GNU/Linux applications alternatives and workarounds

Posted on July 31, 2025 by im000 • Posted in Collaboration Software, Devices, Microsoft 365 Software, Misc Productivity Software, OneDrive, Other Devices, Outlook, SharePoint, Software, Teams, Utility Software, Zoom •

Introduction

As you may understand, Microsoft 365 tools are not natively available on Linux.

Many people as of time of writing are leaving Windows for GNU/Linux (for a variety of reasons, often being privacy, dissatisfaction increasing bloat, recall/AI spyware, etc…), but some believe they cannot (despite that they would like to) because they need to use tools like Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Word.

However, there are free and open source alternatives that can integrate just fine. This is mainly a list of applications, methods, and alternatives to Windows software that can be used on Linux. This often takes the form of free and open source (FOSS) alternatives.

Using OneDrive and SharePoint

Although Linux does not have an official OneDrive client, a free open source fully functional command line interface with an optional GUI can be found here. It can be used to interface with OneDrive systems, with full functionality.

The repository and installation instructions can be found here:

https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive

Using Microsoft 365 Tools/Email

Microsoft 365 tools like Word are not available natively on Linux, because Microsoft would rather you stay in their ecosystem, because they make money that way.

However there are multiple ways to use these products regardless.

Webapps

All Microsoft 365 tools are available as platform agnostic web apps, that fully integrate with other Microsoft 365 services. All you need is a web browser of choice, and to login with your MS account.

You can even use things like Microsoft Outlook this way, allowing you to access your inbox and emails without needing an application.

Compatible Native via WINE

You can try to run software like Microsoft Word through a Windows-Linux compatibility layer such as WINE, though this is not recommended and often has issues.

Alternatives

Some popular alternatives to the Microsoft application suite include LibreOffice, for example. Unlike Microsoft’s paid subscriptions, many of these are free and open source. They can fully read and write all types of Microsoft documents, and when integrated with the previously mentioned OneDrive client can be used very similarly to how you would on Windows, enabling you to edit documents and even push them to the cloud.

For Email Clients, Mozilla Thunderbird is a popular alternative to Microsoft Outlook, and for good reason. You can even forward your UW Outlook Email to it if you so desire.

Graphic Design & Digital Drawing/Art

A lot of people like Adobe Photoshop for some reason. Of course, because Adobe is motivated by profit, they do not have a Linux native version. Again, you could try to run it via compatibility layers, but ideally you want something native.

GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program is a good alternative for more image editing related tasks and is FOSS software.

If you are more into digital drawing/animation or like a more intuitive interface (GIMP has a bit of a learning curve), Krita is a solid choice, and also FOSS software.

If you need to work with scalable vector graphics (SVG) things, Inkscape is ideal for this kind of work.s

3D Rendering/Modeling/Animation/Art

A lot of proprietary 3D Modeling and Rendering software is not available on Linux. There are some outliers that have Linux native versions, but those are less common. You may want to run a majority of these with WINE if possible.

However there is one outlier, that being Blender, which you have most likely at least heard of. Blender is a FOSS 3D modeling and rendering tool, and is sometimes regarded as better than it’s proprietary alternatives. It is the main choice for Linux users and is very versatile. You may know it for creating movies such as Flow.

In fact, Blender was originally developed for Linux operating systems, and only ported to other operating systems later. It runs significantly better on Linux operating systems as a result.

CAD

As with 3D Modeling and Rendering, a lot of proprietary CAD software is only available for Windows natively (because companies are profit driven, there is no intensive for them to provide Linux options or improve the software). You can again run these with WINE if possible, but this is not a perfect solution and can have issues. Some people may opt for a virtual machine.

As for Linux native options (native options are always ideal for performance reasons, and why would you use a software that refuses to support your operating system of choice), a popular choice is FreeCAD, which is FOSS software for aforementioned CAD. From the writer of this article’s experience, it works very well.

Video Calling/Chat

Most video call or chat applications are webapps, and for those that are not there is usually a Linux version (Discord, matrix.org, etc).

A popular option for video calling in professional spaces, Zoom, has packages for major distributions available on their website.

