Alternative Computing WebBase

12 Dec 2000

Linux Section

Linux is the fastest growing operating system in the world. It is a lot faster and much more stable than for example the systems microsoft sells (Windows 98 and Windows NT). It has also more modest system requirements, a 386 is enough to run Linux.

Previously Linux has suffered from lack of productivity software like Office suits and graphics applications, but today there is a lot of programs available, and many more are under development.

Linux News

Various Linux News Resources

Freshmeat (News about Linux Application developement)
Slashdot
Linux Today
Linux.com
Woven Goods for Linux
ZDNet's Linux Lounge
LinuxHQ
Cutting Edge Linux (info about the latest Linux Kernels)

Linux Power
EXT2 (The Magazine)
Linux Weekly News
Linux.org

Linux Distributors

Linux is an absolutely free operation system. You can download it from the web. Still there are comercial distributors. They dont charge for the system itself, but for the printed manuals, the support and for the extra value you get to have everything served for you on a CD including installation programs and lots of Linux software and utilities, all thourougly tested to work nice together. The prices are in most cases very attractive.

REDHAT	70 % of Linux distributions installed is RedHat. RedHat focuses on the server market.
...redhat Rawhide (FTP)	(Developer test release of next redhat version)
S.U.S.E	.
Linux Mandrake	(RedHat Compatible, optimized for Pentium or better, more desktop oriented than RedHat.)

Caldera, slackware, debian, ... many others..

Comercial Linux Applications Software

Software companies from windows/macos world that has comitted support for Linux

Application support for Linux has exploded lately, everybody wants to jump onto the Linux train. Most software ported to Linux has much cheaper private licences than the Windos/mac versions. A great number of the ported software is actually free for personal use on Linux.

Adobe (Only Acrobat Reader),
Corel (Has announced versions running in Linux for all their applications),
...Corel WordPerfect 8 is available for free download, for personal use.
IBM (Database program),
Lotus (Will port most of their applications to Linux),
Mathworks Matlab
Netscape Communicator, Navigator
Star Division (Office suit)

Some Single applications:
Maple
Mathematica

Other Comercial applications for Linux (Unix)

Varicad Cad program
LinuxCAD (99$ AutoCAD compatible)
Axene Office programs
Applixware (Office suit)

non-Comercial Linux Applications Software

I have here listed some Linux software that I have found interesting. This is of course very subjective. There are both comercial and free software listed. A much more comprehensive list can be found at Freshmeat using This link.
I have not listed the lot of great free software available for gnome and kde, since it is too much, and already nice presented at their respective site (see below). I must stress that you check them when you search for applications or utilities. Most likely you will find everything you need there.

Selected (Free) applications for Linux (Unix)

AbiSource (Word Processor project)
Gnumeric (Spreadsheet [for gnome], reads ms-excel files)
GIMP (Image ManiPulation), a real killer app.
GYVE (Drawing program in the spirit of Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator etc.)
Sketch (Drawing program in the spirit of Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator etc.)
Dia (Drawing program in the spirit of Visio etc.)
FreeDraft (Cad program)
Koffice (great Office suit [for kde])
Siag office
QCad, a cad program for Linux

Additionally there are a lot of applications available for the KDE and GNOME desktop enviroments. They are primary made for their respective Desktop Enviroment, but can be used without loading the enviroment, and in the opposite enviroment as long as the respective libraries are installed, i.e. you can use them as normal Linux applications. They are usually very good, and the reason I dont list them is that they are very well documented on the KDE or GNOME sites. See also GNOME and KDE below.

Applications for KDE
Applications for Gnome

I have not listed here equivalents to ms-windows shareware, like midi players, CD rippers, mp3 players and so on. As a rule of thumb you can always get a much better version of this kind of software for Linux, and normally as Freeware, i.e. no time limit, no irritating "payme" reminders or stripped functionality, only pure power.

A comprehensive list of linux software (Freshmeat appindex)

Software Compatibility with other platforms

Linux runs JAVA applets and Applications natively.
WINE, A project to make Linux run programs written for microsofts OS.
...Database of Applications tested with WINE
DosEmu, the DOS emulator for Linux
TrelOS, a system for running windows apps in Linux. (Comercial, needs a windows licence)
Executor, a comercial product which makes Linux run Macintosh programs

Linux Desktop GUI

Desktop Enviroments for Linux

The standard window system for Linux (Unix) is X-window enviroment. X-window lacks some more modern features like for instance drap and drop. It also lacks a standard programming interface, which gives that programs running in a X-window enviroment lacks a common "look and feel", and that user interface programming is unneccesarily troublesome. X-window also does not come with a standard set of utilities for setting preferences and hardware settings. For theese reasons, among others, there was a need for desktop enviroments.

There are two competing desktop enviroments for Linux. KDE was first and has come a bit further than GNOME. KDE is based on Troll Techs QT library, a comercial product that albeight free for Linux users is the property of Troll Tech and may thus not be enhanced freely. This contradicts the spirit of Linux, and that makes some people dislike KDE. This was the reason for starting the GNOME project, which has the same goal as KDE, but is based on totally free software (GTK Library). It seams as if a new licence for Qt has satisfied most KDE/Qt criticisers though.

Both KDE and GNOME comes with applications and utilities especially designed for the enviroments.
KDE has already virtually every application you need: text processor, spreadsheed, presentation manager, vector based drawing program (in the spirit of Corel draw), CD Recorder Software, Scanner Software (with drivers for most scanners), sound players and manipulators, editors, ...

GNOME
Applications for Gnome Latest news about GNOME applications.

Kde
Applications for KDE
Latest News about KDE and applications for it.
Mosfets KDE page, includes lots of eye candy.

Window Managers and some utilities for them

Window Maker
...FS-Viewer (a suitable file manager)
Afterstep
qvWm (Looking like the OS you had to buy when you bought your computer)

Linux Games and Simulations

Flight Gear

Linux Sound and Music

Soundtracker
x11Amp (an mp3 player)
KooBase (like CuBase)

Linux Development and Linux Engineering

KDevelopA wonderful IDE.

KUmlAn UML editor.

Linux misc resources

A good page with links to Linux Applications
A page with nice pictures of customized Linux Desktops
GnuStep X11.ORG
Xfree86
xfsft, truetype fonts for XFree86
Harmony
Linux USB Homepage
...Linux USB Maillist archive
FSD2EXT2 (Make Ms-windos read Linux ext2)
Explore2fs (Make Ms-windos read Linux ext2)