Christofoo Review

Here is a quick overview of things that I suggest you do if you are considering migrating to Linux. As long as you don't accidentally destroy stuff, you can bail out of this process at (almost) any time.

1. Before doing any hard drive installation, try out Linux on a "live" CD get a feel for what it's like. "Live" means you can boot a full operating system from the disk without doing any hard drive installation. I recommend Slax or Knoppix for this purpose. Live disks are also great for rescue purposes. Get a feel for what Linux is like, but don't spend too much time tinkering with these because unless you end up loving Slax, most of these types of disks don't make great hard drive systems in my opinion, and you're likely to unlearn much of what you learn.
2. At this point, it might be a good idea to assess your situation. Did your printer and WiFi work? Did you find replacements for the applications that you need? Now might be the time to install OpenOffice.org in Windows and start getting used to that, before you dive into Linux. If you are missing an application, read down below for more advice.
3. Backup things. Do you have reinstall media for all you Windows stuff? Most Linux installers are reasonably polite about saving your data, but hard drive partitioning is inherently dangerous.
4. Decide on a distribution. I recommend Debian Stable as the best overall, but Puppy Linux or one of the Pupplet remixes is best for slow computers (Pentium II, 64MB RAM), and Ubuntu has a bunch of remixes which may suit you. Of those remixes I'm fond of Ubuntu Studio (for multimedia creation). Ubuntu also might be easier if you want games because of Ubuntu's proprietary driver manager, but Ubuntu is also a bit buggy. Click here for more.
5. Make darn sure that your installer shrinks your Windows partition but doesn't delete it. If this makes you shaky (or if your installer won't do it), I recommend the GPartEd LiveCD, which gives you a great graphical interface for resizing and repartitioning. WARNING: this is inherently dangerous, even if you do everything correctly, it is possible to lose data (and this is generally an all-or-nothing game)!
6. Install it, start exploring
7. Use your favorite package manager (synaptic or kpackage or whatever) and start looking through the mountains of free applications in the repository.

Did you get stuck on Step 2? Can't find a replacement for something you use in Windows? Here are some ideas:

1. You don't have to delete Windows in order to install Linux. Especially if this is something you use infrequently, you can dual-boot with Windows and Linux on the same computer. (If the program in question happens to be a game, then perhaps you can increase your productivity by switching to Linux, forcing yourself to reboot whenever you want to play.)
2. Can you run your program in Linux using Wine? Something like "apt-get install wine" and "wine setup.exe" might help. Or check the Wine application DB. Admittedly, this can be a bit hit-and-miss.
3. Are you sure there isn't a replacement? Try googling phrases like "GNU Photoshop replacement"  or "Linux video editing software" or "3d Linux game".