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I am an Ubuntu user, but was wondering if it was possible to run Microsoft Office. Will Wine allow me to run it?

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Take a look at http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=31 to see the latest status of support of Office 2007. Scroll down to see the actual apps, not just the installer.

Executive summary is that it basically works, but there's a few corners in each app that's currently broken.

Here are the results of the major apps:

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+1. And the link to Word 2007: appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=12811 – Nikhil Chelliah Jul 15 '09 at 8:41
Thanks, added to the answer – Mark Pim Jul 15 '09 at 8:43
I note that MS Publisher is also pretty weakly supported at present. Not that there aren't better linux publishing options, but sometimes I have clients who use this... – Charles Stewart Jan 19 '10 at 11:20
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up vote 4 down vote

Short answer: Yes, wine will do it.

Long answer: If you want to install from scratch, then the installer can work, depending on what version of Wine you are working with. Check out the AppDB for Office to see which one to go for. I believe if you have an existing Windows install that you can allow Wine to use, then you don't have to go through the install process and things might work better.

Personally I've installed Office 2000 (only version I had to hand on CD at the time) under Wine in Ubuntu and found the following things:

  • Upgrading to the latest Wine is worthwhile - they provide installer packages for Ubuntu - for instructions, see here.
  • Office 2000 runs OK under it, but there are some weird glitches in things like the file chooser etc. By no means slick and easy-to-use.

Of course the other way to do it is to install Windows and Office under VMWare, but I'm unsure if there's a free option to do that at the moment...

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As far as VMWare is concerned the Server is free. However VirtualBox is opensource and ideal for virtualizing Windows. – Diago Jul 15 '09 at 8:56
+1 for VMWare. VirtualBox doesn't support multi core CPU for the VM. – Bo Tian Jul 17 '09 at 3:41
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@Bo: yes it does as of V3. See 3.7.2.2 in the user manual at: download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/3.0.0/UserManual.pdf – Kent Boogaart Aug 17 '09 at 14:56
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up vote 2 down vote

You could also check out Crossover Office. Its not free ($40), but it works well... The same company contributes to Wine (from my understanding). This is basically their premium pay for version. In my experience it works pretty well (even outlook!). Its not perfect but better than wine. I actually got it for free from their "lame duck challenge" a while back

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up vote 0 down vote

Why not just use OpenOffice ?

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