Importing windows files and settings into Ubuntu

[David Stone]

Hello all,

(My first post to ubuntu-devel isn't it exciting?)

I read an interview with the developers of Firefox a few weeks ago and 
they said that the feature that allowed the most people to start using 
Firefox was the feature that imported settings and favorites from 
Internet explorer. They also said that if the Linux distributions could 
do the same thing for windows that more could use Linux. So what I'm 
suggesting is that we make a utility that could copy things like the My 
Documents, My Pictures, My Music etc. to the user's home folder and 
organize them in a logical manner. It could even add the music to 
Rythembox so it would be very easy to find. It could also import 
settings like the desktop background to Gnome, the homepage and 
bookmarks to firefox, the msn login name to gaim (maybe even yahoo, aim 
and mirc), Preferences from cross-platform OSS software could also be 
imported such as OO.org, firefox and gaim. I hope you can see the value 
in such a utitlity for people migrating from Windows. Essentially all it 
would be doing is taking a windows profile and converting it to an 
appropriate home directory. With it Ubuntu could make a very good first 
impression when the new user sees that his background and homepage 
haven't changed.

Please share your thoughts on this, or let me know if such a utility 
already exists.

David Stone