[ale] Ale Digest, Vol 90, Issue 6

[Dow Hurst]

Dave,
I'm sure with time and persistence you can get to where you want to be 
on Linux.  I couldn't make a Windows desktop do productively what I do.  
There just isn't the tuneable aspect available on Windows compared to 
the versatility of Linux.  I'm no longer an avid gamer but do use high 
end graphics for molecular modelling everyday.  I guess my mode of 
working has made my desktop fit me as I've tweaked it here and there 
over the years.  Just dive into SUSE or Ubuntu ( a popular distro with a 
newer 2.6 kernel )  and ask lot's of questions here.  I know you will 
find a lot of supportive people on the ALE list to help you.

I use Gimp, Firefox, Maestro (Schrodinger.com), NAMD, VMD, Openoffice 
2.02, and a host of other applications for my everyday work.  There is 
even a program called mouseloupe that is a useful magnifier app.  You 
should check out the checkinstall application to help with installing 
from source apps that aren't in your chosen distro if it uses rpm.  For 
example, I use checkinstall to create a rpm for VMD, a precompiled 
visualization program for molecular dynamics trajectory simulations.

For any given application you use on windows now, just ask for 
equivalents and search on Google.  You'll be surprised if you don't find 
several projects of which at least one will probably fit your needs.
Dow