2 Rookie questions. Ms office and file conversion

[Chris G]

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 06:36:33PM +0100, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> 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.
> 
Another disadvantage *may* be that you need a Windows licence.
> 
> 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.
> 

-- 
Chris Green