Yes, you can run MS Office in WINE or even better in Vbox but what about software than can handle Word, Excel and Powerpoint files in Linux? They will suggest LibreOffice, a breakaway from OpenOffice or even OpenOffice. My experience with LibreOffice is not positive. Try opening a 100page+ document with a lot of tables, graphics, numbered paragraphs, references and so on and LibreOffice stammers badly then chokes. But since I fled from Windows for a good reason and returning sheepishly to that fold is not an option, I had to find an alternative. The promising alternative is WPS Office Suite for Linux . It's Chinese but if you run a Debian dialect like I do (Mint Linux) then your search is over. There is a .deb file available. Simple download and double-click to launch the installer. When you run it the first time it shows the sign-in screen blow in Chinese. The information requested is (i) You name to be used as author name in documents you create, (ii) your initials, (iii...