New Linux User

6 important points on migration from Windows to Linux

by Clair on September 6th, 2007

An article on Computerworld seems to sum up the important points in migrating from Windows to Linux.

1. There are different migration paths you could take. And so you must know what they are before you decide. Starting from scratch, meaning, a new machine altogether would be a relatively easy setup.
2. Your data is important so back up! Burn your data files on a DVD first or store them in your external hard drive. Also, knowing what formats are supported by the apps you will eventually have will be good to know. You might want to convert your files already.
3. Choose a distro that is well-supported. The article specifies Ubuntu, but there are other distros out there that are said to be quite good for those who plan to migrate. Examples are Suse and PCLinuxOS. It’s just that Ubuntu’s setup tool looks for Windows installations on the hard drive and asks if you want to import anything from there.
4. You could choose a third-party application to do your data migration. An example of this tool would be OpenMoveOver.
5. You could do everything by yourself. If you choose to do everything by yourself, you’d have to look for specific migration guides, especially one that is suited to the distro of your choice.
6. Sometimes you still need some apps which run on Windows. The reality is that sometimes our work would require us to use some Windows apps from time to time, or maybe even all the time. If you’re in that situation, you have these options: you look for an app which is said to be an equivalent, use Wine to run the app, use a virtual machine on which you’d run Windows and the said app — personally, the last option is something I’d only do if I really have to. For that there’s VMWare and VirtualBox

The article also specified a way for you to migrate your mail from Outlook to Thunderbird. Isn’t that great or what? Maybe you’ve already migrated from Windows to Linux but in any case this article is still useful — You might have to help some friends who are also thinking of making the switch!

Share This

Related Stories

HOWTO: Move Your Windows Files and Settings to GNU/Linux
How NOT to migrate your home/office users into Linux and Open Source apps
HOWTO: Manually Ask my DHCP Server for an IP Address?
How To: Use FSCK to Fix Disk Problems
July Poll: Why did you switch to Linux?

POSTED IN: Explanation