I am finally getting around to trying to get a first-hand answer to the question:
“Can I abandon Windows yet?”
So I bought a license for the deluxe desktop distribution of Xandros, based on the Debian Linux distribution. Additionally, I bought a license for Crossover Office 5.0, Standard which is reported to support Microsoft Office 2003.
The box I’m using for this “experiment” is an AMD Athlon 1800 with 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive, a Gigabit Ethernet adapter, and a DVD Burner. So a middle of the road box with a decent amount of RAM.
The Xandros installation is about as painless as it comes. It just works.
CrossOver office was also a snap to install since they had a distribution especially for Xandros. I was also suprised that when I popped in the Office 2003 CD in that it installed without a hitch. I launched Word and activated the program (it was previously activated on this same machine under Windows XP and I was worried that I might have issues.
Then I tried to lauch Outlook, since that is a key app for me, and…Houston, we have a problem here :-( Apparently Outlook requires Internet Explorer to be installed. OK Fine. I install IE 6.0 using the Crossover Installation Wizard. Still, Outlook won’t start. I do a bit more “digging” and find that what I now have is Office 2003 installed in a win2000 “bottle” and IE 6 installed in a win98 “bottle”. Not sure why IE would install in a different bottle, so I deleted the win98 bottle and tried to install into the win2000 bottle, but I was warned that this would likely cause errors and decided not to try.
Office 2003 isn’t much use to me without Outlook, so I deleted the win2000 bottle and was back to square one. With that I decided to try to forch IE6 into a win2000 bottle. It threatened the same bit about causing errors. When the install seemed complete, there was no sign of IE6 installed. I checked the desktop and menus for an IE icon, and the Crossover Office configuration for signs of an installed app and there was none. For whatever reason, IE6 is incompatible with win2000 bottles and Outlook 2003 is incompatible with win98 bottles.
So much for Outlook 2003. A quick google also confirmed my findings.
So what else? I installed UltraEdit, Quicken, and Paintshop Pro under Crossover Office and they appear to be functional. I also installed OpenOffice 2.0 which took a little bit of googling and trial and error. Basically an app called alien is able to convert RPM (for the Redhat Linux variety) files into DEB (for the Debian Linux variety) files which can then be installed straight away on Xandros.
For printers I have a Brother 1440 laser and an HP Deskjet 990 Cxi both served off of a Linksys EFSP42 2 port printserver/4 port switch. I was able to (sort of) print to the laser through a Samba share on my windows desk top, but some apps (firefox) fouled up the printouts.
I decided to google a bit and see if I couldn’t print directly to the print served printers. It took a little digging, but I got both printers working.
I was also able to get the PokerStars client application running under Crossover Office. One strange thing that I have yet to figure out is why the icons on the desktop and the start menu refuse to work. I was able to create a shortcut staight to the executable, which works, but instead of the normal icon, I have a blue gear (looks like a KDE thing) — oh well!
Bottom line is that while a linux desktop has come a long way since I last monkeyed around with it, it’s still not quite there for people who rely on Outlook 2003. I would bet there are other apps that would not work right under CxOffice yet. Hopefully the folks at CodeWeaver can iron out the last of the kinks.
