Microsoft Teams now available on Linux as a public preview

For the first time ever, Microsoft Teams is now available on Linux as a public preview. The plans to introduce an Office 365 application for the first time on the open source operating system were announced at the company’s Ignite conference last month.

A native Linux client has been one of the most requested Teams features on Microsoft’s User Voice forum. The app will feature the entire core Teams capabilities available in Windows and MacOS versions.

Native Linux packages can be downloaded in .deb and.rpm formats.

“We are committed to supporting mixed environments across our cloud and productivity offerings, and with this announcement, we are pleased to extend the Teams experience to Linux users,” Microsoft said in a blog post Tuesday. “It’s also an exciting opportunity for developers who have built apps for Teams to be able to grow their reach to this new set of users.”

Employees at Swedish car manufacturer Volvo, where Linux is in use by several departments, will be able to connect with each other using Teams.

“Up until now, our Linux users have largely been stuck on a collaboration island with different unofficial and unsupported clients for Skype for Business and more recently Microsoft Teams,” Jimmy Beckman of Volvo Cars said in a statement. “With Teams for Linux from Microsoft, we have been able to leave that island and collaborate across our different platforms with the full functionality of a rich client. Being able to participate in screen sharing is a huge improvement for the Linux users at Volvo Cars.”

Microsoft Teams has grown to more than 20 million daily active users since its launch as a rival to Slack in 2017, as confirmed by the OS major. By introducing a Linux client, Microsoft is hoping to increase the appeal of Teams to developers – an area where Slack has typically held a stronger position.

Microsoft recently announced another highly requested feature, bringing private channels to Teams. This lets users create channels that are viewable and accessible only by specified co-workers, which can be useful for teams dealing with sensitive or confidential content. Another requested feature, multi-window chat, is also on its way.