At the end of the installation process, I click Configure Now, which brings up the dialog box shown in Figure 3. I don't use an HTTP proxy so I just pass that section right by, but if I did use one I'd sure be glad to see that this product supports proxying. After a moment, I find myself in the main setup section, shown in Figure 4.

Right now, the setup section tells me that I don't have MS Office or Lotus Notes installed, nor do I have the selection of TrueType fonts that come along with this combination. This brings me to the really exciting part. I put my Microsoft Office 2000 CD-ROM into my CD-ROM drive, make sure Microsoft Office is selected in the setup window, and then click the Add button to open the dialog box shown in Figure 5.

I leave the default of CD-ROM and click OK to proceed, and after a sequence of brief progress bars and dialog boxes, I have the distinctly surreal experience of seeing the MS Office 2000 initial installation screen on my Linux desktop (Figure 6). I choose the custom installation option and alter the defaults a bit, though I leave the install location in the default position within the virtual drive CrossOver Office set up, and the MS Office 2000 installation chugs happily along.

As all large program suites do, the installation takes a while, though I don't think it took any longer than it does on a Windows box. Then I hear a beep, so I look at the Linux box and there's the dialog box shown in Figure 7--which gives me a good chuckle. As per the instructions, I flip a coin and click No to whether I want to reboot now or not.

Once the simulated reboot finishes, the MS Office 2000 installation proceeds. When I reach the Windows Update dialog box the process seems to halt, and I sit watching to see whether the installer crashed or is just working behind the scenes. Sure enough, it was just quietly busy. Soon I see the Installation Report dialog box shown in Figure 8.

Now, this portion is a bit contrary to what the documentation says. Or, more precisely, I'm expecting the checkboxes I'm seeing in the Installation Report dialog box to be elsewhere. Once I take a moment to orient myself I set up the MIME associations, only letting the Windows software automatically open its own file types (my own personal preference). Once I click OK, I'm back to the main CrossOver Office 1.0.0 Setup screen, but this time Microsoft Office is listed as installed. I click Finish to close the Setup dialog box and get ready to try everything out.

Next: Running Microsoft Office 2000 on SuSE Linux 7.3 »