Program Equivalents

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For a table listing of equivalent programs that have been categorized, see the section at the very bottom of this page.

Contents

[edit] Office Programs

The OpenOffice.org[1] productivity suite is the most popular replacement for Microsoft Office. It includes a word processor (like Word), mathematics notation software (like that in Word), a vector drawing tool (sort of like Publisher plus Visio), presentation software (like PowerPoint), and a spreadsheet program (like Excel). OOo solves a lot of the problems people commonly have with MSOffice: the menus are easier to navigate, there are more keyboard shortcuts, and PDF export is built right in. It will open and save documents in Microsoft formats, so there is no reason to worry about compatibility.

Other office suites for Linux include KDE's KOffice[2], and Gnome Office[3].

[edit] Internet Programs

[edit] Browsers

Everyone needs a browser. Many Windows users have already switched to Mozilla[4] because of the many security problems in Internet Explorer. Mozilla is available for Linux, along with the ultra-lite version of Mozilla, Firefox[5].

There are many other open source browsers. Konqueror[6] is a nice browser for KDE that also includes a file manager. Dillo[7] is a small, fast browser, and Galeon[8] is a browser for Gnome. For a text-only browser, Links[9] is a good choice.

[edit] E-mail/PIM's

E-mail programs are about as common as browsers. Basic e-mail client's include KDE's KMail as well as the Mozilla Foundations Thunderbird[10]. Thunderbird is the e-mail portion of Mozilla branched off into a separate program. Mozilla is still available as a complete package, however.

For Personal Information Management, Evolution is the most common for GNOME. Kontact is KDE's version. While both contain e-mail support, they also have calendars, contact lists, and task lists. They are often compared to Microsoft's Outlook. In fact, Evolution has support to connect to a Microsoft Exchange server. For more information, read about the Exchange Connector[11].

[edit] Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is another important area. By far the most popular client on Linux is Pidgin[12](formerly Gaim), which is something like Trillian--it allows you to connect to many networks using different protocols at the same time. Kopete[13] is the KDE equivalent of the same idea.

[edit] IRC

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) clients abound in Linux. xIrc[14] is an easy to use Qt-based IRC client, something like mIRC. For Gtk+, X-Chat[15] is a popular choice.

[edit] FTP

You may have used a FTP client on Windows like CuteFTP or WSFTP. Basic support for FTP is already included in KDE and GNOME through their file managers. Many browsers also have FTP clients with limited functionality built in. However, if you want a standalone FTP program, gFTP[16] is a mature client. Also, AxY FTP[17] is a clone of WSFTP for linux.

[edit] Newsgroups

If you like to read newsgroups but don't like GoogleNews, check out Pan[18]. It is very similar to Agent, a popular Windows newsreader.

[edit] Multimedia Programs

[edit] Video

MPlayer[19] is a robust tool for encoding and decoding all types of videos. xine[20] and VideoLAN[21] are two other powerful and useful multimedia players. Between these three players you can play about any type of video file except encrypted Windows Media Video (WMV) or Apple Quicktime files. They are all functionally similar to DivX player, Windows Media Player and the like. If you are really dying to use some Real media, you can use the Linux/Unix RealPlayer[22]. For video editing, Cinelerra[23] is something like Premiere. Gnomemeeting[24] is compatible with Netmeeting. It uses the openh323[25] implementation of the h323 protocol suite.

[edit] Audio and CD's

If you like to play music with Nullsoft WinAmp in Windows, you'll love XMMS[26], a WinAmp clone for Linux. If you want to rip audio CD's into MP3 (or better yet, ogg vorbis) files, you can use Grip[27], a Gnome CD ripper, or KAudioCreator[28], a KDE ripper. Both of these will need an encoding program of some sort, such as OggEnc[29] or LAME[30]. If you want to burn CD's or DVD's of any sort and you are familiar with Easy CD Creator or Nero Burning ROM, K3b[31] is your tool. For powerful wave/multi-track editing similar to Adobe Audition or CoolEdit, try Audacity[32].

[edit] Graphics

Photoshop users will feel right at home with The GIMP[33], which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. If you want to draw vector art as one might with Illustrator, check out Sodipodi[34], OpenOffice.org Draw[35], or Inkscape [36]. If you enjoy 3D graphics, KPovModeler[37] is a nice frontend for the POV-Ray[38] raytracer. Blender[39] is a nice all-purpose 3D modeler. Various simple paint programs exist but I prefer TuxPaint[40], which is geared towards children.

[edit] Other Programs

[edit] Table of Programs

All programs listed are (attempted) to be done in order of decreasing popularity. This does not represent a complete listing of all application classes. For a full list, look here.

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