can linux read microsoft documents and vise versa?

5 Comments

1. mr_cabbageman says:

   19. March 2011 at 10:01

   If you mean Microsoft Office documents, yes – most of those formats can be read using software such as Open Office (a freeware alternative to MS Office), which can open, edit and save back into Microsoft formats.
2. Vishal says:

   19. March 2011 at 10:01

   DOC is not microsoft documents, it’s a universal format.
   Now the universal document format is ".docx" which Office 2007 and the latest version of openoffice.org can open.
3. poetsespresso says:

   19. March 2011 at 10:01

   That question is too general. Linux has some softwares that use the same file types as windows and some that do not.
4. jplatt39 says:

   19. March 2011 at 10:01

   Linux can generally process anything which uses the vfat file system — though now Microsoft has patented it they may demand they take this capability out of it — but Microsoft uses its own proprietary file system in preference to several standards (literally, the elf executable format and ext2 and 3 file systems began as government mandates or standards) and you have to port or copy them over to Microsoft file systems before they can read them.

   Also a specific package is needed. You read .doc files with OpenOffice or AbiWord. Where a given Windows program isn’t available in Linux/Unix (Linux actually uses a lot of free elements which were developed for Unix such as the X-Windows GUI and those file systems I mentioned) there is usually something which will provide the same functionality.
5. l d says:

   19. March 2011 at 10:01

   OpenOffice and some other programs can read M$’s propriatary doc format. docx is M$’s lastest effort to force people to "upgrade" to the next version of word – older versions of word can’t read or save in that format either, and neither can the latest version of OpenOffice.

   M$ word can not (to my knowledge read or write) odt files (the open document standard that is being accepted around the world).