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Using outlook mail in linux

Due to work I need to use Microsoft outlook mail on a daily basis. What I would like to know is the privacy and security concerns of various options:

  1. Login and use outlook on a browser for general purposes
  2. Use a tailered third party client from flatpak such as https://flathub.org/en-GB/apps/io.github.mahmoudbahaa.outlook_for_linux
  3. Use thunderbird
  4. Any other possibilities
BoisZoi ,
@BoisZoi@lemmy.ml avatar

If your browser supports PWAs, I’d reccomend that over the electron app you linked. You’d get better performence, and it would be snappier.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Yup, the web page is good enough. I only use the desktop client on my work computer (macOS) for the meeting notifications, which the webapp also provides (but it needs to be open).

rolling_resistance ,

After years of actively making it work in Thunderbird, I ended up using a browser tab. It's more reliable, gives you access to settings such as filters, and it's easy to close after work with all the other tabs in my “work” browser.

catloaf ,

Use a separate work device for work purposes and let the company worry about the rest of it.

headroom ,

Why are there so many people using Linux for work. Are you using your personal machines for work? If so why? Or do your company allow installing whatever OS you want on the work machine?

James_Ryan ,

I keep wondering the same.
Windows is mandatory.
Even in the it departement.

headroom ,

Yep. Windows or Mac. Typical corporate IT spyware isn't even available on Linux.

sportsfork ,

yes, company allows installing any OS. Also my previous employer was a University, who maintains their own flavor on Linux, which was then one of the official choices in addition to Windows and OSX.

fluckx ,

I was running Ubuntu at work. And a coworker was running PopOs.

Company didn't really care what you ran. If you opted for Linux you couldn't really rely on device support. Which is usually fine for the average Linux user.

I've used Linux/Mac for so long in a work environment that I only use Windows as a gaming system. And even that has improved a lot.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

My last company was Linux only, and we could pick whatever we wanted. My current company is macOS only, which isn't great but at least it's not Windows.

headroom ,

If they're going to force me to use Windows or Mac, I'd much rather Windows than Mac. Piece of shit of an "operating system".

sugar_in_your_tea ,

Why? macOS feels a lot like Linux in my regular workflow, which is largely terminal based. There's two decent package managers (homebrew and macports, I use macports), tmux and vim work as you would expect, etc. 90% of my workflow is the same between macOS and Linux.

I've tried WSL, and the workflow just doesn't feel right.

But at my company, there's another huge caveat: IT locks down the Windows machines, whereas there's pretty much no oversight on the macOS computers. That has a ton of value for me.

zarenki ,

Not every work environment is the same.

When I first started with my current employer I was given a system with RHEL preinstalled and I replaced it with Fedora on my first day. I was told to use LUKS and given a normal OpenVPN profile but otherwise they don't control or monitor anything about my workstation. No matter how many years or decades I stay at this company, it's extremely unlikely I'll ever touch an OS that isn't Linux-based during work time.

Every previous job I've been at also had me use Linux for my primary workstation, because my field of work more or less requires it, but some have needed me to access a separate Windows system/server/VM on rare occasions.

rolling_resistance ,

I'm a contractor. They give me work and money, I give them result. I use what works best, and it's a linux distro.

neutron ,

I used Davmail which acts as a bridge to access Outlook from Thunderbird. There is a thunderbird plugin, but it was paid so I backed out.

fluckx ,

I used to use evolution. The main reason was that evolution was the only client I found at the time ( except bluemail I think? ) which supported the ActiveSync protocol. IMAP and the like was blocked. They had to allow it specifically in AD so it would work.

I never really took a liking to evolution personally. Can't really say why. The outdated UI didn't help.

I think Thunderbird might have support for it through a custom plugin which I refused to buy.

Eventually I went back to the PWA. Since i only checked my emails twice a day and it wasn't exactly core to my job I stopped caring. The majority of the mails were management patting themselves on the back and look how great we're doing anyway.
At the end of the year you get shafted on bonus and higher targets regardless of everybody doing a "great job".

Pardon the rant. The company left me a bit sour.

nbailey ,
@nbailey@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ve been using Thunderbird with the OWL and TBSync plugins for exchange for years with good results. Obviously some things won’t work (teams integration, provisioned signatures, mail merge, etc) but it’s good enough that I only need proper outlook/OWA less than once a month.

Another option is “installing” the webapp as a PWA. I tried that for a bit but found notifications to be unreliable.

psmgx ,

I use Firefox for most purposes, but have chromium on there for anything related to grad school. Which includes, among other things, Office 365 and Outlook Online. On Fedora 38 if it matters.

Used to use Thunderbird with enigmail for PGP back in the day, it was good. The separate browser is fine now, but T bird is a fine option.

DirigibleProtein ,

Evolution looks and behaves a lot like outlook. works well for me

originalucifer ,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

i picked up a machine just for this purpose. even though im just using outlook in browser, work and personal are air-gapped so to speak.

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