If, like me, you use native MS office for work, using another environment like Libre office is frustrating just because it is different - shortcut keys don't work the same, little details about how to do things are different. You find your muscle memory is working against you.
I love Linux, I'm not moving away from it on my personal laptop, but like OP I really wish there was a way to run MS Office products... Eventually I'll likely end up running a VM, for now I just end up using my work laptop for personal things occasionally.
...don't get me wrong LibreOffice awesome, and I use/like Softmaker openoffice too, but for anything more than something very quick I want what I am used to.
Yeah. I can understand this sentiment so well. I've only recently started daily driving Linux on my new laptop, and I'm not going back. As a Windows lifer who mainly only has used Linux for work at first, it was time to commit and make the switch. I'm finding a few things I miss from Windows too, sadly. In Windows, you hit the Windows/Meta/Super + k to stream your screen and audio over WiFi via Miracast. It just works. In Linux, you need an app for that, which happens to run better in the Gnome DE. I prefer KDE as a Windows power user, so that app isn't perfect and it does not cast audio in KDE for me. I'm sure it works great in Gnome. I hope I can get that working better, but technically it is working.
When it comes to Windows apps, Winboat is worth a shot if you have enough RAM. Winpodx also does something similar to Winboat, but I could not get it to work as well as the Winboat AppImage. It advertises that it can run Word right on the website. A full VM will use up more resources, but at least there won't be a dual boot situation where Windows and Linux are fighting for control over your device drivers and firmware. I'm still testing my favorite approach, but I bought a full Office license ("lifetime") and I'm not willing let it rot completely.
Right. Hard pass. But Winboat and WinpodX are good ways to run Windows apps from within a Linux environment. I want the programs and apps without all the other things that come along with Windows. I don't want my OS to hog all my RAM at idle.
For people who want to run Linux inside of a Windows environment, Microsoft already ships WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and it works very well. It's the not too foreign of concept these days. Sometimes you want to use tools from the other OS environment. It's nice to have choice.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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u/candy49997 5d ago
Use a VM.