hello from REALLY ignorant

Greeting earthlings.... uhm I'm considering switching to one of the linux products but I have a number of switch over questions. I'm presently using a pirated xp pro OS that won't upgrade explorer 8 on my "06 gateway laptop 1.6ghz double core processor, 2g ram and limited storage ( about 7gig of 80 left, lots of pictures and music that I could clean up), also a lot of the add o
ns ( JAVA,directx, ect) are getting dated and won't update because of the explorer issue ect,,, get it? time to move on. Now I've loaded OS's before and had issues like word processor not working, loosing data ( from reformatting) and driver issues,,,,, so I guess my question is: should I totally backup the still functioning, yet getting clunkier daily, system and data before switching, and what can I expect to loose ( and need to replace) I presently do some web search/purchasing/ writing in word/ picture editing/ music??? any suggestions would be great. thnks.

louace said:

uhm I'm considering switching to one of the linux products

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I am only aware of three Linux distributions that have products. Almost all systems are collections of software put together by volunteers for free distribution.

should I totally backup the still functioning, yet getting clunkier daily, system ... before switching

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If you want to use a system that does not cost money, of course it would be better to use a free and legal system (such as one of the Linux systems) than a free, or nearly free, stolen system. As long as you are willing to learn a little and become a contributing member of the free software community. If not, get another copy of Windows. Hopefully a legal copy.

should I totally backup ... data before switching

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Why would you ever not have back-up copies of important files?

Migrate from MS office to openoffice.org or libreoffice first and see how you get on. Also if you're using IE as your browser, switch to firefox or chrome. If after a few weeks of this you can cope, then you can make the switch to a GNU/Linux system.