The USA Register: Running MS-Office on Linux

“There’s been a lot of talk in the tech press lately about
whether CodeWeavers’ Crossover Office for Linux will draw Windows
users. The theory here is that a fair number of home users and a
vast lot of businesses naturally despise Windows, but can’t give it
up because they adore MS Office. Home computer users may have
learned it in school and be habituated to it, and they may take
their work home now and then. If the uni or the office uses MSO,
they’ll obviously need it on their PCs.

“For businesses, the savings from an open-source OS have got to
be tantalizing; but the learning curve on a new office suite is
also a productivity curve — and that, obviously, costs money.

“Microsoft Office, the theory goes, is what keeps home users
demanding Windows PCs, and what keeps businesses capitulating to
confiscatory license fees from MS for every piece of tin in their
shops, while wasting valuable man hours doing license audits in
terror of a visit from the BSA shock troops. They’d be delighted to
move to an open source operating system so long as they could run
their favorite applications…”

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