When switching to Linux, many people will have a couple of application that they use that linux doesn't have a ready alternative for. For me, I really like the open source text editor Notepad++. Unofourtunatley, it is only avaliable for Windows. This is a common problem.
Thankfully, there is a solution. WINE, standing for Wine is not an Emulator, is a linux program to 'simulate' the Windows API and allows you to run *some* windows apps on linux. Unfortunatly, some think it's fiddly and hard to use. Nothing could be further from the truth. How do you do it? It's easy.
The easiest, simplest and best way to get WINE is from your system's package manger. On Debian/Ubuntu, use Synaptic and search for Wine. Easy. Then open a terminal and type 'wine'. All should be set up now.
This is pretty easy, just type 'winecfg' into a terminal to display a graphical config menu. You actually shouldn't have to change anything: dead easy!
Download Notepad++ or you .exe installer of choice. Then type 'mv /path/to/downloaded/exe /home/-yourusername-/.wine/drive_c'. .wine/drive_c is your virtual C drive. Windows programs see .wine/drive_c/ as c:\. Then open a terminal and type 'wine c:\\pathto\\app.exe'. In my case it would be 'wine C:\\npp.9.3.exe'. Follow the steps of the program's installer.
To run it, you need to type 'wine c:\\path\\to\\app. It will normally be in the Program Files folder of \home\user\.wine. My start up command is this: 'wine C:\\Program\ Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe'. Just remember to escape (\) all forward slashes and spaces.
PS: I have tested the Win32 FTP client FileZilla and it works perfectly under Wine.
PPS: Turns out the Notepad++ team has made their own how-to run NP++ in WINE. Find it here: How to install Notepad++ on Linux