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For anyone looking to get a taste of Linux but is afraid of commitment check out Knoppix

It's a live-CD based on Debian GNU / linux.

(A live CD means you run everything from the CD, therefore not changing your current config. You remove the CD, reboot and your back to Windows)

I recommend grabbing the CeBit edition (3.8) off BitTorrent

P&V

I just installed the UBUNTU distro on one of our machines here in the office. WHAT A DREAM! Picked up everything on the machine, went out, looked at our network, (would you like to share this machine?), a FLAWLESS install!!!

I am running the following on crossover office

Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft Outlook Quickbooks Internet Explorer

Why? Because some idiots we broker for have all these little activeX widgets on their website, making it necessary to us IE. Quickbooks is the standard for accounting. The office junk was just because I did not yet trust the alternatives (open office -- also for WINDOZE -- is superior to office in every way), and initiallly had a hard time configuring ximian evolution with my Palm Pilot (works like a breeze with Ubuntu).

Why not just run windows, if I have these MS apps? Simple. SECURITY. If you get a virus/worm/malware for windows, it doesn't go down to the "guts" of the machine the way it does in MS. It "bounces" when it tries to get into the guts of your operating system, because it is in a virtual box EMULATING windows.

Won't they just write malware for Linux? Sure they will. I have heard it said that you can "root" an unprotected linux box (log in as the administrator and take over the machine) in about 3 hours of attacks. It is child's play on a windows machine, The tools are out there so that some halfwit who has to ask "how do I compile" can write a script and zombie your windows machine. The difference is that 1) You operate in relative obscurity (why write scripts for Linux when all the idiots are already using Windows?...., just send em another email promising them naked pics of Kournikova)
2) The open nature of the software makes it a sure thing that the problems get addressed immediately, rather than sitting on a desk in Redmond with some jerkoff trying to do an analysis on whether it would hurt the company's reputation to admit that there are holes in the software and no patches written for it yet.

I installed Libra this morning. Didn't have a chance to get on it before work.