It seems thanks to the increasing market-share of Android devices and the rise of Linux on the desktop thanks to the many commercial Linux gaming initiatives that have been shared in recent months, Microsoft is being forced to take a serious look at Linux and a meaningful look at releasing their popular Office software for Linux in 2014.It’s already known that Microsoft will be releasing a port of their Office suite for Android in 2013. As I tweeted this morning, “heard this weekend in #Brussels that #Microsoft might release a native #Linux version of #Office in 2014.”
From a source in Brussels, Belgium during the Free Open-Source Developers’ European Meeting (FOSDEM) this past weekend, I was informed that Microsoft is having a “meaningful look” at a full Linux port of Office thanks to Linux showing signs of commercial viability on the desktop. Right now some versions of Microsoft Office will work under Linux via the use of Wine or CodeWeavers’ CrossOver to varying extents, but this port being evaluated internally at Microsoft is a fully native implementation. Evidently there’s already some port to unknown completion that has been done internally at the company.
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