linux: alternatives for common windows software

[Alex]

hi all, decided to finally start making the move to linux so I installed ubuntu 9.04 (for now, anyways until I feel more comfortable) and I'm kinda lost as far as software goes... as in: what's recommended for managing/playing music, playing movies, IM, torrent client, etc etc

latest changes are at the bottom of the list[/b]
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1st is my choice, others are alternatives

Cleanup/Tweak Tool (CCleaner) - Ubuntu Tweak

Music Player/Manager - Exaile / Rhythmbox / Banshee / Amarok / Songbird

Video Player - Totem ("MPlayer") / VLC

CD/DVD Burner - Brasero / K3B

Video to DVD Encoder/Burner (think ConvertXtoDVD): Devede

Torrent Client - Deluge / Transmission

P2P Client - Frostwire

PDF Viewer - Document Viewer / Foxit

FTP Client - FileZilla

Personal Money Manager - Money Manager-Ex / GnuCash

IM - Pidgin

Skype - Skype

Office Suite - Open Office

Standalone Office Apps - Gnumeric (spreadsheet)

Calendar - Sunbird (or lightning extension for Thunderbird, I prefer standalone)

Outlook Express - Thunderbird

Outlook - Evolution

Remote Desktop over SSH - FreeNX

Web Browser - Firefox / Opera

Development IDEs - NetBeans, Aptana Studio

Dreamweaver - Kompozer

Diff Tool - Kompare

Illustrator - Inkscape

Photoshop - GIMP

Compression - FileRoller (doesnt support 7z out of the box but its as simple as downloading 7z from synaptic) / PeaZip (Not in Synaptic, but there's a package; it's a GUI that works with .7z files.) / Ark

Video editing/non-MPEG conversion - AviDemux / Kino / Cinelerra

MPEG conversion - DVD::RIP

Screencast Recorder - XVidCap Screen Recorder / gtk-recordMyDesktop

Notepad - gedit

Paintbrush - Krita

Downhill-Penguin-Salmon-Grabbing Game - Planet Penguin Racer
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Updated: 09/08/2009

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PS - I'm running Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Fireworks CS4 + Flex Builder 3 on wine
I followed this tutorial and it worked - doesn't work on wine other than 1.17 btw

 

[VinylxScratches]

VLC Player for movies. Pidgin for IM.

 

[little elvis]

Banshee or Amarok for music
Transmission - Torrent client

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: little elvis
Banshee or Amarok for music
Transmission - Torrent client

Is there anything close to foobar2000? I'm trying to setup my daughter(in Ubuntu) with a simple music player, but the way Rhythmbox and Songbird organize tracks doesn't work well with her mixmatched filing system. Foobar has a nice default structure that works well.

 

[little elvis]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: little elvis
Banshee or Amarok for music
Transmission - Torrent client

Is there anything close to foobar2000? I'm trying to setup my daughter(in Ubuntu) with a simple music player, but the way Rhythmbox and Songbird organize tracks doesn't work well with her mixmatched filing system. Foobar has a nice default structure that works well.

I'm not familiar with foobar2000. How does it handle tracks/directory structure?

You could try running it in wine

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: little elvis


I'm not familiar with foobar2000. How does it handle tracks/directory structure?

You could try running it in wine

It brings the albums in by alphabetical name of the folders. Maybe Rhythmbox can do that also. I haven't torn it apart to look a every option. The way it's set up now, I have album tracks that aren't contiguous :^D

I might give Wine a shot. I've been wanting to play with that a bit anyway, and a music player would be a low key place to start.

 

[Alex]

thanks!

what about for cd burning?

oh and also is ther anything remotely like convertxtodvd?

 

[little elvis]

Originally posted by: alex
thanks!

what about for cd burning?

oh and also is ther anything remotely like convertxtodvd?

Ubuntu's default Gnome installation comes with a decent cd burning package called Brasero. You can also try k3b.

As for convertxtodvd, you can give DeVeDe a try. I can't comment on it since I've never used it.

Convertxtodvd might work in Wine if you can't find a good Linux alternative.

 

[little elvis]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: little elvis


I'm not familiar with foobar2000. How does it handle tracks/directory structure?

