After years of years struggling on runnng Office on Linux, This year seems to be different. Microsoft is delivering on the promise to work on their Office Apps for Linux OS. Teams is available today (in a “Public Preview” state), and that’s good news for many organizations both large and small.
announcement via the Microsoft Tech Community blog:
The Microsoft Teams client is the first Office app that is coming to Linux desktops, and will support all of Teams’ core capabilities. Teams is the hub for teamwork that brings together chat, video meetings, calling, and collaboration on Office 365 documents and business processes within a single, integrated experience.
Marissa Salazar, Microsoft
The wording is really promising, especially in light of the increasingly vocal petitions for Microsoft to bring more of their software and services to Linux. At a glance, it definitely appears that the core functionality of Teams is present: document collaboration, calendar integration, screen sharing, video conferencing, and more.A few months ago Microsoft proudly proclaimed “We are an open source company.” Things are certainly afoot in the Linux realm over at Microsoft HQ. Can we expect additional Office apps in this year 2020?
According to a Venture Beat report, Microsoft isn't discussing porting other Office 365 apps to Linux, but it did say there are “a handful of features related to Office app functionality and screensharing/control in meetings that are not yet available in Linux. Seems we are still dreaming...huh
