I know that this is a heresy for many, but being objective, many Windows users who already know the benefits of GNU Linux does not have the great leap because they have not found programs similar to those used in Windows. And it's not because these programs not exist or because they are not quality, in matter of fact, in most cases, applications for GNU Linux are better than the Windows applications. This is because the so-called learning curve: If you have already taken their time in learning how to use something so, change the paradigm will reject change and remain as they are. And although many not like the new look of Office 2007, I must say that I found it much productive to do the everyday things, but if you are advanced user of Office 2003, you will find it difficult to understand.

While OpenOffice can open files and Office 2007 I must admit that much still lacks consistency. And if we add to this that I have already grown accustomed to the new interface and features of the 2007 version, OpenOffice is not for me. That is why I have spent looking for the ways to run MS Office 2007 via Wine in Ubuntu, and finally found a tutorial that allowed me to succeed.

The steps, which are not few, that I used and I have did some little changes that I used to run MS Office 2007 on my GNU Linux Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron.

Step 1. First of all, make sure to do (or have) an installation of Wine as clean as possible. To install Wine:

sudo aptitude install wine

Step 2. Now we need to install the .NET Framework in its version 1 at least (preferably version 1 and 2) and the VisualBasic Runtimes. For this we will use a script which get using wget console:

wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

Step 3. We need install Cabextract to run the script smoothly

sudo aptitude install cabextract

Step 4. Run the script by following command:

sh winetricks

In the new window opened, we select to install the following:

• dotnet11
• dotnet20
• vb3run
• vb4run
• vb5run
• vb6run

Note: I recommend install one by one (ie, select one and once installed, run again and select again) because at least to me, the dotnet20 package produce me an error, however, others are installed and my Office ran smoothly.

Step 5. Configure Wine. Go to Applications> Wine> Configure Wine. In the tab Applications find option Version to Imitate and define it to Windows Vista. Now, in the tab Libraries defines rpcrt4.dll and msxml3.dll as native Windows.

Step 6. Go to ~/.wine/windows/system32 and removes files rpcrt4.dll and msxml3.dll. Download now the replace of rpcrt4.dll from here. Once downloaded copy the file to rpcrt4.dll ~/.wine/windows/system32.

Step 7. Download the installer MSXML page from Microsoft. Download the English version. Once downloaded, proceeded to his installation through console. If you downloaded to your desktop the command would like this:

msiexec /i ~/Escritorio/msxml3.msi

Step 8. Insert your CD of MS Office 2007, run with a double click setup.exe or if you want (and to see what possible errors shedding) from console via Wine, this, being in the installation folder:

wine setup.exe

Step 9. Now configure Wine to imitate to Windows 2000, that, following the Step 5 defining Windows 2000 instead of Windows Vista.

Step 10. Follow the instructions of the installer.  Open an application like Word to prove that everything works .

That's it all. MS Office should be installed and at least Word and Excel, functional.

Note: If at some point you console throws lines like these:

preloader: Warning: failed to reserve range 00000000-60000000
err:dosmem:setup_dos_mem Cannot use first megabyte for DOS address space,
please report

Run in terminal

sudo sysctl -w vm.mmap_min_addr=0

Now, repeat the step that produce the mistake. If everything works well now, to make the change permanent, do the following: Run in terminal

sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

And find this line:

vm.mmap_min_addr = 65536

And replace it with this:

vm.mmap_min_addr = 0

Now, Office 2007 should run without problems.

Here's a video with the steps according to the original tutorial

Via: QuickTweaks