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I am running on XP but would like to escape the world of Windows. However, I need ready access to all my files created in MS Word,Excel etc and would like to know whether they can still be used or whether the data can be transferred across. Can I work on Excel spreadsheets in Libreoffice for instance or access my emails in Outlook?

Trumpet
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    Yes, you should be able to- there may be some rendering errors depending on the document. However, you can use MS Office 2007 in Wine in Ubuntu. Even more, ThunderBird provides a great E-mail service that you can use with Outlook. Glad to know that you are taking the step to Linux! Good luck! – negusp Nov 03 '16 at 11:10
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    @PatrickNegus is right. You can run MS Office 2007 in wine. However, just for stability and fluency reasons, it could be more ideal to batch convert to LibreOffice format. There are converters you can find online. – anonymous2 Nov 03 '16 at 11:34
  • Have you enough space to run in dual boot? Give some information of your partitions. – Julien Chau Nov 03 '16 at 12:04
  • 1 thing to be aware of: if you use them ... macro's in windows are made in visualbasic. That is the one thing regarding office you can not use in Linux. If you use those you might need to replace those by python versions. – Rinzwind Nov 03 '16 at 12:42
  • Answers to this question will largely be opinion-based because everyone has a unique computing use case and needs. The files you mention you want to access/use may or may not work with e.g., LibreOffice (macros, advanced formatting, embedded objects/files. etc.), but without more information about all your files we can't possibly confirm whether they will. Plus, how willing/able are you to workaround or fix things on your own if say 95% of what you need works? Is that "good enough" for you? There are too many variables here for a definitive answer. – amc Nov 03 '16 at 13:46
  • That being said, @Takkat's answer "try out Ubuntu and see if it covers what you need" is the best advice. – amc Nov 03 '16 at 13:48
  • Many thanks for all the feedback. The situation is that 90% of what I do is on MS Word and Phototshop with the rest being Excel (invoicing and accounts) and occasionally Microsoft Expression web which I know is ancient but it keeps my website up to date(ish). I don't want to start loading too much more on to the hard drive as I need the space for image files so I'm thinking that I might get another PC and run it in parallel, gradually migrating over if I get on with it. I already have Thunderbird which I use for my old email address and can happily work with that. – Trumpet Nov 03 '16 at 18:41

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To quickly find out whether your computer and your data are ready for Ubuntu I recommend booting the Ubuntu installer CD/USB with the "Try Ubuntu" option.

The steps I took before making the switch from Windows XP to Ubuntu some years ago was that I

  1. installed Open Source alternatives of software in Windows. These mainly were Libre Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, and The Gimp.

    All of my email was copied in the cloud to an IMAP folder of an email provider that allows IMAP. I was then able to not only import my mail to any application I wish but also to all of my devices.

    After a while I got familiar with these applications, and had all my documents put in a format I knew I will be able to use later. Mostly I realized that a conversion was not needed because Libre Office was able to read and write my MS Office documents.

  2. installed Virtualbox in Windows to be able to get familiar with Ubuntu in a virtual machine where errors I made were easy to repair and did not cause much damage. I had a lot of fun playing around with Ubuntu.

  3. Quite soon (days rather than weeks) I realized I would be ready for the switch (in fact I could no longer wait for Ubuntu installed on bare metal). To make sure my data were still accessible I installed Ubuntu as a dual boot solution. By this I could choose to boot Ubuntu or my Windows, whichever I needed. I realized that I could access all of my Windows files from Ubuntu but none of my Ubuntu files from Windows. That's why I mostly booted Ubuntu.

  4. After a year or so I found I had not booted Windows for months. That was the time to completely get rid of it.

Now my kids would want Windows back for the shiny games that won't run on Ubuntu. But I can manage this up to day by choosing games that can be run natively on Ubuntu, or (if it really really must) that can be run from Wine.

For the very few exceptions which Ubuntu does not handle too well (proprietary software for printing) I keep a Windows in a virtual machine.

Community
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Takkat
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  • Thanks Takkat, I guess it's a question of breaking out of the comfort zone and just getting on with it as much as anything else. The email solution was much appreciated, I've been on outlook for a couple of years so it is already on the cloud but no idea about the IMAP angle. Incidentally, one of the reasons I want to get out of the world according to MS is that I mentioned the Arran Islands in an email to a friend, within the hour Linkedin was suggesting that I connect with the head of tourism there! – Trumpet Nov 03 '16 at 18:50
  • @Trumpet For me the comfort zone started with Ubuntu: no more virus scans, all software in one secure place. People using our data for advertising is to my believe much more an issue of whom we tell what than of the OS we use. I think we should not blame MS for sometimes inevitable leaks in our privacy fences. – Takkat Nov 03 '16 at 19:01