Firstly, don’t switch right away. This may sound counter-productive but for the best success in Linux, take it slow. You don’t have to jump all in and blow away your Windows hard drive.

There’s three ways to trial Linux. By far the simplest is through the use of so-called Live CDs. These are bootable Linux discs which require absolutely no effort on your part, or any changes to your computer, save to simply boot from the CD or DVD itself. You get a genuine Linux setup replete with applications. The only catch is because it boots from a read-only media you can’t save any configuration changes. Live CDs are freely downloadable from any Linux vendor or from BitTorrent sites like TuxDistro.com.

A second option is to dual-boot your computer. This means it still has Windows, but part of your hard disk – or a second hard disk – is devoted to Linux. At the time you start up your computer you can choose which operating system to work with. Both are separate from each other and can run any mix of applications. This gives you complete freedom to run any application you wish, and the best performance but requires careful effort to set up and may not be for everyone.

Thirdly, you might like to consider the free virtual computer emulators, VMWare or XenSource. Both of these will let you run a complete virtualised Linux within just another window. Virtual PCs are a doddle to set up and the virtualised computer acts and runs like a ‘real’ PC but without any risk of harming your Windows setup – and without any hardware compatibility concerns. ITWire has covered this in the past.

Next, try out open source apps. You won’t be using Microsoft Word under Linux, nor will you run Internet Explorer, nor Windows Messenger. It’s not just Microsoft; you also won’t run Borland Delphi or a raft of other popular programs across a wide range of vendors. This doesn’t mean you lose functionality by any means. Instead, you just lose specific applications which are one of several to achieve a desired outcome. The solution is to use new applications to perform the same tasks.

You can still write documents. You can still browse the web. However, you will use OpenOffice and Firefox instead – or possibly other programs. You might use Thunderbird for mail, Gimp for photo editing, and VLC for media playing.

What’s terrific is that the most popular open source apps don’t suffer from the same constraints as popular Windows programs; you can install and run Firefox on Windows. You can install and run OpenOffice and VLC and all the others.

This means you can stick with Windows but ease yourself into Linux by loading the very programs you will ultimately be using, but within the familiar and comfortable interface you already know. Spend some time migrating your regular tasks into open source equivalents while remaining in a Windows world. After a little while you’ll realise you don’t actually need Windows anymore and the switch to Linux will be natural – but more importantly, it will just feel like home because you are already used to all the primary applications.

As a parting note, be sure to check out your nearest Software Freedom Day stand for free software and advice.

All the best!