The switch to Linux
So, not exactly a planned thing… My new(ish) laptop started having problems a few weeks back and being the lazy procrastinating ass I am, I’ve been using a gifted ThinkPad T40 that I was using to test OpenSUSE 10.2…
The first few days drove me nuts.
Yes, the first few days of using nothing but Linux & KDE drove me a bit insane. It’s not that I found it any more difficult than Windows XP, it’s the general awkwardness of functioning in a new environment. That little tiny learning curve that comes with anything new.
Finding equivalent applications
For the most part, my installation of OpenSUSE came pretty well equipped. My two most important applications, FireFox and Tunderbird, didn’t need equivalents — they’re cross-plaform. But what about all my other applications?
In order to start feeling really comfortable with this new landscape, I needed applications that not only had similar features, but also had the general look and feel of the applications I’ve been using for decades. Everything Linux seems very big and clunky. The user interfaces very … Unpolished.
I need my IRC
Since I spend massive amounts of time on IRC helping support a couple open source projects, my first mission was to seek out a usable IRC client. Now, keep in mind, I’m coming from Windows XP and I’ve been using mIRC for over a decade.
The most popular client seemed to be XChat, but it just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t get accustomed to the interface no matter how much I tried. It functioned well, but that clunky UI killed me.
A number of people suggested the ChatZilla FireFox extension, but that one failed to meet my needs by a long shot. Once again, the interface was all wrong.
After running through a list of others that don’t even deserve mention, I finally landed on kVirc … Talk about a motherfuckin’ moment of Zen. If I ever switch back to a Windows platform, I don’t know how I’m going to live with kVirc. The interface was 100% spot on. mIRC on steroids.
Can’t live with multi-protocol IM
I cannot believe that there are so many IM clients, but very few with the usability of Trillian. Short and sweet — the closest thing I could find to a Trillian equivalent was GAIM. Although not quite perfect, it did the job and felt (with a little adjustment) pretty comfortable.
Must watch mind-numbing sitcoms and b-movies!
My choice of video players while using Windows boiled down to WinAmp and Windows Media Player. In this case, function was just as important as form.
As an infrequent user of Linux I didn’t realize the limitations on media codecs and the ability to play DVDs. It never crossed my mind that I might have to purchase a DVD player for Linux just to watch my legally purchased DVDs. Alas, thanks to all those that came before me, I found a wealth of information on DeCSS and was able to work around most of my CODEC problems pretty quickly too.
Although nothing I found came close to the polished feeling of Windows Media Player or WinAMP, I did find a couple of players that did the job with minimal UI impact. MPlayer and Xine. I tend to favor MPlayer, but both get the mindless movies and time-killing sitcoms on my screen in an acceptable fashion, so… Let the procrastination begin.
Ok, I can watch them, but without a good torrent client…
Ah, yes — Where would we be without bittorrent? In general, most Windows clients for bittorrent suck ass, so if you haven’t been using uTorrent, you’ll be pretty happy with whatever client you happen to stumble upon.
The first client I tried was the one that I happened to install with SUSE — KTorrent. It did the job, but I wasn’t satisfied, so I started trying others. Most of the clients I came across were so similar I had a hard time distinguishing between them.
I finally settled on Deluge. It has a nice clean interface and seems to function well as long as you go through the usual firewall configurations, etc…
As with Windows bittorrent clients, it’ll take a bit of time before I’m completely convinced that I like the one I’m using. If I decide to try something different, I’ll let you all know.
Ok, so, we’re set with the fun stuff, but what about work stuff?
Well, this is where things start to get a little bit wacky for me. See, I’m not a big Office user. I mean, sure, I write the occasional AntiMemo and throw together a proposal now and again, but I just don’t spend much time using Office.
I decided to evaluate two different paths.
First, the obvious — find an Office application equivalent for Linux.
This was really easy; A number of half-assed attempts exist, but only one that came close to having the features and feel of Office is … Surprise!! Open Office. Nothing else came close, so if you need an office application on Linux, Open Office is the only way to go.
Next, the less obvious but much trendier. A web based Office equivalent.
I thought this would be quick and easy — there can’t be that many web-office type service out there, and probably even fewer free services, right? WRONG! It seems everyone and their brother has an online office beta available.
It didn’t take me long to realize that evaluating all the possibilities would take a fair amount of research, and frankly I didn’t intend for this to turn into a 10 page review of web based office applications. I will say this much: I don’t think I’ll have much use for the standard Office suites any longer.
Ok, so I’ve found my alternatives, but can TheAntiBlogger live in a non-windows world?
Although I did find replacements for nearly every application I’ve grown attached to, there is one big gaping hole in my list. A replacement for PhotoShop.
Now, I know many of you will tell me I can do everything I do in PhotoShop using Gimp, but I just can’t do it. I’m sure in time I’d get used to it, but … No. I’ve been using PhotoShop for nearly a decade and there are some things I just don’t want to give up.
I will however continue using Linux for my day-to-day tasks, hopping onto a Windows box, or maybe even a Mac to do my design work. Overall, I guess you can consider me a convert.
Tags:chatzilla, deluge, firefox, gaim, gimp, ktorrent, kvirc, linux, mac, mirc, Mozilla, mplayer, office, open office, OpenSUSE, Thunderbird, trillian, utorrent, winamp, windows, xchat, xinePowered by Gregarious (36)
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April 6th, 2007 02:03
I understand you about The Gimp and I can give you an hope: Krita. This is not completly usable but it’s very promising.