This article is incomplete and could use more detail. Unfortunately the original writer does not have much time. If you are knowledgeable in these topics and have the ability to, please improve this (albeit do not remove my existing suggestions even if you think you know better alternatives, just list both please. we don’t need softwarewars as a bootleg of stupid distrowars here).

Using Mail Merge (Word) on MacOS

Posted on July 7, 2025 by im000 • Posted in Apple, Apple Devices, Outlook •

Assuming you are familiar with Microsoft Word’s Mail Merge feature, you may realize that when you are ready to send your email, the option to send your merge emails is not available or greyed out. This document addresses how to solve this issue.

First, launch your MacOS “Mail” client. Then go to “Mail” in the top left, and go to Settings.
From Mail settings, change your default mail client from “Mail” to “Microsoft Outlook”.
Then, go back to your document, the Mail Merge E-Mail button should now be available.
If it still is not available, you may need to save your document somewhere and/or restart Word before using Mail Merge.

How to view a Shared Calendar

Posted on October 9, 2024 by cdaniel1 • Posted in Outlook •

Most calendars are shared in Outlook by default. While you may not see the details of each event, you can view the availability of most individuals and resource calendars.

Using the Scheduling Assistant is ideal for booking one-off meetings with a group. If you need to check a colleague’s availability, you can map their calendar to view their free times. Similarly, mapping a room’s calendars allows you to see availability, upcoming reservations, and the status of your bookings.

Note 1: As of Outlook 16.89 on macOS (New Outlook on macOS), these instructions do not work. You will have to use Outlook on the Web to map shared calendars.

Note 2: The instructions below are are new Outlook on the Web and for new Outlook in Windows. The instructions are the same for both.

Steps to map and view a shared calendar.

Launch the Outlook client or Outlook on the Web and go into the calendar view.
Show the Navigation Pane (if not visible) – If you don’t see the left Navigation pane, click on the “Show navigation pane” icon (three horizontal lines) on the upper left corner.
Create a new Calendar Group (Optional but Recommended) – The steps are briefly outlined in Figure 1 below. Right-click on the ellipses next to any existing calendar group(2) and then select “New Calendar Group”

Shown: 1. Ensure you are in the calendar view. 2-Right click on the ellipses next to any calendar group, and 3-select New Calendar group.

Figure 1.

4. Then click on the “Add Calendar” towards the top of the left Navigation pane. This brings up the Add Calendar dialog.

5. Add a Calendar: The steps are outlined in Figure 2, select “Add from directory”(1), select your login(2) as the account to search the directory from, search for the calendar you wish you view(3)**, and finally select the calendar group you list to list this calendar under(4).

Shown. 1-Select "Add from directory" on the left, 2- select your login from the "select an account to search" dropdown, 3- search for the calendar you wish you view, 4-select the calendar group you list to list this calendar in.

Figure 2

** – If you are unable to find the room calendar, enter it exactly as shown in our Drop-In Spaces & Reservations list, including with the “iSchool.” prefix.

How to add Shared NetID Mailbox to Outlook

Posted on September 11, 2024 by cdaniel1 • Posted in Outlook •

Adding a Shared NetID email account to Outlook

This page includes detailed directions to add a supplemental, Shared NetID email account to Outlook.

These instructions are for shared mailboxes you have been provided access to. A shared mailbox means the owner of the other mailbox has granted you access and you will use your own credentials to access the shared mailbox. You will not need the remote account’s password to access the mailbox. This is how most shared mailboxes are setup in the iSchool.

The following directions assume you have been granted permissions to access a Shared NetID’s email account. If these instructions dont work, or if you need permissions to access a Shared NetID’s email account contact the iSchool IT Help Desk.

Windows – Old Outlook Instructions

Windows – New Outlook Instructions

macOS Outlook Instructions

Outlook on the Web

Old Outlook Instructions

1. In the Outlook application, click File, click Add Account

2. Type in the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example), click Connect

3. Click Sign in with another account, enter your personal @uw.edu email address, click Next.

4. Use your UWNetID@uw.edu credentials at the “Sign in” prompt.

5. You should receive a “successful” message. Quit Outlook, wait a few seconds, start Outlook.

6. The Shared NetID email account will be added to Outlook. You should receive emails to the Shared NetID email account. You should be able to send emails from the Shared NetID email account.

