Konquerer instead of MOZILLA? Mozilla is WAY better than Konqueror, and ships with most major Linux distributions, and binaries available for all the rest.

For that matter, VMware, VirtualBox both have Windows and Linux versions.

There are hundreds of replacements for Notepad. Vim/GVIM is my preference. Why is it even listed? Of course, vim runs over a telnet or ssh session.

Eclipse and jEdit are nice alternatives for Windows based IDEs, and they run in Windows, too.

Adobe Flex and Flex SDK works under Linux just fine. Flash 8 works under Linux under Wine. Several other Adobe CS2 level applications run under Wine.

Visual Source Safe? Utter garbage. Use SVN. It also runs under Windows, and they have a nice shell wrapper for Windows called 'TortoiseSVN'.

GCC instead of Visual Studio? Sure, why not? And gdb is actually quite usable when you get used to it, though there are dozens of GUI wrappers for it.

Windows Server 2008? Windows Web Server 2003? Microsoft SQL Server 2005? ASP.NET? Pay thousands of dollars for Microsoft licenses with limited connections and CPUs, or go with the web standard LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/Perl|PHP|Python) for free with no limits at all, ever.

BASH instead of CMD? Do you have any idea how anemic CMD is compared to even ancient versions of SH?

Replace 'Partition Magic' (RIP - eaten and KILLED BY Symantec) with GParted Live CD

Replace 'Norton Ghost' (Recent version guts came from PowerQuest Drive Image) with CloneZilla Live CD

Replacement for defrag software? YOU NEVER NEED IT under Linux with an EXT2 or EXT3 file system.

Great article! Thanks. This will certainly help beginners with Linux.

Tip: Open Office for Linux has recently reached version 2.4, and will be in the default installation of Ubuntu 8.04.

Greetz, Pjotr.

well theres wine, vmware, and crossover. You can get many programs to run on linux with a bit of tweeking there are many people out there willing to help you out in Linux forums. Its not going to be easy though your going to have to learn things even with the ease of use of Ubuntu the bottom line is that they are different operating systems just like windows and macs. Most programs I could either get an equivelent of or actually get to run with a bit of tweeking. Its always going to be easier to run on a native system. Eitherway, their is such a small% of people using Linux + many who do figure out a way to run whatever game or program anyway (most of the time lol) that the game makers dont want to waste more money adapting it for a operating system that isn't worth their money to do.

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Read the latest DigiYumi cartoon "RIP Gateway" here

You might try the Windows application Personal Ancestral File (PAF) in the (free) Windows emulator Wine. Here's a how-to: http://www.mcnabbs.org/andrew/linux/paf/

And there's Gramps, which is preferable, because it's native Linux.

Nice summary.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for including OpenOffice.org!

I would recommend KDE-PIM as a superb alternative to Outlook.

I use the KDE 3.5x version that is bundled with Kubuntu 7.10, but once KDE 4.1 hits the street, KDE-PIM (and other apps, such as Amarok) will have direct Windows ports. Hopefully more people will be introduced to the free/open source alternatives to many native, commercial Windows apps - which will make an eventual switch to Linux all that much easier.

While I think that Amarok is amazing (and is my player of choice), I think Rhythmbox is also worthy of a mention.

Also, for ripping CDs I use KAudioCreator (KDE app, bundled with Kubuntu). It works perfectly for me.

(The tricky part with ripping CDs to MP3 in a Linux environment - or listening to those MP3s - is not the apps used to perform the ripping; rather, it is finding/installing the MP3 encoders/decoders, which, due to licensing restrictions, are often not installed by default and can sometimes be difficult to find. Fortunately, most distros are making inclusion of these encoders/decoders easier and easier.)

I also agree with the previous commenter that Firefox is much preferable for anyone switching from Windows to Linux - or at least, from native Windows apps to free/open-source alternatives in general.

Another pretty important activity in Windows is transferring pictures from a camera, and organizing those pictures. For this activity, I use DigiKam (another Kubuntu-bundled application). DigiKam has a powerful file-transfer "wizard" that is invoked upon connection of a camera (or insertion of removable media) containing pictures, and is a fantastic photo/album organization/management application.

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Dell*buntu Inspiron 1420n, running Kubuntu 8.04

Please define "mainstream."

Would your definition of "mainstream" not include the many governmental and educational institutions that are implementing across-the-board Linux installations (in many cases, replacing Windows systems in the process)?

Would your definition of "mainstream" not include the many large PC manufacturers who now offer Linux pre-installation options?

Would your definition of "mainstream" not include the low-end PC market, which includes PCs with hardware that is incapable of running Windows Vista, and for which Linux-based PCs have sold very well for Wal-Mart, Sears, etc.?

Would your definition of "mainstream" not include the nascent ultra-low cost PC (ULCPC) market, which not only is growing, and not only represents perhaps the largest PC market segment, by far, but also is absolutely dominated by Linux? The incredibly popular EeePC? Linux (with a WinXP option now available). The OLPC? Linux.

Need I go on?

Linux adoption may take longer in the US, but the US no longer dominates the PC market.

Europe is becoming more and more anti-Microsoft. Asia and South America are already starting to tilt toward Linux. Microsoft is being forced to offer Windows (and Office) licenses in these markets for pennies on the dollar - which means that, with growth in these markets, Microsoft's business model (which absolutely depends upon OEM installations of - and thus, licenses for - Windows and Office) will crumble.

More anecdotally, Linux is already mainstream for me. My transition took place within the past year, and it has been painless. My wife, who is no computer power user, is perfectly comfortable using my Linux machine to do anything she needs.

Your statement may have been true ten years ago, but it is absolutely, almost verifiably false today.

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Dell*buntu Inspiron 1420n, running Kubuntu 8.04

Okay. Let's try to squash any potential issue. Please refrain from attacking another member.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself