On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 02:21:04PM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I am interested in replacing a very frustrating Windows ME system. > All the info I find states that Linux can do any thing and even more than MS. > My most major concern is, will it work with current files I already have > accumulated? > Such as music,pictures,photos, word documents i have created, other programs > i have purchased, such as Click Art,Create a Card,etc...
music, pictures are absolutely no problem (except when in .wma or similar format, but mplayer still can play them and these formats are bad anyway; like many MS formats). Word documents are rubbish like any other WYSIWYG word-processor, but OpenOffice.org can read them (can't believe you didn't use OpenOffice.org already, it also exits for win32 and looks a lot better then MS-Office) Note however that MPlayer and OpenOffice.org are not yet available in Debian stable (woody). OpenOffice.org will be in the next release I guess but I'm not so sure about MPlayer, it might be necessary to compile some things from source -- not difficult of course :). Other purchased programs might be some problem however. Check your vendor if they provide GNU/Linux programs, distribute source or similar. If they are really unfriendly there still exists Wine, a windows emulator. However the emulator is under development (will always be if you ask my opinion) and is not always able to run a win32 program. You might be on your own there. I don't know any of the programs you listed so can't tell anything more. > None of these purchased products have any load options for any thing other > than Windows > or Mac,how will these items load into Linux? Don't really understand what you're asking here... > Another concern, is it compatible with America On Line? or other IP's? afaik it is straightforward, but I never saw AOL in my life and some people might have an different opinion about how straightforward AOL is. > I am very interested in Linux, but need assurance that my computer won't have > an identity crisis with out Windows. It will find it's true identity finally I would think :) Anyway, don't expect to much problems, but also don't be scared from the first message (good or bad) you will see. Sometimes (for uncommon things, HW/SW) it might require some looking around. And again, due to the closed-source/proprietary nature of the MS-world some files might not be entirely readable. You could live some time in a dual-boot situation to say goodbye to some file, or till you converted them. Happy hacking! floris -- Debian GNU/Linux -- The power of freedom www.debian.org | www.gnu.org | www.kernel.org
