Questions about Linux and Open/MS Office

hi,

I want to buy a netbook, to be able to work underway and at the university. I dont want to buy one with Windows XP, as I dont want to spend extra money for it. I also think a "fitted" Linux will work probably better with a netbook than Windows. Anyways, I need for both work and uni to be able to edit/work with MS Office 2007 files (docx, xlsx, pptx). That's my main criteria, and if the netbook isn't capable of doing that without a hassle, I dont want it.
Question:
- Is OpenOffice capable of editing above mentioned files? When I tried it like one year ago, it could not handle the "new" MS Office 2007 files
- Is it possible to run MS Office 2007 on a netbook Linux (Acer Aspire One's or Asus EEEPc's probably) without problems (considering both compatibility and performance)
- Would you say it's a good idea to go with Linux if I mainly want to work with MS Office files, or would it be a better idea to go for Windows XP?

Thanks for the replies!

 

Open office 3 opens MS office 2007 files but cannot save in those formats.
We'll probably see a change in this when the next open office comes out but until then, you're best bet is to convert these files.

There are various converters out there, the Microsoft Office Compatibility pack (only used in Windows though) that converts these files (for open office as well as MS office).

I've never heard of anyone installing MS office 2007 onto linux, but just googling it came up with a few interesting reads. If you manage to find a way to convert office 2007 files so you can use them in open office then I'd say stick with linux.

 

Dunno about performance, but Wine or crossover will install office 07 in linux. Look up wine and then go to wine.appdb.org and search for office 2007.

 

thanks, open office is then not an option (yet), I dont want to spend extra convert time etc. and need files "on the fly". I will read that wine site and then make up my mind if I really will go linux

 

Open office will still work for you. Just because you cant save docx files doesnt mean you cant use it.

Open the file, edit what you wan,t to and save it as a .doc file. Office 2007 can still open office 2003 files so your good to go.

 

I dont want to convert files to open them, and I want the files to be saved as docx. Either MS Office on linux or Windows XP are the options now, I dont want extra work. and I wont be even able to save files as docx as I see it when in university.

 

docx is a horrible format to save things in... why would you want to keep documents in that format? Really... there's a reason there was the whole ISO debacle about it.

Save them as .doc for when you send them to other people, otherwise keep things locally as an Open Document format, which is a truly open format that's well documented and isn't a format that locks you in like OOXML.

 

I second that, Pitabred. YOu can still open .doc files in MS Office 07 it won't affect you at all.