Hi,

I have a requirement for installing a brand new network with Linux and providing network services on Red Hat Linux. I want to do it clean. Just had a few queries to make. Can I just burn RHEL3 and RH Workstation from anyone and install this new network? Or should I purchase the software from Red Hat itself? If I take the first option, would I be liable for prosecution? This is question number 1

Question number 2 is that even though they want to use Linux, they have a requirement for converting pdf and jpg files to doc format using an OCR software compatible with linux. then, they will need to edit the doc format file and then send it back to their client for which they get paid. They need to maintain a quality of 98% or else they dont get paid. I have tried editing word doc files with Openoffice Writer. when it comes to advanced formatting features, i see that there are some differences in what I actually edited and what it reflects when opened inside Ms Office 2K. Is there any free MS-Office 2K for linux? I tried wine tools but it is asking me for the CD of MS Office which I dont want to buy.

Can some one please shed some light on this?

For your first question, you might want to go for a RHEL compatible distro like CentOS or WhiteBox. They're basically RHEL with the logos etc. removed, but built from the RHEL source RPMs. They're completely free, but you get no support at all. If you want support, you should look into buying RHEL or checking out other support options.

As for the second question, I think to ensure 100% MS Office compatibility you'll need to invest in MS Office and Crossover office to run it under Linux (Wine may do an acceptable job). In most cases, OO should do a good enough job, but I think it still can't handle all the complex formatting.

1) If your not redhat savvy, I'd suggest buying it as you will get support for at least a limited time. I'm not sure of the legality of burning redhat since I see them as the Microsoft of linux. I can only imagine since they created the fedora line, that they have put legal restrictions on products with the "Redhat" name on them. You can want to look into CentOS or other RHEL clones.

2) Nothing MS is free except worms, virus, trojans and bad code. I'm not sure on how to get around the amount of file format conversions you are doing to the scanned file.

You should notice that a lot of the OOo incompatibility is due to font issues. If you get the msttcorefonts, a lot of issues can be avoided. I think you should wait for OOo and then test how far the compatibility goes.