Both Zorin and Mint seem to in that category of easier windows user migration. It would be nice to have the desktop be similar but certainly not necessary. I don’t know how feasible it would be to get the entire work group to change OS. So the ability to live on a local network with windows users would be a plus and if it proves out then potentially a non windows environment.
We have no really dedicated IT which makes a unified choice harder. So doing some front end work to hopefully smooth the process if it is feasible.
Linux in general has good networking, including Samba which can connect to a SMB Windows.
I put some supplemental mods on my text and to be more clear what I wrote and fixed the typos as well.
I wishes the success and happy you found the Haiku sympatetic based on reading about it.
One last hint 
you should know your machine well - BIOS and UEFI.
How to get into and configure the boot part.
It can be configured such way you need manual stuff if you let it as it is.
I mean if it is Windows UEFI and Secure Boot is ON.
Beta4 ISO contains a secondary partittion - a small Fat32 partiton with label ‘haiku esp’.
This is the EFI partition of the installer. There is a Keys directory you find a Readme.md there - this is a simple text file.
From Haiku Live - StyleEdit can open it, if you drag and drop the file.
It is a general description cannot contain all machines how it would configure Secure Boot assigning to Haiku, b ut at least a jumpstart.
Your machine should have a user guide and UEFI used to have small help on the screen how to use menus items, but I admit sometimes … too small :))
Haiku 32bit - BIOS basically
Haiku 64bit - UEFI boot.
if you can use the device boot list detection capabilities, then in case Live USB usage you do not need to configure anything.
But for an install you may have to.
I could not boot a 64bit install with Beta3 as I had to switch UEFI without CSM to boot and manual activities as well to have Haiku Boot copied renamed into internal HDD’s EFI partition.
Also Haiku do not boot from SD card - at least for me it had not succeed. They were maybe too new (xdhc) , too huge 128 GB) or xdhc support still not full for boot in any case.
So USB - is pendrive only - just to be sure, and , yepp USB 3.0 : if there is in your HW. Much faster. 2.0 is not sluggish, but as more files installed I found personally slower and slower (On 32bit).
I’m new on 64bit. I find it a bit less reliable until now. It was harder to have a booting USB install, and right now still suffering to install of it onto another USB drive. I hope I can overtake it. Just as solved other difficulties until now.
Actually, two office suites are available: LibreOffice and Calligra.
About the mail clients, there are way more than just Mail and Beam:
- Balsa
- Claws Mail
- MailNews (an old fork of Thunderbird)
- Trojita
- Mutt
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Well, I see a lot has been written since I was here last, all of which seems good.
My usage is as a different O/S, learning something new, & Haiku is very different from my regular O/S, so that will be my basic warning to you… 
I think you would be best served by using a Linux distro.
We all have our favourites, & what I suggest is that you try a few distros running ‘live’ to see what appeals to you personally - I’m using Devuan/XFCE as my main O/S, it works well for my usage.
I like to use BSD also, but as a secondary system, just to keep my hand in, for the day when the ‘commercial concerns’ ruin Linux for me, I will be ready to switch… 
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As others have said, whether Haiku is usable as the main computer for any particular person will depend on that person’s particular needs. Some people already use it as their primary OS.
The only thing stopping me from using is as my main system is the lack of support for a second monitor, which I find essential.
Haiku is MUCH easier to learn to use than Linux. It’s extremely fast, and pretty stable. LibreOffice works well, but there are also simpler alternatives if you don’t need such sophisticated software.
Some people experience hardware issues, but if you buy a cheap ten year old Thinkpad you probably won’t have any problems.
There is no general list, which is difficult because with Haiku you would only have described the software that comes directly from the Haiku team.
Any third-party programs, and that will usually be what you would be looking for, would have to make their own list, but that would be difficult with the constant access.
Unfortunately, not all programs indicate on their site if their software runs on Haiku.
One of the main facts that kept me around since BeOS R5 PE was the fun on trying to get things running on the system. And to this day still is, experimenting with non ported software.
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A recent YouTube video made the point that the Haiku scene now feels like Linux did back in the days it was interesting* (some quarter century ago by his reckoning). So you would be getting into Haiku on the ground floor, so to speak.
*Yes, deliberately provocative, but of course you no longer gain “street cred” from running Linux on the desktop.
Thanks for the comments.
