[NCLUG] Living without windows? LONG

[Rich Young]

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