Linux.com: Matching Up with Windows Applications

“… open source, like nature itself, abhors a vacuum, and
missing application areas are being filled.”

“Should a Windows user be concerned about trying and perhaps
even relying on Linux as a desktop operating system? These days,
there is little for the Windows user to fear.”

“But the “lack of applications” criticism is often a disguise
for another criticism: lack of compatibility with Microsoft
applications. Here the state of Linux applications continues to
improve. It’s also worth noting that Microsoft applications
themselves are not entirely compatible with Microsoft
applications.”

“As an editor at O’Reilly I certainly needed the full power of
Word’s system of revision marks. No other word processor offers
equivalent functionality (despite the fact that this capability has
changed little since Word 2.0). But a book editor is an exception.
Most people seldom need more than basic formatting: bold, italic,
underlining, a few fonts, and a way to set margins, headers, and
footers on a page. Word processors under Linux offer all this and
more. I’ve experimented with WordPerfect 8, and I haven’t tried
Applixware. For now I’ve settled on using StarOffice, and I have no
real complaints with it.”

Complete
story.