This might be useful for some Linux users who want (but don’t need) to run Microsoft 365 occasionally, but actually relying on this kind of hack is a terrible idea.

Once fully implemented, this will help draw in people into Linux, as many shudder at the thought of switching to the platform because their preferred office suite doesn’t work here.

I certainly hope this doesn’t “help draw in people into Linux”. It’s sad to think about people and organizations switching to Linux on the basis of someone misleading them into thinking that relying on this kind of thing is a good idea because when it breaks it will give them a bad impression and they’ll blame “Linux” instead of Microsoft (or Bottles or whoever told them it was a good idea).

When the lack of a Linux version of a specific proprietary program is the blocker preventing someone from switching to Linux, relying on a workaround which remains unsupported by the proprietary/adversarial software vendor is… a recipe for a bad time.

Even if this mostly works today, it is extremely likely that (either intentionally or inadvertently) Microsoft will break it in the future.

So, although I do see how this can be useful for some people when/while it works, in my opinion Linux and the world at large would be better off if this software didn’t exist. I hope Microsoft breaks it sooner than later!

My expectation is that MS will replace Windows with Linux within the decade with a Windows lookalike theme and Windows style desktop. They will run a Rosetta like VM to keep old apps running. It will be much cheaper, Linux can do anything that Windows can, with much less development costs. They might say that Windows needs at least 16GB RAM to keep that VM running smoothly, plus some new CPU and GPU to keep the hardware industry happy. They will still make it so that Office will only run on their version of Linux.

their preferred office suite

Usually it’s not “their preferred office suite” but “office suite they are forces to use at work”. MS Office usage is high because of network effect, not because any other office suite is worse.

I use LO Writer for any document I write (or work with) myself and it’s perfectly fine. The only reason I keep MS Office is that I need to work on documents other people write (or need to work with).

Of course there are people who actually prefer MS Office, but it’s similar to Windows itself: most people did not choose it, they either don’t know there is an alternative or are forced to use it for compatibility reasons (at work). It’s rare that anyone actually “prefers” MS software.

Started using WPS Office and never looked back 🤷

Sad that Linux will get its first usable database app (Access) as closed source from Microsoft. But, so be it. I’m happy that soon I won’t have to run Windows for this in a virtual machine.

I really dislike microsoft office, but the unfortunate reality is that it is used everywhere and it is such a disadvantage not to have, onlyoffice works great for me but the risk of things not looking right when sharing with someone with office is quite big. So I really like this progression, needing to run a full windows emulation to get office is a pain.

This article needs an editor. Badly.

Soda is a Wine-based runner that facilitates easy running of Windows games and applications

Isn’t that basically what wine is supposed to do?

I hope this never happens to me

All I need is the ability to run Teams and Outlook on Bottles.

This is great long term. If Microsoft were ever to go under or simply stop offering Windows as an OS, there’ll always be ways to run annoying software like Microsoft 365.

… Why though?

Impressive

ooo a custom wine runner in 2026? daring aren’t we