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Microsoft Previews Microsoft Teams for Linux
Microsoft on Tuesday announced a "limited preview" release of Microsoft Teams for certain Linux desktop operating systems.
The release, which is available from this page in Debian (.DEB) and Red Hat (.RPM) package formats, was described as "the first Microsoft 365 app that is coming to Linux desktops." Moreover, Microsoft promised that Teams for Linux "will support all of Teams' core capabilities."
Those core capabilities weren't specified. Teams, described by Microsoft as its "collaboration workspace" app for organizations, combines chat, voice-over-IP calling and videoconferencing capabilities. It's also the replacement client for Skype for Business Online's unified messaging capabilities.
The supported Linux distributions for the Teams preview were listed as follows in a UserVoice post:
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS*, 18.04 LTS, Fedora 30 Workstation, RHEL 8 Workstation, CentOS 8. We are working to unblock CentOS 7, and it will be available soon.
The installation process using the .DEB and .RPM packages is described in this Microsoft Teams for clients document. It also includes instructions for installing Teams clients on macOS computers, as well as how to get the Teams Web client and mobile clients (for Android and iOS). There's already a "Known Issues" list for Linux Teams clients, which is available here.
Teams clients get updated automatically by Microsoft "with no IT administrator intervention required," per the Microsoft Teams clients document. Currently, there are no supported options that let IT pros configure Teams clients, it indicated.
Microsoft includes Teams as part of its Office 365 service offerings, but there's also a free version for "up to 300 people." The free version lacks things like added storage, Office file collaboration and meeting scheduling, and it also doesn't have "advanced IT controls" and "enterprise-level security and compliance" controls. Organizations without a Teams license or Office 365 subscription can use the free version for one year.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.