A friend of mine has installed Linux and asked me for my opinion on software that he should install. I figured I would share it here too, in case any of you have toyed with the idea of making the switch over to Linux.
ESSENTIALS
- Web Browser: FireFox http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html
- Email: Thunderbird http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
- Instant Messaging: Pidgin (with Off the Record plugin) http://www.pidgin.im/
- Off the Record Plugin: OTR https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/
- Office: LibreOffice http://www.libreoffice.org/
- Acrobat Reader: Evince https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince
- CD Ripper: Asunder http://www.littlesvr.ca/asunder/index.php
- DVD Ripper: Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/
- CD/DVD Creation: DeVeDe http://www.rastersoft.com/programas/devede.html
- E-Book Reader: Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/
- Media Player: VLC http://www.videolan.org/
- Run Windows Programmes: WINE http://www.winehq.org/about/
- Password Manager: KeePassX http://www.keepassx.org/
COMMERCIALWARE REPLACEMENTS
- Photoshop: GIMP http://www.gimp.org
- Illustrator: Inkscape http://inkscape.org/
- Dreamweaver: Kompozer http://www.kompozer.net/download.php
- InDesign: Scribus http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus
- Flash: Synfig http://www.synfig.org/cms/
- Premiere: OpenMovieEdito http://www.openmovieeditor.org/
- Premiere: Avidemux http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
- Premiere: VirtualDub http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/
- Encore: DVDStyler http://www.dvdstyler.org/en/
- AfterEffects: CineFX http://sourceforge.net/projects/cinefx/
- Soundbooth: Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
- PDF Writer: CUPS PDF Writer http://www.cups-pdf.de/
- Acrobat Pro: Master PDF Editor http://code-industry.net/free-pdf-editor.php
- Nero: Brasero http://projects.gnome.org/brasero/
- GarageBand: LMMS http://lmms.sourceforge.net/home.php
- Cakewalk: MuseScore http://www.musescore.org/
GAMING
And as always, to maximize your experience, ALWAYS look into plugins. There is a plugin for EVERYTHING, so if you want to do it, all you need to do is find it. My most used plugins are for GIMP, and for that, I go to: http://registry.gimp.org/popular
It is important to remember that just because you are using Linux now, does not automatically make you secure and safe from the snooping of government overlords or hackers extraordinaire.
Have a few that you think should be on the list? Drop me a message, and I’ll get them added!