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ONLYOFFICE is one of two options that comes to mind when I think of a solid Microsoft Office alternative on Linux, the other being LibreOffice. Both offer a range of useful features and support a wide range of document formats.

What sets ONLYOFFICE apart, though, is its focus on collaboration and generally reliable compatibility with Microsoft Office files. With the launch of ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0, the office suite now introduces a number of new features.

🆕 ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0: What's New?

At first glance, you will notice that for all the editors, the interface has been redesigned to provide a more intuitive and accessible experience. For taking advantage of this, you have to either enable the "Modern Light" or the "Modern Dark" theme from View ⇾ Interface Theme.

The PDF Editor sees major upgrades aimed at improving productivity. You can now co-edit PDF forms in real time, drag-and-drop pages in the thumbnails panel to quickly reorder a document, and duplicate pages effortlessly with Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V.

AI-powered enhancements also make an appearance with this release, bringing automatic text extraction for PDF files, and smarter automation for macros and formulas in Spreadsheets.

Similarly, the Document Editor gets a few practical upgrades, including a quick-access button for paragraph borders and enhanced Content Controls with improved change tracking and support for custom buttons via plugins.

Automate repetitive tasks – macro creation and VBA conversion – with AI to save time and avoid errors

On the localization front, there’s enhanced support for right-to-left languages, new additions like Urdu language support and an Arabic spellcheck dictionary, plus several tweaks to make language settings more intuitive and user-friendly.

File compatibility has been extended too, now including support for Markdown (.md), Visio (.vsd/.vsdx), OpenDocument Graphics (.odg), and direct editing of Excel Binary (.xlsb) files.

During the launch, Galina Goduhina, Sales Director at ONLYOFFICE, stated that:

With Docs 9.0, our goal was to bring greater ease and functionality to all users, regardless of how or where they work.

📥 Download ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0

If you are self-hosting, then you can grab the necessary packages from the official website. For regular users, the desktop editors for this release will go live shortly.

ONLYOFFICE Docs 9.0

You can read the release blog and changelog to learn more about this release.

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Mainstream gaming on Linux has been steadily improving year after year, with better compatibility, performance, and a growing library of supported titles, making it a viable alternative to Windows and console gaming.

In contrast, the emulation scene has been around for much longer within the Linux community, thriving thanks to Linux's openness and DIYbility. There are even dedicated retro gaming distros like Lakka and RetroPie that make setting up and playing classic games on Linux easy.

In this article, we'll be taking a look at RetroArch, a popular emulation frontend available for Linux and many other platforms.

RetroArch: Overview ⭐

Before you think that RetroArch is an emulator, don't. It's actually a frontend that runs emulators through a system of modular components called Libretro cores. Each core handles a specific console or platform, allowing RetroArch to support a wide range of classic systems.

It’s also more than just a game launcher. RetroArch can run media players, game engine ports, and offers features like game rewinding, shaders, and multiplayer support.

⭐ Key Features

Packing a wide range of features that complement gameplay, customization, and compatibility across platforms, RetroArch has the following standout features:

**Cross-platform.****Supports over 200 cores.****Unified settings interface.**Can run media from discs.

🎮 Gaming Experience

On my Bazzite setup, I installed the RetroArch Flatpak and connected an Xbox Wireless controller to try out Freedoom, a free game that plays like classic DOOM. Using the PrBoom core, it ran smoothly without any major issues.

Initially, I had tried using the Steam version of RetroArch, but it was a bit tricky to manually add cores and games since that version doesn’t have the online downloader.

The Online Updater and Core Downloader pages of RetroArch.

I downloaded the PrBoom core using RetroArch’s built-in Online Updater, which offers many cores for playing games from various classic consoles and systems. Using my controller, I easily navigated to the Core Downloader page from the Main Menu to find the core.

The Main Menu and Load Content pages of RetroArch.

After loading the core, I used the Load Content option to open Part 1 of Freedoom by selecting its .wad file that I downloaded earlier. As you can see in the video above, the game ran well. There were some minor stutters, but it didn’t affect gameplay; I was too busy taking down demons.

RetroArch's Input and Recording pages.

For those who like tinkering with their controller input, RetroArch’s Input page offers detailed customization, letting you remap buttons, adjust sensitivity, and set up different profiles for each core or game.

There’s also a Recording page where you can capture gameplay footage easily without needing extra software. (I missed this before I recorded the video.)

RetroArch's Appearance and Drivers pages.

Similarly, the Appearance page allows you to adjust themes, menu styles, and on-screen displays to suit your preferences, while the Drivers page lets you configure hardware settings like video, audio, input, and network interfaces to ensure smooth performance.

During my play session, RetroArch’s full-screen mode bugged out and wouldn’t enter full-screen properly, so I had to stick with windowed mode. There are other cool features I didn’t talk about, like Netplay for online multiplayer, Shaders to improve graphics, and Cheat Code support for games.

⚙️ Installing RetroArch on Linux

RetroArch comes in a bunch of formats, but on Linux, there are two main ways I recommend installing it. The first is to source it via Flathub by running the following command:

flatpak install flathub org.libretro.RetroArch

The second is for Ubuntu users who use snaps. You can grab the latest release from Snapcraft by running this command:

sudo snap install retroarch

You can also get RetroArch via Steam, AppImage, or build it from source. It’s cross-platform, with downloads available directly from the official website for other major systems like Raspberry Pi, Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS.

RetroArch

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At least in the U.S. and Canada, that is.

This was brought to my attention thanks to a Reddit post where a user (presumably a resident of Canada), had posted how Lenovo was shipping laptops with Fedora and Ubuntu at a cheaper price compared to their Windows-equipped counterparts.

Others then chimed in, saying that Lenovo has been doing this since at least 2020 and that the big price difference shows how ridiculous Windows' pricing is.

Cutting the Windows Tax

When I dug in further, I found out that the US and Canadian websites for Lenovo offered U.S. $140 and CAD $211 off on the same ThinkPad X1 Carbon model when choosing any one of the Linux-based alternatives.

US pricing on left, Canadian pricing on right.

Interestingly, while the difference in pricing is noticeable, your mileage may vary if you are looking for such laptops on the official website. Not all models from their laptop lineup, like ThinkPad, Yoga, Legion, LOQ, etc., feature an option to get Linux pre-installed during the checkout process.

Luckily, there is an easy way to filter through the numerous laptops. Just go to the laptops section (U.S.) on the Lenovo website and turn on the "Operating System" filter under the Filter by specs sidebar menu.

Yes, it's as simple as that. You can do the same for the various official online regional storefronts that Lenovo runs to see whether Linux-based operating systems are being offered on their laptops in your country.

Closing Thoughts

It is good to see that Lenovo is offering Linux in its laptops. In fact, there is another big-name laptop manufacturer, Dell, who also does something similar with its Ubuntu-certified laptops, but both have the same constraint of having limited options for buyers.

Also, as far as I know, Dell doesn't reduce the pricing if you choose Linux instead of Windows. Correct me if I am wrong in the comments.

Nonetheless, I think these manufacturers could do a better job in marketing these Linux-based alternative operating systems to general consumers, showing them how they can save big when opting for these instead of the pricey and bloated Windows.

Otherwise, we might have to start observing Windows Refund Day again.

💬 Your take on this? Would mainstream users benefit from having Linux pre-installed on their laptops?

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