Canon Rebel XTi Digital Camera and FC5

[Charlie McVeigh]

My wife is thinking about biting the bullet and switching from a film
Canon Rebel EOS to the new Digital XTi.

I have a couple of questions since we are running FC5 on the primary
computer that we would use to snag and edit the pictures:

i) Will the XTi be happy and communicate with FC5?

ii) What are the options for Linux software that will work with the
camera?

iii) Any ideas on what limitations that I will run into using Linux vs.
Windoze?

iv) I know that my wife will need to learn to use Gimp but would there
be any advantage  to installing VMware and using the supplied Canon
utilities (please I hope not!)?

I am happy to do the research myself but I not quite sure where to
start.  Thanks in advance to anyone who has some experience with digital
photography - you could take what I know about the subject and it
wouldn't fill a thimble!

Charlie