How can I run MS Access 2003 on Linux?

[AZgl1800]

[ Split from Steam now lets you play Windows games on Linux as this is not about gaming. ]

Is Steam good for any applications outside of Games?

I have zero interest in games.

[catweazel]

Is Steam good for any applications outside of Games?

I have zero interest in games.

[AZgl1800]

Even if you've ZERO interest in games, you should be celebrating this news.
Why? Linux adoption.

I would say the top 3 reasons people won't switch to Linux are (and not necessarily in the order listed):
1. Lack of games.
2. Lack of MS office.
3. Lack of iTunes.

With the serious weight of Valve on the case with (1), a major barrier is crumbling and with more users enticed to Linux more developers will come, whether from switching to Linux themselves or wishing to tap into the growing market, and that can only be a good thing for software availability, games and otherwise.

Okay,
right now, my only interest, and that of my daughter, is MS Office.

I installed Steam on my experimental OS and when I saw that it was going to require me to pay a subscription fee to use it, I stopped, and uninstalled it.

So, what would it cost to use Steam to run MS Office?
My daughter absolutely refuses to use Office365 because of the ongoing subscription costs.

as of right now, that is the ONLY THING holding her to Windows, because we own MS Office 2003 and it still does everything we need. We must have ACCESS, and I am noticing that even in Peppermint ICE, that ACCESS is not included.

I search the internet and only found two threads on the topic, none mentioned the recurring cost to run MSOffice on Steam.

[xenopeek]

Steam does not have a subscription fee to use it. A few games have a monthly subscription fee but Steam itself is free to use.

As for MS Office, I can't find that on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/search/? ... egory1=994.

Ultimately everything MS offers is likely to be subscription and/or "pay with your data" based.

If you won't unshackle yourself from MS Access you can possibly run it through Wine. PlayOnLinux has an installer script for MS Office 2003. Reports about how well (or not) MS Access works on Wine shows mixed results and things not working fully but those are all dated. If you switch your system to a more current Wine version you might possibly be able to get it to work well enough for your needs. It will take work (winetricks and such). Not knowing what you're doing with MS Access my first instinct is to say a better and longer-term solution is to invest that time in migrating to another (free/libre software) solution.

[Pierre]

the older versions of M$ Office - do often work the better:
https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibili ... ffice-2003

whereas the newer versions, has even less support, and the most recent versions,
- that do have the least amount of support - - The Challenge of Supporting Microsoft Office 2016:
https://www.codeweavers.com/about/blogs ... ffice-2016

[xenopeek]

the older versions of M$ Office - do often work the better:
https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibili ... ffice-2003

Yeah, but note specifically MS Access 2003: https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibili ... ccess-2003

[Pierre]

that Microsoft Access has always been a PiTA - - almost as bad as getting Adobe Products to work.

in fact, I'm not aware of anyone, actually getting Microsoft Access to work,, at least properly.

[AZgl1800]

Okay,

I will reinstall Steam.... when it talked of subscriptions, I quit...

I own MSOffice Pro 2003 and ACCESS is part of that package.

so, will give that a try tomorrow.

I don't use ACCESS, my daughter does, she is quite good at it.

[xenopeek]

To be clear, installing Steam won't help to run MS Access.

[AZgl1800]

To be clear, installing Steam won't help to run MS Access.

?? but I thought that 2003 MSOffice will install and run on Steam?
if that is the case, then our Pro version of Office includes ACCESS.

[catweazel]

?? but I thought that 2003 MSOffice will install and run on Steam?

How did you arrive at that conclusion? It's wrong.

if that is the case, then our Pro version of Office includes ACCESS.

MS Access will not run properly under Wine, even the version with a gold rating has major issues. It never has worked properly.

[AZgl1800]

https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibili ... ffice-2003

indicated that it would run, but maybe only under Crossfire which is not a freebie.

AFIAC, Steam is a waste of space. I have no use for it at all.

[catweazel]

https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibili ... ffice-2003

indicated that it would run, but maybe only under Crossfire which is not a freebie.

AFIAC, Steam is a waste of space. I have no use for it at all.

Did you take grumpy pills this morning?

[Pierre]

Okay,
right now, my only interest, and that of my daughter, is MS Office.

