Home Linux Microsoft Teams Is Now Officially Available For Linux

Microsoft Teams Is Now Officially Available For Linux

By sk
Published: Last Updated on 2.6K views

Microsoft is used to oppose open source software, especially Linux, in the past. Well, things have changed now! After Satya Nadella is appointed as its CEO, Microsoft began to embrace open source and supports Linux. MS open sourced some of its products, such as .NET framework and Visual studio Code. It released SQL server for Linux. MS started to support over half-dozen Linux distributions on Azure cloud platform. After that it released Windows Powershell and Windows Subsystem for Linux, a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables natively on Windows desktop and server. It also has invested in Linux Foundation and acquired GitHub, a largest platform to host open source projects. And now Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Teams is now available for Linux users.

Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaborative platform that allows you to keep your teams chats, meetings, files and apps together in one place. If your company has a team of developers who uses Linux desktop, they can now use Microsoft Teams natively on their Linux desktops. Microsoft Teams clients are available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. It also available as web app, so we can use it on any Internet-enabled devices, regardless of the operating system.

Features

Microsoft Teams comes with all features to collaborate with your team.

  1. Teams - You can create different teams (E.g. Developers, Support, Management) and add the members by inviting them.
  2. Channels - Within teams, the members can setup a channel to communicate with each other. They can share the notes, send text, image, reply to posts etc.
  3. Instant messaging - The members can communicate instantly via text messages. They can also send private messages to a specific member or a group.
  4. Audio/Video Calls - The members can make audio, video calls with the team members or contact one-to-one.
  5. Collaborative document editing,
  6. Access and share files and calendars,
  7. Video conference,
  8. Screen sharing,
  9. Online meeting,
  10. Apps and bots.

Install Microsoft Teams on Linux

Microsoft Teams available in .deb and .rpm formats for Linux distributions.

Download the latest version from official download link and install it as shown below.

On Debian and its variants:

$ sudo dpkg -i teams_1.2.00.32451_amd64.deb

On RPM-based systems:

$ sudo rpm -Uvh teams_1.2.00.32451-1.x86_64.rpm

Once installed launch Microsoft Teams client from Menu or Dash board.

Login with your registered Email and password. If you haven't one, create a new account from here. It is free!

Login to Microsoft Teams

Login to Microsoft Teams

Here is how Microsoft Teams client looks like on my Ubuntu desktop.

Microsoft Teams Linux Desktop Client

Microsoft Teams Linux Desktop Client

Now, start collaborating with your remote workers via Microsoft Teams!!

You don't have keep it visible all the time. Just close it when you don't need it. You can open it later by clicking on the Teams icon on your Taskbar and click Open.

To quit completely, click the Teams icon on the taskbar and click Exit.

It is worth noting that there is also a unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Linux is available. Check this GitHub repository for more details.

Resource:

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3 comments

trispa October 29, 2020 - 11:03 pm

Hi Senthil, thanks for the review. It helped me with my install of Microsoft Teams on Linux. I must howver say that my experience was very different from yours. The install is a breeze with the rpm available. But after that the hell starts. First my computer slows down very much, and even a reboot to start again took many many minutes longer because Teams decided to start itself at boot. Then, trying to register, it turned out that they first want all your data like email band phone number (otherwise you don’t get further) and then want you to buy some kind of license. When I then removed it, it turned out that Teams had taken the privilege of allowing its servers to communicate with mine by entering gpg keys without ever asking whether I agree. I’m not sure how this should be better than what is already available like Zoom…

Reply
Antonio December 24, 2020 - 2:17 pm

Thanks for the article!!

Reply
Angela January 4, 2021 - 5:58 pm

Thats great news for all Linux users. Microsoft Teams Officially Available For Linux. It is one of the best online collaboration platforms which is at par with likes of Slack, Gomeetnow, Gotomeeting, Webex etc.

Reply

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