Have you tried Crossover Office? I've heard from a Linux guy in my office that it runs many of the apps that you run under Windows (it even does Lotus Notes!).
I haven't tried it yet because I'm too cheap to buy it right now. I'm dual-booting my laptop with MEPIS and Win2000 right now and haven't made the switch to Linux-only (yet). I had SUSE 9.2, but I like MEPIS better (except that I can't get the bootloader to boot Windows by default like I could with SUSE, oh well.)
I have heard great things about CO but i have never had the need for it OpenOffice does 99% of what I need.
Are you using LILO or GRUB for your bootloader? This is assuming your bootloader is Linux, rather than Windows.