Thinking about Linux

[chriisb]

I am thinking about trying out Linux, but I know almost nothing about it. I was wondering is Linux compatible with programs written for other OSes (read Windows) and say a friend sends me a file (MS Word for example) to look over, would I be able to open such files and return an editted version to the friend?

Thanks

 

[danielhozac]

You can run some Windows programs through the WINE emulator, but not all, and the ones that do run usually do so sluggishly and don't work as they are supposed to.
Documents aren't a problem. OpenOffice.org can read and write a whole bunch of different formats.

//Daniel

 

[pollux0]

there are many linux applications that are similar to windows applications. Like danielhozac said, OpenOffice (which can be downloaded for free at

http://download.openoffice.org/)is

a document program like MS Office which will open office documents. It will also save documents in the *.doc format which in can be opened by MS office. You can download a Windows or Linux version...download the Windows version and you can test it out.

I have never had a time where I could not replace an MS application by something else in Linux . Linux developers have a habit of creating programs that compete with Microsoft so as to diffuse there monoploly.

You can also download the Linux operating system for no charge at

http://fedora.redhat.com/

which comes with openoffice.

 

[chriisb]

Thanks, I'm going to give Linux a try.