I recently promised you a strategy for a long-term exploration and transition to Linux and open source. This plan is for home use; organizational Linux is another issue. You also can follow this strategy to get some idea of how well a netbook will work before shelling out big bucks. You can decide whether open source applications work for you without installing Linux. Why? Most come in Mac and PC-compatible versions as well. Start by downloading and trying out the big-ticket items — OpenOffice, Firefox and the Thunderbird e-mail client — on your PC.
