Microsoft Office alternative on Linux – LibreOffice and OnlyOffice
Looking for a Microsoft Office alternative on Linux? You have two excellent free options — LibreOffice and OnlyOffice — and both open, edit and save the Word, Excel and PowerPoint files you already have. This guide explains which one to use, how to keep your documents compatible, and how to get started in minutes.
LibreOffice – the all-round default
LibreOffice is the most popular Microsoft Office alternative on Linux and comes pre-installed on most distributions. It’s a full suite: Writer (documents), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), plus Draw and Base. It opens .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files directly, and you can keep saving in those formats so colleagues on other systems can still open your work — just choose Keep Current Format when prompted.
OnlyOffice – best for Microsoft file fidelity
If you exchange complex documents with people using Microsoft Office every day, OnlyOffice is worth installing. Its interface mirrors the modern ribbon layout, and it tends to reproduce tricky .docx and .xlsx formatting — tables, tracked changes, advanced cell formulas — more faithfully than any other free option. Many people run LibreOffice for everyday work and keep OnlyOffice on hand for documents that must look pixel-perfect.
Opening and saving Office files
Both suites handle Microsoft formats natively. To make sure a document always saves as .docx (rather than the open .odt format), set the default in Tools → Options → Load/Save → General in LibreOffice. Spreadsheets and presentations have the same setting. If a layout looks slightly different, it’s almost always a missing font.
The font tip that fixes most layout differences
Microsoft’s Calibri and Cambria fonts aren’t included with Linux for licensing reasons, so a document built around them can reflow. Installing the free, metric-compatible Carlito and Caladea fonts (drop-in replacements that take the same space on the page) resolves the vast majority of these differences. On Ubuntu and Mint they’re usually one click away in the software centre.
What about online editing?
You can also edit Microsoft documents in a web browser using free cloud office suites, which is handy for quick edits or sharing. For serious offline work, though, a desktop suite is faster and keeps your files private on your own machine — which is the whole point of running Linux.
Office that’s ready on day one
Every ArkPC Linux laptop and desktop ships with a working office suite already set up on your chosen distro, tested in Australia before it leaves our bench — so you can open your existing documents the moment you switch it on. Not sure which suite fits how you work? Ask our local support team and we’ll point you to the right one.
