Microsoft Teams, officially available for Gnu / Linux

In the next article we are going to take a look at Microsoft Teams. Today you can already find some products such as Visual Studio Code, Windows Power Shell o Windows Subsystem available for Gnu / Linux. In addition, Microsoft has also invested in the Linux Foundation and acquired GitHub, one of the largest platforms for hosting open source projects. The next step for Redmon's company has been to announce that Microsoft Teams is also available for Gnu / Linux users.

The Microsoft Teams client is the first Microsoft 365 application to hit Linux desktops and to supports all core Teams capabilities. It is a hub for teamwork that brings together chat, video conferencing, calling and collaboration on Office 365 documents and business processes within one integrated experience.

This is one unified communication and collaboration platform that allows users to keep their teams chats, meetings, files and applications in one place. If you work with a team of developers who use Gnu / Linux desktops, now they will be able to use Microsoft Teams natively on their Linux desktops. Microsoft Teams clients are available for Windows, Gnu / Linux, Android, and iOS. Also available as web application, so we can use it on any device with Internet access, regardless of the operating system.

General features of Microsoft Teams

This application offers all the functions to collaborate as a team. The free version includes only some of the features that are included in the paid versions.. Among them we can find:

• Teams → We can create different teams and add new members inviting them to be part of these.
• Channels → Within each team, members can configure a channel to communicate with each other. You will be able to share the notes, respond to publications, send texts, share images, etc.
• Audio / video calls → Team members will be able to make audio or video calls with other members to communicate individually.
• We will have instant messaging → Members can communicate instantly through text messages. They can also send private messages to a specific member or group.
• Users can access or share both files and calendars.

• Apps and bots.
• We can share teams screen.
• You can make a collaborative editing of documents between different members.

Install Microsoft Teams on Ubuntu

We will find this tool available in .deb and .rpm formats for Gnu / Linux distributions. It can be obtained official information about the installation on the Microsoft website. We can download the latest version from the official download link and install it as we would with any other .deb package.

Once we have saved the package on our computer, in a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) we will only have to write:

sudo dpkg -i teams_1.2.00.32451_amd64.deb

Once the installation is finished, we can start the Microsoft Teams client in our Ubuntu.

We will be able log in with a registered email and password. If you don't have an account, you can create a new account In a simple way. It is free, although as I said before, the free accounts do not offer all the features available in the paid version.

Once the login is complete, we can start collaborating with our teams using Microsoft Teams.

We don't have to keep the show visible all the time. We will be able to close it when we do not need it and open it later by clicking on the Teams icon available in the system tray and select Open.

To completely exit the program we will have to click on the Teams icon, and click on the option that says Logout.

uninstall

We will be able uninstall this program from our computer opening a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and typing in it:

sudo apt remove teams

It should be mentioned that there is also an unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Gnu / Linux. This can be found available in the following GitHub repository.