Codeweaver’s
Crossover Office Support
For Office XP On Linux
While
there are lots of office software products designed for the
Linux platform (most notably Sun’s StarOffice and
OpenOffice.org), many customers feel unable to leave the
familiar Microsoft Office suite, which they have used for years,
behind. That makes
tools and tricks for using MS Office on Linux (which Microsoft,
of course, doesn’t offer), a popular sport.
One
way to do this is with the software CrossOver Office from
CodeWeavers, which uses the WINE framework to run Windows
software on Linux. At
the present time, although many Windows applications will run on
Linux, Codeweavers supports these:
 |
Microsoft
Office XP, 2000 and 97 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook,
Internet Explorer,
Access)
|
|
Adobe
Photoshop
|
|
Microsoft
Visio
|
|
Lotus
Notes
|
|
Quicken
|
Support’s
an important notion here because Microsoft has recently
announced that they will not provide full technical support for
Office users who are running on Linux unless they can prove that
the problem they are reporting also occurs on Windows.
This applies to both individual consumers and volume
corporate contracts.
CrossOver
will step in, for its customers and for supported applications.
Included in the $54.95 price of Crossover office
(discounted for volume purchases) is support for application
problems that are CrossOver/Linux related.
CodeWeavers’
CEO Jeremy White says they have about 4,000 end-user customers
and they expect to get a question from about 25% of them.
Support is handled by a combination of on-line databases,
email, and telephone support.
Larger accounts typically need less support – they’re
more self-supporting and they tend to have the same problem
repetitively (but they can handle it themselves after the first
time or two).
With
demand for Linux desktop solutions growing, and so much
installed Microsoft Office creating a continuing demand for a
good and familiar product, we suspect that Codeweavers will
continue to see its business grow.
