Read doc file via PHP? how

Hi all,
I want to read file doc via PHP, The only way that i have found is to used com object, which means that the server should be windows based.
The problem that the server in Lunix, so the com object method is useless here.
2 years ago i found PHP class that read xls files without com object, there is no one for doc ? and why its possible to read xls file and not doc ?
Thanks

You can convert a word document with antiword tool:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiword
then process the resulting file with PHP.