T + 2 days. Plenty of progress!

I successfully used the rsync command to copy files from my Linux (backup) server to the Mac. Here is the sample syntax to copy my MP3 files to the existing Music folder (change mylogin to your actual user name on the Linux server).
rsync -a -v -z -e ssh mylogin@192.168.1.101:/home/mylogin/Music /Users/petersamson

I will ultimately use one or more rsync commands to backup my Mac to my Linux server. I do not need the backup service with .Mac. For example:
rsync -a -v -z -e ssh /Users/petersamson mylogin@192.168.1.101:/home/mylogin

It was easy to install Office:mac. This gives me Excel, PowerPoint, and Word on my Mac.

It was also easy to install Parallels and my virtual Windows XP Professional machine. I installed the core Parallels software, started Parallels, registered the Parallels product, and then installed Windows XP Professional (within Parallels) using the Express installation. Seamless! I am very impressed. It looks and feels just like Windows XP, except it is within a window on my Mac. Of course, I had to work my way through multiple, critical updates to my Windows XP installation since the base/CD image is not current with the latest fixes. More details to come on resource management of the virtual machine, security considerations, etc.

For the Windows XP Professional virtual machine, I also installed McAfee anti-virus (yes, I feel it is prudent even in a virtual machine), Visio, and MS Project. I will install other tools such as Visual Studio and the SQL Server client in the near future.