 |
Radically
Simple Linux for the non-geek! |
Part Eight:
|
OK, readers, time to cut the chat and lay out the facts. Let's see what we have:
| Linux Package/Program | Windows Program | What the Program does |
| Amarok | quite a few! | Music Player / Organiser with links to internet for Lyrics, Artist Info, Radio Channels, can also burn CDs, sync up with iPods and most portable players. One of the best. |
| Audacity | Audacity | Also available in Windows, this program is a very powerful Sound Editor. |
| Avidemux | A free video editor | |
| Beryl | Aero? | A number of 3D effects to whiz up your desktop, some effects also enhance accessibility. |
| Bzip2, Gzip, Tar | Zip, Winzip | File compression utilities. In Linux they work transparently through the Konqueror file manager. |
| Circus Linux | Circus Atari | Breakout type Game |
| CUPS | Common Unix Printing System -- a Printing system that's equally at home on your own computer or across a network. | |
| DigiKam | Various "Camera" programs | A program which enables Filing of your Photos, including downloading from Digital Camera, Red-Eye reduction, loads of effects, simple crops, fixed aspect crops, resize, colour rebalances, texture effects, etc. |
| Ekiga | Microsoft Netmeeting | VOIP software |
| Frostwire | Limewire | Gnutella client |
| Frozen Bubble | Strangely addictive game! | |
| Gimp | Gimp, Photoshop | Powerful program for manipulating images. |
| GnuPG | PGP | Plug-in for encrypting e-mails: "Pretty Good Privacy" |
| Google Earth | Google Earth | Yup it's here in Linux too. Needs a good 3D card to work. |
| hplip | HP Print Driver "extras" | A program to control your HP printer (and the scanner on HP all-in-ones) and monitor ink levels etc. |
| Inkscape | Serif DrawPlus | Vector Drawing Package |
| Java | Java | Yes, Java programs work in Linux, too! |
| K3B | Nero | Full-featured CD Burning package: Burn, baby, Burn! |
| Kaffeine, also MPlayer | Windows Media Player | Plays most media types, video and audio files, CDs, DVDs, and so on. Its only downside is how well Amarok handles Audio, so you tend to use it for video only. |
| KCheckGMail | System tray notifications of Google Mail new posts. | |
| KdeGames | Windows Games | A collection of Games for the KDE desktop. Includes Reversi, Mahjongg, and too many others to mention. |
| Kino |
Various | A program which replaces those which come for Windows when you buy DV Movie Cameras. It doesn't look much, but it's actually quite powerful! |
| Konqueror | Explorer | Combined File Manager, Web Browser, FTP Client, etc |
| Kontact or Evolution | Outlook | Personal Information Manager including E-Mails, News and RSS Feeds. |
| KPDF | Adobe Reader | Reads PDF Files. You can also get Adobe Reader v7 for Linux. |
| Ksnapshot | Program for taking snapshots of your desktop or windows, I used it for many of the graphics on this site! | |
| KMyMoney, also KBudget | Quicken | A very good home banking system, not powerful for business. |
| KSudoku | Sudoku | A Sudoku generating program for the KDE Desktop. |
| KTorrent | BitTorrent | Bit Torrent front end |
| Lame | Adds mp3 encoding | |
| Lazarus | Delphi | A full graphic Pascal programming environment. (Not yet ready for PCLinuxOS 2007) |
| LBreakout | Breakout | Multilevel complex Breakout type Arcade Game |
| libdvdcss2 | various | Adds ability to various programs to read Region-encrypted DVDs |
| Mozilla Firefox /Thunderbird/Seamonkey | Same | Internet Browsing and E-Mail |
| Nvu, also QuantaPlus, Bluefish | Dreamweaver, First Page 2000 | Programs for designing Web Sites. |
| OpenOffice | MS Office | Office Suite, Word Processor, Spreadsheet and More |
| PCLinuxOS Control Centre / KDE Control Centre |
Control Panel | PCLinuxOS CC configures the computer. KDE Control Centre configures the user's desktop environment. |
| PySol | Solitaire | A HUGE number of Solitaire type card games. The Py is because it's written in a computer language called Python. |
| Real Basic | Visual Basic | A BASIC programming environment |
| Real Player | Real Player | For REAL streaming media |
| Scribus | PagePlus etc | An industry strength Desk Top Publishing program |
| Wine | ? | Windows Compatibility Layer, enables some Windows programs to be run on Linux. |
| XSane | Scanner software | A program which works with all supported scanners, fully featured replacing the windows one that came with your scanner. |
What I've done here is run through a number of packages I have installed. There are thousands of them, but many are just libraries used by other programs. What happens when you install a Linux program from Synaptic (one I didn't list!) is that all the "system" programs and libraries needed to run it are pulled in too. I also have other games, and other programs installed. Just because it isn't here doesn't mean you can't install it. And everything listed above is available at no cost on a free system! Either when you install, or a couple of clicks through Synaptic.
Linux also has a number of free games which can be played against an internet opponent. There are powerful Chess Engines and Front Ends (ie one program does the clever stuff, the other one draws it on the screen), IRC Chat programs, and many others. Maybe when I get time I'll do a list of all the important stuff I missed out!
Whilst researching this page, I found this page, the Linux Equivalence Project. Quite new, but a good start, I'd say.
Anyway, I'm going to do a page of links next so you don't have to find them.
| Prev Page | Home Page | Next Page |
| Contents |