Microsoft Office 95 Product ID Problems

[debianguy]

I am trying to install Microsoft Office 95 on Wine on a Debian system. During the installation process, a window pops up and asks for the Product ID to be entered. However, the form for entering the product id does not allow the full number to be entered. For example, the first group of numbers is five digits in length, but the form will only accept four numbers. Oddly enough, it will allow a fifth character if it is a letter rather than a number. Similarly, the other groups will all accept groupings that are one digit short of the required number of digits.

Anyway, since it will not allow the entry of the full product id, I cannot move beyond this point in the installation process. Has anyone had a similar experience? Does anyone know of a way to solve this problem?

[oosterhouse]

An alternative = OpenOffice.org

Second alternative = Dual-boot with Windows

[debianguy]

Oosterhouse,

Your reply is really unhelpful and doesn't really address my problem with Wine.

However, since you have brought up unrelated issues, I will address them with you.

First, the spreadsheet in Open Office is a joke and is not worth considering for Excel power users.

Second, I am looking for a way to have a computing environment that is free of Microsoft operating systems. Therefore, dual booting Linux and Windows does not meet my requirements.

Now that we have addressed the overall strategic goals for my trying to install Office under Wine, I hope that someone can address my tactical issues in getting around the product id problem. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.