Outlook on Linux

Looks like Microsoft is releasing the new Outlook as a PWA. Does this mean Outlook will finally run on Linux? Has anyone been able to get their hands on the beta of the PWA and get it installed?

it doesn’t look like it will be a native app but a progressive web app, so it basically runs in Firefox/Chrome/Edge. There’s not an rpm/flatpak install in this case, but up to how your browser of choice handles it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/use-the-web-version-of-outlook-like-a-desktop-app-b360bd9a-00dc-43a4-bdf8-71cdeeb78e83

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Interesting, I did not know what PWA’s are… I have the impression that you can install the outlook.com as PWA, or may be webmail.outlook.com, but whether it’s a replacement of Outlook desktop application, I doubt. I tried outlook.com in Microsoft Edge for Linux and google chrome on Fedora 36. As far I understood, it’s all web technology, so to a large extent platform independent. In both ms-edge and google-chrome you can install it as app. In chrome you can create a link, and store it on the desktop. The desktop icon launches outlook-pwa without visible browser, so look and feel is like an application.

I really doubt if Microsoft will ever build a linux version of outlook. Organisations still buy Windows licences so they can install the most commonly used Outlook email client, word and excel. If they release a linux version of these applications, people will stop buying Windows licences.

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There are options. I’m not sure on its current status, but the Windows version of Outlook reportedly works on Linux with wine now.

Alternatively, Mozilla Thunderbird and Gnome Evolution should both work with Exchange or Outlook mail and are available in Fedora.

I tried various options, but decided that downloading Edge and installing Outlook as a PWA works best for now. I’ll keep hoping the Microsoft chooses to release a proper Outlook client for Linux one day.

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