Putting Together A Linux Office

Migrating To OpenOffice Can Be Tedious
Solution providers should probably not recommend a client migrate from Microsoft Office to a Linux office package unless the conversion can be done without too much manual effort. A manual process is simply not cost-effective since the macro languages between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice are compiled and executed differently.

Fortunately, most small businesses do not tend to build applications using Microsoft's Office VBA code, and those that do are probably not good candidates for a Linux office, so moving to OpenOffice should be a straightforward process. But solution providers will still need to carve out a migration plan with customers to reduce as much of the manual work as possible.

Even when it seems to be a simple migration job, everything can go awry. For instance, something as simple as opening files such as Microsoft Access MDBs is not possible with OpenOffice. Instead, solution providers have to extract data from Access tables through DAO or ODBC, and then they have to manually build the relationships, queries and other database objects. OpenOffice's database uses HSQLDB as its engine.

Other semi-manual steps might be necessary as well if customers use many advanced features in Excel and Word. Formulas, for instance, require a manual transfer, and solution providers can easily get caught in the conversion minutiae.

Customers that want to continue using Microsoft Office need not abandon Linux altogether. Solution providers can use Samba's sharing services on the server to help Windows users share files across a network.

In addition to OpenOffice, solution providers should also demonstrate the Linux desktop look and feel and its file manager to customers before proposing a migration. Navigating through the Linux file system can take some acclimation.

"I think interoperability within all these platforms is going to help everybody," said Robert Kennedy, CEO of Computer Creations, a Centreville, Ohio-based solution provider and system builder. Kennedy said many technical issues remain unanswered, and compatibility issues are on the list.

Fortunately, not everything is hard. The OpenOffice community has done a great job creating file translators for Microsoft Office. Most of the files supported by Microsoft Office can be translated into OpenOffice and vice versa. With the exception of Office 2007's docx format, the other file formats are interchangeable.

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