's better if you're not the reason you fail an audit.

Edit: for the OP, not you.