There is a long-time existed obstacle of Microsoft software products usage in Unix/Linux environment. Microsoft Excel is definitely one of the most important programs for a typical user. Hundreds of millions of XLS files with different information exist and millions are created every day. Not only users work with XLS files on their local machines but they also want to use such files in the Internet. Taking into account the fact that the great majority of Web servers are operational under Unix/Linux we can clearly recognize the question about XLS file reading under Unix/Linux. The good news is that the problem has already been solved...
