If Wine is too fragile and the web is not for you, two free Linux suites open your Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. They are not equal at it — one was built around Microsoft formats, the other around open ones. This is the honest per-format comparison.
The difference is architectural. OnlyOffice was built around Microsoft's OOXML formats — DOCX, XLSX, PPTX are its native language, so files round-trip to Word users with fewer surprises. LibreOffice is natively an ODF suite that converts Microsoft formats in and out — deeper features, but the conversion is exactly where formatting drifts. Both install in a minute — sudo apt install libreoffice or sudo snap install onlyoffice-desktopeditors.
For files that travel back to Word users, OnlyOffice usually keeps layout closest — page breaks, comments and tracked changes behave the way Word users expect, because the format it saves is the format Word reads.
LibreOffice opens nearly everything too, but complex documents — text boxes, section breaks, unusual numbering — can shift by a line here and there. Work rule — if the file must return to a Word user, keep it in DOCX and give it one visual check before sending, whichever suite you used.
Standard formulas, charts, filters and pivot-style summaries are strong in both. LibreOffice Calc is the deeper tool — more functions, stronger statistics, better for the analyst. OnlyOffice keeps shared-workbook behaviour closer to Excel's.
Now the limit nobody should soften — VBA macros run properly in neither. LibreOffice executes some simple macros through its Basic compatibility layer; OnlyOffice does not run VBA at all and uses its own JavaScript macros instead. If a workbook's buttons and macros are the workbook, you need real Excel — in a browser for viewing, or in Windows for running.
Presentations are the hardest format to clone, because they are pure layout and timing. OnlyOffice generally preserves PowerPoint animations and slide layouts more closely. LibreOffice Impress is a capable presenter with its own strengths, but transitions and effects are where its rendering differs most from PowerPoint's.
Practical safety net — for a presentation that must look exact on someone else's machine, export a PDF from the machine or app that created it. A PDF cannot reflow on the projector, whatever suite is installed there.
OnlyOffice deliberately mirrors the Microsoft ribbon, tab for tab, which makes it the lowest-friction landing for someone arriving from Word and Excel — most things are where your hands expect them.
LibreOffice asks a little more learning and repays it with depth — a stronger PDF toolkit, a real database component, and a community that has maintained it for well over a decade. Neither nags you for an account to work offline, and neither shows ads in its desktop editors.
Sharing files daily with Windows Office users — choose OnlyOffice Desktop as your default and let fidelity do its quiet work. Your own documents, heavy features, total offline freedom — choose LibreOffice.
And notice the option hiding in plain sight — they are free and small, so install both. Open each stubborn file in the suite that renders it best. Plenty of working Linux users do exactly this and think about it no further, which is what a solved problem feels like.
Watch the video install method, then decide with this comparison whether Wine, OnlyOffice or LibreOffice deserves your documents.
▶️ Watch Full VideoOnlyOffice, in most real-world documents, because DOCX is its native format rather than a conversion. LibreOffice is close on simple documents and drifts sooner on complex layouts.
Not reliably. LibreOffice runs some simple VBA through its Basic compatibility, and OnlyOffice does not run VBA at all. Macro workbooks need real Excel — on Linux that means a Windows virtual machine or dual boot.
Yes, they coexist without conflict, and you can choose per file which one opens it. Many users keep both and use whichever renders a given document best.