wine

does anybody tried Wine? what can u say about it?

If you mean this WINE , I use it frequently to execute win32 applications and it's great! In many cases it has even better compatibility with old applications than Windows XP/2000.
What do you want to know about it?

yes that's it, because sometimes i had a thought of migrating some of our PCs to linux and maybe this could help in step by step introducing linux to the enduser (who are mostly ms-oriented), familiarize them first with the Linux OS interface and then afterwards to the OpenOffice. MS licensing is too costly!

do you find this fine with ms office?

Be careful. There are couple things to note with this.

One, until very recently, WINE has been considered to be in Alpha development. I don't remember exactly when, but they are now in BETA development. I guess it really depends on your expertise level and that of your users. Linux migration is great for true geeks and for users that have little or no computer experience. You will find that users that are used to windows will have a hard time grasping linux. This isn't a linux problem but a problem with users tendency to be fearful of change. And there is quite a learning curve for those who are used to doing something one way all their life. Just something you may want to take into account when looking at the migration.

Second, if you use WINE to run an MS application, you still have to follow their EULA. So, if your users need the MS office suite, you still have to own a valid license for MS office.

I use wine to run Outlook in my office because I can't use Evolution until we upgrade our Exchange server off of 5.5. It can be really frustrating getting it to work properly but you will learn a lot in the process.

Good luck.

Drizzle is absolutelly right. WINE can be used for many things but in my opinion it will only make things worse for users that are novice to linux. Wine still has some issues of stability, speed and compatibility and personally I wouldn't use it to run mission-critical applications (like an Office suite).
There is a somewhat polished fork specialized to run Microsoft Office, CrossOver office , but it is commercial. Openoffice is great and has very similar interface, I don't think your users will have difficulties advancing!

PS. Drizzle why is Evolution incompatible with your version of MS exchange?

I can use POP/SMTP just fine. However to get full functionality of the address book and the calendar, you have to use the "Exchange connector" that comes with Evolution. It uses the API's in OWA to pull data for evolution. However, OWA v5.5 doesn't have the API's that are found in 2000/2003.

Please correct me if I am wrong but that was my understanding. Either way it doesn't matter. As much as I hate to say it, we are rolling out Exchange 2003 next month so I can say "bye, bye" to Outlook! Although I'd rather just say goodbye to MS as a whole. I guess you win some and you loose some.