okay. a few things. firstly, in reply to X11, it sounds like you are saying that the three of us who responded are not being helpful. if you are saying that, then sorry, matey but all three of us gave sound advice.
now, to FKTheSoft:
do not be afraid of linux, but do read a lot about it first. do google searches for 'linux beginner' and so on, also you can dual boot, meaning you can still have your windows on your machine while you get used to linux.
i suggest you read this FAQ i wrote about a similar problem to yours. Then go and read the UNIX section of the FAQ since i think a lot of your questions will be answered there.
re: running your current software in linux, the short answer is no. the long answer is yes, but it's a pain in the arse. windows programs are usually closed cource binaries, and so they cannot realistically be run on another system although several emulators do exist which can sometimes do this. Cheerfully you will find that there are replacement programs for most of your favourite software in linux, some of the programs you use are available for linux themselves (like macromedia's flash plugin and realplayer 8, just off the top of my head), and best of all, most of the products are free or incredibly cheap.
MS Office = $500, Openoffice = free, and unlike microsoft office, openoffice can use file formats from microsoft office, Sun's staroffice and several other non microsoft formats too.
Frontpage and dreamweaver = $a few hundred each, Mozilla composer, Openoffice, quanta plus, bluefish etc are all free, and do the same job more or less.
i could go on, but why? basically, read some stuff, and stop being frightened... or don't! your choice, but i'll leave you with this though. what use is a system that needs to be reinstalled simply because of a little hitch like this, that most likely wasn't your fault in the first place?
[ October 18, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]
