Test Driving Linux

Running Microsoft Office on Linux

You may be one of those people who really need to use Microsoft Office. If you're like me, you use Microsoft Word because you collaborate with others who use Word, and fixing formatting problems across multiple exchanges of a document can be a hassle. Or you may be an Excel power-user with a lot of macros that you just don't have time to rewrite for OpenOffice.org Calc. Regardless of your reason, you just know that you can't use Linux until it runs Microsoft Office.

Well, the good news is that Linux can run Microsoft Office. A company called CodeWeavers (http://www.codeweavers.com) has created a product called CrossOver Office that enables you to run your Windows copy of Microsoft Office (not a Mac copy) under Linux. This book was written using this product to run Word on Linux. CrossOver Office isn't free, but it's only $39.95 for a single user. Obviously, you need to provide your own copy of Microsoft Office. CrossOver Office also supports other programs like Photoshop, Quicken, and QuickTime.

I can't say that it's flawless, but most issues are more quirks than real problems. For example, when I first open a long document, sometimes there isn't a scrollbar along the right-hand side. If I minimize the window and bring it back up, the scrollbar is back. Also, some programs work better than others. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint run nearly perfectly, but Outlook and Internet Explorer have more glaring bugs.

Is CrossOver TOO good?

Rumor has it that CrossOver ...