On Tue, 2 May 2006, Dave Alanis wrote:

> If you dont want to loose what you have on there now, you might want to 
> consider a dual booting with Windows.

Everyone I know of who has successfully switched has gone through a phase 
of dual-booting- even me (except I was dual booting Linux 0.12 and DR-DOS 
5).  Generally attempts to go cold turkey don't work.  You start with 
booting over into windows constantly, "just to get things done".  Then, as 
time goes on and you become more familiar with linux, you find yourself 
booting Windows less and less often.

The other thing to consider doing is installing Open Office and Firefox on 
your windows.  This will help give you a common set of applications, which 
will make linux less forbiddingly alien.

Brian