I've just completed my switch over from the (3y) ol' Compaq Evo N600c (running W2k) to the brand-new Dell Insipron 8600c (running ubuntu)

Waking up 3 lap-years of technology makes me:

1. run linux: Have been quite happy with my recent debian ventures, and I didn't want to wade into XP land (no real reasons in fact. If someone really needs to, then they can blame it on that dreadful teletubby look and feel) - and oh yes, Mac has a definite appeal, but didn't feel (yet) like worth the extra money (which is also why I opted for dell over ibm - the compaq was out after needing 3 new motherboards, a new keyboard and a new hard-disk during the lifetime of the previous one)
2. gaze at new speed rates again... ubuntu full install took something around 45 minutes, and a full blown cocoon build (no local.*.properties to exclude stuff) runs well under 4 minutes (was well over 50 on the previous one :-))

Some slight known issues still:

• probably some datafiles to be got via smbclient from the old machine when I need them
• my banking app indicates to have linux support (since written in Java) However the windows version distributes with a jre 1.1.8 from IBM, while the linux install doesn't... (anyone an idea on where I could still get that?) - needless to say the helpdesk sent me a polite email stating they only serve windoze users.
• Haven't succeeded at playing a DVD yet: some vague complaints about a missing libdvdcss that persists after installing such. -- Update getting the xine-ui package saved the day... really enjoying my 1900x1600 res now :-0 )

The high-impact event that marks my transition though is setting over the thunderbird files from using a slightly modified version of this explanation. In short my steps where:

1. Find the profile directory on the windows machine c:\\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\default\*.lst file) (e zip-smbclient-unzip that over to some ~/tmp) - From then all operations are on the linux:
2. Run the thunderbird profile manager: drop the default profile and create a named one with apointed to profile directory say ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/[username]_profile.slt
3. Run thunderbird once but escape and exit at the prompt of configuring your email account
4. Backup abook.map and prefs.js in the new created profile dir
5. Copy over the (files) prefs.js, abook.map, (and folders) ImapMail and Mail from the zip you stole from the old windows box
6. Use your $EDITOR of choice to change the paths in the prefs.js from C:\\whatever to /home/username/appropriate
7. Run thunderbird (you will need to re-enter some passwords and re-accept certificates which aren't included in the mentioned switch over)
8. Be happy