Taking the good stuff when trading Windows for Linux

So you’re switching from Windows to Linux? Great. Like other users and organizations who’ve taken the plunge, it’s likely you’re making the move to take advantage of Linux’s stability and reliance on open standards. Now all you have to do is prepare carefully for your move.

In this case, careful prep means not just installing Linux on your system -- either on your existing computer or a whole new machine -- but also transferring your documents, bookmarks, preferences and system settings, and in some cases finding equivalent open-source applications for the Windows applications you were using before.

It’s not too difficult to find info on how to actually install Linux, but what about the process of migration, of moving what you’ve been doing on Windows over to Linux and doing the same thing there? Here, we give you the lowdown on the essentials of making a full-blown Windows-to-Linux migration. We tell you what you need to be prepared to do, how to move things over, and what applications to consider as replacements for many common Windows apps.

We won’t cover the Linux installation process itself here, which varies widely between distributions. If you don’t already have some knowledge of the installation process, put this article aside and get familiar with that process first. Even though installing Linux is a lot easier now than it’s ever been, it’s hugely useful to be as familiar as you can with the setup process. That way you can best plan how to migrate your data and user settings and not be caught off guard.

Three roads to data migration

There are three basic approaches you can take in migrating your user settings and data from Windows to Linux:

•    Let Ubuntu Linux do it for you. Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions out there and, as of right now, the only major distribution that has migration tools built in as part of its setup process.

•    Use a third-party application.

Do it yourself.

The last option obviously requires the most expertise of the three, but it also gives you the most flexibility, since you’re essentially writing (and punching) your own ticket.
Speaking of maximum flexibility, the work described here is a lot easier if you are migrating to an entirely new PC that has a Linux installation, rather than changing operating systems on an existing PC. With a new machine, you can leave everything exactly as it is on the old system more or less indefinitely. If you must run Linux on the same machine that currently runs your Windows, it’s doubly imperative that you back up all your data before you migrate.

Which brings us to Topic A: backup.