[newbie] A true newbie asks...

[Andrew Willard]

On Sunday, December 7, 2003, at 11:51  AM, Ed Lyons wrote:

> I'm coming from a plain vanilla Windows 98 system/background with no
> upgrading background, no Unix background (took a few minutes to get *nix
> reference...).

Sorry about the obscure reference. You will notice, as you converse with 
more
and more *nix people, that we tend to use colourful terms and/or 
acronyms that
only make sense to ourselves :)

> I use the standard MS Office (97) packages for word processing, 
> spreadsheet,
> task management, IE5 for internet/email, and am planning to move into 
> GIS
> (MapInfo??) and picture manipulation (Photoshop) in early 2004. Perhaps 
> some
> specific geology software in 2004, too.

MS Office - http://www.openoffice.org/  &  
http://www.vlug.org/linux/links/Software_Applications/Office/index.html

IE - Just about any browser is better than IE! There are MANY browser 
options
within most distributions. 
http://www.vlug.org/linux/links/Networking/Browsers/index.html

GIS - http://freegis.org/index.en.html

Photoshop - http://www.gimp.org & http://www.codeweavers.com/ Which 
allows some Windows
software to run directly on Linux... I would tend to stick with native 
Linux software
rather than rely on the stability of CrossOver Office.

Geology - http://SAL.KachinaTech.COM/index.shtml

> Pretty utilitarian, actually. No games, no DVD, MP3, etc. Boring, eh?

Boring? Maybe, but then again you might find what others do far more 
boring
than your current interests.

> My "hope" for a new system is more stability, better security, no extra
> not-wanted bells-n-whistles to kludge the system. (Trivial: no card 
> games,
> kill Clippy, etc.)

Stability and Security are many factors greater than your current 
Windows system, they
are not perfect of course but then again what is these days. No bells 
and whistles is
totally up to you, don't what it... don't install it.

> And no killer fees to upgrade gear and software just to
> do the same darn things I've been doing OK for years.

One of the many benefits of an OpenSource system... fairly cheap or free 
updates
and fixes for nearly all software.