So I've been here for a while now and you all have been a great help. My next project: Replace MS Office. I have installed Open Office, and the Calc and Writer allow me to save files in MS format. I can't seem to get Base to be able to save a DB in Access format. I will be returning to school after the first of the year, and the only installations I have right now are two Suse 10.0s, one desktop, one laptop. So far I have:
1. Installed Linux version of VP-UML 5.3.
2. Installed RealPlayer
3. Installed Xine
4. Installed Firefox 2.0 and got it to use Adobe Reader to open .pdfs.
5. Figured out how to install an rpm AND a tarball (most of my liver damage occurred during these 2 weeks).
6. Realized I can't find my Windows restore CDs, and don't want to go back, but, with a few workarounds, I think I can get away with Linux only.

So, back to my question. My school only wants MS happy .doc and .xls files. I can do that with OO. I can't, however, build a .mdb database and save it in that format. My install of OO saves it as something else. I have seen comments around here mentioning the version of OO that came on my distro may not be a full or current version. Any suggestions? Should I DL the latest and greatest from oo.org? Please let me know. If I can get this and a few other issues worked out, my home will be Microsoft free. I know my work never will be.

AFAIK OO MS access support is read only. A workaround might be to run access via wine or crossover office.

Thanks, micheal. I have installed Crossover, and MS powerpoint and excel work fine. I will let you know how this goes. It looks promising.

OK. This is where I'm at now with this Crossover install. PowerPoint and Excel work fine, installed from the Windows CDs.
1. When I try to run Word, it starts, gives me the message "Not installed for current user. Please run setup to install the application." What do I do here?
2. When I try to run Access, it starts normally and sits there. However, when I go to create a new DB, it gives me a message about not being able to find a "mswstr10.dll."

I have poked around the Code Weavers forums for about an hour, and for problem 1, have found nothing. For problem 2, I found where someone recommended opening a browser inside Crossover and downloading updates from MS. I can't find a browser on my Crossover "drive." I can find iesetup.exe, but it says "a previous installation is more current" and aborts. I just can't find it. Second, I have tried to use Crossover to install OfficeXP SP1, but at one point during the install, it changes my /etc/fstab and if I go along with the recommendations, 1 or two steps later it wants a CD and says it can't mount my CD drive.

Any help is greatly appreciated. You all are getting me closer and closer to not go out and buy some XP cds.

For the record, I don't know what my /etc/fstab looked like before, but now:

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/hda1 swap swap defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/cdrecorder /media/cdrecorder subfs noauto,fs=cdfss,user,unhide, ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy subfs noauto,fs=floppyfss,procuid, nodev,nosuid,sync 0 0

Hmm, just as a question, never tried it myself ... have you tried Kexi of the KDE suite? In KDE 3.5.5 it is rumoured to have made gigantic strides but I don't know that from firsthand experience .