Show HN: Microsoft Office Running with Wine on Linux with No Virtualization

A Nix flake and helper scripts that run Microsoft 365 (click-to-run Office) on Linux without full virtualization by launching it under UMU + GE-Proton (Proton-GE) or Bottles’ ProtoSoda Wine core. It does not ship Microsoft binaries: the Office Deployment Tool and Office are downloaded at install time and require a valid Microsoft 365 license. Installation and launch are driven via simple nix run commands (ms365 install, ms365 run word, etc.), which create a Wine prefix, apply winetricks verbs, fetch the ODT payload (several GB stored in ~/.local/share/ms365/odt/Office) and run the installer. The flake exposes many environment knobs for runner choice, prefix path, product/channel/version/edition/language, excluded apps, SCA vs vNext licensing, Wayland vs X11, and debug logging; it also provides logs, commands to exec regedit/winecfg/cmd and utilities to rerun or reset phases.

Substantively, the build documents a long series of targeted fixes that make Office usable under Wine 11 lineage: Word launches, draws UI and shows the Sign in button, though sign-in/activation remained unverified at the noted status. Workarounds include a replacement sppc licensing DLL, an ole32 forwarder that supplies missing COM exports and loader fixes, kernel32 stub rewrites, hiding problematic APCs, VFS mirroring into Program Files, winhttp/wininet option acceptance, a d2d1.dll from a fixed Wine build to correct rendering, MSI component reconstruction, and Wayland popup ownership fixes. The flake automates these shims and provides debugging aids to iterate on remaining issues.