Alright as the topic states I am here because I am ticked at microsoft and the crappy product they make. I want to move to linux and more than likely Mandrake or Red Hat.

My large problem is that I run a business and I need to still have the abilty to run a few programs that are windows based namely quickbooks, and medisoft. Is there any way to accomplish this task within linux.

Also which is the better product Mandrake or Red Hat?

Thanks in advance

I'm not sure about those specific programs but check out http://winehq.org for that. I'd go with Mandrake between those two. Welcome to LQ.

This alone is not the best of reasons...
But, you would be better off to try Linux out in steps to be sure it meets your needs and you are able to use it.
Running Windows applications in Linux is not a terrific idea. Some people have sucess. Besides the link above, Codeweavers may be worth checking out or contacting.

If your running a business and using Windows based software you may want to check out something like vmware

What is VMware? what does it do? I can't say that I have ever heard of it.

VMware is a computer emulator ... that is it emulates the harware of a computer so you can install another OS inside the current one (for exmaple you can install vmware under you linux distro and then install windows inside vmware)
http://www.vmware.com/

Its somewhat slow instead you have a powerfull machine ...

You have in the other hand wine (as said above) wich emulates the windows api (the way that programs "talk" to the OS) and can get you completly ride of microsoft's crap ....
Check here if the programs you require run ine under wine http://appdb.winehq.org/
or try to find native linux substitutes ...

Hope that helps !

but if you install windows inside vmware you still require the eternal license from microsoft. vmware is powerful but just like microsoft, you also need license for it. $$