Good Linux software

[Bookworm]

Open Office is supposed to be *almost* as good as those parts of MS Office it comes with. That includes Word, Excel, Power Point, and Paint. No Access, Publish, Front Page, Outlook, or shortcut bar.

I will probably always use MS Works 4.5a because of all the templates. Works Suite includes Greetings, Picture it, and other home applications.

Are there Linux equivalents of these? Or of Lotus Organizer? Or Encarta Reference Suite?

[archer6]

Here are some links that provide listings of corresponding windows / linux applications, and some other options.

http://www.linux.org/apps/

http://linux.about.com/od/soft/Linux_So ... _Index.htm

http://alternativeto.net/

http://www.winehq.org/

Cheers...

[TheRedFox]

KDE comes with a lot of productivity software. I haven't used any of it, though. I'd recommend KDE 3 if it's a possibility. seems a lot faster than KDE 4, and KDE 4 is still missing a few things, if I understand correctly. to me it seemed a lot like a Windows Vista wannabe, but it may have gotten better since I tried it.

[Bookworm]

Thanks for the links. My Red Hat/Fedora CD includes both Gnome and KDE. Does Gnome come with anything? I'll try both, but now I'll probably start with KDE.

[archer6]

Thanks for the links. My Red Hat/Fedora CD includes both Gnome and KDE. Does Gnome come with anything? I'll try both, but now I'll probably start with KDE.

Gnome and KDE are two distinctively different desktop managers. I prefer Gnome for it's ease of use, as it's very intuitive, yet filled with great features.

In addition the way it allows you to control the look of your desktop, and the control you have over your applications and data is but a few of the features that I prefer over KDE. That's not to say that KDE is not a good system as I began with KDE, but shortly thereafter switched to Gnome and have stayed with it. Another feature of Gnome is the Workspace Switcher, which is the equivalent of having two different desktops you can switch between with just one click of the mouse. I like to have a clean desktop without a bunch of icons scattered all over, so I have one desktop all clean. Then by clicking the switcher I quickly change to a desktop which has a few of my favorite icons as well as a completely different look to it. (wallpaper). So I invite you to try both and see what you prefer. Here is another description:

The GNOME Desktop and Applications

The desktop itself and its menus are designed to look familiar to anyone who has ever used a computer. If you know how to use a mouse, you can probably find your way around a menu labeled "Programs" or "System." Those menus are part of the default setup for the GNOME panel, that grey bar at the top or bottom of the screen. In addition to the menus and a few application launchers (or, as people sometimes call them, buttons), you'll find tiny applications called applets that run in the panel. The clock is included by default, as is a list of currently open windows. To add more applets, right-click on a blank spot in the panel and select one of the items under Add to Panel. Some of the options are:

Workspace Switcher: GNOME lets you have multiple workspaces, as though you had several monitors at once. To switch from one to another, click on the workspace you want. You can also move windows from one workspace to the next by dragging their icons in the workspace switcher. Right-click the applet to adjust the number of workspaces and display options.

See these links:
http://www.gnome.org/
http://www.kde.org/

Cheers...

[untitled_no4]

An Access equivalent does exist in OpenOffice.org and it's called Base. I think some distributions just don't include it on the installation CD due to space limitations, so you'll have to see how to add it to your distribution. In Ubuntu the package is called openoffice.org-base so have a look if it's available in Fedora as well.

[untitled_no4]

The desktop itself and its menus are designed to look familiar to anyone who has ever used a computer. If you know how to use a mouse, you can probably find your way around a menu labeled "Programs" or "System." Those menus are part of the default setup for the GNOME panel, that grey bar at the top or bottom of the screen. In addition to the menus and a few application launchers (or, as people sometimes call them, buttons), you'll find tiny applications called applets that run in the panel. The clock is included by default, as is a list of currently open windows. To add more applets, right-click on a blank spot in the panel and select one of the items under Add to Panel. Some of the options are:

Workspace Switcher: GNOME lets you have multiple workspaces, as though you had several monitors at once. To switch from one to another, click on the workspace you want. You can also move windows from one workspace to the next by dragging their icons in the workspace switcher. Right-click the applet to adjust the number of workspaces and display options.

KDE includes all that as well, of course. You can also have a look at KOffice which is the KDE office suite: http://www.koffice.org/. I never used it myself though as I'm quite happy with OpenOffice.org.

[archer6]

[KDE includes all that as well, of course.

Right, I know as I use KDE as well on one of my ThinkPads, and as I mentioned it's largely a matter of personal preference. That's what I like about Linux in general and why I've run a variety of distros, is that there is so much one can do with Linux. There is a flavor for everyone...

Cheers...

[TheRedFox]

it's true. you can even have your windows fold themselves into paper-planes and fly onto the task-bar when you minimize them. That's what I call customizability.

the reason why I brought up KDE (even though there might be this in Gnome too) is that it seems like there are tons of KDE-library dependent packages that are like money-management apps, and utilities and educational apps, etc. I don't have a complete list...

[tylerwylie]

Gnome and KDE are two distinctively different desktop managers. I prefer Gnome for it's ease of use, as it's very intuitive, yet filled with great features.

GNOME's dev's have been removing features from their desktop while KDE's dev's add features, in the end you either have too much or too little it seems.

Another feature of Gnome is the Workspace Switcher, which is the equivalent of having two different desktops you can switch between with just one click of the mouse. I like to have a clean desktop without a bunch of icons scattered all over, so I have one desktop all clean. Then by clicking the switcher I quickly change to a desktop which has a few of my favorite icons as well as a completely different look to it. (wallpaper). So I invite you to try both and see what you prefer.

KDE has this functionality, and extends it much further beyond GNOME's. It's pretty much common across all desktop environments and window managers in Linux/BSD desktops.

See these links:
http://www.gnome.org/
http://www.kde.org/

Cheers...

I prefer GNOME myself too, and really ended up using XFCE, I just thought I'd like to clarify that many of the reasons you prefer GNOME, aren't specific to GNOME itself.

[trent9008]

Open Office is supposed to be *almost* as good as those parts of MS Office it comes with. That includes Word, Excel, Power Point,

In my opinion the only place where OO lags behind MS is in MS-compatibility. Granted there are a few rough spots; they just happen to be in different places than in Office.

and Paint.

Wait, you lost me. Paint neither is a part of Office, nor competes with OpenOffice Draw.

<snip>
I will probably always use MS Works 4.5a because of all the templates. Works Suite includes Greetings, Picture it, and other home applications.

Are there Linux equivalents of these? Or of Lotus Organizer? Or Encarta Reference Suite?

I never used templates much, but there is a remarkable library of templates for OpenOffice online (http://templates.services.openoffice.org/).

I avoid office software as much as possible, because I think it is an inferior way to work. The presence of so many dubiously helpful features seriously cuts down on my productivity and incurs colossal overhead. Every productive thing I have ever done in OpenOffice or MS Word can be as easily and less stressfully done in AbiWord or even WordPad. And I think if we were honest with ourselves, a plain text editor would fulfill 90% of our word-processing needs.

Oops, I've started ranting... time to go to bed...

[wolfman]

I agree. Recently I used Google Documents for a presentation and was very much impressed with it. Nice collaborative capability and worked quite well for the live presentation (1 hour 45 minutes and about 35 slides).