I'm pretty sure crossover office reads the physical CD - after all it
lets you install microsoft windows apps from the cd drive. If your ms
needs are heavy, you could install a virtual peecee on your linux system
with virtualbox - no need to dual boot and ruin your linux uptime just
for some legacy ms app.

Too bad my processor can't handle Crossover Office, and just because it can
install from a cd doesn't mean it can read data from a cd 'cause wine can
install from a cd too!

I'm not sure what you mean by your "processor can't handle crossover
office" - crossover office is wine, and you seemed to be asking for help
running microsoft apps under wine. If that's not what you want to do,
then what is it that we can help you with?

No compatibility layers are needed to read data from a cd. Ubuntu can do that
natively. You should only have an issue where the format of the data requres an
interpreter of some sort to be read on screen.