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I am running on XP but would like to escape the world of Windows. However, I need ready access to all my files created in MS Word,Excel etc and would like to know whether they can still be used or whether the data can be transferred across. Can I work on Excel spreadsheets in Libreoffice for instance or access my emails in Outlook?

Trumpet
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To quickly find out whether your computer and your data are ready for Ubuntu I recommend booting the Ubuntu installer CD/USB with the "Try Ubuntu" option.

The steps I took before making the switch from Windows XP to Ubuntu some years ago was that I

  1. installed Open Source alternatives of software in Windows. These mainly were Libre Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, and The Gimp.

    All of my email was copied in the cloud to an IMAP folder of an email provider that allows IMAP. I was then able to not only import my mail to any application I wish but also to all of my devices.

    After a while I got familiar with these applications, and had all my documents put in a format I knew I will be able to use later. Mostly I realized that a conversion was not needed because Libre Office was able to read and write my MS Office documents.

  2. installed Virtualbox in Windows to be able to get familiar with Ubuntu in a virtual machine where errors I made were easy to repair and did not cause much damage. I had a lot of fun playing around with Ubuntu.

  3. Quite soon (days rather than weeks) I realized I would be ready for the switch (in fact I could no longer wait for Ubuntu installed on bare metal). To make sure my data were still accessible I installed Ubuntu as a dual boot solution. By this I could choose to boot Ubuntu or my Windows, whichever I needed. I realized that I could access all of my Windows files from Ubuntu but none of my Ubuntu files from Windows. That's why I mostly booted Ubuntu.

  4. After a year or so I found I had not booted Windows for months. That was the time to completely get rid of it.

Now my kids would want Windows back for the shiny games that won't run on Ubuntu. But I can manage this up to day by choosing games that can be run natively on Ubuntu, or (if it really really must) that can be run from Wine.

For the very few exceptions which Ubuntu does not handle too well (proprietary software for printing) I keep a Windows in a virtual machine.

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Takkat
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