I work for a small-ish company which doesn't have the computers all locked down like some big corporates I have worked for in the past. First thing I did was replace IE with Firefox, but most people round here still use IE cos that's what they have been used to.

I then had to process the US payroll (we have a small US subsidiary company) on a payroll company's website and couldn't as I didn't have IE. Had to reinstall it, but it's the only thing I use it for.

I'm not a big-time advocate for open source software (except for my home puter cos I'm such a cheap-skate and don't wanna have to pay for anything if I know I can get it for free), but I REALLY don't like MS's 'tude and use as little of their software as possible. Compare MS with Adobe for instance. Adobe has a virtual monopoly in certain areas, not because they were anti-competitive, but because they made good product and marketed it well. I would much more happily fork out my own dosh to them than I would to MS.

You guys might be able to help me out though. I bought a laptop last year that was preloaded with Vista. How easy is it to change to Ubantu and are there any tricks or problems I need to be aware of to make the change? Will everything I run work with Ubantu (obviously Firefox is not a problem, but will Open Office, GIMP, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, etc all work without hassle with Ubantu)?