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Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
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You could probably install and run both using WINE or PlayOnLinux (WINE with extras, basically) but to just open simple files Libre Office ought to work OK.
If you must run Excel and Word with all features though I would recommend sticking with Windows as it's quite possible they'll just stop working under Linux for whatever reason. Some may protest at that but if I were reliant upon Office products for making a living, for example, there's no way I would trust WINE with my livelihood.
Edit: I just noticed your signature and, while I hate to burst your bubble, I have to point out that it is simply not true. Windows, when installed with the usual crapware and with the "OEM discount" that M$ give will be virtually free to OEMs and a quick look at the price of Linux-installed machines from OEMs will back that up. Linux costs more to install because it requires a dedicated team to configure and support and nobody is paying to install their nagware on it.
Last edited by 273; 03-28-2015 at 10:07 AM.
Reason: An asid regarding signature.
LibreOffice can technically read/write MS Office files, but I wouldn't say they're even remotely compatible. Spreadsheets are decent, but word documents are useless in LO. If you need MS Office for interfacing with the outside world, then you need Windows. Running it in a VM is usually sufficient if your machine has the available RAM and processing power.
Another option would be to set up a dual boot with the ubuntu on the windows machine. Then you can use Windows for what you must use it for and use the linux for the rest. This is not difficult to do (I did it with no experience at all with linux); however, I would study a little on how to do it and ask questions first just to be safe. You didn't say what Windows version you had?
LibreOffice can technically read/write MS Office files, but I wouldn't say they're even remotely compatible. Spreadsheets are decent, but word documents are useless in LO. If you need MS Office for interfacing with the outside world, then you need Windows. Running it in a VM is usually sufficient if your machine has the available RAM and processing power.
I agree that, if you must use MSOffice in your professional life, you need to have MSOffice.
I would not go so far as to say that Word documents are useless in LO. My experience has been that LO opens even *.docx documents quite nicely and can save to *.doc formats quite effectively as long as the formatting is simple. Once the formatting gets complicated--say, lists embedded in other lists, lots of tables, text boxes, and the like, then, yes, your LO document will not save nicely in a Word format--formatting that saves nicely in LO native formats will get malformed or lost.
As for spreadsheets, they are pretty much compatible except that Excel macros do translate from Excel the Calc--MSOffice macros are in Visual Basic, which is a Windows thing.
I can't speak to Impress/Powerpoint. I avoid them like the plague.
In my previous job I had to use Powerpoint a lot. (Thankfully that is over now, I was positively surprised after two months in my current job when I found out that my work station did not even have it installed)
Anyway, as much as I hate to say it, when you are used to Powerpoint switching to LibreOffice is not an option. I had countless situations where I had to "hammer" together a quick Powerpoint to go into a rough meeting in like an hour or so. With Powerpoint no problem. With Impress? No way if you ask me.
For spreadsheets and text I have no issues with LO though. If I was writing serious text documents I would probably prefer Latex anyways, but that's a different discussion.
Yes, from what i've heard it runs well in Crossover but Crossover costs money. Your best bet if you cannot do what you need to do in LibreOffice is to run MS Office in a Windows VM.
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