This is the third post in a series where I examine experience with the Linux Operating System. The previous posts discussed finding the right distribution (distro) of Linux that works for you, and important things to understand when you take the plunge into Linux.
This post will have a look at the software that I have found available to the Linux user, comparing it to what is available on Windows, and what to do when you need that Windows program but are running Linux. It is aimed at the general windows user and not very technical. I have no IT experience and am just a general user, so if you see any mistakes or have any comments or questions, please feel free to contribute below.
Software
The software available to the Linux user is not as bare as I had assumed, and most consumer level stuff is free to use and Open Source. Here is a great list of the Windows/Linux software equivalents. There are some programs that are only available on Linux that are much better than their Windows counterparts. I’m writing this on Firefox 2, which is exactly like the Firefox of Windows.
For video media, I really like VLC player; it will play any format, ever, and is simple and easy to use. It doesn’t have all the graphical rubbish that surrounds Windows Media Player (there is a Windows freeware version). Out of the box it is very simple and easy to use.
For music I love Amarok. It isn’t as pretty as iTunes, but it pisses all over it and any other music player I have ever used. It is expandable with scripts, skins and plugins. It’s structure makes sense to me, and I don’t find myself getting “lost”. It also speaks to your Last.fm profile, updating your listening trends (very handy) and recommending music from it. Another “Killer” feature is the Wikipedia lookup where you can find out more about the band that is playing. How cool is that?
For photographers, digiKam and F-Spot are each great photo managers. I use digiKam because F-Spot is more tailored to the Gnome window system and I like a few of the extra features. GIMP is a photo editor which aspires to take on PhotoShop, but apparently doesn’t quite make it. For me it’s perfectly fine for photo manipulation. It is also available on Windows.
For an office suite, Open Office.org is really good. It has all the bells and whistles of Office 2003, but without the price tag. It has word processor, spreadsheet, database and presentation programs, and saves in all the proper formats except the most recent Office 2007 one. I’m sure super-advanced MSOffice users will find elements missing, but for the average user I think it works really well.
Skype for Linux is really disappointing, though apparently there is a new version. GizmoProject looks good. For instant messaging I use Kompete, which works on MSN, YahooIM, Jabber networks, and others.
As for the look and feel of Linux software, it is much more open to manipulation and customization. You know all that Window flipping eye candy in Vista? Beryl does that and more in Linux and easily transforms the computer space with life and texture; it really changes the feeling of the computer, makes it much more dynamic. The Emerald Theme manager that accompanies Beryl dresses windows and the overall “feel” of your desktop as you like it. All are highly customizable and it’s possible your Linux desktop could look and act perfectly tailored to your tastes and movements.
Beryl in action on a Linux desktop:
Furthermore, as the need for security software is greatly reduced, and less proprietary rubbish sits in your tray, the Linux system moves much faster and is much more clean in the system. My Linux PC boots up completely about one and half minutes. It has crashed when I have abused it, but is much less prone than XP is.
Wine and Virtualization
I mentioned before that there were ways to run Windows software on Linux. One way is with the Wine software. It allows many Windows programs to run in the Linux environment. Some of them work well, some not so well, and some not at all. The Wine website has a database of programs and their reactions to wine, sometimes with instructions on how to make things work.
Another way to run Windows software in a Linux environment is by using virtualization software like VirtualBox. You can run Windows in a window within Linux with this software, and is a great fix if you NEED Office, etc. As it means running 2 whole Operating Systems, it’s pretty RAM intensive. I installed a virtual Windows 2000 to run my Office 2003. It slows everything quite remarkably, but it works and lacks all the extra stuff that XP has. There are other ways to run Windows software and this is a good resource to use.
This has been my experience, but there are so many more great programs available and being developed. KDE.org is a great place to look at software, as it lists all KDE specific software available and shows what is coming up in KDE 4.0 which looks to be an exciting release.
The concludes my observations on running Linux for now. Any questions or any specific things that would make a good post, please comment or email me at carsonspost <at> yahoo.co.uk. My next post will be a much more general look at Open Source as a concept, and how my experience with Linux has brought me closer to the idea.
