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Self-hosting paradox: Windows for specifically MS word (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey Home-labbers/ self hosters.

This weekend my 10 year old processing machine finally bit the dust (RIP 🗿 💀 ; old system76 laptop, won't even post, not the topic of this thread but if you've got ideas, I'm all ears), and as part of figuring out what happened and coming to the realization its time for a new machine. And as part of getting/ pricing a new machine (not looking forward to the consequences of the RAM-pocalypse), I've been reviewing/ thinking about the "structure" of what we as a household currently use our self-hosted/ home-labbed system for.

Myself and my partner are researchers, and as such, we regularly collaborate/ work together on manuscripts, and the reality is, we rely on windows because we're also collaborating with other authors who also rely on MS word to write in. Now I'm a 100% FOSS advocate, but this is a sticking point my partner has had, and I agree with them, at least in practice that realistically, we need a windows machine laying around specifically for this one, particular use case.

Now my thinking here is to use proxmox to spin up a windows machine as a VM, something we can remote into. Is there any best practice for something like this? How would this work with licensing? I personally haven't installed windows on something since like windows 7, and I know they've enshittified beyond recognition.

I personally don't want windows on my machines. But realistically, I recognize its necessity for this one particular use case. Thoughts?

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[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I have Windows in my environment, and I still just use LibreOffice. Now, I'm not into huge, complex excel spreadsheets so I can't speak to that, but LibreOffice ticks all my boxes. It has a Windows app, and comes as a flatpak, snap, appimage, there's even a portable edition as well.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah. I use LibreOffice for everything but my professional writing. I can't use it for that. It simply doesn't play nice in a manner I can rely on for professional collaboration when everyone else is using either native microsoft office or office on apple.

If I lived in a world where everyone was on libreoffice, it probably would be fine. And I don't blame LO for the issue, I think MS specifically makes their product hard to cooperate with. But that doesn't resolve the issue of passing drafts back and forth with collaborators.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It simply doesn’t play nice in a manner I can rely on for professional collaboration when everyone else is using either native microsoft office or office on apple.

If you don't mind unpacking that for my own edification, what exactly does it do or don't do? Does it not decode the data properly/same?

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Passing versions back and forth with comments and track changes. Basic details around formatting. Again, I don't blame LO, I blame MS, but its simply more straightfoward to work in native office.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago

Could you manage a windows VM for Office?