Dave, the only thing that kept me from switching to Linux was my absolute desire to use Quicken. I couldn't get an older version of Ubuntu to run it even with the Wine translator of the time. Then, years later, along came Mint. Ta Daaa! Updated Wine ran it perfectly. The only two Windows programs I use now are Quicken and Starr Envelope Printer. Wine and Mint run them just fine. I will never go back.
There are only two areas where Linux is not optimal: running certain Windows programs, and running high-resource games. There are translators for both, such as Wine and Steam, but neither of them run everything. Some things are just too "Windows specific" to carry over. I'm speaking here of non-business apps. Many programs like CAD/CAM and such can't be run on Linux no matter what, and so far there are no free and open source alternatives.
But home users can do almost everything they did before. Maybe with different software, but the important thing is that you can do the job, not whose tool you use to do it. Graphic design, 3D modelling, video and audio editing, photo editing, spreadsheets, writing, and more are either built in or easily installed in Linux.
Ummm... 3D Modeling is a design mode of CADCAM. I've got an old laptop running Win7 with a virtual machine and Mint loaded on it. Also have a student copy of MasterCam. One of these days I'll try to load it and see what happens.
