I'm experimenting with Linux Mint Cinnamon on an older Lenovo laptop with 20GB of RAM and would like to use Microsoft Word without dual-booting. I've tried OnlyOffice, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, WPS Office, Word Online, and Google Docs, but they're missing features I rely on. I also tried installing Word 2010 and 2016 through Bottles, but neither installation finished successfully.
My workflow depends heavily on Word's outline view, a large collection of macros, and several plugins. LibreOffice and the other alternatives don't handle these features well enough. WPS Office 2019 seems to include outline view, but its Linux version appears to have been abandoned and is quite buggy. Is there a dependable way to run a suitable version of Word on Linux, or would a virtual machine be the best option?
3 Answers
If you only needed standard documents, LibreOffice or another office suite would probably be enough, but outline-heavy workflows and large macro collections are a different situation. In that case, adapting your workflow or keeping Word inside a Windows VM are the practical choices. There doesn’t appear to be a reliable native Linux option that supports all of those features.
A Windows virtual machine is probably the most dependable solution. Word doesn’t have a native Linux version, and compatibility layers such as Wine or Bottles tend to struggle with VBA macros, .NET components, plugins, and newer Office releases. You’d need a properly licensed Windows installation and Office license, but a lightweight Windows VM should handle Word without requiring much processing or graphics power.
For better performance than a typical VirtualBox setup, you could use KVM/QEMU through Virtual Machine Manager. It generally has less overhead and can get fairly close to native performance.
The macros and plugins are the main obstacle. Even if an older Word release can be installed through Wine, updates may break it, and very old versions won’t necessarily support the features you need. Since your workflow depends on Windows-specific VBA and .NET components, trying endless compatibility configurations is likely to take more time than it saves.
That’s the issue I’m running into. I’ve already tested the major alternatives, but the outline view, macros, and plugins are essential to how I work.