[libreoffice-users] Migrating from Windows; take it slow

Hi :)
Ok, so i have posted 'a few' anti-MS posts but not everyone is ready to suddenly jump into the 
alien world of the scary sounding GNu&Linux or unix-based OSes.  Windows is supplied on almost 
every machine bought anywhere in the world so why change at all?!  

If you have realised why then how to go about it?  

Many first-timers fail because they try to "burn their bridges" and completely suddenly switch 
without much planning, or perhaps with too much planning.  

A frequently successfully route that many have followed (often as a 2nd attempt to get into it) is 
often found to be to  first familiarised yourself with the programs that run on both Windows and 
Gnu&Linux: programs such as Firefox (instead of IE), Thunderbird or Evolution instead of Outlook, 
Gimp instead of Photoshop, LibreOffice instead of MS Office.  That way once you arrive at "the big 
switch" you have familiar 'friends' on your desktop and in forums/mailing-lists.  Documentation can 
help pull you through too.  

A good next step is to resurrect some ancient machine from a junk heap or cupboard and try as a 
"Live Cd" (booting straight from the Cd without installign anything) and then next is to install as 
a dual-boot.  Chances are that first time you try to do a dual-boot it goes wrong even though it's 
the default for almsot every distro and basically requires you do the equivalent of just clicking 
"Next".  If it's an old machine anyway then you don't lose much AND you get to learn how to do it 
properly before risking yoru main machine.  

I was really quite keen  but oddly reluctant to escape from MS but it took me about 2 years between 
the time i got my neighbour to install a dual-boot of Mandriva alongside my Windows.  At first i 
booted mostly into Windows but about 1/month might boot into Mandriva by mistake.  by the end of 
the 2 years it had become more and more often and more deliberately especially after i found a 
decent game and then found i really could work from it too.  

To be fair i had an impression that Gnu&Linux was like Unix and therefore big, scary and all based 
on the command-line.  I'm still a little intimidated by the command-line so i was glad to find that 
actually even back then Mandriva was almost entirely point&click.  Then Wolvix and Ubuntu seemed to 
take that further and now i am mostly in Ubuntu nearly all the time but even now i do use Windows 
from time-to-time.  

Once i had made the switch i found myself getting irrationally angry about all the odd things that 
i had been forced to do unnecessarily over the years to maintain Windows.  A bit like a hostage 
released from captivity after long-term imprisonment.  All the slow-downs, antivirus, sudden forced 
reboots, forced updates, pop-ups grabbing focus and generally being slave to the machine.  All of 
which vanished with Gnu&Linux (weirdly the grabbing focus thing seems to have been added to Ubuntu 
since then).  i became obsessed with freeing people who didn't want to be freed.  I guess that is 
roughly where Andreas is now with Base but has been stuck there a while.  Really there is no need.  

Nowadays i can mostly sit back and just laugh at the ridiculous things people put themselves 
through with Windows and then claim that Windows is easier as though they have tried anything else 
when they clearly haven't even picked up an iAnything.  

It's not easy to avoid trying to help especially when a little help can often go a long way.  

The mistake a lot of people make when they are new to Gnu&Linux is trying to force other people to 
use it.  This earns a bad reputation and really there is no need for it.  if people would rather 
dig with a spoon than a shovel then let them.  Just smile wisely and move on to help a person that 
does appreciate it.  

Regards from
Tom :)  

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