If you’re a Windows user, you already know the advantages of using Office 365 (Home or personal), being that it’s integrated to an operating system you use daily. The biggest disadvantage being price, starting at $69.99 (or $6.99 per month).
Therein lies the dilemma, as Office 365, much like all Microsoft products are designed for Windows user. And, with few exceptions intended to be used on Windows machines. And, while there are some hacks or work-arounds to let you use/install Microsoft Office on a Linux machine, it’s usually more of a hassle than worthwhile.
If you’re a Linux user, OpenOffice is probably your first go to option for Office type solutions, though it’s not the only choice available. Here are three reputable alternatives you should try.
LibreOffice is a feature rich office suite that includes all the basic tools you would expect such as Writer (word processing), Calc, (spreadsheet) and Impress (office presentations) as well as a few advanced tools you won’t find with other open source Office equivalents such as Draw (vector graphics/flowcharts), Base (databases) and Math (formula editing).
Compatible with Microsoft® Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx), PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx) and Publisher. Native support for Open Document Format (ODF). Export your work in a variety of different formats including PDF.
FreeOffice2018 offers a generous assortment of user-friendly office tools for Linux including, TextMaker, PlanMaker, Presentations, Comparison, Download.
TextMaker is the equivalent of MicroSoft Word and allows you to easily compose business, personal or scientific documents. Save documents in Microsoft Word DOCX files or export as PDF and EPUB to create an ebook for publication.
Open/Save documents in popular Microsoft file format including: DOCX, XLSX and PPTX
Stylish interface: Choose Ribbons or Classic Menu
Customizable Quick Access Toolbar lets you pin favorite functions
TouchScreen Friendly with larger icons and ample spacing between elements to avoid misclicks
Another Microsoft compatible Office tools suite for the Linux user. Online version lets you edit your documents at home or office without losing formatting. Go offline to work on your local machine with ONLYOFFICE Desktop, no internet connection required. Also available on Mobile for on-the-go document editing.
Connect to DropBox, OneDrive or GoogleDrive to work with your documents directly from any browser.
Fully compatible with Office formats and supports DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, TXT, PDF, HTML, EPUB, DjVu, XLS, XLSX, ODS, CSV, PPT, PPTX and ODP.
Available for DEB-PACKAGE, RPM PACKAGE, SNAP PACKAGE