LET THE INVASION BEGIN!! Yesterday, Microsoft Teams was released in a public preview phase to the Linux operating system via native Linux packages in two formats: .deb and .rpm. The app doesn’t differ in the looks department compared to it Windows and macOS brethren, and the goal of this release to for Microsoft to further push Teams as a bridge for the implementation of other Office apps (i.e. Word, et al) and teamwork that supports the mixed environments that are reliant on the Linux platform. But let’s be real here: Microsoft is releasing Teams on Linux to go after Slack on another front.

“The Microsoft Teams client is the first Office app that is coming to Linux desktops, and will support all of Teams’ core capabilities,”

Marissa Salazar, a product marketing manager at Microsoft

“I’m really excited about the availability of Microsoft Teams for Linux. With this announcement, Microsoft is bringing its hub for teamwork to Linux. I’m thrilled to see Microsoft’s recognition of how companies and educational institutions alike are using Linux to transform their work culture.”

Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation

In addition to releasing Teams on Linux, Microsoft is also working on their brand new Fluid Framework initiative. The idea behind it is to take documents and make them become a cloud app that many other people can submit edits like text, tables, images, graphs and more. As mentioned earlier with Teams being used as a hub for other familiar Office apps like Word (because OF COURSE Word would be part of it), Microsoft wants some of those new Fluid experiences to become available as well.

[Thanks Microsoft and the Microsoft Tech Community]