You could try running it in wine

It brings the albums in by alphabetical name of the folders. Maybe Rhythmbox can do that also. I haven't torn it apart to look a every option. The way it's set up now, I have album tracks that aren't contiguous :^D

I might give Wine a shot. I've been wanting to play with that a bit anyway, and a music player would be a low key place to start.

Give Quodlibet a try, not sure if it does exactly what you want, but it does have one of the more versatile music management systems.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: little elvis

Give Quodlibet a try, not sure if it does exactly what you want, but it does have one of the more versatile music management systems.

Cool, thanks a lot :^)

I'll look into it tomorrow. She's asleep now, and I don't want to bother her.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I prefer the following:

music = Amarok
video = vlc
torrent = ktorrent
im = pidgin
cd/dvd burning = k3b

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: VinylxScratches
VLC Player for movies. Pidgin for IM.

this

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: alex
hi all, decided to finally start making the move to linux so I installed ubuntu 9.04 (for now, anyways until I feel more comfortable) and I'm kinda lost as far as software goes... as in: what's recommended for managing/playing music, playing movies, IM, torrent client, etc etc

the only thing I'm certain about are OpenOffice and Aptana Studio

I started a list in the second post down here: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=34&threadid=2073143

but I got tired of reminding the mods to sticky it and so I haven't maintained it. It may be outdated.

 

[Alex]

thanks Brazen thats a pretty solid post

im really happy that stuff like filezilla has a linux version too

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Originally posted by: alex
thanks Brazen thats a pretty solid post

im really happy that stuff like filezilla has a linux version too

Yeah, filezilla is great, but the built-in file managers Nautilus (Gnome) and Dolphin (KDE) work just as well.

 

[Alex]

oh man the honeymoon ended quickly...

I'm kinda sick of ubuntu right now... I guess any change as big as this is bound to catch up sometime (installed it and havent used windows since, 2 days now)...

I miss MediaMonkey...

Also for whatever reason I couldn't browse the internet at work today, it connected to the wireless network but refused to open any webpages. The maximum I got was to the google homepage. It works fine at home and others were using it normally. I was like "where's ipconfig/ping" ?

Oh well, I'm going to be persistent here...

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: alex
hi all, decided to finally start making the move to linux so I installed ubuntu 9.04 (for now, anyways until I feel more comfortable) and I'm kinda lost as far as software goes... as in: what's recommended for managing/playing music, playing movies, IM, torrent client, etc etc

the only thing I'm certain about are OpenOffice and Aptana Studio

Music - Amarok or Songbird
Movies - VLC or Mplayer
IM - Pidgin
Torrent - I would just search for one in ubuntu's add/remove programs thing

 

[Colt45]

deluge is the best torrent client i've come across..
http://deluge-torrent.org/

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: Colt45
deluge is the best torrent client i've come across..
http://deluge-torrent.org/

I like Deluge alot, but the Windows port leaves a lot to be desired. I don't like how they package the python runtime with every installer and the fact that it requires a service to be running to use the program. I do like the native Linux client though :thumbsup:

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: little elvis


Give Quodlibet a try, not sure if it does exactly what you want, but it does have one of the more versatile music management systems.

It doesn't look like it handles all the formats I need. I was playing with Rhythmbox, and it looks like I can set it up to be usable. It's not exactly the way I like, but it'll do :^)

 

[sourceninja]

managing/playing music - rhythmbox
playing movies - VLC
IM - Pidgin
torrent client - deluge torrent

 

[Alex]

and the winners are:

edit: moved to front page post

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: alex
and the winners are:

edit: moved to front page post

Did you try Evolution for mail? That ships with Ubuntu, and has more features than Thunderbird. I don't use any of the advanced features, but the client's close enough to Tbird that it still feels familiar.

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: alex
and the winners are:

edit: moved to front page post

Did you try Evolution for mail? That ships with Ubuntu, and has more features than Thunderbird. I don't use any of the advanced features, but the client's close enough to Tbird that it still feels familiar.

I should have mentioned that I only really use the mail software for internal development stuff like sending from PHP and checking that the email is formatted correctly and stuff.

I don't actually check my mail using any software other than a web browser

 

[SickBeast]

Inkscape (Illustrator) and GIMP (Photoshop) should both be on that list.