Hey i must have missed this thread originally. Hope it's not too late to reply.
Not sure how you can be late on such a thread; it's still active, it seems...
I used Mandrake Move version of Linux for a little while back some years ago. I was able to use it for the web and some other things. It was nice to fool around with. It was a 'Live" version so you dont have to install it to hard drive, just boot up with the CD which you download and burn yourself. I've written so many programs now for Windows though that im almost stuck with that now.
So - what'd you write them in (language)? If it's a .NET language, there's always the possibility of Mono, if VB then Gambas might be an option. If C/C++, then you'll likely need to do some major porting. Same if you interfaced to MSSQL. If they are based in QBASIC or similar - there's always QB64...
You could try using them under Wine (or Crossover - which is Wine with a nicer interface). Or you could just re-write them (if they aren't too huge and really useful - maybe you could open source them and get others to help?).
Then the makers of Mandrake changed it and called it Mandriva. The only thing i didnt like was that it would not allow anything over 16 bit color with my graphics card. IT also required a PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard. Then they updated it again, still Mandriva, and the new version is much cleaner running and uses USB stuff like mice and keyboards.
The easiest-to-use distro out there is Ubuntu (though I've heard good things about Mint, too). It too has a Live CD edition if you want to try it out. I think Mint does too (I'd bet all distros have such now, though). There's very little that I've found that didn't work with Ubuntu (though some of it you still have to poke-n-prod, but it's nothing like the "bad-ole-days").
It's not bad and i might install it to hard drive one of these days. For now i use it now and then in the "Live" mode where you dont have to install it to run it. Dont know how it works with my DVD burners and stuff like that though cause i've never tried that with it.
What you need to do is get yourself another box and install it, and really make an effort to use and understand it. When you need a particular app or something, try to figure out a way to do what you want to do with what is available. Take the time to -really- understand it. Yes, there will be cases where you can't find something to replace what you had on Windows; in those instances, try Wine/Crossover - or set up a 'doze box just for those apps. I've found over the 15 years or so I've been using Linux that there are very few apps that I couldn't find something workable on Linux. In fact, in many cases, most of the work could be done with command line tools. That or a bit of Perl scripting. For everything else, I either bit the bullet and used a Windows box, or just waited a few years for something to be developed, or developed something workable myself if I was really desperate for it. However, in my case I don't typically do a lot of "mainstream" stuff, so I don't miss anything Windows would provide.
The one area, though, where you'll find it most tough (outside of a few niche markets) is gaming. There's a lot of great games and such for Linux, but not a lot on the "mainstream" side of things. What is there, though, is more than a few "independent" productions, so you can find some interesting stuff out there. Also, there's always emulation if you care for old-school stuff.