Hmmm. I do not know it well. I’m not sure we have ever met. I think I know where it lives.
If I get a USB drive and put Haiku LIVE on it for a test drive would you use 32bit or 64bit. Assuming it has enough room for the OS to change things on the USB but not the main system.
Do people agree that a USB with enough room would be the best test drive method? It is much easier to use my current system, but I don’t want any issues. If there is any risk then I would try it on a different system.
I can understand that. I have far to many squirrels to chase in my head already but I do enjoy when some new squirrel pops in and I can contemplate solutions and improvements. My abilities are more in the mechanical realm though although the MacGyver realm might actually be a better description.
Ground floor is always interesting. Helping and watching something grow can be an amazing thing. A cohesive group accomplishing things is usually a memorable and enjoyable experience. If I had 7 clones with 8 arms each working for 6 months I might catch up to where I wanted to be yesterday and I have no coding skills. I’m not sure I understand the details of why but it seems Haiku was designed to be a desktop for a PC and some of the others are adaptions of other things.
It will be interesting to see how Haiku progresses. In my observations a product starts commercial and lives its life there or as a project by a group that comes together to make something. If it looks promising, eventually enough money will be offered or branchings will commercialize it if possible. In some of the posts I read, one quite intense and lengthy, there was reference to financial resource to move Haiku forward. I would think this could be done, but moving forward and becoming a player in the game tends to take away the aspects that most of the people that were working on it enjoyed. It is very difficult to maintain a small town feel when you become New York, the commercial world is about money.
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Unfortunatly yes
We should not be despondent. Linux is mainly free, as is most of the software that runs on it. Several good browsers are free; GIMP is free; MariaDB (the successor to MySQL) is free. LibreOffice is free. And a great many others. Free software is often very successful.
Haiku doesn’t have far to go to be a perfectly usable replacement for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s in many ways better than those, and is normally a pleasure to use and to update.
You just have to accept that it won’t run on every computer in the world.
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Haiku, for me, is all about the adventure of learning something new along the same lines as what I already know. I’m familiar with Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, so why not Haiku, as well? Some things are similar, other things are different. Enjoy it for what it is!
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A thought about funds, although not really a great place to put it, many of you do website stuff, have you ever considered farming out some of that ability for website work, and using the funds to finance Haiku? If you had “payments” as a donation you avoid a lot of the aspects of a straight business. It would allow people to contribute time to generate funds to move it forward, if funds are what is needed.
As I look for a web person most of it seems to be in India, which gives some concern as far as giving someone admin access to an eCommerce site.
For my part I do the web stuff for Haiku because it is neccesary for Haiku, but I don’t particularily enjoy it. It’s one of those things someone has to do, and I expect the sysadmin team alsp does this put of neccesity mostly.
For my part doing this as a contract wouldn’t work because I have a day job, doing contract work would just eat into the limited time I have available for Haiku already. : )
Makes sense. I wasn’t sure if funds or the work done directly was more valuable. Or if there were people that couldn’t do direct work that could help by indirect work.
What is your daily? My use would be for escape from Microsoft and work/daily functional use. I have a usbdrive on the way to give it a try based on a suggestion by KitsunePrefecture
If you want it to read ebooks, writing documents (reports? a novel? your personal diary?), listen to music or watch videos (downloaded), to draw or edit images, or for programming, then Haiku could be fit for you.
About web browsing I would like to say that’s something you could always do, but this is currently not always true, because some websites won’t load properly and it’s still a work in progress, although most basic websites (or not JS heavy) should work well. You could try the ported browsers if they work for you.
I just got the USB drive to start playing. The ability to pop a drive in and have another system might work. I do have to do a fair bit of web work.
Fundamentally I don’t like the direction that some of the companies are going. Rental fees on software, hooks and power plays to capture you, etc. I don’t use chrome, or edge, Microsoft (except windows) etc. Apparently its moving into non-digital products, cars you have to pay monthly for a seat warmer. It is fundamentally Mob Mentality. A group of people that create a feeling in the individuals that make up that group, that they are not responsible for their and the groups actions. And it works. People come to accept it and it makes big money for the companies. Bit towards hive/colony/organ. (and up and coming… AI but leave that for now.)
People make their choices so unless there is another choice that does not do these things it will happen. Part of my … quest is an alternative for the operating system.
So I’ll try to see if I can shift one more grain of sand away from the microsoft bucket.
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