Some people can switch all at once to a completely new system. I found that for me, a more gradual approach was wanted. One facet of that approach is multibooting, but perhaps the more important part of my approach is the order: applications first, OS afterward.

Using Perl for things you formerly did with VB is a start, but what editor are you using? Get one that's available on various platforms. What browser are you using? IE? Get a cross-platform browser, such as Mozilla. Do you use office software? OpenOffice.org probably has all the features you need, but some of the buttons and menu items are in different places. So get it now and learn it. One at a time, replace all of your single-platform applications with cross-platform ones. I did this over the course of about a year (replaced UED and PFE with Emacs, MS Works with OpenOffice, Free Agent and Pegasus Mail with Gnus, learned the Gimp, and so forth) and then was able to switch OSes pretty much painlessly (and can switch again at any time I like, to virtually whatever OS I decide I want to try out), because nothing I do anymore relies on a specific OS to work. I switch to Mandrake at first and used it for a year solid; right now I happen to have Windows booted (a different version from the one I switched from), but I'm also in the process of installing Gentoo. If next week I decide to switch to BSD or Mac, nothing is preventing me.

Think about it: how much time do you really spend using Windows *itself*, directly? Maybe you use the file manager features of Windows Explorer, but that's about it, if you're at all typical. How much time do you spend messing with the registry, tweaking control panel settings, or other highly Windows-specific tasks? Almost none, if things are working the way they're theoretically supposed to work. Almost all of what you do, almost the whole set of your habits, hinges rather more on the *applications* you use. The operating system is a commodity. It's only important insofar as it stores your files and enables your applications to run smoothly. So if you use apps that run smoothly on various OSes, the operating system becomes a replaceable part; one is substitutable for another without any significant adjustment on the part of the user.

Some people say, switch directly to Linux and then learn the apps that come with your distro. I say, that's backwards. Adopt cross-platform applications, and it won't *matter* what OS you use anymore. You'll be free to use whatever OS you can manage to get installed on your hardware.

$;=sub{$/};@;=map{my($a,$b)=($_,$;);$;=sub{$a.$b->()}}
split//,".rekcah lreP rehtona tsuJ";$\=$ ;->();print$/
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