Three months

It seemed significant enough to warrant an article, I’ve been using Linux as my primary computer for three full months now. I waited a long time and waded through every version of Mandrake Linux from 7.0 to 10.1 until I finally found Suse Linux with decent support for my Intel ProWireless 2200 card. As soon as I could get my laptop (Dell 600m) to handle a wireless connection I knew the umbilical cord that tied me to Windows would be severed.
My MS independence is three months old now and I feel toward Linux not unlike a three month old feels toward everything. It makes me want to cry sometimes, laugh sometimes, but mostly just fall asleep in frustration (at 4 am after giving up on yet another project). I use Windows at work still because I’m a professional web developer and it’s the only thing that will run Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 (which my boss and coworker use) but at home I’ve done my best to translate all my Windows tools into some sort of Linux tools.

Linux substitutes for Windows utilities that I’m used to
• OpenOffice.org Until I tried OpenOffice I really didn’t believe that anyone could duplicate the functionality of Microsoft Office
• K3B I used the KDE window manager which ships with a great CD/DVD burning tool that totally replaces Nero Burning Rom
• Mozilla Firefox It’s true that I used Firefox on Windows as well, but it was great to know that when I switched to Linux my favorite browser would be there for me. If you haven’t heard of it yet, Firefox will immediately impress you. It’s way better than Internet Explorer