So you finally got fed up with M$ and decided to try Linux. You set up a dual boot so you could run Windows and Linux and are finding that you like Linux better, and now after discovering VirtualBox you find that Windows runs great under Linux and want to convert you existing Windoze partition to a VDI. Note: If you want to create a VDI from a drive that only has windows on it you can pop the drive into a linux machine as a second hard drive.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-078 - Critical

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-078.mspx

Switching from Windows to Linux can seem a daunting task. Hell switching from any OS to any OS can seem daunting and invoke fear and frustration into anyone. This post is my attempt to minimize both the fear and frustration.

There are several things you will need to do in order to make a smooth transition from Windows to Linux. Many of these steps are equally important and of course importance changes based on individual taste / needs, so the order of steps presented here are simply my recomendation.

I just downloaded the Google chrome beta http://www.google.com/chrome.
I haven't played around too much with any of the advanced features, but Wow this thing is fast!

The first thing I noticed was that there is no search bar. The location bar serves as both the location and the search which is very nice, but doesn't allow for alternate search engines like wikipedia.com like the standard search bar in FireFox. I imagine Google will add a similar drop down to the location bar to incorporate search plug-ins.

We have all heard this one in one form or another. You have to use the console to use Linux. Linux is for command line junkies, etc.

While this used to be the case not so long ago, this simply is not the case anymore. Ok, semantically the last form is still true but we will come back to that. Today Linux is better on the desktop than Windows as far as the Desktop is concerned. You can do more in Linux with the Desktop than you can in Windows and it is more intuitive to boot.

I read an article today about perceived value in operating systems. Basically the article stated that end users perceive Windows to have greater value than Linux because of the price tag. While I agree that this is probably the case, I completely disagree with anyone who claims windows has more value than Linux.