What is it with Microsoft Word that makes you prefer it to others?

• LibreOffice and OnlyOffice are pretty much the only free software office suites that really hold a candle to Microsoft Office's functionality. LibreOffice defaults to the Toolbar interface but changing it to Tabbed will make it look like Microsoft Office. It takes some getting used to and isn't as smooth but once you start using it for a few weeks you will get used to it.
• WPS Office is a Microsoft Office clone that works fine on Linux. It's a pretty common Microsoft Office substitute and is nearly identical in most aspects of its interface. It's made by Kingsoft, a Chinese company. The software is closed-source and there is a free version that contains advertisements.
• Microsoft Office Online is available through your browser free of charge at portal.office.com. It contains Word, PowerPoint, and Excel but only has basic functionalities. Collaborative editing is still supported on it which you might care about.
• Microsoft Office can be installed using WINE but in my experience, it is usually not stable enough for daily use. I would not bother with it. You should not install things manually using WINE. It's highly recommended that you use some wrapper software like Bottles, PlayOnLinux, or Lutris (common for games).

Your use case matters here. Perhaps there are other specialized tools for what you want to achieve.

Why is LibreOffice “meh”? I have used it for the last 10 years and would like to know what it is you find off with it.

These are 90s problems. Just open word files in o365 in chromium or Firefox.

Have you tried the different interfaces that libreoffice has? Try switching to their ribbon-like ui and see if it matches what you are looking for.

What exactly are you missing?

https://www.onlyoffice.com/

What's your goal? Markdown / latex may work better for your use case than word. https://typora.io/ https://obsidian.md/ https://logseq.com/ https://github.com/marktext/marktext

Your question is likely too general for a good answer.

What do you need specifically? What makes the solutions you've tried 'meh'? What would make an office suite 'better'?

There used to be a wine-based project specifically for Microsoft office. It was called crossover office. Not sure if it's still maintained.

Good luck!

As a long-time Linux user, I feel like it says something about the maturity of desktop Linux that it is good enough now for the kinds of users that find LibreOffice insufficient.

What does Microsoft Word give you that OpenOffice Writer or LibreOffice Writer don't?

OnlyOffice is the only one that I’ve used that has a good looking UI, works out of the box and very good compatibility (across Microsoft and other document standards). Install is just one flatpak away. Highly recommend.

You can just use the browser version of word.

If libre/open office isn't your thing, there's always cloud based ones like office365 and google docs.

I also found this. Never heard of some of these things, so I can't really recommend them.

https://itsfoss.com/libreoffice-alternatives-linux/

You can also use ms word in wine if you're writing. However; if you're opening docs from the internet, I wouldn't recommend opening them up in anything running in wine. Remember, wine is a windows emulator based on windows 2000.

Really trying to understand what "meh" means in terms of office software.

They all are kinda meh. I dont get overly excited with office stuff do you?

Over the years I have used both Libre and ms office. Some use cases were so much better with Libre. Now days it's kind of a wash really. You write words or you calculate cells. If you are calculating any large amount of cells do your self a favor and get it into a database.

And if it's a presentation, reveal.js is miles better than PowerPoint.

Use the online version of Word if you want Word. If you want the desktop version use an older one, the Office 365 ones don't really work on Linux.

Why is LibreOffice 'meh'?

Micro***t 🤮

If you really want word, you could try Microsoft 365, where its in your browser instead of a thing you download.

I did a look into this. softmaker is best when it comes to compatibility of displaying files. Wps office is ok, but some text would be on top of others. I did find that there is a free version of softmaker, which should be ok.

There's softmaker office, it's from a german company: https://www.softmaker.com/en/products/softmaker-office

WPS Office and FreeOffice. Each with their own caveats, but one just might work for you.