I was told by a person teaching us nebs that linux did not have a winzip program to unzip files. I checked this forum and the very first program i came across was Linux linzip comparable to MS winzip. That blew me away. I downloaded and was able to unzip a file by Logitec that allows me to use my Cordless Desktop Wave keyboard + mouse with my linux ubuntu distr.

The file was design to work with MS but also worked with Linux once i got ahole to LinZip.

Can i run other MS applications or file on ubuntu without causing me a problem. Also i am trying to setup an email account on ubuntu and have been directed to a backup in order to access evolution file. I have never done a backup. This is a new computer purchased with ubuntu installed along with OpenOffice.org 2.4. Should i download the 3.0 version of OpenOffice or don't fix anything that is working and not broken?

What other utilities are available that are comparable to spybot, mcafee so that i can ward off viruses and spyware?

hollow back!!

BJ

You used a Linux application to unzip the file. Generally you will find substitute applications for software that runs in Windows, not actually run Windows applications on Linux.

There is a project called WINE that tries to allow Windows applications to run on Linux.
www.winehq.org

There are also several businesses that add value to WINE and sell their enhanced version. I won't get into that here because it is getting off topic.
Open Office.org 3.0 works very well.
I changed from Evolution to Kmail because of problems with Evolution asking me to restore from backup when I started it. The KDE based application named Kontact contains all of the stuff that Evolution has but it actually works a lot better, including Kmail.
Basically you don't need antivirus software. That's not to say that Linux is immune or that there are no Linux viruses but they are rare. Refer to this other thread for more information.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-linux-707521/