ubuntu

Yes, use wine.
sudo apt-get install wine

 

I use fedora myself but the same goes for pretty much any linux distribution.
Either use wine as suggested above, or run a virtual machine.

Wine (WINdows Emulator) often requires manual tweaking to get working properly but just google wine and the name of the software you want to run and you should get plenty of information.

Another option is to run a virtual machine, that is run a Windows operating system inside Ubuntu, using something like VMWare or VirtualBox.

I'm sure there are other people who can give much better information than me on these things.

Or the best solution (in my opinion) is to find an open source equivlant of the software you want to run, there is a lot of good stuff out there. Do you have specific programs in mind?

EDIT: Also you can dual boot windows and ubuntu if you want to

 

Dual-booting, VMWare and Wine all worked for me back when i had ubuntu, in the end it was too much hastle thanks to my windows dependency. But good luck and yell if you need more help

 

Be wary some stuff doesn't work with wine (I.E some adobe software)

 

I used to use Ubuntu until Windows Seven came out.

 

Find yourself some friends who use Linux (you may consider joining a LUG), mind your permissions, and don't panic; you'll do fine.

Just do remember that it's not Windows. Linux is an empowering and fun operating system, and the best way to use it is to use it like Linux. This may not make a whole lot of sense now, but it certainly will further along in your journey.

 

Arch user here :smilewave I started with ubuntu about four years ago. And I just installed a customized xubuntu on my parents computer. It was getting old and runs much better now.