New Outlook Instructions

Make sure your mailboxes are visible in Outlook, if not click on the three vertical bars on the upper right to display your list of mailboxes. Then expand your UW NetID @uw.edu account by clicking on the arrow next to your account.

2. Next Scroll down the folder list to the “Shared with me” folder.

3. “Expand” the Shared with me folder to see if the shared mailbox is listed here.

4. If you do not see any shared email accounts here, right-click the Shared with me folder. Click Add shared folder or mailbox. Type in the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example). Click Add.

Note: If you don’t have a “Shared with me” in your list of folders, right-click on the ellipses next to your <email>@uw.edu at the top of the folder list. You will find a “Add Shared folder of mailbox” as an option there as well and follow the same instructions.

macOS Instructions

1. In the Outlook application, click File, mouse-over Open, click Shared Mailbox….

2. Type in the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example). Click Add.

3. After a few seconds the Shared NetID email account should appear in Outlook. You should receive emails to the Shared NetID email account. You should be able to send emails from the Shared NetID email account.

Outlook on the web

There are two ways to add a shared mailbox. The first opens the mailbox within your account, preserving your personal settings. This has the other mailbox appear in your account.

The other will open the mailbox in a new window and keep and its specific settings (categories/tags). This is better suited if you are interacting with a high volume shared mailbox. In a sense, this drops you into the other account.

To open a mailbox in your account, preserving your personal settings:

In this view, the other mailbox and calendar appear under your account, when you send an email or make a calendar reservation, you will need to select the appropriate from address or calendar.

1. Sign into Outlook on the web.

2. Right-click the word Folders or right-click your email address , click Add shared folder or mailbox.

3. Search for the Shared NetID email address (ihelp@uw.edu is used as an example), click Open.

4. The Shared NetID mailbox will be available on the left as a new account as in the image below. You should receive emails to the Shared NetID email account. You should be able to send emails from the Shared NetID email account.

To open another mailbox in a new window, preserving its specific settings:

This is ideal for users interactive with high volume shared mailboxes where there is not ambiguity wich mailbox is being read, which account the mail is being sent from and under which account an event is being reserved.

1. Sign into Outlook on the web (this is going to open a new window)

2. Once you have logged in your account, click on you account in the top right of the page and select “Open another mailbox”

3. Search for a mailbox and click “Open”. This will open a new tab for this mailbox.

How to Find and Book an Available Meeting Room

Posted on July 22, 2024 by tchabot • Posted in Outlook •

A list of available meeting and drop-in spaces can be found here.

Drop-In Spaces & Reservations – Home (sharepoint.com)

You may have noticed that the “Room Finder” feature in the Scheduling Assistant doesn’t show any building lists or rooms at UW. This feature is currently unsupported.

Find a room by adding them as Optional Attendees in Scheduling Assistant.

There are a few ways to find available meeting spaces, but using the Scheduling Assistant is the most versatile, especially when considering multiple spaces, multiple attendees, recurring events, etc.

Bring up the event details, by clicking on “More options” when creating an event.
Click on the “Scheduling assistant” tab as shown on the image on the right.
Click on “Add Optional Attendee” in the left pane in Scheduling Assistant.
Type the building name or room number to search for the desired meeting room.
Select one or more rooms from the drop-down list.

This method allows you to identify one or more rooms available at the same time as your meeting attendees.

Using the Scheduling Assistant to find meeting rooms.

Notes:

The semi-opaque window shows your meeting time and it overlaps over all attendees.
A red window shows a conflict, either in your calendar, one of the other attendees, or the room.
A green window therefore means everyone and the room are available.
For recurring events – Sorry but the Scheduling Assistant will show a time as available – even if there is a conflict on a different day. You have to manually check all the recurring dates. (See the section on Confirming your reservation below).

Important Reminder – Once you find a room that works for you, remove all other rooms from the optional attendee list.

