Linux Desktop Migration Tips Keep On TickingLinux Desktop Migration Tips Keep On Ticking

Many online tech resources don't age very gracefully -- but some do. The winning entries in O'Reilly's "Great Linux Desktop Migration Contest" definitely fall into the second category.Back in September, 2004, O'Reilly published the best contest entries on its Linuxdevcenter.com site. The winner, IT professional David Scribner, earned a $1,500 gift certificate for his three top Linux desktop migration tips.

Among Scribner's suggestions: Install cross-platform applications, like OpenOffice.org and Mozilla Firefox, to replace Windows-only applications such as Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. Besides allowing users to get acquainted with the tools they will use on a Linux desktop PC without being forced to jump into a full-fledged migration, this makes the process of migrating a user's documents, document templates, bookmarks, and other basic data far less complicated.

The list also includes the top Linux desktop migration tips from a half-dozen runners-up, and the subsequent discussion of the article includes a wealth of additional tips.

Normally, I would take any tech article more than a year or two old with a truck-sized grain of salt; new technology moves so quickly, and this information becomes dated so quickly, that heeding it may actually do more harm than good. In this case, however, the migration tips are based on very sound, very fundamental best practices -- including how best to understand and anticipate a user's desktop computing needs -- that they remain just as relevant today as they were back in 2004.