I have started to use Open Office and GIMP and am HUGELY impressed! I currently use Vista as my OS but I am seriously thinking of using Linux as my OS!
I have been able to transfer most of my files to be editable through Open Office and will start using GIMP a lot more.
I need an alternative to MS Money and then I will seriously think about changing to Linux.
Is there anywhere with a list of Linux Compatible programs and will all my hardware (some old some new, run on Linux (as they do on Vista) - will all my drivers need replacing?
And any further tips you think would help the "changeover"?

Welcome to LQ! We hope you like it here!

We've got a software equivalence list on our wiki. As for the hardware, your best bet might be to boot a live CD to see how well your hardware is supported by Linux - you won't need to make any modifications to the data on your hard drive. I'd recommend Ubuntu (the installation disk doubles as a live CD), but only because I've had good experiences with it. You've got plenty of choices, as should be evident if you check out the Wikipedia link I've given you.

Welcome to LinuxQuestions and the community in general! I have been helping a few people get used to linux, and from my experience Linux Mint (http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php) is the easiest to transition to from Winblows. It is based on Ubuntu (also an excellent choice to get your feet wet), but includes some of the prorietary codecs and drivers that winblows users are so used to (and may have need for with their currently saved media, etc.). Plus there is an excellent tutorial (http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfec...-mint-8-helena) that takes one through the process of making your box a winblows replacement. This tutorial is available for other distros as well, just google 'the perfect desktop <distroname>'.

Thank You - Very helpful - I'm sure I'll be back with more questions - Thanks!

Find more applications that run on both Linux and Vista and start using them on Vista. That way you will have less to learn after the changeover. For all the programs you use, check the equivalence list given above. Here are some more equivalence links:

• http://wiki.blug.ro/index.php/Alternative_Software
• http://www.linuxalt.com/
• http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html http://www.linuxappfinder.com/alternatives http://www.osalt.com/
• http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/applicat...ences_by_group
• http://www.nawaz.org/wiki/index.php?...of_Equivalents

Useful orientation: Linux is not Windows.

My recommendation for your request for a Linux version of Microsoft money is Gnu Cash. I have been using it now for three years to manage my own finances and those of a small non profit organization plus two Financial Trusts. I find it very flexible and quick to use. You will need to make some mental adoptions to the Gnu Cash terminology such as accounts used in stead of categories. It imports financial files in a few formats including csv so you should be able to avoid having to re-enter existing data. Gnu Cash is capable of some on line banking functions but I have not used these so I can not comment on them. The distribution I use Open Suse includes Gnu Cash but it is downloadable for the distribution yo select.

I used Microsoft Money since the mid 90's through to Money 2005. Just this last year (2009) I started using gnucash and have been able to adjust quite well.

In comparison, MS Money is more like a checkbook register and gnucash is more like Quicken/Quickbooks, leaning towards a full fledged accounting package.

The reporting is done a little differently. In MS Money you would go to a report, then build your criteria (query) and then produce the report. In gnucash, you go do the query first and produce the report off of the query. Once you get used to that it works fantastic.

After more than a decade of using MS Money changing software was a bit of a scary notion but after 6 months with gnucash I am comfortable I didn't lose any information.

Note: I went into MS Money and shut off all automatic transactions so that I could have a static cut off point with MS Money. As I moved all the information over to gnucash, I was able to ensure all my balances were accurate to that point in time.

Good luck