I'm thinking I'll convert to Zorin for an operating system on my home computer. Can I back up files (e.g. an Open Office spread sheet) and take that into my office computer, which has a windows OS and open the file using the same Open Office program, except running on windows? In windows, the file extension is .ods - but I don't know if its the same on O/O running on Zorin.

Also, more generally, can you back up linux files and windows files on the same PHD? Is it any more complicated than if both were windows.

I know I won't generally be able to open windows program's files on Zorin or vice versa.

HI,
Files should be treated the same way by Open Office regardless of the operating system it is running on. So, yes.
Doctor of Philosophy? Portable hard drive perhaps. You can do this as long as you use a file system on that harddrive that both OSs know howto read and write to. For this reason most external hard drives and usb thumb drives etc use a fat file system (although you are free to replace it with something else).

You can "open them", but what you see is likely not what you want.

Cheers,

Evo2.

You can use office documents from linux in windows and vice versa, especially when you are using open office (libre office) software.
Don't know what files you are talking about but as long as it's not system files, its word or excel files, pdf documents, music and video files can be used between linux and windows.

Linux filesystems don't have a lot of support in Windows, but Windows filesystems are supported by Linux (either natively, or with a couple of standard packages). For that reason, any storage devices that will be used on both platforms should be formatted with a Windows filesystem, such as FAT32 or NTFS. Do that, and you shouldn't have any issues (apart from needing to install ntfs-3g or similar, if not already installed).

Yes, Openoffice files are portable.

Yes, generally there is a filesystem that can be used for both windows and linux.

It may be possible to install some windows programs in linux via a few means. Wine (the program based on CodeWeavers Crossover office) is a way that most people consider. You can also buy the Crossover program.

Thanks for all these helpful comments folks. The more I think about it, the more excited I get about using Zorin. I've bought Windows too many times.

I think it's worth pointing out that FAT file systems only allow file sizes under around 3.5GB -- of course if that doesn't matter to you don't worry about it.
I would also be tempted, if you are going to format a drive with NTFS, to do so under Windows. That's probably just me being silly but I don't 100% trust Linux's NTFS drivers since they're reverse-engineered with no help from Microsoft.

Fat32 should be about 2G. There may be a way to cheat it but I don't know it.

I've personally never had an issue with NTFS or NTFS-3G. (or I didn't notice it) I use it all the time for newer distro's on linux/windows.

The latest exFAT seems to be on some linux distro's and is an OK choice for usb type use.

Wikipedia says 4GB for FAT32 but my experience is that after about 3.5GB the file may or may not be saved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table
In the past (and I will admit this was around 5 years ago), when I dual booted Linux and Windows, Windows would always need to run checks on the shared NTFS partition I had because it seemed Linux didn't update the Journal correctly. I'm sure that has been fixed so it's just superstition on my part that I'd rather format NTFS using Windows.

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Opps, I was only half right. Or third right.

If you believe wiki.

"2 GB (4 GB with LFS,256 GB with FAT32+[23])"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems

That we know isn't fully correct. A slightly less number is real.

I often use a memory stick to move files between Linux and XP. I use a FAT filesystem as that is how the memory stick is setup by the manuf..

Copy from FAT memory stick to Linux will make a file with the execute bit set, because FAT does not have an execute bit. It would be nice to change this default (but I have not found it yet).
So I often use chmod command to fix this.
>> chmod a-x *.*
Do not do this to a directory as the execute bit on directories allows access to files.
Directories rarely have extensions, which is why I use *.* .

Beware the automatic conversion of text on copy.
I have had binary files corrupted when all the LF were converted to CRLF.
I did not run any conversion program on the files. I can remember only a couple file types where it has done this wrongly and they would not be normally known to Linux.
I takes a while to realize that the file copy corrupted the file, especially as it does it
exactly the same on the next copy. You have to zip a copy and take it back to Linux to compare to the original to detect this.
For this reason some files need to be zip compressed for FAT filesystem transfer.

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FAT16 has a 2GB limit in partition size.

FAT32 is limited in some versions of windows to only 32GB filesystems (or was it 32MB?). But you can create them in linux without said limits.

Depending on the versions of things you might have to simplify the formats of your files. As in csv (comma seperated values) for tables (spreadsheets), and rtf (rich text format) for documents. Although things tend to be a lot more portable these days. But you still might want a few "options" before you find out the hard way.

And you want to check with your employer(s) first as they're not too forgiving on infection vectors these days. Somehow hosting files on public servers is less frowned upon than using portable storage mediums.

For the record in case someone else searches this thread, I've been opening my Excel files and .csv files with Libra Office calc then saving them in the .ods type. No problems at all.