Actually openoffice.org reads and writes to xls, doc, ppt, and others so that you can deal with people using windows. Try out openoffice.org on your windows platform first. There is a windows, Linux, OSX version and they are pretty much the exact same across platforms. putting it on windows first will giev you a feel for what it offers / lacks.
You als might want to install firefox on you windows box, its my default browser when I use windows and like open office its the exact same across operating systems. This will give you the look and feel, it will also let you know if any of the sites you use act hinky (there are a very few out there which only do ie)
I haven't crashed XP, and in fact have only crashed one Microsoft system.
It sounds like you do pretty standard stuff, and as GE says so long as the only things you use are MS certified youre pretty stable with XP (I have seen it lock and crash more than once but it is an imporvement). My issue is that I have to say in the MS area on the application side to keep the os from crashing, thats really a serious design flaw. Miscorsoft is not alone in this (I have seen Oracle hurt the redhat kernel) but ms is the most proliffic example of this.
It amazes me that the evil empire charges as much as they do for their programs.
Not their programs, their OS. I have no issues paying for good software and Office / Exchange Server are two really decent MS programs. I think its sick how much they charge for an Operating system.
I was pricing Red hat software awhile ago, and their basic package was incredibly cheap. I liked that.
Depending on how much support you need you can just use Fedora and pay nothing. But the redhat WS is not bad cost though I have never used the support for it.
Word, Excel=OpenOffice. Mozilla=Mozilla. Outlook=?. If you are talking about Outlook Express then =Mozilla Thunderbird. If you're talking the full Outlook then there is nothing compatible although IMHO there is no reason to run the full Outlook unless you're connecting to an Exchange server. Yea, I know, the calendar and the palm-sync but have you ever tried to share your calendar out and there is little functionality to syncing your palmtop with Outlook that I've seen.
My other main computer application is stock trading.
Go to sourceforge.net and search for "stock". Even commies that use Linux have a need for stock trading:)
can I convert it to the Linux program without any hassle?
No. you can't even convert between Word and WordPerfect under Windows without hassles. OpenOffice will import/export most major formats. One thing you don't have to worry about with OpenOffice is finding the money to upgrade all your users to the latest version when the boss gets a new computer and refuses to save his documents to a version that all the other people in his office can read.
I have one main issue with Microsoft, and that is cost.
Ahh yes, and there lies the foundations of the lividity of the open source community. It started with Unix and has bled over to Microsoft. It also explains the MS/Linux battle. Bill Gates, you either love him or hate him. He's either an icon of capitalism or a thief with good lawyers. I tend towards the later.
I am a soon-to-be-attorney, and will probably work either independently or with a small firm.
Hmm. That's a tough one. Traditionally, the legal profession has been the last holdout in the Wordperfect/Word war. Wordperfect got its start in the Unix world. Since MS levered them out of existence it has gone through several owners to finally end up in Corell's hands. Corell has quit releasing Wordperfect for Linux since MS came in and bailed them out.
It's been my experience here in Ohio that the legal profession has started to transition to .pdf and online "commerce" so...