%$#$%* MICROSOFT

[xj14ermachine]

I use Open Office for word processing & spreadsheets, and it has worked flawlessly. I use Mozilla Thunderbird for e-mail client & Mozilla Firefox for web browser, no problems at all. We use Linux for the web server, but still use Windows on the desktops because it's loaded on the machines when we buy them. Paint.net is a nice freeware graphics software package. ClamWin is a good freeware anti-virus package. Software isn't necessarily better just because you pay big bucks for it.

 

[JNickel101]

Good luck with your pursuit to Linux. I think the migration itself would be easy, but convincing your users (and general user education) would be a pain. I'm dreading the move to Windows 7, just because I know users will whine and cry about their desktop looking different. Hell, I can remember just using a new XP build that I developed and it put a different default wallpaper down - when users went to log in the first time, they freaked b/c it "looked different" - all functionality was still exactly the same (they were both XP builds) but users are generally dumber than the computer they are using.

 

[RichP]

Good luck with your pursuit to Linux. I think the migration itself would be easy, but convincing your users (and general user education) would be a pain. I'm dreading the move to Windows 7, just because I know users will whine and cry about their desktop looking different. Hell, I can remember just using a new XP build that I developed and it put a different default wallpaper down - when users went to log in the first time, they freaked b/c it "looked different" - all functionality was still exactly the same (they were both XP builds) but users are generally dumber than the computer they are using.

I installed ubuntu desktop in the machine in the store that customers have access too, that was last jan or so. They all give it pretty much good ratings, never had a complaint.