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