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Ask HN: What are my options to run Windows programs on Linux?

by phakding on 1/13/19, 1:54 AM with 9 comments

We use Linux desktops at work and all our development/release is on Linux. We are however using Office 365 suite. We are now forced to move to MS Teams as hipchat is going away. MS Teams does not have a native Linux client and MS does not have any future plans to develop one.

I am wondering if there are any solutions that I can sell to management besides running entire windows os in VMware?

  • by craftoman on 1/13/19, 10:29 PM

    I run everything on Linux using virtualbox, I don't recommend Wine though. All you need is a decent PC unless you're at school or something. The only problem you will face is USB support for some cases I don't think an average user can setup everything in a matter of minutes, you may need hours even days on researching but in the end you'll be rewarded.
  • by lks128 on 1/14/19, 12:04 AM

    I would consider using MS Teams web client to be a better option rather than running it in a virtual machine.
  • by arachno on 1/13/19, 10:39 AM

    Virtualbox can emulate a windows machine on top of Linux
  • by mark_l_watson on 1/13/19, 1:57 AM

    This really doesn’t answer all your needs but the Microsoft Office 365 office and productivity apps are available as web apps, and work very well on Linux.
  • by roschdal on 1/13/19, 4:33 AM

    wine
  • by mimixco on 1/13/19, 4:32 AM

    How about Docker?
  • by doose_droppa on 1/13/19, 8:41 PM

    Libre Office.

    it can work with MSO files, but has caveats regarding the nonstandard file specs. [docx. vs doc.] you can open and work with MSO nonspec files in libre office, but there is usually a note regarding format mangling due to a certain corporation breaking the file spec. Myself i have not had problems switching between the two ecosystems[MSO vs Libre] and the typical MS baggage is not attached to libre.