Failing to do so will likely result in you reserving multiple spaces for the same event.

Bonus-Room Reservation

Adding a room as an optional attendee also reserves it for your meeting. Provided you have the authority to reserve the room, and it is available, you will receive an email confirming your reservation.

Confirming your reservation

Sometimes, you just need to be sure that you did reserve a room and/or that your reservation was actually accepted. This is especially true of recurring reservations, where a conflict might be far in the future and easy to miss.

An event appearing on your calendar doesn’t guarantee the meeting room is reserved for you.

For recurring events, if there is a conflict on any date, the entire reservation is declined.

Ways to confirm your reservation:

Pay attention to your email: Confirm that you got an email saying, “Your meeting request was accepted.”-If you are making multiple reservations at the same time, pay attention to the date and location in the email.
Check the event details: On your calendar, make sure the room is listed as an attendee AND is shown as either attending the meeting or accepting your meeting invitation.-If it states that the room has not yet responded, check again after a few more minutes. This process can take five or more minutes for your mail client to receive the email and integrate the response into your calendar.
When you need to be 100% certain: Check the room calendar, not your calendar. Use the “Add Calendar” button in the calendar view in Outlook and search for and add the room calendar to your list of calendars. Then actually view and check the room calendar to confirm that your event is listed in the room’s calendar.

If something does not look right, email ihelp@uw.edu with your reservation questions, and we’ll assist.

Performing a Mail Merge using a supplemental account

Posted on January 11, 2021 by martinoc • Posted in Outlook • Tagged mail merge, outlook •

iSchool staff often have supplemental/additional accounts in Outlook. It can be useful to be able to send Email using the Mail Merge feature from a supplemental account so that replies go to the supplemental account instead of to your personal Email account. This is ideal, as the recipients might not recognize or be expecting an email from your personal account but they do recognize your supplemental account.

To perform a Mail Merge on Microsoft Outlook using a supplemental account, on a computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system:

Be sure you have the proper access to the supplemental Account. If you do not or you do not know, ask iSchool IT.
The supplemental account needs to be added to Outlook as an additional/separate account.
1. If you do not know if you have a second account on Outlook, go to File > Account Info.
2. You should see more than one account in the dropdown.
3. If you do not see a second account, here is a guide to setup multiple accounts in Outlook on Microsoft Windows.
To use your supplemental account for Mail Merge, you need to set the supplemental account as the default account in Outlook.
1. Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings. Click on the supplemental account to select it and then click on “Set as Default”.
2. Then, you need to set the Email address to send messages from so that mail merge will work properly.
3. In Outlook, go to File > Options > Mail > Send messages, and make sure that the “Always use the default account when composing new messages” is checked.

NOTE: Once you are finished using Mail Merge, be sure to uncheck “Always use the default…” (classic only) and set your personal Account as the Default Account in Outlook. If you do not, you will end up sending all your mail from your supplemental account by accident, because your supplemental account is set as the Default.

How to Create a Rule for Outlook or OWA

Posted on February 7, 2018 by ihelp • Posted in Outlook •

Sorting email into folders automatically can be a huge time saver and can keep you focused on the messages that demand your immediate attention. You can create rules to let Outlook or OWA (Outlook Web App) sort them into the folder of your choice. Rules can sort messages based on the sender, the subject, the recipient or a combination of various characteristics. When you are creating a rule for Outlook, make sure that:

RULES

If you have a UW Spam Gauge rule applied, always move the Spam rule to the top of your list of rules so that it is processed first.
All your rules are server-side unless you are creating rules for client only actions, such as coloring your emails or otherwise personalizing your email. You can make your rules on OWA to ensure it’s server-side.

Here is an article from Microsoft about how to make rules in Outlook:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/manage-email-messages-by-using-rules-c24f5dea-9465-4df4-ad17-a50704d66c59

And one about how to make rules in OWA:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/inbox-rules-in-outlook-edea3d17-00c9-434b-b9b7-26ee8d9f5622

UNREAD MAIL

Once you have rules in place that sort your email you need the ability to find them. This is best done using the Unread Mail Search Folder:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/View-only-unread-messages-F2C8450C-9CD0-4037-A5D3-26F6946727CA

Recover a deleted Contact in Outlook

Posted on May 3, 2016 by ihelp • Posted in Outlook • Tagged contact, outlook, recover deleted item •

Sometimes we delete things accidentally and sometimes we even empty the Deleted Items folder before we figure out what we did. Fortunately, if you realize what you have done within a few days, there is a recourse.

