Mozilla provide Firefox (web) and Thunderbird (email) as I was using on Windows. Both have reached version 1.0 now and work well.
OpenOffice continues to satisfy my word processing and spreadsheet needs.
GnuCash replaces Quicken to the limited extent I use it.
gPhoto talks to my Kodak digital camera. I'm still sorting out a tool to organise the resulting pictures. My Sipix webcam does not seem to be very well supported on Linux.
Psi works in the same way as on Windows for Jabber, MSN and other chat networks. As with my email I can use GPG to keep my communications private, as long as the person at the other end uses it too.
My Canon i455 printer is partly working using a driver for a different printer, but it comes out a bit faint. There is no specific driver for mine apart from the commercial Turboprint. I used that on the Amiga many moons ago. I may consider it if there is no alternative. I need to get the scanner working, but I believe my Epson is supported.
I've been trying some simple programming using Python. It's a neat little language that I want to learn. So far I've just done a bit of encryption, but one day I may write proper applications with GUI etc, just for fun.
So generally it's going well. The rest of the family can use it without having to know it's not Windows. The kids still have a Windows 98 PC for games and web. The other PC is still awaiting fixing, but can be persuaded to boot when needed. I have lots of data on there that will not fit on the others. I need to invest in bigger disks, but that's for after Xmas.
