Suse Linux Office Desktop

Suse's Linux Office Desktop combines Suse Linux 8.1 and extra utilities to ease migration from Windows to Linux. Office Desktop has an even easier install than 8.1 and has CodeWeavers CrossOver Office 1.3.1 software, which allows some apps designed for Windows to run with Linux. This currently supports a selection of Microsoft Office applications, as well as Lotus Notes Release 5.

We would recommend Suse Linux Office Desktop for people who use only Microsoft Word and Excel, provided their PC hardware is fairly standard and not an exotic configuration requiring special drivers. Inexperienced users may require more support, and IT managers should consider using disk imaging systems such as Norton Ghost for deployment. PCs that can boot both Linux and Windows would provide a safety net, but this approach would not provide cost savings.

We looked at release candidate 4 of Office Desktop, but the final code is set to ship within the next few weeks. We found installation to be quicker than Windows, only taking about 20 minutes to create a dual-boot system, with Windows XP and Service Pack 1 previously installed on one partition and Linux Office Desktop to another.

Our pre-release version did not have the Acronis partitioning software, so we used PowerQuest's PartitionMagic 8 to resize existing partitions to make room for Linux. Acronis will allow administrators to resize existing partitions during the install, including Windows 2000 and XP NTFS partitions and Linux Ext and ReiserFS.

By default, CrossOver Office and StarOffice are not installed. Office Desktop places a shortcut on the desktop to wizards that allow users to install Office applications and plug-ins for the Web browser, and also help administrators map Windows-compatible network drives and set up printers.

At present, only Office 97 and 2000 are supported, and CodeWeavers grades application compatibility within these suites as either gold, silver or bronze. Word, Excel and PowerPoint are gold-rated, so users should experience only minor bugs when running them. Outlook 2000, Visio 2000, Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.5 and Lotus Notes are silver-rated, which means that more significant bugs exist.

In tests, we installed the Word, Excel and IE 5.0 applications from Office 2000 from the Linux administrator account, which allows all users of the system to run the applications. Users can also install these applications themselves. We found some minor quirks - an icon for IE 5.0 was placed on the desktop after installation, but not for Word or Excel. We also found that administrator-level privileges are required to download the plug-ins such as QuickTime 6.

Price: £89 + VAT

Contact: Suse 020 8846 3918

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