Hmmm... for a newbie you definitely want to try Mandrake 10.0
http://www.mandrakelinux.com ...
And hey maybe you can find WineX for free it'll be hard to do
but I bet you could do it. You could use Wine, but I wouldn't recommend that for a newbie. You need to download the .dll's for everything you want.
If you have the money... definitely go for Crossover Office. It'll run most Windows programs without problems. Hey, it even shows the lag.
Heh, heh. It works though I promise you that.
If you don't know how to burn ISO's get Nero and if I remember right it's File>Burn ISO I think... That's what you will need to burn the OS on to CDs and then be able to boot from those CDs. The Installation is simple just with Mandrake 10 I wouldn't recommend a Full Install because you need the fourth disc. That's pretty hard to find. So just do the basic Install and then download the stuff once it is up and working...
Also, if you have the money you might want to check out Win4Lin you need the Windows discs though. This will allow you to run Windows directly from your desktop. Haven't tried it but it sounds like it would be nice for gamers
Edit: I don't know about that Far Manager stuff but it looks like you could probably do that with a Konsole... all I looked at were the screenshots though.
[ June 03, 2004: Message edited by: enjoijeff ]