First things first, a little story. My friends PC had internet issues, which another friend went to fix. Friend couldn't find the problem but remvoed the bios battery because it was broken. Then he removed the power cable (doh!) So now the PC is stuck. All the documents and things are there on the harddrive, but Windows needs to be verified with it's product key again.

Of course the PC just had to be windows 98; back then all product keys were on bits of paper. Customers are not stressed enough that the pieces of paper were so important. So they're thrown away.

My friend tried a number of legit/illegit ways of getting windows on the PC. He obviously failed.

So I came up with the idea of using linux. The PC owner only requires the following things on the PC:
Internet
MSN messenger
A word program
A printer

Now I know the internet will work but what about Msn messenger> I did have a look around and I found a client called Alvaros MSN. If I used this, it's not like a standalone version of MSN is it? It can still communicate with Windows MSN?

The word program is an issue. It would be nice to have something that can save files so they open up in Windows word. So logically I guess installing Microsoft word would be the right idea? Is there anything I need to download to get it working? The version is word 2000

The printer needs to be able to work. I can't tell you right now what it is which isn't really much help, but would there be any issues when I try installing it?

Many thanks in advance.

Sure they all work.

MSN: aMSN (amsn.sourceforge.net) or Gaim (gaim.sourceforge.net) or whatever you wish. Both of those mentioned work very nicely with the MS MSN app.

"Word": Use OpenOffice (openoffice.org). Can open/save MS Office docs (there are some things that don't work too good, like macros, but most of the stuff works, and the ones people usually need, do). So grab OpenOffice.org 2 and you're fine with that.

Printer. Yeah, sure it works. Printers and computers have been around for ages, so why do you think Linux couldn't use printers? Sure it can. And easily, without too much stress in most of the cases.

Almost every distribution out there provides you with those apps and can use printers..in fact, it's quite difficult to find one that does not. Win98 is one of those Good Windowses, from which you can save your work easily, and do quite a lot of stuff with when using Linux beside it..

yes, all of the above can work with any linux.

Messenger:amsn
The word program: you could get a free editor like vim, or Wine it
A printer: check CUPS