Hi, I've been using various forms of Windows for many years now, 95/98/2000 and now XP Professional. I (Like alot I'm sure) of Windows users are sick to death of the instability of the OS in general. I've used XP Pro. for many months now, and personally feel it's the worst of the lot (For stability that is). I am now at the point where I am seriously thinking of totally dumping Windows and moving to Linux. I have good knowledge of computers, and work as a programmer and web designer. Below I have listed the "curcial" applications I use on a day-to-day basis. Would someone be prepared to give me a list of "linux" alternatives? Also, I have RH7.2, Slackware 8, and Mandrake 8.2, I've had a look at them all, but feel that as I am new to Linux, that it may be better for me to use RH7.2 purely for support,FAQ's and the RPM system, until my knowledge of linux increases. Ok, heres the list (There not in any form of order): 1. Adobe Photoshop 6.1 2. Dreamweaver 4 3. Frontpage 2002 4. Nero 5.5.8.2 5. Office XP Professional. 6. WinZip 8.1 7. CuteFTP 2.0 Professional. 8. Norton Personal Firewall 2002. 9. Norton SystemWorks 2002. 10. Putty (SSH Client for logging into remote servers) Thats pretty much it really. Most other "small" apps I use I would assume would have a Linux alternative. Also one more question, if I used a Windows emulator under Linux to run various Windows apps, would I notice an obvious speed reduction? My system specs are: 1.4ghz (266fbus) Athlon ASUS A7A266 Motherboard 512mb DDR PC2100 RAM 2 x 40gb ATA100, 7,200rpm Western Digital HD's 1 x 20gb ATA66, 5,400rpm, Western Digital Lite-ON 12x10x32 CD-RW Logitech QuickCam Sorry for all the questions :) but I know one of you guys will have the answers! Regards Thor.

1. Gimp might do what you need (unless you are really hardcore into PhotoShop) 2. ? 3. ? 4. gcombust is what I use, but there are others 5. StarOffice (or OpenOffice to avoid the hassle with registration) 6. gzip, bzip2, tar 7. gftp, command line ftp 8. ipchains, iptables 9. no need 10. your kidding, right? I don't know about 2 or 3 because I write my own HTML/CSS. What does System Works do, anyway? Linux has an fs that doesn't fragment and there's no registry to fix. SSH was originally built for UNIX. Running under Linux, you can use the -X option when you connect and run graphical programs. You can even run your own SSH server if you want. About #6: there is an unzip package you can install if you need to use .zip files. If you will want to burn music CDs or copy-protected CDs, get cdrdao.

no microsoft app has afaik ever been ported to linux, though many windows apps can be run under wine (a program designed to run windows software under linux).

Well... Looks like you'll be happy with Linux, if you are willing to learn. Redhat 7.3 has worked very very well for me... I like it better than Mandrake8.2, but 8.2 will be easier for a newbee. All of those programs have alternatives in Linux... Come and join us... be higher than the rest USE LINUX!!