for some background, I'm on latest stable Kubuntu. able to use Microsoft Office via a KVM+Winapps setup currently. it mostly works but there are a few kinks like the display frame getting fucked up when going full screen or windowed, drag and drop being hit or miss and whatnot...
i did read up on Office 2019 being installable using Wine, but wasn't able to find any methods to activate it. MAS isn't really a thing on wine since we don't have Powershell I believe. any ideas?
SoftMaker OnlyOffice is a good option. I use it, and it works with everything I've thrown at it, including paid templates from designers. I would say the compatibility is 100% in my own experience. There is a trial available if you want to take a test drive before you set sail ;)
Libreoffice is the most atrociously structured piece of software I ever encountered. not only is the UI absolutely dated and god awful trash, it can fuck up microsoft office formatted documents. i possess a special hate for it since it decided to crap out on me when I REALLY positively needed it.
it can fuck up microsoft office formatted documents
everything can.
That is because Microsoft doesn't follow the 1000 page docx standards they wrote themselves.
And I will defend the decent UI against modern words ribbon-trash to my death.
libreoffice ui can certainly be improved a lot, but microsoft office is definitely worse.
Is this for work? Just have your work pay for your Microsoft 365 or whatever, not sure why you'd need to pirate anything for work related reasons.
If this is for home use just get your workflow working with the free open source alternatives, IMO LibreOffice is pretty great.
Or just start using the online office apps like everyone else is nowadays e.g. Google Docs (free with a Google Account), Microsoft 365 (I know at least Word you can use for free with a Microsoft account haven't checked what else), etc.
It's just a bit odd needing to pirate that. But sure if you're dead-set on it then just create a Virtual Machine with Windows OS in it (LOL you may end up pirating that too) and install your MS Office and whatever other cracks/activators you want. Now you have MS Office in your virtual machine whenever you need it. You could use VirtualBox for example.
You can enable ribbon-like top toolbar in LibreOffice, I find it less confusing coping from MS Office. I've worked a lot in MS Office and LibreOffice so don't hesitate to ask :)
WPS is definitely decent. I used to use WPS Office, because LibreOffice corrupted my school document files, but it felt too limited and riddled with telemetry. It never suddenly crashed on me and the compatibility was amazing.
But I have since moved back to LibreOffice because it is more feature complete and more peaceful, knowing that it's made by a trusted and open foundation. LibreOffice might still not be stable since it still often crashes and becomes unresponsive but at least I never got my documents corrupted again.
If you need Microsoft Office on Linux I recommend the web version of 360 and if you want to pirate it on Linux I would go for a VM, it's not the best experiebce in Wine from what I have heared.