The Best Office Suites for Linux
When I first started using Linux back in 1997, finding high-quality software was often a challenge. In no category was this more apparent than that of the office suite. Sure, there were text editors and other basic tools, but finding a full-blown suite of tools wasn’t in the cards.
And then came StarOffice — which was a boon to those who took Linux seriously. That application was managed by Sun Microsystems, and it was the only option for collaborating with those who used Microsoft Office.
StarOffice was eventually replaced by Sun Java Workplace, which then became Oracle Star Office.
Needless to say, those applications are no longer with us.
Fortunately, Linux users now enjoy plenty of office suites, each of which does a great job of serving our productivity needs.
But which of those office suites is considered the best for Linux? Naturally, this is all about personal choice … as long as the software can meet your needs. I’m talking documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more.
Thanks to these office suites, Linux is considered a serious contender for everyday desktop usage. Although not every one of these options is created equal (some of them being proprietary), they are all perfectly viable for most users.
Let’s dive in and see what’s available for the Linux operating system.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is the star of the show for a few reasons. First off, LibreOffice is installed by default on a lot of Linux distributions. If you log in to your desktop and find it missing, you can open your distribution’s app store and install it from the standard repositories.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice offers outstanding MS Office compatibility, and is considerably more flexible than Microsoft’s option. In this office suite, you’ll find the following components:
- Writer: for documents
- Calc: for spreadsheets
- Presents: for presentations
- Math: for formulas
- Draw: for image editing
- Base: for databases
Features found in LibreOffice include:
- Customizable UI
- EPUB export
- Document signing and password protection
- Pivot charts
- Watermarks
- Tons of preconfigured templates
- Auto backup
- Support for nearly all file types
- Macros
- And much more
One very important feature (or lack thereof) that makes LibreOffice appealing to many is the lack of AI. The Document Foundation (the organization behind LibreOffice) has stated it will never add AI to the office suite. To people like me (who would rather keep AI separate from their work), this is a smart move.
Another nice thing about LibreOffice is that it’s free and available for Linux, macOS and Windows, so you can suggest to your friends or coworkers that they install it as well so you can seamlessly collaborate. Don’t worry if they refuse, as LibreOffice does a great job of working with MS Office documents.
LibreOffice defaults to OpenDocument formats.
WPS Office
WPS Office is one of the lesser-known office suites for Linux, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy. WPS Office can be installed and used for free, but you can purchase a license for WPS Pro ($2.99/month), which adds a full PDF editor, document conversions, unlimited template downloads, advanced text recognition capabilities, full electronic signatures, 20 GB of cloud storage and no ads. There’s also the WPS AI ($9.99/month), which adds AI into the mix, and then there’s WPS Pro + WPS AI ($10.83/month), which includes everything in WPS Pro plus unlimited access to advanced AI features.
WPS
As far as the free version, you get WPS Writer (documents), WPS Sheets (spreadsheets) and WPS Slides (presentations) as well as an MS Office-like UI, compatibility with MS Office formats, Google Docs, Adobe PDF and LibreOffice support.
Anyone who’s used the MS Office app will feel right at home with WPS Office thanks to its well-designed interface. I find the WPS Office UI to be a more modern UI than that of LibreOffice (although not nearly as flexible).
I’ve used WPS Office over the years, and every time I install it, I think, “Maybe it’s time to use it as my default.” I’ve yet to follow through with that (partially because I’ve been using LibreOffice for so long), but I do at least keep it installed on the rare occasion that LibreOffice has trouble with a document. I’ve found that WPS Office has better MS Office compatibility for more complicated files.
WPS Office defaults to MS Office file formats.
SoftMaker Office
Of all the Linux office suites, SoftMaker Office has the best MS Office compatibility. The one drawback of SoftMaker Office is that it is strictly a commercial product, so it doesn’t offer a free version. You can use it with a free 14-day trial, but once that trial is up, you’ll have to pay the price. Fortunately, SoftMaker Office is fairly inexpensive (with Office NX Universal selling for $34.93/year or $3.49/month).
SoftMaker
But is SoftMaker Office worth the price (especially when there are high-quality free options available)?
If you primarily collaborate with people using MS Office, it is very much worth the cost.
SoftMaker Office includes TextMaker (documents), PlanMaker (spreadsheets), and Presentation (presentations). This office suite also adheres strictly to European data protection standards, with a clear focus on GDPR requirements to help protect your personal data and privacy.
SoftMaker Office includes ChatGPT integration to help you with reports, articles or notes, and allows you to choose between a classic menu UI or a ribbon interface. You’ll also find an enhanced dark mode option and a touchscreen mode.
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors
At first blush, you might think that ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors can only be used via a connection to an ONLYOFFICE server, but that’s not the case. Yes, you can certainly connect the app to an instance of the ONLYOFFICE server, but you can also use it locally to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Even better, you can use it locally and remotely, which means you can use it locally for sensitive documents and remotely for less sensitive data.
ONLYOFFICE
I’ve used the ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors for both local and remote work and found it to be a pleasure to work with. And since ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors is free, it’s even more appealing.
You can integrate AI into ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors, but it requires the addition of a plug-in (called simply “AI”). Once the plug-in has been enabled, you then have to add a model. If you use an open source model (such as Ollama), the setup is quite easy. If you go with the likes of ChatGPT, you’ll likely need a key to use it.
ONLYOFFICE is free to use and can be installed on most Linux distributions, either from a downloadable installer or using Snap or Flatpak.
Any one of these office suites is a viable option for most users. If you want totally free, easy to use, and customizable, go with LibreOffice. If you want the best MS Office compatibility, go with SoftMaker Office. If you want a clean, modern UI, go with WPS Office. And if you like the idea of using an office suite both locally and remotely, go with ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors.
