cost propecia align=”left” style=”margin-right: 7px” /> Open Source application for management of personal information. Configurable and highly flexible (or at least that is the goal) organizer for your personal data.
License: Free
OS: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
One of the aspects of migrating to Linux that puts many people off giving it a try is the idea of having to leave behind tried and trusted Windows applications and having to make the switch to something else. Sure, the Windows app cost money and the chances are good that a free open source replacement can be found, but migrating is a hassle, and making the switch when you don’t know what applications you’re going to switch to is unnerving.
With that in mind I’ve decided to put together a few posts that look at open source apps on Linux. These posts are aimed mostly at those people who are thinking about making the switch to Linux or who have started to but still rely on Windows a majority of the time (although if you are a veteran Linux user, feel free to chip in with hints and tips!).
In this first post I’m going to take a closer look at some of the applications that ship with Ubuntu 8.04 and which are ready to use as soon as you’ve installed and booted into Linux! See, after you’ve install Windows, you’ve got the OS, Notepad, Calculator and a few other bits and pieces. After installing a distro like Ubuntu you’ve cost of propecia per month got a whole raft of applications at your disposal.
OpenOffice.org 2.4
When you install Windows you don’t expect to be able to produce word processor documents, spreadsheets or presentations. For this you’d need to install an office suite. With Ubuntu that’s not the case as it comes complete with OpenOffice.org 2.4 pre-installed.
OpenOffice.org puts three applications at your disposal:
So right there you have Linux-based replacements for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint – and it hasn’t cost you a penny!
I’m not going to kid you that these applications offer all the functionality that their Microsoft Office counterparts do, because they don’t. But, let’s face it, how many people really need all the functionality that Office offers? I’m guessing not many. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that OpenOffice.org drops a good 80% of features available in Office and only keeps the 20% that people find useful.
OpenOffice.org has some nice features that Office doesn’t have. For example, you can easily export documents to the PDF format without the need of a plug-in or converter.
Unless you’re already living neck-deep in Office documents, or you exchange Office documents with others, OpenOffice.org could be all the office suite you need.
Evolution
One of the programs that keep me tied to Microsoft Office is Outlook. I have a pretty big chuck of both my work and family life contained in that single program. If I’m supposed to be doing something, going somewhere or thinking about something, then it’s probably in my Outlook. While I’m now happy to make the shift from Internet Explorer to Firefox as my browser, there’s no way I could get rid of Outlook and replace it with Mozilla’s Thunderbird.
Ubuntu ships with an application that, while it isn’t a total substitute for Outlook, handles many of the features that Outlook does. It handles you email, contacts, Calendar, memos and tasks in a single application.
Here’s a nice feature of Evolution – if you use Gmail or Google Calendar you can sync your data online with your desktop easily.
GIMP
Adobe’s Photoshop is considered to be the apotheosis of image editing tools, but very few can afford (or truly needs) this behemoth. A decent Linux alternative to Photoshop (that will cost you nothing) is GIMP. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulator Program and this applications offers a whole raft of features to those looking to retouch photos or compose images.
To say that GIMP offers all the features that Photoshop offers would be going too far, but just as with OpenOffice.org, GIMP offers most of the features that most users will need. If you need additional features or functions then you can augment GIMP by downloading and installing plug-ins which are freely available for the application.
Some people claim that GIMP is difficult and confusing to use, while others (myself included) find GIMP to be pretty straight forward). Work your way through the user manual and you’ll quickly get to grips with the application. If you’re already a Photoshop user then you can make GIMP look and feel like the Adobe product by using GIMPshop, a version of GIMP which has been modified to look more like Photoshop.
Pidgin
Stay in touch with all you IM buddies with Pidgin. This is a simple-to-use yet flexible IM client.
Pidgin supports a whole host of protocols and as long as you know what protocol to choose and your username and password you can be online and chatting in seconds. Pidgin also allows you to make use of more than one IM account at the same time – handy of you have multiple IM accounts.
Rhythmbox
Moving over to Linux doesn’t mean that you have to leave your music behind. Rhythmbox an integrated music management application. The applications looks a little like Windows Media Player.
Not only is Rhythmbox an easy to use media player, but it also handles tasks such as ripping/burning CDs, downloading podcasts, Internet radio, album art and song lyrics, and also the transfer of music to and from iPods and other music players.
Brasero
While Windows comes with a token ability to burn discs, Ubuntu comes with the fully-featured Brasero. Using Brasero you can burn audio CDs, data CDs and DVDs, burn images to CD and DVD and do one-to-one copies of CDs and DVDs.
Again, one the aspects that I really like about Brasero is the fact that unlike a disc burning suite such as Nero, Brasero is a simple application to use. It’s an application that you can fire up and dive straight into without having to delve into the help files.
