I hate windows. But I have to use it for work. The worse it gets, the more I want to break free completely, minimise my exposure to this OS. The only part I truly cannot do without I think is Microsoft Excel.
Replacing with Excel 2016 or only using webversion or so is insufficient for sure, for work it needs the SharePoint/auto save etc etc stuff. Also power query getting data from SharePoint online.
Replacing with Libreoffice or so seems completely impossible, there's too many 'special' files in organisation, with .xlsm macro mess, I don't control all that, I can't fully steer away from such mess but need full functional access.
Other than Excel, I think I could do all my work from a Linux desktop.
Is it possible by now, reliably working in an up to date excel from a base system Linux? What is the way? Have people done this? How? Do I need to run a virtual machine with win11? How do I do that? Does anyone here have experience with it? I have high degree of control over work devices and boss couldn't care less, as long as I can get my work done.
Thanks and sorry if this is the wrong community for this question (where would it belong better?)
There is no Excel alternative. It sucks, bit its the reality. I run a VM specifically for a couple windows apps and 90% of that is excel.
I use version 2019 and manipulated the installer to only install excel and none of the other office suite apps.
You can also do the same in a docker container instead of VM (winboat) if that's more your jam.
If you want more info on any of that I'd be glad to give you more details.
There are lots of Excel alternatives.
There is nothing that matches every single feature of excel in 2026.
That's my point. There are lots of spreadsheet options, but if they don't meet all the needs then they really aren't alternatives. Maybe it's semantics, but I find that definition to not be misleading and keep expectations in line.
I'm saying that case by case, person by person there are alternatives (software and/or processes). E.g.
If you want features A,B,C then use alternative X
If you want features C,D,E then use alternative Y
If you want features A,D,F then use alternative Z
But if your team needs A,B,C,D,E & F then we come to your point that there is no alternative.
I just didn't want people reading this thread to automatically jump to the "must use excel" conclusion.
Gotcha. That's a fair point. I kind of jumped to the end because the typical response is to "just use libre office" and OP is clearly a power spreadsheet person where that's not gong to work.
LibreOffice Calc anyone?