Out of the box, to do everything you want to do...there is...Windows. If the shoe fits.... ;) > mount up old windows drives Why? Are you not totally converting to Linux? Or not totally converting yet? If you're switching to Linux, you may as well copy the data over to a Linux native partition. NTFS read support works, but NTFS write support is another story..so everything will need to be saved on the Linux drive anyway...so now your stuff under Linux and your stuff under Windows is out of sync. Any distro should deal with NTFS file systems no problem. > feel like windows Again...if you want it to feel like windows, run windows. :) The closest you are going to get is probally KDE...but it's still not windows. > run quicken You're best bet here is running Windows. Second best bet is CrossOver Office from Code Weavers. > print photos Do you know if your printer is supported by Linux? That's the hard part. From there you just have to decide what application you want to print from. > do word and excel like stuff Open Office does a fine job, or KOffice for the KDE angle. AbiWord and GNumeric are fine applications as well, but they are GNOME/GTK apps not KDE. > email Personally, I perfer thunderbird with http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ installed. I've got the same mail client, with GnuPG support, on Mac, Linux, and Windows. Sweeet. (Even have my girlfriend using it now.) > surf Mozilla Firefox. Pretty much the same reasons as I pick thunderbird. Same program for Mac, Linux, and Windows. Xandros might do what you're after, I can't think of any other distro that includes Cross Over. I haven't used it myself, but hey it's Debian based so I'm already biased. The purchased version includes CrossOver, so you've got that "out of the box" feel. I'm happy enough with just plain old Debian. Things like Cross Over can be installed without much hassle. But commercial stuff like Xandros will be more polished, which is what your wife wants. Maybe to make this all easier on yourself you should grab the 45 day Microsoft Virtual PC trial and install the Linux distros under there until you find the one you want. -- Andrew S. Zbikowski | http://andy.zibnet.us A password is like your underwear; Change it frequently, don't share it with others, and don't ask to borrow someone else's. _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list