Microsoft has already brought Microsoft Teams to Linux as the first Microsoft Office app to officially be supported on Linux. We are still waiting for the full Microsoft Office suite of desktop applications to be released for Linux (assuming these will be). However, with the help of an open source project created by Hayden Barnes, you can easily install a web app wrapper on Ubuntu that gives a more “native” way to run the Microsoft Office 365 Web Apps on Ubuntu.
Office 365 Web Apps on Ubuntu Linux
The unofficial-webapp-office open source project provides a minimalist web browser that embeds the Office 365 Web Apps in your Ubuntu Linux environment. This project is not supported by Microsoft, and is a community project created by Hayden Barnes to provide us all an alternative for running Office 365 apps on Ubuntu Linux until Microsoft releases officially supported versions themselves.
The project includes web app wrappers, based on QtWebEngine, that bring the following apps to your Ubuntu Linux Desktop experience:
- Outlook
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- OneDrive
- OneNote
Install Unofficial WebApp Wrapper for Office 365 on Ubuntu
The unofficial-webapp-office project can be easily installed on Ubuntu Linux as a snap using a single command from the terminal.
snap install unofficial-webapp-office
Happy Linux computing!
About the Author
Chris Pietschmann
Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.
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Can I work offline with this ?
Since this is opening the Office 365 web apps in dedicated windows, it will only work when online.
Hello. I snap installed on manjaro without errors but it will not work. I try to start it from the menu in kde and it tries to spin up but fails. Here is an example output running excel from the command line if it may help. I can still run from chrome online going from the microsoft store.
/bin/bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.UTF-8)
“/home/XXXXX/Excel” does not exist.
[100208:100208:0813/084202.237350:FATAL:credentials.cc(155)] Check failed: NamespaceUtils::DenySetgroups(). : Permission denied
#0 0x7ff0e2b97aee
#1 0x7ff0e2baa0e2
#2 0x7ff0e2bab45c
#3 0x7ff0e371fb21
#4 0x7ff0e37202dd
#5 0x7ff0e27b4527
#6 0x7ff0e245fd48
#7 0x7ff0e2463262
#8 0x7ff0e2251a9b
#9 0x7ff0e2252bd5
#10 0x7ff0e21e74f1 QtWebEngineCore::BrowserContextAdapter::defaultContext()
#11 0x7ff104b3a3b5 QQuickWebEngineProfile::defaultProfile()
#12 0x7ff104b41dba QQuickWebEngineViewPrivate::QQuickWebEngineViewPrivate()
#13 0x7ff104b42c9b QQuickWebEngineView::QQuickWebEngineView()
#14 0x7ff104d7a27b
#15 0x7ff141555962 QQmlType::create()
#16 0x7ff1415c6146 QQmlObjectCreator::createInstance()
#17 0x7ff1415c83da QQmlObjectCreator::setPropertyBinding()
#18 0x7ff1415c8e11 QQmlObjectCreator::setupBindings()
#19 0x7ff1415c5ba6 QQmlObjectCreator::populateInstance()
#20 0x7ff1415c697c QQmlObjectCreator::createInstance()
#21 0x7ff1415c9c6c QQmlObjectCreator::create()
#22 0x7ff141540408 QQmlComponentPrivate::beginCreate()
#23 0x7ff14153e74f QQmlComponent::create()
#24 0x55efb9ab5c5a
#25 0x7ff13f0feb97 __libc_start_main
#26 0x55efb9ab7ada
Fontconfig warning: FcPattern object weight does not accept value [40 210)
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
Hi Chris, is an excellent tool and a lot of helpful.
But, do you know How can I link my files in Ubuntu to open with this app?
That I’m not sure. I don’t know if this project has support for that. After all, it’s the web version of Office 365 that it’s embedding within independent windows on your machine. I’m not sure it even had direct access to the files on your machine. You could try setting up OneDrive on your local machine, then files you save there will be accessible by your Office 365 subscription as they’ll be automatically uploaded / sync’d.
I’ve installed it fine, but clicking on the apps accomplishes nothing. The HD makes sounds like it is loading something, but the apps never open. Any suggestions?
Can’t figure why an Ubuntu user would even need that at all… All same work can be done without getting into a Win environment. Been working fine and well connected with other people (them on Win) without any MS for more then 7 years now…except for Skype.
Maybe except for the ‘feeling’ of being in a Win environment that some may be missing.
Is this command no longer valid
Yeah looks like its not working anymore and the dev on it at github has archived the repo, so does that mean its no longer actively being worked on?
M not getting anything with this command can i get some help
Hi Chirs,
the snap can’t be find I think the developer pulled out the project from the snapstore!
Hey Chris ! there is nothing in the snap named as unofficial webapp office. Can you please check this out?
$ snap install unofficial-webapp-office
error: snap “unofficial-webapp-office” not found
run away from snaps,trying the app image version.
Hello, the app in snap store no longer available