Microsoft Office suites run smoothly on Ubuntu 20.04 without WINE, remote/cloud, or GNOME on WSL

Ubuntu developer Hayden Barnes recently posted a video on Twitter to show that he is using Ubuntu 20.04 to run Microsoft Office applications. However, Hayden said that this is not using Wine, nor remote or cloud applications, nor is it using the WSL-based GNOME desktop environment, and it performs well on the i5-6300U processor that contains only integrated graphics. Finally, Hayden Barnes stated that Ubuntu is further adding new features to this secret project.

Word on Ubuntu 20.04. Very usable on an i5-6300U with just integrated graphics. It is not WINE, remote/cloud, or GNOME on WSL. It is something else I put together. Next, I plan to add working file associations. pic.twitter.com/nGQ8USeR0m

— Hayden Barnes (@unixterminal) April 30, 2020

As can be seen from the video, Hayden did not encounter obvious performance issues when running Word and Excel on Ubuntu 20.04, and the operation was relatively smooth. Although Hayden said that he can’t share all the details now, he confirmed that the Microsoft Office application is running in a Linux container and is a complete application running locally, without any Webapp or using cloud features.

As for why he did not provide all the information on how to implement this feature, Hayden said that he is still working hard to improve it to provide a more complete experience.