[markomalley]

1) Any associated costs. Assuming a Windows user who wants something like typical Windows use, what is it going to set me back to get a close approximation?

MOST Windows software either has a native equivalent or will run under Wine. I recognize that there are some that don't do as well under Wine as under Windows, but that is increasingly becoming the exception.

2) What “must have” software is out there for Linux? I’m talking

• antivirus,

I use CLAM. Free of charge

• VLC for media,

VLC is native for Linux, so no problems

• DVD burners,

Multiple options...plenty of them out there

• Firefox for Linux,

I prefer Chromium personally, but Firefox is ported to Linux as is Opera

• Open Office,

I prefer LibreOffice, but Open Office works as well. There are other choices as well

• others?

I like running gpodder as a podcatcher, Clementine as a streaming audio client, Thunderbird for email client, GIMP for graphics (admittedly not the easiest piece of software to run and I think a very poor second to Photoshop), Eclipse (not essential for 99% of people out there)

[Bikkuri]

Agree on all.. but suggestion;
I was also using Clementine, was the best I could find for a long while.. but it started skipping every once in awhile and I couldn’t track the source.. I found a simple Linux clone of Winamp called Qmmp, and it was sweet... can even use the Winamp skins =;-)

Not as pretty, but very straight forward and almost no resource usage.