April 6th, 2007 04:24
I am not that convinced that you will find a promising alternative. I have used photoshop for a long time.
I have accustomed to Gimp and went through many tutorials.
I know both softwares.
Gimp has a smaller memory footprint than photoshop, but photoshop is better in daily work for me. Several things Gimp just is lacking.
Its a shame.
That being said though, Gimp is okay.
April 6th, 2007 04:38
Hi There
There is a tweaked Gimp “PhotoShop-Like” edition out there: http://www.gimpshop.net
If you work with “raw” images, don’t forget to install the plug-in for Gimp, available for suse in the repositories.
One thing I miss is an Illusrtator equivalent. One thing I could not live without anymore is the Virtual Desktops system, and Kontact for mails.
Cheers
Jean-Philippe
April 6th, 2007 07:46
I used to play with CorelDraw rather than Illustrator, but I just installed Xara and it seems to be a powerful application.
http://www.xaraxtreme.org/
April 6th, 2007 08:33
What about games! Surely you have a need for some game-time every now and then…
April 6th, 2007 08:46
Hi, me again
As for games, there are more than at least I expected (I recently installed kubuntu). I am currently playing “Frets on Fire” and “Legends the game”.
Or try some from this list:
http://useopensource.blogspot.com/2006/12/tristans-favorite-linux-games.html
April 6th, 2007 09:04
I’ve been doing a partial switch, when I’m not gaming I to use Linux, when I can be bothered rebooting.
There are a surprising amount of good applications out there, huge improvements over what I was using in windows (of course all free as well) but some that just aren’t useful.
GAIM: I love it, even use it on windows because trillian was just too bloated for me. File transfers can be iffy on some protocols, but had this problem in trillian too.
RhythmBox: Like the interface for playing tracks, easy access to lyrics is amazing, though some people might want a smaller control window, I don’t.
Open Office: I was underwhelmed frankly. I can get used to most of the interface but some things I think should be basic features are missing or inaccessible
Word Count - Too hard to get to… have to go file, properties, and to the statistics tab for a word count vs ALT+T+W? No thanks. Also you can’t get a word count for a selection. Argh!
Layout - The page is not centered. I like to be able to see about 1/3 of a page at once, no closer or the text is too big, and so there is a lot of grey space to the right of the page, none on the left. Hate this.
Formatting - Style formatting can be finnicky and hard to use, though I’ll admit word has the same problem in a different way.
Shortcuts - The main ones are the same, but things I’m used to like resizing fonts aren’t there (CTRL+SHIFT+)
Headers - No different headers for first page? Eugh.
April 6th, 2007 09:55
If you really need PhotoShop give winehq.org a go, it has pretty some hit and miss support for PhotoShhop. Follow the hints on http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=17 to see how your luck will vary.
April 6th, 2007 11:45
One thing I love about Linux is wine (this probably either comes installed with your distro or can be quite easily). Specifically in reference to your article, wine can be used to run uTorrent; to my knowledge, with very little configuration (refer to Google, of course). Some other applications work in that manner; try it out (the comment by Paul also mentions wine obliquely).
@Tim: Go to the OpenOffice site; they have instructions on how to have a different header for the first page; when you get used to it, it works as well as Office (and personally, I’ve gotten used to headers on all the pages, and use that to my advantage). On word count: Alt-T-W works in OpenOffice, too. And, that page has word count for a selection. For ‘Layout,’ you’re looking for ‘Zoom’ — it’s in the view menu. Choose ‘Page Width’ and you’ll be back to something that looks like what you’re used to.
Games: The main gaming tool for linux is Cedega (transgaming.org); this requires a subscription, sadly. However, wine also attempts to keep up with developments in Cedega; both will be trivially slower than a native Windows install, but they work.
I hope this has been a useful comment.
April 6th, 2007 13:17
As far as media players on Linux go, I find VLC to run a bit better than MPlayer.
For torrents, I use Azureus. Works great for me on Windows AND Linux.
For web-based office suites, Google Docs is pretty kickass. And it’s free.
And yeah, GIMP still needs work. Gimpshop makes the menus easier to use, but that’s it. You can also re-map the keyboard shortcuts to the ones that are in Photoshop: http://epierce.freeshell.org/gimp/gimp_ps.php I just wish Adobe would release a Linux version of PShop, then my life would be complete. T__T
April 6th, 2007 14:30
I use Inkscape as a substitute for both Illustrator and InDesign. Maybe it’s much less powerful, but for 80% of regular work it’s just enough.
April 6th, 2007 18:29
Regarding KVirc, there is a Windows binary: http://www.kvirc.net/?id=releases
Regarding Photoshop and Gimp, you are right, Gimp is not as good as photoshop in any stretch of imagination. If you really need photoshop, you will need to either use WINE’s commercial version that offers support for it, or you will have to go back to Windows, or dual-boot.
As for media player, make sure you install various codecs and then use Totem (with a Xine backend, not gstreamer) and VLC. I find these two better tha Xine or mplayer.
April 6th, 2007 23:13
I’ll second azureus.
It does use up quite of connections, so if you find it’s slowing your internet connection down, you may need to adjust the threshold on your router.
Other than that, it’s perfect.