Vista, not ready for prime time. (Suprise there!)

News flash!!!! Vista is a work in progress.

Now that I have your attention, let me explain whay that's good for the Linux and Mac communities. First, while Microsoft spent 5 years building Vista, a product they say is a work in progress, RedHat has released several releases. If memory serves correctly, they were on RedHat 7 or 8 when Longhorn was announced. Since then, they've released RedHat 9, migrated from a one distribution model to one with a community edition (Fedora) and an enterprise server (RedHat Enterprise) Fedora is now on release 8, and probably had about 6 before Vista came out, RHE is on 5 and probably had 4 before Vista came out. Why is this important? It shows that by building on what was already available rather than starting from scratch, they were able to add features, and make a product more usable than those of yesteryear, all without making the public wait years for a release. In that same time frame, Debian Linux had several releases, as did SuSE. Ubuntu came into existence and is now one of the best distributions for beginners.
Given that I like to talk about Linux so much, you may be wondering WHY I brought up Mac. Apple did something truely extraordinary in that same time frame. They REWROTE their entire operating system. Mac OSX (that's OS "10") is based on entirely different kernel than before. OSX is based on FreeBSD with a Mac interface. This was a good thing for Apple. The reason being is it allowed them to gain some of us "unix heads" by giving us access to a command window where we can use all the unix tools we're used to, such as sed, awk and shell scripting to name a few. Second, it put them on an open platform; one that allowed them to do the extraordinary. They changed their supported cpu from IBM and Motorola based Power PC RISC chips to Intel based architecture. So, in the same time Microsoft was "tinkering" with Windows so they could release a "Work In Progress" Apple moved to a new platform, new hardware, and STILL makes computers that "Just Work." Maybe it's time we all "think different".

Why Migrate to linux?

The answer is simple. When the big companies (Dell, and Gateway for example) are recommending to downgrad to XP, there might be something to it. Now, check out what some others are saying about why xp is better than vista.

Today, I'm going to tell you of just a few tools available that may make the migrate a little easier. Some of these you can even use IN Windows to see how you like them. Don't worry, you don't have to spend a dime (isn't free software great? )

Office Suite: You're probably like everyone else on the planet (or most people) and write documents and maybe a spreadsheet every now and then. Maybe you're a "power user" in Office and are convinced there is no alternative out there.
If you haven't seen it yet, Office 2007 completely changes everything. Like your dropdown menus? Say goodbye to them, because they're gone. Now everything in the interface icon driven. Might be nice for some, but so far, I've not talked to anyone who's used it who likes the new interface (present company included). So what can you do?
Download OpenOffice from http://www.openoffice.org. Open Office is a FREE office suite. It started in the mid '90s as "StarOffice" and was ok at best during that timeframe. Later in life, StarOffice was purchased by Sun Microsystems, and not long after that, it really started making some progress. The interface is great, it reads/writes most MS Office documents, provided they don't have macros (it MAY work with those two, I don't know, I've never used a macro). The spreadsheet has formulas that work very similar to MS Office formulas, AND it even has a database that looks and feels a lot like Access.
It runs on Windows so you can try it before making the jump to Ubuntu linux (which I'll be explaining how to install in a couple of weeks, so keep checking back).

Internet Explorer 7 is much better than previous versions, but again, they've hidden the menu. Granted, you can get it back, but if you're reading this, you are probably sick of Windows and looking for alternatives by now. If you haven't already, download Firefox from http://www.mozilla.com. Again, no charge for this one. The newer version (version 3, currently in beta 5 or 6) passes the ACID 3 test for standards compliance.

stuck on outlook for mail? if you're not using the calendar, also from mozilla.com, checkout thunderbird. This is a nice mail client. No frills, but works well. If you need calendar as well, mozilla.com has sunbird and lightning. I have not used these, but they are there.

This should be enough to get you started with free software, in the comfort of your current system. We'll talk about finance software another day.
James

So, have you started yet?

After my last post, I wonder if you've taken the jump and downloaded Linux. Let me go back a step and explain why I recommended Ubuntu or KUbuntu for this. It's not the only distro out there, in fact there are tons of Linux distribtutions to chose from. So why Ubuntu? Well to answer that question quickly, because it's one of the easiest distributions for beginners to start with. I use Ubuntu on my laptop, while I use others on my desktop (like Fedora, CentOS, Slackware, and I've played with Gentoo) While these other distributions are great in their own right, none of them are as "desktop friendly" as Ubuntu. Desktop Linux has really been made a reality by that one distribution. Wireless works out of the box with it. It's easy to keep updated. For new users, there simply isn't a better distibution out there.
So, have you started yet?

Tired of Windows, or sick of Vista?

Are you tired of using Windows, or afraid of what Vista has in store for you? Do you think there are no other options in operating systems so you just keep using what you know?
If so, I have the solution for you! Things you'll need, are a computer, some patients, and a commitment to get out of the microsoft world once and for all!
How?
Begin migrating to Linux.
Linux has come a long way since the early days when it was just a platform for geeks and developers. Today, the user interfaces have become much easier to use, and if you don't want to, you very rarely need to open a terminal window. The communities support their own unlike anything you've ever seen before. Don't believe me? Just open another browser window, and type "Linux Printing" into any search engine, and you'll see what I mean.
Apps.
I know, without apps, what's the point in the system. Well, if you haven't tried Office 2007 yet, consider yourself lucky. The interface has completely changed, and now seems (in my opinion) clunky (I use it at work). Fortunately, you don't need to use Office any more. There are plenty of other options out there, including the wonderful world of FREE (Yes, that's right, FREE) systems such as OpenOffice.org. Today, it even has a database you can use.
I'll be using this forum to show you how to try, install, setup and use Linux as an alternative to Windows.
We'll start today. The first thing I suggest is if you've not used Linux before, download the install image. Again, if you're new to Linux, I recommend Ubuntu Linux. To date, it's the easiest linux distrobution to use. You can get it at www.ubuntu.com (or www.kubuntu.com if you like a litte MORE eye candy). They have a "Live" CD. The nice thing about this, is you can try Ubuntu without installing it on your PC. Just put the CD in the drive and reboot. It will boot to Ubuntu and you can play with it and get familiar with it without losing anything on your current Windows setup. Of course, you can't SAVE anything either, but that's fine for now. Just download it and get familiar with it for now. I'll show you how to install it later.

James