Closing thoughts
Here I’ve looked at a small selection of the applications that ship as part of a standard Ubuntu install. There are a lot more applications that come pre-installed with Ubuntu. And Ubuntu is only one distro, and different distros come with different applications.
I guess that the message I’m trying to get across to those of you who like the idea of a free OS but worry that you’re not going to find applications to replace those you’re leaving behind on Windows is don’t be worried. The Linux open source ecosystem is both rich and well developed and there are plenty of applications available.
In part 2 I’ll look at open source applications for Linux that you can download and install to augment the applications that come pre-installed.
Check out the gallery accompanying this post here
Date: May 26th, 2008
Author: Jason Hiner
For those who have never used Twitter, my biggest challenge here might be giving you a concise definition. Here are some of the common ones that you’ll hear:
Here’s how I explained Twitter to my mom a couple weeks ago:
“It’s like a text message or an instant message — limited to 140 characters — that you send to everyone on your buddy list. You use it when you’re doing something interesting, you have some news to share, or you have a Web link that you want to bring to people’s attention.”
If you don’t think that sounds very exciting or useful, you’re not alone. A lot of the most active Twitterers I know didn’t take to it right away. 
There’s an interesting phenomenon with Twitter where a user gives it a first try and then sort of abandons it, while still occasionly checking on the messages posted by the people on their contact list. Then, the user eventually starts doing and seeing stuff and thinking, “I should post that Twitter.” Pretty soon they actually start remembering to post that stuff, either from a Web browser or a cell phone, and before long they are hooked.
I primarily use Twitter for three things:
You can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jasonhiner.
Because so many of the early adopters of Twitter are techies, it can be a valuable tool for IT leaders, who can not only follow pundits like me but can also follow like-minded IT experts. In this way, they can build their own custom community of people of interest for IT. That’s the greatest strength of Twitter, and that’s why it will end up being the most important development on the Web in 2008 — the year it really started to gain critical mass.
There’s another reason why IT pros may be interested in Twitter, and it has nothing to do with its use for communication. As an online application built on RubyOnRails, Twitter has run into scaling problems that have recently led to several outages of the service and repeatedly dogged its IT department. In fact, the outages have become so common that they are — dangerously — becoming one of the distinguishing characteristics of Twitter. There’s even a recommendation to put ads on the outage page. Check out the TechCrunch article Twitter At Scale: Will It Work? and this blog post from the Twitter staff to get up to speed on the issues involved.
For more on Twitter, take a look at these articles:
While Twitter launched quietly back in mid-2006, 2008 will likely be remembered as the year that it reached critical mass. In fact, the masses have grown to the point that Twitter’s infrastructure can’t keep up, which has led to almost-weekly service outages and outrage from users. However, whether Twitter itself is the brand or product that survives, the phenomenon of group messaging that it pioneered will undoubtedly continue. It has already hooked too many users, and there are lots more joining every day right now. IT leaders should join the party, too, because they can take advantage of Twitter to become smarter, more timely, and better connected.
UPDATE, May 26, 2008 at 9:10 AM EST:
One other effective use of Twitter is for following your most valuable RSS feeds. It’s not a replacement for a full RSS reader, but it is very useful for keeping track of your most-watched feeds (if they are on Twitter). Once you add them to your list, the new posts simply show up in your Twitter stream. Here are some RSS feeds you can follow on Twitter:
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
Matt Asay links to a blog post saying open source developers love the Mac.
Will this lead to a flood of open source software for OS X?
Don’t hold your breath.
Open source is big on Linux because Linux has significant server market share. People running server software gladly pay for support.
The speed with which Linux serves files and handles back-end tasks is superior, and its overhead is modest, so you have motivated buyers and a working business model.
In the PC world, there’s enormous desktop market share and an important motive to develop open source tools — namely to deny Microsoft incremental revenue. Besides, PCs have always been friendly to shareware and start-ups.
The Mac lacks these advantages. Ivan Krstic has made a MacBook his main laptop because it works, and he can afford the cost. It comes with most of what he needs, so “Hang me for treason.”
But note that Krstic isn’t rushing out to create open source software for the Mac. The installed base remains too small to deliver the support revenues necessary for success. And the Mac’s own software bundle leaves few basic niches.
The only thing wrong with all this, of course, is that it might give Microsoft what I like to call a Clue. If Microsoft had shipped enough free software to make its machines useful, maybe open source would never have come to Windows in the first place.
But it’s too late now.
10 customization tricks to save you time in Windows XP
From adding Safe Mode to the Boot menu to displaying My Computer as a menu of drive options, these tips will give you some great ideas about how to tweak WinXP.
