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A Journey from Windows to Linux

Kubuntu Apps

Once Kubuntu is running you should see an unfamiliar desktop picture with a task-bar along the bottom.

The cog-wheel "Application Launcher" at the left of the task-bar gives access to the installed apps. The familiar Microsoft apps are roughly equivalent to the following which come pre-installed:

Microsoft Office > LibreOffice;
File Explorer > Dolphin;
Notepad > Kate;
Edge > Firefox (and you can install Google Chrome as well);
App Store > Discover;
The list of pre-loaded games may look sparse but KPatience offers 14 card games within one app.

If you want more apps, ideally install them via the "Discover" App Store. I used this to obtain free of charge:

GIMP for editing images;
Thunderbird for emails;
FileZilla for updating my website;
Master PDF Editor for editing pdfs;
the Zoom online meeting client;
Wine which is the base app for running Windows programs on a Linux machine.

For making password-protected folders I use Veracrypt which is available online (at https://veracrypt.io/en/Home.html Debian version) for both Windows and Linux systems.

Two programs emulate Windows so that you can run your favourite programs such as games: Dosbox (which I have not tried) offers environments from DOS up to Windows XP, and Bottles (from https://usebottles.com) covers Windows 7 to Windows 11. A Bottle is a subdirectory containing a folder "drive_c". You can copy the installation files for a Windows program into "drive_c" and run the setup; it will create its own folders in "drive_c/Program files" or "drive_c/Program files (x86)" containing the .exe to run the program. The users group recommends creating a separate Bottle for each program, to avoid confusion.