2 Rookie questions. Ms office and file conversion

[Mario Vukelic]

On Sun, 2009-02-22 at 22:04 +0500, Haseeb ul Hasan wrote:
> Hey everyone
> I just wanna know how to run microsoft office apps in intrepid 

There are 2 options: virtualization or Wine. When you google for these
terms (AND "ubuntu") you will find lots of info, this topic has been
discussed to death here on the list.

In short:

Virtualization lets you install a full Windows installation within
Ubuntu. Windows will then run inside Ubuntu in a window like any other
application, and you can install Office inside of Windows as usual.
The best way to do this is to use VirtualBox:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox

Advantage: you will run a real Windows, so there won't be compatibility
issues.
Disadvantage: you will need a lot of RAM, since your existing RAM will
be split between Ubuntu and Windows. You will also need a Windows
license. Windows will be slower than if run stand-alone, but if you have
a recent CPU it won't be really noticable.


Wine is a compatibility layer that implements parts of Windows in the
Linux environment. You will not need to install Windows. Instead, you
will install MS Office directly (Wine will take care of that.)
Wine is a reimplementation of Windows, so it is incomplete and your
applications may or may not work to varying degrees.
There are two options: 

The free version of Wine. Info about this in Ubuntu is here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wine
Wine has a compatibility database here:
http://appdb.winehq.org/ where you can look up how well MS Office
applications run - not that bad, actually, depending on version, but not
perfect, either.

There is also a commercial variant of Winde by the company, Codeweavers.
They are good citizens and support the free Wine project, on top of
which they build their products.  They certify some applications to
work, and Office is obviously an important target.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxlinux/
Compatibility database: http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/



> and i
> have a lot of mp3 files (since i was using windows before). Is there a
> software which runs them or do i have to convert them.

No problem, mp3s run out of the box. The default music player,
Rhythmbox, can be used as a music manager, similar to iTunes. You can
also burn mp3s as an Audio CD using the default CD burner, Brasero. And
you can rip CDs to mp3s using Sound Juicer, also installed by default.
There are, of course, many other audio applications, such as the editor,
Audacity (which also can use mp3s out of the box)
The full story is here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats


>  I am really
> used to using winamp due to its very good dsp plugins i already have.
> Is there a way i can run winamp too?

Just like with MS Office, you can use either a virtualized Windows or
try whether Winamp installs and can be used with Wine (see application
database)