Run Office 2007 on Linux

[qukza]

This is funny. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4935936784.html

"Could it be that Microsoft doesn't want you to know that, if you really wanted Office 2007, you could do it from a Linux desktop and Firefox instead of having to buy into an all Microsoft solution?"

Install latest SLED 10 Beta from Novell and Firefox and the ICA client come preinstalled so you're all set to go...

 

[linux_0]

This is funny. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4935936784.html

"Could it be that Microsoft doesn't want you to know that, if you really wanted Office 2007, you could do it from a Linux desktop and Firefox instead of having to buy into an all Microsoft solution?"

Install latest SLED 10 Beta from Novell and Firefox and the ICA client come preinstalled so you're all set to go...

Why would you want M$ office anything when you can have Org?

http://www.openoffice.org/ is beautiful!

:-D

 

[bmouring]

And it supports export to many different formats (like PDF, which may or may not make it into Office 2007, I've heard there are issues between Microsoft and Adobe).

 

[linux_0]

And it supports export to many different formats (like PDF, which may or may not make it into Office 2007, I've heard there are issues between Microsoft and Adobe).

Yes indeed :-D

Org is improving daily, M$ Office is getting worse.

 

[MU_Engineer]

So you can have Excel crash whenever it tries to process a very large (~5000 data points/set and 50 sets/sheet) spreadsheet and graph those points. I had to do this for my job and I was just about ready to heave that computer out the window after it would constantly just crash and burn. I took the data home and used OpenOffice.org Calc that's on my computer to run it. Calc handled it just fine for me even if it did take 10-20 seconds to draw the graphs with 20k or so points on them. The only downside was that my X-Y charts that I made with Calc do not show up correctly using Excel- so I just print the graphs and hand them in or export as PDFs. The PDFs and printouts were just fine, so I kept using Calc and got my work done.

 

[linux_0]

So you can have Excel crash whenever it tries to process a very large (~5000 data points/set and 50 sets/sheet) spreadsheet and graph those points. I had to do this for my job and I was just about ready to heave that computer out the window after it would constantly just crash and burn. I took the data home and used OpenOffice.org Calc that's on my computer to run it. Calc handled it just fine for me even if it did take 10-20 seconds to draw the graphs with 20k or so points on them. The only downside was that my X-Y charts that I made with Calc do not show up correctly using Excel- so I just print the graphs and hand them in or export as PDFs. The PDFs and printouts were just fine, so I kept using Calc and got my work done.

Indeed :-D

I have had similar experiences.

You cannot beat Org @ $0.00 vs. M$ office Enterprise @$599.00 or whatever.

 

[Pantalones Gigante]

You're kidding, right? I use Excel for a large part of my professional life, and OO's spreadsheets are not even in the same league.

But back to the original question, can Office 2007 run reliably and completely on Linux? Because MSO is the only thing keeping me from going whole-hog into Ubuntu.

 

[linux_0]

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxlinux/

If you must have it, crossover supports it.

Org is still very good and about as cross platform as you can get!

 

[amdfangirl]

or.. use WINE for free...

I honestly hate Open Office...

I prefer Iwork 08 or M$ Office 2007 but things will get better I suppose. I'm starting to migrate to Koffice for school documents.

 

[audiovoodoo]

The original article for this thread is wrong on a number of levels, with Citrix you are not 'running' anything localy, just a session to a Windows box natively running the application. It's a bit like saying I can 'run' google on my mobile...

In terms of the office packages I have to say that Excel impresses me more than Calc although I've never really pushed either. Writer is NOT as good as word IMHO although the extra formats are handy. For PDF creation I actually prefer to use a PDF printer driver as I seem to get better results that way.

 

[amdfangirl]

The only things I can't find an alternative to is Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and Pages and Keynote '08

 

[linux_0]

Inkscape and GIMP

 

[amdfangirl]

Sorry, I've been there. Just doesn't work for me.

