On Fri, Nov 12, 2004 at 01:35:00PM -0800, Jose Da Silva wrote:
> On Friday 12 November 2004 12:02 pm, Bob Axtell wrote:
> > Any ideas on how/what we need to do? In this way, we can accumulate
> > links and notes from those very satisfied Linux gurus out there.
> 
> What you want to do is "gradually" convert versus going at it "cold turkey".
> To do this, you want to be able to make your computer dual-bootable so that 
> you can easily switch from one os to another, then slowly ween yourself 
> off-of one os and gradually switch over to the new one.
> 
> What you DON'T want to do is drop everything off of your computer, install 
> linux then find out you got yourself in a bind because you are still missing 
> some "must have" windows applications.

That's really the first part of the task. Applications come in three 
categories.

1. Common apps: Browsers, OfficeSuite, E-mail, media playing. The list of
must haves because your system doesn't function without them. You'll find
these mostly covered.

2. Niche apps: Literally items out the cereal box or ultra specialized vertical
applications. It's up to you to figure out if you really need them or not. 
Often you can find equivalent software. MPLab would fall into this category
as gputils is a nearly complete analog for MPLab in the Open Source world.

3. Unavailable apps: These are the tough ones which is a subcategory of #2
above. Apps that you must have that have no true analog. In my Linux career
I classify most educational games and Test prep software in this category.

The first task is to classify your applications usage into these three
categories and then identifying equivalents. One document that is helpful
is here:

http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-lin-soft-en/table.shtml

It lists hundreds of equivalents classes of applications for Windows software.
Almost none are perfect replacements, but many cover a large amount of the
functionality of their equivalent.

> [specifics snipped]

A couple of more suggestions:

1. Consider switching to Open Source equivlents on Windows. Software such as
OpenOffice, FireFox web browser, Thunderbird E-mail reader, the GIMP image
manipulator, and the like are available for Windows. You can try them out
without having to switch. I find they make your machine more secure as they
generally don't respond to virii and worms the same way that IE and Outlook do.

2. Initially consider starting out with a LiveCD for Linux. I often recommend
Knoppix Linux (http://www.knoppix.net) because it can give you a live view
out of the gate and requires no setup whatsoever. It carries about 2G worth
of software compressed on a CD. I like it for novices because it doesn't 
require a huge change just to get started.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

BAJ
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