Hi,
For some time I’ve been using the Flatpak version of Microsoft Teams under Rocky Linux. Last year Microsoft has officially deprecated the Linux version, and so the application was branded as deprecated. It still worked for some time, but the last time I used it for a meeting, it was a disaster and I almost lost a client.
Is there a viable solution for Microsoft Teams under Rocky Linux ? I’m running Rocky Linux 8.x with KDE from EPEL on both my workstation and my laptop.
Cheers,
Niki
Hi Niki,
the only way Microsoft intends you to use Teams now is through a browser.
Lately also Firefox got supported (finally!)
Though for the best experience I noticed it’s the best to install Edge or Chrome and making it a PWA.
Then it’s kinda native again.
Cheers, Lukas
Did you tried?
flatpak search com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux
Firefox is nearly 100% open source, but does the teams part use any kind of plugin or extension that is closed source?
+1 I also use the one from flatpak. It is effectively the PWA though. Remote control of a teams session doesn’t work though, but then that is because it doesn’t work in PWA or via browser either. Microsoft haven’t sorted that out yet.
It’s a pity that Microsoft deprecated the native app, but then that’s always something to expect from a company like Microsoft.
I did start to install Google Chrome (for AlmaLinux 9) when the native app did vanish. At that point Firefox did not support PWA.
Do you know what exact protocols it uses, was it Skype originally? I’m guessing there’s some kind of non-standard auth required to make it work. Does PWA mean “Progrssive Web Application”, if so, it sounds a bit like Java Applets.
Thanks very much for your numerous suggestions. I installed the com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux package from Flatpak and we’ll see tomorrow how that works out.
Cheers,
Niki
Can anyone understand / translate this quote:
The Microsoft Teams PWA for Linux can be used with Conditional Access configuration, applied through Endpoint Manager, to enable Linux users to access the Teams web application while securely using Edge. This helps organizations use an industry-leading, unified endpoint management solution for Teams from Linux endpoints with security and quality built in.
So here’s my user experience. I downloaded and installed com.github.IsmaelMartinez.teams_for_linux. I fired it up and connected it to my Github account.
Then my client sent me an e-mail with a Teams invitation, and I tried for about 20 minutes to open that link in Teams. No way, the link would only open in Firefox or Chrome, and there was no way to open the link from within the application.
After 20 minutes I concluded what I should have concluded much earlier. Every single Microsoft application is a steaming pile of dung. I wiped it from my hard disk and asked my client to use Google Meet instead, which works perfectly.
Cheers,
Niki
Some other alternatives:
Jami - https://jami.net/ (made by the Savoir Faire Linux team)
Zoom - although resource-hungry, makes my laptop fan go crazy sometimes.
At least they have native Linux apps, and everything works, unlike Teams.
Exactly the reason why you need to use the PWA… Unfortunately it’s a hot mess, yes.
What is a PWA ? What is it short for ?
PWA means Progressive Web App, you basically install Chrome, Chromium, Edge or any other Chromium-based browser, and then when you open team.microsoft.com you go to the hamburger menu → Apps → Install <app-name>, this will make Teams show up as seperate app in the app launcher.
That’s the Microsoft recommended way to install Teams on Linux
Also the previously distributed app by MS was (and for Windows/macOS still is) built on top of Electron, which is basically Chromium with a few customizations.
The difference between directly using it in the browser compared to making it to an PWA is only, that most of the browser UI is hidden. Plus point the browser extensions are still working (like password manager, because SSO always likes to logout)
And from my experience, links which want to open Teams meetings, work as you open the links in the same browser as the PWA is running on (painful if you are defaulting to Firefox and the PWA is running on Chrome)
Personally I much prefer jitsi.org