help on linux

This is a basic type question. I have heard a lot about Linux but the one thing that keeps surfacing and make me reluctant to try it is this.
Will my favorite software run on it.
I do not mind changing an OS but when you become comfortable with your most used software changing does become a big discomfort.
One of my problems is that I link microsoft office pro especially access and word. I have looked at others and used others even in my former work but I truly like Word.
This thread is to find out what software normally used with Windows XP will work on Linux

 

Any Windows software will be emulated, and is not guaranteed to work.

WINE is the emulator name, you can certainly google your software and see if people have had any luck getting it to work with WINE.

For Office, there is a more definitive answer, if you are willing to pay the price.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/

 

I disagree, if your booting to windows every time you have a problem, your just gonna slowly stop booting into linux. Your not gonna fix the problem, because why fix it when you can boot to windows.

 

My knowledge of the Windows operating system has increased tremendously since my introduction to Linux. I use PCLinuxOS as it is easy for beginners and the KDE desktop resembles Windows. Suggest you try it on a nonmission critical system first, until you get the basics down. I use lilo and the windows ntldr, boot.ini, to boot into linux, so the MBR is left untouched by the linux OS. No need to use the recovery console and fixmbr if I decide to delete the linux partition. My system has the recovery console as a boot option now, never would have if I hadn't tried Linux. I also use the command prompt more frequently as well. If you like Word keep it, and keep the Windows Operating System you paid for, but realize there are other avenues available, and there are things linux does better than windows. The next time you google something, be aware that you are utilizing a linux operating system.
Bug

 

Im not seeing the connection of Windows Recovery Console and Linux?

If you want Rcon as a boot option, its as simple as installing it to your hard disk.

 

Sidenote for Windows Vista users. Dual booting with any other operating system, be it Windows 2000 Pro, Windows XP, or any Linux distribution, when you boot to a non-Vista OS, your restore points go away in Vista. So if you plan to dual boot, using Windows Vista is actually a disadvantage in a Linux environment, even if both boot partitions are functional.

 

You sure, Chipper? I've been in Unbuntu since last night, and I booted to Vista just now and have access to restore points back three days prior.

I have heard this about XP though, which I 'think' I resolved by turning off System Restore in XP.

 

It's what I was warned about in Vista training. I'd be surprised if they still work.

 

Let me test, be right back.

 

Well, it works?

Now whether thats because I am using the Vista MBR and bootloader to boot Ubuntu, I don't know.

I restored to the 15th of this month, and it removed the two Windows Updates I had installed in the last two days.

Only oddity is noted in the screenshot, as it says I restored to this morning, which is inccorect. I've never used System Restore in Vista before, so this could be a cosmetic bug.

Screenshot to follow

 

KB926185--No restore points are available when you use Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 in a dual-boot configuration together with an earlier Windows operating system

I just looked it up a couple of hours ago. The KB doesn't specify a problem outside of Microsoft's Windows OS's, though I had been told it would happen dual booting Vista with any OS. My mistake, I should have confirmed this myself sooner.