Follow these instructions:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Recover-a-deleted-contact-in-Outlook-51c83288-6888-4dcd-8c99-4932daabf643?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

How to share your Outlook (read: Exchange) Calendar with others at the UW and with External Users

Posted on February 25, 2014 by ihelp • Posted in Outlook • Tagged calendar, Exchange Online, Microsoft 365, outlook, OWA, Share, sharing •

Before you proceed, note that by default everyone at the iSchool (and everyone else at the UW that uses the UW Microsoft 365/Office 365 service) can already see the default free/busy info of everyone else. This means people can already see when you are free, when you are busy, what your working hours are and when you are out of the office.

“Advanced” sharing options are possible if you want to give someone access to more details. This could be allowing someone outside of UW the chance to view to your calendar, or if you want to give someone “delegate” (edit) rights to your calendar.

It is recommended that you configure “advanced” sharing options using the Outlook Web App. Detailed directions from Microsoft are available on this web page: Advanced Microsoft 365 Calendar sharing directions.

Mailbox best practices when using Microsoft Outlook – how to keep your Mailbox small

Posted on June 6, 2012 by ihelp • Posted in Outlook • Tagged best practices, cleanup, email, large attachments, Microsoft 365, microsoft outlook, outlook, outlook 2007, outlook 2010, Outlook on the web, storage limit •

Microsoft Outlook stores data (E-mail, Calendar items, Contacts, etc.) in a file. If you use Outlook at home and like many users are not connected to an Exchange server, the file is called a PST (Personal Storage) file and is stored on your computer. If you are employed as a faculty or staff member at the iSchool or another business and connect to an Exchange server, the file is called an OST (Offline Storage) file. It contains copies of all the data, which is subsequently stored on the server.

Regardless of what type of file you have, the size of this file is limited if you want good performance and reliability. Although the absolute maximum size of OST files keeps growing (at the UW the limit is currently 100GB), for optimal performance we recommend you keep your OST file much smaller, less than 10GB is ideal.

These instructions will explain some best practices so that your mail store (read: Mailbox size) never grows too much and shows you how to determine the size of your mail store.

NOTE – this process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete (depending on the size of your Mailbox), so please allow enough time.

General Best Practices

Regularly empty your Junk E-Mail and Deleted Items folders.
Don’t save attachments in Outlook. Instead, save the files to your cloud storage, your computer (or some other media), and then delete the message. At the iSchool your computer is backed up so all the files saved locally will be safe.
Do not send messages to yourself.
Do not send large (read: bigger than a couple of MB) attachments via email, instead put the file in the cloud and send a link to the location so the recipient can view or download it.
If you do forward a message with a large attachment, delete the item from your Sent Items. There is no need to keep the file in your Inbox and your Sent Items folder.

Outlook Microsoft 365

1) Check to see how big your mail store is.

– In the left pane of Outlook, right-click your account and select Data File Properties.

– Under the General tab click Folder Size.

2) Sort mail by size.

– In the left pane of Outlook expand Search Folders.

– Click on Large Mail to activate it. By default, your large mail items will be sorted by size with the largest on top. Since large items always contain attachments now you can easily save the files and delete the messages.

3) Using the Mailbox Cleanup tool.

– Click the File menu > Tools > Mailbox Cleanup

– We recommend all the options in the Mailbox Cleanup tool except AutoArchive. We do not ever recommend archiving your email and instead always recommend keeping all of it in your Exchange Mailbox.

– The Cleanup tool can remove redundant messages in any folder or any conversation. Cleaning up redundant items in conversations is a great way to free up space. Here is a video demo of the Cleanup tool, the “Clean Up Conversation” feature is mentioned at 5:12:

Outlook on the web