How to install Microsoft Windows Calculator on Linux
Microsoft is no longer an enemy of the Linux or Open Source communities. Believe it or not, the Windows-maker is an ally these days. Shocking, I know, but totally true. Linux is now built into Windows thanks to WSL, and Microsoft has several apps available for Linux.
The company has even made some of its apps open source as well. For instance, back in 2019, Microsoft released the source for Windows Calculator on GitHub. And now, that calculator app has been ported to Linux by Uno Platform. Best of all, its insanely easy to install as it is packaged in Snap format.
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"The good folks in the Uno Platform community have ported the open-source Windows Calculator to Linux. And they’ve done it quicker than Microsoft could bring their browser to Linux. The calculator is published in the snapstore and can be downloaded right away," explains Rhys Davies, Product Manager, Canonical.
Davies further explains, "The Uno Platform brought their support to Linux during UnoConf 2020. Uno Plaform allows you to build native mobile, desktop, and WebAssembly apps with C# and XAML from a single code base. You can build Linux applications with Uno Platform using Visual Studio and Ubuntu on WSL. You can snap them up in the snap store and then run your apps on anything from the Linux desktop to a Raspberry Pi."
So, how easy is it to install Windows Calculator on Linux? If you have a modern operating system with baked-in Snap support, such as Ubuntu 20.04, you can install it from the Snap store here. Prefer to use the command line? Just enter snap install uno-calculator into terminal.
Please note: If your distro doesn't have native Snap support, you can follow instructions here to set it up.
Of course, you are probably wondering why you should install the Windows Calculator on Linux. Well... because you can, of course! But seriously, it is actually a very well-designed app that you may find to be superior to other calculator programs -- including whatever came pre-installed with your operating system. Give it a try, folks -- you just might like it.