People who are considering Linux but who are also ignorant on the subject tend to dismiss Linux because it lacks a lot of software that they prefer. "Where's Microsoft Word? And Excel? What about Photoshop? I can't edit these photos without Photoshop!" It's true; it can be a little scary at first to consider moving from Windows to Linux, when at a quick glance, it would appear that most software you've spent your adult life learning to use isn't there anymore. You could Virtualize Windows; you could dual boot with Windows; you could use Wine to run your Windows applications right on top of Linux. But let's not get hasty. Before doing anything like that, let's consider all the software Linux does have to offer. Perhaps your favorite applications are still there, just with different names and different shortcuts.

Who hasn't used Microsoft Word? Despite its bugs, tendency to be hacked, and each successive generation of its software subject to crashing, Word has sailed past the competition and become the de facto rich-text editor. You couldn't live without Microsoft Word, right? Wrong. There's openoffice.org to the rescue with the OpenOffice.org Writer application. When you run Writer for the first time, I think you'll find using it is extremely familiar. In fact, it can be so dauntingly similar to Microsoft's product, that some of the same gripes you might have had with Word have probably found their way into Writer. Overall, Writer is a great product; it has all the same features you have come to expect: a powerful rich-text editor, spelling and grammar checking, a built-in thesaurus, scripting, auto-correcting, exporting to PDF, HTML, etc, and much more. You can save your files as .doc files, or you can save them directly into the native .odt format.

Are you a spreadsheet junkie? Do you love all of the fancy equations you can perform in Microsoft Excel? I guess you have no option then but to stick with Windows and keep plugging along with Excel. Wrong again. Once more, openoffice.org has beaten down Microsoft's door, and this time, it's with the OpenOffice.org Calc product. Just like with Writer, you'll find using Calc to be a completely familiar experience. All of those equations and formulas you can't live without will run just fine on Calc. Are you sensing a theme here? Could it be that a lot of your favorite applications have already been built for Linux?

Find that every time you want to crop Uncle Frank out of one of your wedding photos, you're busting out Adobe Photoshop to do it? Your digital camera still gives everybody in your family red eye, and only PhotoShop does a good job of getting it out, right? Well, strap in and take a ride with GIMP. GIMP has it all, but it's not a clone of PhotoShop, so it will take some time getting used to where everything is and how to use everything. Thankfully, GIMP has become such a powerful and popular image editing tool that there are an abundant supply of GIMP websites dedicated to instruction and tutorial, such as GUG: gimp user group or gimp.org's tutorial page http://www.gimp.org/tutorials. I used to be hooked on Photoshop; it took awhile to get used to everything in GIMP, but now that I have, I find that GIMP is the superior of the two products, thanks to a large online community, a powerful scripting engine, and an easy-to-use interface.

Did someone say Internet Explorer? Well, to be perfectly honest, in my humble opinion, even if you're not planning on switching to Linux, it's time you dropped IE for a much better browser, such as Mozilla's Firefox, Opera, or Konqueror. All three of the aforementioned browsers are more secure, faster, and render HTML better than IE. Firefox has become the standard for many Linux distros; if you're running KDE, you'll probably find that Konqueror is set as the default browser.

Everyone needs to check their e-mail, right? If you've used Outlook for years, a great Linux alternative is Evolution Mail. It has the same look and feel of Outlook; it even lets you connect to a Microsoft Exchange server, if that's necessary. Are you a fan of Mozilla's Firefox? Then, give Mozilla's Thunderbird a try (a personal favorite of the LinuxHow2 staff); it's fast, and I find its ease of use to be light years ahead of Outlook's.

Need instant messenger? Have you been using AIM for years? Well, there's Pidgin (formerly called GAIM), which will quickly and easily let you use your current AIM profile; in fact, it doesn't stop there, Pidgin let's you use multiple profiles at once, including Jabber profiles, GTalk profiles, and many more. Don't like Pidgin? There's also Kopete. Most distros of Linux come with several instant messenger applications to choose from.

In conclusion, the next you're considering the switch to Linux but you think the software just doesn't cut it, read up on the latest and greatest Linux software. You'll probably find that there's a Linux alternative for nearly all of your favorite, most-used Windows applications. In a lot of cases, you will find the Linux version to be superior and better suited for your needs. The one personality trait necessary in anyone making the switch to Linux is a willingness, no a desire, to try something new and give it a chance.