That's why I have a work laptop with Mac OS X.

 

[Zorak]

That's why I have a work laptop with Mac OS X.

Burn the witch!

Anyways, I remember i TRIED VERY HARD to use OOCalc to crunch all my numbers for an engineering economics class, but the damn program wouldn't even do a stupid line graph! I think Gnumeric worked out much better for me as it actually made the line graph I needed and it loaded faster. It also seemed to be able to open excel spreadsheets easily whereas I had problems in OOCalc. I took that class about a year ago now, so perhaps OOCalc has gotten better in that time, but not being able to make a simple line graph with data I gave it is a pretty HUGE showstopper.

Other than that problem O works pretty well although it seems to take forever and a day to load (and i did the tweaks to make it faster like turning Java off).

So, much as I hate to say it O has (or had if it is fixed by now) some pretty big rough spots and as a result MSOffice is just better, although it is also bloated as hell (based on experience at work).

On a side note, if I ever start my own big company, I am going to explicitly FORBID the use of Outlook. That program takes an otherwise good computer and makes it unuseable, and all for a simple task such as looking at email! I mean come on! Its not like I was trying to run crysis on the poor machine...

-Zorak

 

[linux_0]

Thunderbird

 

[amdfangirl]

That's why I have a work laptop with Mac OS X.

Burn the witch!

Anyways, I remember i TRIED VERY HARD to use OOCalc to crunch all my numbers for an engineering economics class

I am going to explicitly FORBID the use of Outlook.

Aww, I seriously can't find any office suite comparable to Apple's iwork . Pages is the killer app that locks me to the Mac platform... and maybe Painter X...

Outlook = (Evolution)

Windows Media Player = (VLC, Songbird)

Windows Movie maker = (Cinelerra)

Internet Explorer = (Firefox)

Safari = (Camino)

 

[audiovoodoo]

There is one thing that keeps the big corps buying Outlook, Exchange. It's been out long enough that even smaller shops are finding that staff can book meeting rooms, publish there locations and query common documents. Hate to say it but on the whole it works well in commercial settings.

Now if I could only stop people in the office sending me 19Mb mails that consist of nothing more than screen grabs of error messages.... That's what kills office mail systems, or at least the ones I've had trouble with.

 

[linux_0]

There is an Exchange replacement and Exchange is evil.

Semper Fi

 

[amdfangirl]

Hey, since when was there Open Office 3?

 

[audiovoodoo]

Few weeks...

 

[audiovoodoo]

There is an Exchange replacement and Exchange is evil.

It's an alternative not a replacement. Yes it's evil but it's known evil with lots of half way trained end users. It's the same old issue that stops 2kXX being the year of the Linux desktop

 

[linux_0]

Exchange is damaging the global economy and should be outlawed!

Off with their heads!

Seriously exchange is beyond evil.

 

[Zorak]

Yeah when I complained about outlook earlier, I wasn't so much looking for a replacement as just damning the program itself. In truth, unlike a lot of people I rather PREFER a webmail interface than using an actual email client program like thunderbird or evolution.

Also, unlike most people I prefer to use an office suite for office work than to use "cloud computing" systems like Google Docs. I guess I am just a weirdo

-Zorak

 

[audiovoodoo]

I'm having this battle at my last few employers and the new one looks no better. Lets make our product web based so we reduce admin costs.

So... that's 30 active x controls to install, a whole load of trusted sites to set up, increase the cache to 500Mb, clear existing cookies... Ah! I'm connected. Lets try a search that take 3ms on a local install.....

** Heads off to make a brew for the whole office **
** Goes and flirts with the girl on reception **
** Heads out to lunch **

Nope. They don't work

 

[linux_0]

Each approach, network vs. local, has its merits.

The argument has been going on for decades and I don't think it will be resolved any time soon.

Of course it depends on what kind of network you have and the software you're using.

A nice network with a fast SAN could probably pull your data faster than your local machine could from a local drive.