KI 3455 Linux @ UiB: Presentation Software

2026-07-23

The biggest issue facing academic computing under Linux is finding a replacement for Microsoft Powerpoint. This may not apply to all disciplines, but at most medical meetings submitting presentations in MS Powerpoint format is a requirement. This is all the more difficult in that even "native" MS Powerpoint exist in many different flavours, including standalone vs. web and MS Windows vs. Apple iOS that are not 100 % compatible. Not to speak of nationalizations and fonts.

How then do we expect that a Linux program solves a problem that not even the vendor has under control?

Fortunately, there is a good solution - WPS Presentation under WPS Office

WPS Office

The nearest replacement for Microsoft Powerpoint under Linux is WPS Presentation. WPS Presentation can be called 99 % compatible with MS Powerpoint as it is geometrically correct. (Only Office is only 97 % correct). It generates pptx files that work under MS Powerpoint.
But be warned: Animations do not work as expected. So design your slides without animations, then take the file to MS Windows and put in the animations there.
The distribution can be downloaded from https://www.wps.com/office/linux/
To install, download the Debian distro, then run as root:

apt install ./wps-office_11.1.0.11723.XA_amd64.deb
(or similar).

Known limitation:
After installing on Ubuntu 26 LTS, the program crashes on startup:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=418304
The workaround is to rename wpscloudsvr

cd /opt/kingsoft/wps-office/office6
mv wpscloudsvr wpscloudsvr_bak

To uninstall:
sudo apt remove wps-office