~

So, what would it cost to use Steam to run MS Office?
My daughter absolutely refuses to use Office365 because of the ongoing subscription costs.

as of right now, that is the ONLY THING holding her to Windows, because we own MS Office 2003 and it still does everything we need. We must have ACCESS, and I am noticing that even in Peppermint ICE, that ACCESS is not included.

I search the internet and only found two threads on the topic, none mentioned the recurring cost to run MSOffice on Steam.

unfortunately for you, is that Microsoft has you, over the proverbial barrel . . .
- have you had a closer look at LibreOffice Base ? that is your only real alternative.

[JayBird707]

I use Access for two non-profits I do volunteer work for. I started with Wine went to Crossover and finally reached a stable solution running Windows and MSOffice in a virtual machine. So if you have a your Windows and MSOffice disks your good to go. Most people use VirtualBox, I happen to use VMWare Player. VirtualBox is right in your Software Manager, VMWare has to be downloaded from website.

[catweazel]

VirtualBox is right in your Software Manager

Most of us recommend the download version as the version in the repositories is old and broken.

[AZgl1800]

I have had VB installed on my laptop for a long time, and a copy of WinXP there just for grins.
but it is not for myself, this is for my daughter and she is Linux ignorant.

I was trying to KISS for her...

for now, I have Peppermint 9 installed, and with ICE she can get to the MSOffice suite, provided I can get her to boot into Linux, instead of Win10.

I have done what I can for her, if Win10 craps in her nest too much, she can dual boot over into Linux and kiss them goodbye... until that time, I have told her it is there for you to use.... if not, I tried.

[phd21]

HI AZgl1500,

I just read your post and some of the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Okay, right now, my only interest, and that of my daughter, is MS Office. I installed Steam on my experimental OS and when I saw that it was going to require me to pay a subscription fee to use it, I stopped, and uninstalled it. So, what would it cost to use Steam to run MS Office? My daughter absolutely refuses to use Office365 because of the ongoing subscription costs. As of right now, that is the ONLY THING holding her to Windows, because we own MS Office 2003 and it still does everything we need. We must have ACCESS, and I am noticing that even in Peppermint ICE, that ACCESS is not included. I search the internet and only found two threads on the topic, none mentioned the recurring cost to run MSOffice on Steam.

I always thought the really nice "Steam" system for Linux was for gamers only.

1.) If you want to fully install MS Office or any software designed for MS Windows, you can install Virtualbox and install a version of MS Windows in that along with any MS Windows applications and run them while still within Linux Mint. But, you must have enough computer system resources (system memory Ram >4gb) to do that efficiently and effectively (very cool). You can certainly try it and see if it works for you and or your daughter.

The link below is the best and fastest method I have seen to install Virtualbox and MS Windows, please read it carefully.
How to install a Windows in VirtualBox - Easy Linux tips project
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... ct/oldgrub

2.) Can you briefly explain, why the urgent necessity to have MS Access database installed? Does she program in MS Access or need to access MS Access data for work or something else? There are other posts in this forum on MS Access with good information.

- The Calligra Office Suite application called "Kexi" available as part of that office suite or as a stand-alone application (including AppImage) can easily read and import MS Access files.

KEXI Project - "Microsoft Access for Linux" - Home
http://www.kexi-project.org/

The most current Kexi AppImage I could find quickly...
https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/d ... 4.AppImage


3.) The LibreOffice suite can also access MS Access files and there is a really nice add-on called "ucanaccess" that can be used with LibreOffice applications including LibreOffice Base (database). This is Java-based, so you should have the Java runtime(s) installed as well.

UCanAccess download - SourceForge.net
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ucanaccess/

4.) If you search the "Synaptic Package Manager SPM" for "ms access jet", you will see other applications and related packages, "mdbtools", "odbc-mdbtools", etc...



Hope this helps ...

[AZgl1800]

I will look into those later Phil,
appreciate the info, will add it to my Notebook

for now, it is a dead subject, as she isn't willing to reboot into Linux

it is there, if she ever decides to investigate it....

for me? I never use ACCESS,
I use Word, Acel and that is about it...
but that is only if I happen to be using my Win7 desktop for a few minutes....

99.5% of my computer time is now on 18.3 Cinnamon

[MintBean]

The Steam Windows compatibility layer is for use with software purchased with Steam, not software you own from other sources. That said, as per announcement, Proton is open source and where Proton features are deemed useful for Wine they are upstreamed - so you can get the benefit of the development without using Steam.