As part of its monthly patch distribution, Microsoft has issued a series of new security updates, two of which are categorized as critical. We are told that the vulnerabilities, if left unpatched, allow hackers to run malicious code on unprotected computers.  How many times have we heard the same song and why are we paying a fortune to keep hearing it?

A friend of mine who sells computers and IT services tells me that he can sell a fully configured desktop PC loaded with Red Hat Linux and a popular open source equivalent of Microsoft Office for $300 less than the same box loaded with Windows but without Microsoft Office! He also tells me that if I used one of these Linux boxes I wouldn’t have to worry about patches and hackers because the operating system is more robust and the security is much better. Imagine that, an operating system that doesn’t need monthly patches!

All of that sounds wonderful. My computer would be cheaper, faster, as functional and no more would I have to pay attention to words like these from security vendor Sophos: "All computer users need to patch against these flaws in Microsoft's software as quickly as possible, before hackers and virus writers try and take advantage of them."

There is only one catch. Assuming the above is all true, how do I move the culmination of two decades of intellectual capital over to a new environment relatively painlessly?

Yes, I know can migrate to a product comparable and reasonably compatible with Microsoft Office. I can also use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as my browser.

But what about Outlook – is there something comparable and compatible in Linux that I can migrate thousands of emails, contacts and years of calendar entries to? What about Macromedia Fireworks, Dreamweaver and Flash – is there something as good that runs under Linux? I happen to like Kodak Easyshare for downloading snaps from my digital camera. Can I find something as good and as easy to use under Linux? Will I able be able to find an email marketing program as good as GroupMail for composing and sending out my newsletter to thousands of subscribers each day? Hopefully, device drivers are available for all my peripherals. Maybe the answers are yes to all these questions but, if so, the information isn’t readily available without many hours of research.

Linux vendors tell me that you can run many of the above programs in a Windows emulator such as Wine. Some of them claim that the applications will even run faster in Wine than on Windows. My friend who sells Linux computers says that quite frankly this is baloney. Wine, he says, is actually quite resources intensive, as you would expect it to be, and the applications will run slower not faster, he says. Also, a quick Google of some blogs tells me that I may have trouble running Fireworks – an application I really need - on Wine. Anyway, running applications on a Windows emulator is at best just a stop gap solution. The idea of moving to Linux is to cut the umbilical cord and get away from Windows.

Is installing Linux on my computer going to be safe for my existing data? Linux vendors tell me that there is no problem. You simply install Linux in a separate partition on the disk and run a dual boot system. However, once again, my Linux box salesman friend tells me a different story. “Back up your entire hard disk before you do anything or you could lose everything,” he tells me. Anyway, that’s probably good advice migration or not.

The most crucial question, however, is how long is this migration going to take me? I suppose I could pay a Linux guru to help me but, if I have to resort to that, then chances are it will be a long, long time indeed before Linux becomes a serious alternative to Windows for most users on the desktop. The big move is planned for the weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes.{moscomment}

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