migration from Windows to Ubuntu: Thunderbird data, camera software, desktop

[Doug]

On 11/04/2012 12:09 AM, Avi Greenbury wrote:
> Doug wrote:
>> If you'd like something that looks more like Windows, try a KDE
>> GUI--PCLinuxOs is one option.  Mint looks something like Windows
>> also.
> I've only had brief experience of either recently, but I don't think
> KDE would be familiar at all to a Windows user any more; the only real
> commonality I can think of is that the start menu is in the same
> place.
>
> It used to be true that the two were pretty similar (when KDE was
> touted as a Windows imitation), but the two have changed fairly
> substantially in the past several years. KDE does, presumably, still
> have its merits, but I don't think that imitating Windows is one of
> them.
>
You'd probably want to use the "classic" menu, to begin with.
(Right click on the Menu icon in the systray and select classic.)
Then if you use Dolphin for look at your directories (Windows "folders")
you can split the screen and move/copy things from one directory to
another, just like you could do in earlier Windows--not so easy in 7.
You can even move and copy things from and to Windows, if you have
a dual-boot setup. You can't do that from Win to Linux if you're in Win.
You can fill your desktop with icons/widgets easily from the menu,
and then open your program from the icon, just like Windows.
The "Find Files/Folders" item will let you actually FIND the program,
not open it directly, which I think is a tremendous advantage.
In Windows, if you want attach a file or a photo,you have a dickens
of a time finding it, where it is duck soup in the KDE environment.
And of course, you don't have to worry about viruses and worms
all the time.  I find the similarity in daily use to be sufficient that I
don't have to think about it, and I take advantage of the differences.
And since I've been around since CPM and DOS days, I'm not afraid
of the command line in Linux. It has become a dog in Windows.

YMMV....    --doug

-- 
Blessed are the peacekeepers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A.M. Greeley