[NCLUG] Living without windows? LONG

[kensharon.morris at att.net]

Hello,
1. There is no Visual Basic for Linux yet that
I know of. 
2. Only 
because of #1 and my inability to get
Approach or Access running on VMware or 
WINE...
did I Spend a hundred bucks and buy Win4Linux ....with NO 
compatability issues as all windows applications run in a windows window in 
linux.  No emulation.  Great Program, you'll have to modify
the kernel, which 
is very well documented.  Check
to see that your kernel is supported before 
buying
or trying it.   Of course you need a copy of win95 
or win98 but most of us 
have at least one copy.
3.  StarOffice and Wordperfect for Linux are 
great
for getting off windows.  If someone sends a file you can't read, ask them 
to resend it in a older 
version like Office97 format.  
4. Opera is the best for 
a browser for either
windows or Linux as you can eliminate popup windows!  Or 
Netscape as a second choice as you
might a couple of issues with webmail popup 
address books.  Email filter feature you can dump all 
emails with hotbox as 
senders name to the trash or
if subject has mortgage in it dump it to 
screened
mail folder...etc.

If you need to share documents which don't 
need to
be changed....get a copy of Adobe 4.0 or so.
Send the files as PDF's 
and wean people off of 
Word.  When you print, you save the file as a 
pdf file 
instead of sending to the printer.

Those are my suggestions...
Ken
> Hi, all-
> 	I'm looking for advice on migrating to linux permanently, for all my 
> computing  needs.  Sound, dogma-free advice would be very much appreciated. 
> Here's the situation:
> 	Around the middle of last week, my windows machine lost its hard drive.  
> I 
> have  an old, partial backup of the system, but it's essentially a 
> start-from-scratch situation.  When I was still trying to get the machine up 
> & running again, I stuck in the hard drive from my (non-functional) linux 
> box, which contained a basically unmolested install of the December release 
> of KRUD 7.2.  To my surprise and amazement, it worked immediately.  
> Apparently, it was hardware peculiarities with my old castaway project 
> machine that kept the box from running in the past; on the "new" Athlon 500, 
> it simply recognized new hardware and started working like it was supposed to.
> 	Now, I have a perfectly legal copy of Windows 98 that I could simply 
> reinstall  on the new hard drive, but I am unwilling to part with my working 
> linux installation.  If I'm starting over, then this is an opportunity to try 
> out a life with linux.  My wife thinks spending for a new hard drive is best 
> avoided. So I told her that, if she's willing to give linux a fair shake, I'm 
> willing to let "us" have "my" hard drive, thereby saving the family a hundred 
> or so bucks.
> This is where the complications start to creep in:
> 1) She is not a computer hobbyist, and wants the simplest user experience
>  availlable to her.  Microsoft doesn't make her angry, but she loses patience
>  quickly with computers that don't do what she expects them to.
> 2) She needs the following capabilities:
> 	-email (no problem, already running)
> 	-web browsing (again, no problem)
> 	-word processing & compatibility with MSWord (StarOffice?)
> 	-scanner use (HP 6200C) & basic image editing (Jasc PaintShop Pro, 
> ideally)
> 	-of course, printing (HP 810C)
> There may be other capabilities that she expects, but hasn't articulated to me
>  yet....
> 
> I am not without my own complications:
> 3) I need the following additional capabilities:
> 	-advanced image manipulation (GIMP, but I'll miss PaintShop Pro...)
> 	-Visual Basic (I teach a VB-for-beginning-programmers class)
> 	-MS Access (another class I teach, plus freelance uses....)
> 	-web and database development (no real problem, though I'll miss 
> TextPad...)
> 	-possibly other web-dev-related apps, like Flash, etc.
> 4) I am not (yet) administrator material with linux.  I've been a user (work
> the file system, use vi, administer apache, some perl for CGI and text 
> munging, and not much else) for a couple years now.
> 
> 	So, I guess my question (finally!) is: will this work?  Can I, with some
> combination of WINE & substitute linux apps, stay productive as a developer,
> teach my classes, and give my wife a computing experience comparable to what
> she's enjoyed on windows for the last decade?  I know the old line is that
> linux is for servers, but I don't believe that anymore -- many of you seem to 
> be using it for everything and getting along just fine, right?
> 	Any advice you can furnish on how to go about this transition as 
> painlessly 
> as possible will be greatly appreciated.  I'd be especially thankful for
> advice/resources on getting started with WINE.
> 
> Thanks,
> --Rich Young
>    rich at RepublicOfTech.com
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