Ive been contemplating switching to linux for a while now (from XP). My biggest concern is having the programs that I need, or programs that are equivalent. The most important being:

Homesite
Filezilla
Photoshop
iTunes
Multiple Web Browsers (Exploder, Firefox, Opera ect. for web testing)

It would be mostly for home use however I do work on some web design/programming (mostly php, if that matters)

I dont mind taking the time to learn the ropes, however I want to make sure its even possible to do all the things I do now. As you can tell i know very little about Linux so what would be the best, er, 'type'(?) to begin with?

Thanks in advance,
Mitch

Homesite is easily replaced by any text editor. There are also GUI programs available, like Bluefish, Quanta, etc.

Filezilla is just an ftp program to my knowledge. You probably have several dozen varieties of these in Linux.

Photoshop is easily replaceable by The Gimp.

Not sure about iTunes but you can use gtkPod to load and unload music to your iPod, just can't buy from Apple that is.

Every browser runs on Linux natively except IE. You can us Wine or the like to run it.

You'll get a lot of arguments about how easily The Gimp replaces Photoshop.

I use The Gimp occasionally for the most basic of things, and I consider The Gimp to be a royal PITA to use, but I don't use Photoshop at all so I have no dog in this fight.

However, the OP would do well to look into that issue and decide for himself.

Well, I was a long time user of Photoshop. I thought at first The Gimp wasn't as good, probably because I'm lazy and was so use to Photoshop. When I finally rid myself of Windows altogether 6 or 7 years ago, I forced myself to do everything in The Gimp instead of the usual quick edit tasks. I actually now realize that The Gimp is better for me, I can do everything I did in Photoshop and more. But you are right, depends on the user and everything they did within the program. Photoshop still has things it does that Gimp doesn't.

For exploder look at ies4linux.

You can install Safari (and IE) via WINE, that should make itunes easy to use. Opera has a Linux port.

For html editing, there is Kompozer, Bluefish, Quanta, Screem, ... PHP can be edited in some of those but you can also use GPHPEdit or Eclipse with a PHP plug-in (Aptana).

Filezilla is available for Linux too.

The major stumbling block could be Photoshop. Here again WINE could come in handy (I have run Macromedia Studio on it without any issues) but I have never tested it. The GIMP now also supports CMYK so that should make it more of an alternative than it used to be (at least that is what designers tell me, my knowledge in this area is limited to say the least).

The only problem might be iTunes - I tried gtkpod, but it's nowhere near as good as itunes.
Not that iTunes is any exceptionally good piece of software, but at least it does work with my ipod Classic