Excellent article. Collins hits many of those points in the video I linked and he has (I think) another one specifically on that topic (or it may have been a post on his forum).
...I think you will be surprised how easy Linux is to learn....
Actually, methinks you would be surprised how difficult it will be for me to learn how to use Linux. I have various learning disabilities, chief of which is ADHD. It's taken me years to get to where I am now with Win 7 (and that's primarily because much of what I learned in XP was applicable to Win 7 (and the leap from NT to XP was a nightmare for me). Learning Linux will probably be easier than it was for me in Windows but it still won't be a picnic.
Years ago now I had some Linux-based servers and it was mostly great fun learning and using them. As for converting to Linux exclusively, I can't do it because I have several W-only programs that are the reasons I even have a computer now, so will continue using W7 until I can't anymore for whatever reason.
I suppose it is possible that in the future these programs will be converted-to or runnable-on Linux-based computers and when they are I'll certainly do it.
This what I was referring to when I said it may be necessary to develop a new work flow. Since Linux operates differently than Windows, often direct program conversion is not possible. Instead for looking for Linux versions of Windows programs (there are a few but not many), you will probably have to look for Linux programs that will, either individually or as a group, do what it is you want to accomplish. It probably be necessary to think outside the box.
Here is an example of this. I use multi-page .tif files to serve as containers for the scans I made of the album art and information for each of my DVDs/BDs before chucking the bulky cases they cam in and storing the discs in a storage box designed for the purpose. I would have used PDFs for the job but PDFs can't be tagged and .tiff files can. Tagging is the easiest way to change the sorting of the list of discs I have (by assigned file number or by movie title). In Win 7, I used Irfanview to create and view multipage .tif files but I could not, for the life of me, find a Linux graphics program that could make and view multi-page .tif files (neither could anyone I asked online). However, purely by accident (and dumb luck), I discovered that my commercial PDF creation/editing/viewing program I use in Win 7, Qoppa's PDF Studio Pro (which has a Linux version), is capable of either accepting .jpg or .pdf scans of the album art (and any other data included, such as booklets), and export them into a multipage .tif file. It also views multipage .tif files as though they are PDFs (and actually does a better job for viewing them than Irfanview). If I should ever want to (although I cannot ever enision wanting to do so), I can save the .tif I'm viewing as a PDF.
This is a completely different work flow than I had been using. I may even affect how I scan the covers since it won't be necessary to create individual .jpg files, allowing me to streamline the process by scanning multiple pages in my duplexing (scans both sides at once) ADF (Automatic Document Feed) scanner.
My ADF and flatbed scanners do not have Linux drivers available, neither proprietary or open source. Fortunately, there is a program called VueScan that will allow the use of my scanners in Linux (also, Windows and Mac, which was how I was able to try it out). You have to pay for a license for use on up to six devices (whoch is not strictly enforced) but their is a license is lifetime and is well worth it. Even that, however, has significant learning curve and uses a workflow that is different from my scanners' drivers. The one that will drive me nuts the most is that I have to name the resulting file and set the file type before I scan instead of afterwards as I'm used to doing.
Neither LadyF nor I are brainwashed, and I'm aware of M$'s flaws. I work online, and while I'm not forced to use Office (I use OpenOffice,) I have to use Windows or a Mac. LadyF hit the nail on the head re: the big learning curve, the time to do it and the lack of Windows programs that run in Linux. So I might play with Linux on my 4th desktop in my copious free time.
I'll have you know that my brain is squeeky clean.
You hit the head on the nail
confused
when you suggested using a fourth machine to learn Linux on while still using your Windows and Mac machines.
