Installing Microsoft Office 2000 on FreeBSD 5.3

FreeBSD, WINE and Microsoft Office typically do not live happily together. Reports on the web indicate that installation and operation is frustrating and fraught with difficulties. As part of a recent bout of enthusiasm, we have spent some time and managed to create a working installation for FreeBSD 5.3. Further, we have documented the entire setup procedure so that it can be replicated. We also provide some preconfigured installation scripts, packages and tar bundles for those who do not wish to do everything manually. This report describes the installation procedure that we have undertaken. Following a brief discussion on FreeBSD versions, we step through the four basic steps required to get it all working: Creating the .wine directory (Installation of Microsoft Office) on Linux, FreeBSD Configuration, Installation and configuration of CUPS, Installation of WINE, Integration with the KDE Desktop. Note: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and Microsoft Office 2000 are licensed products. You must ensure you have licenses for all copies of these software packages you wish to run. We take no responsibility for unlicensed installations of Microsoft Office 2000 under FreeBSD and Linux. If you are inside CAIA, you may wish to read the CAIA specific MS Office 2000 Tech Report TR 041203A (http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/543).