Myth 4: Linux Is A Desktop Data Nightmare
Most small and midsize business Windows users also are Microsoft Office users. And that means most, if not all, of their desktop data currently uses Microsoft Office file formats.
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Let's pretend for a moment that there is no way to run Microsoft Office on a Linux PC (even though there is). That makes all of those Office-based file formats a show-stopper, right?
Wrong.
In the past, Microsoft Office documents used binary -- and closed -- file formats. Although open-source developers could and did back-engineer these formats to make them interoperable with other applications, it was a hard and messy job. And to make matters worse, Microsoft tinkered with its Office binary formats so frequently that even people using older versions of Office often had fits getting them to work properly.
Over the past several years, however, Microsoft has kicked its closed file-format habit. In May 2005, the company announced new, standards-based default file formats for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. A few months later, it dropped its licensing requirements for third-party developers looking to support the new formats, collectively referred to as Office OpenXML, in non-Microsoft products. Finally, in November 2007, Microsoft Office 2007 became the first version of Office to include full support for OpenXML.
As a result, Linux-compatible business productivity software such as OpenOffice.org and StarOffice also feature full OpenXML file support. In addition, Microsoft Office will include support for the OpenDocument Format (ODF) -- an increasingly popular, open-source document format standard -- beginning with its 2009 Service Pack 2 release for Office 2007.
These changes are turning Microsoft Office into a nonissue for desktop users who are moving to Linux or simply want to try an alternative to Office on a Windows system.
There is one exception to this rule: users who still keep their data in older, binary Office file formats. As staying with these formats is a dumb idea -- period -- this is a problem that will eventually fix itself.
Go To Step-By-Step: Migrating Your Desktop From Windows To Linux
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