Hello linux people!!!

My name is Paul, and I am seriously contemplating a migration to linux.
But I need some Questions answered.

1.) Which linux Distro. should I consider for my @ home pc while I learn,
while still being able to eventually load it into my office pc ?????

2.) Mandrake screenshots show a desktop with windows programs running on it. ie Outlook, Media Player, Internet explorer 6 sp1,,, Is this really possible????


3.) What type of security programs are available, or do you have to make your own????



Please help!!!!!! Microsoft is really killing me here





Paulv

Some Windows programs will run under WINE, but not many. For the programs you've mentioned there are Linux-native substitutes which work just as well (or even better).

As a relative beginner I found SuSE best. Coming from Windows you'll find its setup and configuration tools very simple to use.

I believe most if not all distros come with a firewall, and Linux itself is more secure than Windows from the start. Viruses etc. are usually programmed with the majority of PCs in mind (and therefore Windows), using Windows-specific weaknesses Linux simply doesn't share. I'm told that there is no working Linux virus at all. Unless you're actually working as root all the time a virus couldn't even do much harm if there was one.

Robin

1) Mandrake, SuSE or RedHat. They're popular and easy.
2) You can run some programs using wine, but they'll be very slow (emulation). It's much better to use replacements. Kmail or Evolution for Outlook (they're much more secure), Xine or Mplayer for Media Player, Mozilla, Firefox or Opera for IE. There's good choice.
3) Firewall comes in most distros (but a tool to write your own, iptables, is in all). You don't need an antivirus.

Thanks for the timely replies!

So all of my micro$*&@ office programs would be basically of no use to me?? Are the office products with linux rated well?? I really dont mean to sound ignorant,, but this is my first stop in my persuit of ditching microsoft.

Any suggestions for the office products???

Thanks a whole bunch for your advice in advance,,

Paulv

OpenOffice.org can read and write MS Office files (not all, but most of them). Well...you can test it on Windows (www.openoffice.org)

well, either try WINE, make a duel boot, or just use Windows XP Professional(sorry to say it, but IMO that's the best OS to use right now.).

I'd be using XP Pro if I had $200 to piss away, but since I don't, I'm going with the next best thing. Linux baby!

Microsoft Office is reported to run well on Crossover Office, a commercial version of wine, but I personally wouldn't even use the bloated stuff (MS Office, I mean) in Windows.

Robin

I have been running Mandrake 9.1 for some time - and I've come to the conclusion that the only reason I am dual-booting is the games!
I keep it simple - Mandrake for work and WinXP for fun.
I run the latest version of the Mozilla browser, Ximian Evolution for e-mail/calendar/contact management, Kaboodle as media player and Gaim for instant messaging and Open Office as a replacement for Word, Excel and PowerPoint (.ppt only in principle. I am opposed to the time-wasting aspect of presentation programs). K3B is an excellent CD-burning program.
Migrating is easy with Mandrake. It reads a Windows Fat/NTFS partition by default, so moving documents, music and video files is rather easy, as these can be copied directly to the Linux partition.