The closest free alternative to visual basic for Linux would be Gambas Basic. It is similar to visual basic but there is some differences, and you can't just copy and paste in VB code, if you want to see the differences you can see them at [url]http://gambasdoc.org/help/doc/diffvb?show[/url]. Another thing that you could try is to run visual basic and the applications that you programmed in the Wine emulator under Linux. If you are wanting to continues using Linux, just like Mfillpot said, yes you should learn python or bash. I hope this helps.