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Welcome. For linux distros I've found Ubuntu pretty pain free. I'm sure everyone here will have their own favourite. If you want to migrate slowly, rather than jumping in with both feet, you could start using lots of open source software that also runs under windows. Open Office does a good job of providing the Office type applications. I stopped using IE long before I stopped using Windows - firefox is much better. Gimp is great for graphics. Not sure about an email client. Thunderbird perhaps? There are lots of Open Source tools that are really OS agnostic. I never really got on with Cygwin - which allows you to have a *nix environment on Windows, but many swear by it. If you are doing any sort of software development, there are obviously a host of cross platform tools. I try and avoid using tools that tie you to a specific platform. I've steered clear of VB, C# and .net, much to the detriment of my career. It all depends on what you do with your computer really. I migrated by buying a new laptop and installing Linux on it (Gentoo) so that I was forced to use it exclusively when I was travelling. No dual boot. It was a bit of a struggle at first. Things are much better these days. After a while the only thing I missed was my UltraEdit editor. You'll like 'vi'. It will remind you of a teletype. I suppose I miss Visual Studio too, if I'm doing lots of C++. It is their best product. I can't use Windows machines any more unless they are supplemented by tons of Open Source tools. I find using a vanilla Windows machine a bit like trying to fillet fish with a claw hammer. The poverty of the default tools is mind numbing. Back to your question. A starter book? Don't know. But google is your friend. Have a play. If you get into difficulty, look it up, then ask here. Above all, have fun D On Monday 26 November 2007 20:38:44 Roger Bowden wrote: > I have recently joined the LUG and have followed this thread with > amusement. So that's how its done! I didn't understand how difficult IT > was these days. > > I was introduced to computing through PLAN (program language nineteen > hundred - machine coded and compiled to produce an object program on paper > tape!) I worked with a Local Authority ICL 1902S having progressed from a > ICL1901 that had 16k of core. Heady days! How I miss those whirring tape > drives and the punched paper tape. I remember the first exchangeable disc > drives - we almost needed a crane to mount them! > Circa 1960 we did the system analysis, wrote out the programs on paper for > punching by the *punch room* girls. We then came in at night after the > computer's normal operations had finished to do the testing, etc. operating > the big beast thro' teletypewriters - no VDU's in those days. > We had an enquiry program this had the database field definitions described > on 80 col punched cards that were *recycled* (note the modern jingo?) for > each new enquiry. The fields that we were interested in reporting on were > punched into a *parameter card*. The card pack was then thrown into a card > reader and surprise, surprise, whir, whir, out poured a box, or two, of 12" > listing with the required data thereon. We had not heard of outsourcing in > those days and I guess a £25 charge would have shown a good profit for the > IT Dept had it been run as a business unit in those days. > > I'm now ending - honest - as an 'old wrinkly', I staggered thro' the MS era > without being exposed to UNIX so I am rather hesitant to move my (home) XP > machine to Linux. MS has made life very easy for me. Could anyone > suggest a 'starter' book to tempt me to play with Linux? I did try > setting it up on my PC a year or so back but as there were no suitable > drivers for my printer, net cards, etc., at that time, I did not pursue it > further and it did seem rather complicated whereas the MS option was plug > and go. > > Sorry, this diatribe is a bit longer than I had intended > > Be gentle with me, please > > Creekfella > > On 23/11/2007, Martinus Scriblerus <martinus.scriblerus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Nov 23, 2007 12:47 PM, James Fidell <james@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Henry Bremridge wrote: > > > > As a nontechie, am I missing something? > > > > > > > > If the details were in a database then all it would require is for > > > > someone to delete 3 fields: ie 2 minutes of tech time plus computer > > > > time to remove the fields from 25m records > > > > > > > > £5000 seems a bit extreme > > > > > > I imagine they'd have to write some sort of proposal, submit it to EDS > > > for a quote, get the quote approved by all the necessary people, get > > > the work done and pay EDS, get EDS to do the job properly this time, > > > pay them again and then extract and send the data. £5k seems quite > > > cheap, really. > > > > I work for a certain civil service department that has been quite busy > > this week... > > > > Every so often we get a new release of our software. There is > > invariably a delay while it is installed, then a few days more while > > it is corrected. During one of these intervals I took a call from > > somebody in the IT business. > > > > I told him how long until we could access his account. He said that if > > he had told a client the system would be down for so long he would > > have been laughed out of the building. What I should have told him was > > that when our contract was negotiated we didn't have that luxury. > > > > > > -- > > Martinus Scriblerus scripsit ex 50º 21' N, 4º41' W > > > > -- > > The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG > > http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list > > FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html