Linux apps

D

Da'iMacDaddy

Unix Newb.
Well I know this isn't exactly the best place to put this but I was just wondering about applications for Linux. I hear so much about the great open source gurus and all but I have know idea where to go searching for them.


So here is my request, if you would please list any *free* programs that you use for Linux whether it be game tool or anything other than that list it here with your opinion and a link to where a person might download it.

Thank you
:)
 
OK too much info.

Yeah I know about how all you "*nix" guys out there hate it when people ask questions... about anything ever even if you're just asking a harmless question. Sure I've done some reading on the subject and frankly there aren't a lot of good things out there to read. For example installation procedures are horrendous for the various Linux distros. I've installed Red Hat 6.0 before and boy was that a breeze but unfortunatley with the little amount of resources I have I think I may have to go with something like Slackware and their installation guides suck if you haven't read most of the site. Any way I have done some reading since the past post and I myself have found most of the links to download programs that you spoke of. Really I was just wondering what everyone else was using. Maybe someone has stumbled upon some new up and coming software or maybe have written some of their own.
Personaly I think some of you "*nix" guys are hypocrites, I mean you all say how knowledge should be shared and open source is so great and everything but you keep so tight lipped when it comes to newbies. Maybe this is why "*nix"'s haven't really come around to most people. There isn't any friendly neighborhood kids that can help you when you f*ed up your computer with Linux. Apart from 1/3 of my computer class I don't know of anyone who has ever really even heard of it.
So keep telling the newbies to read and keep being that big "*nix" guy who sits in a closet playing with his computer and reading books with a flashlight with pieces of patato chips stuck to his unkept gotee and being some kind of hermit if you will I'm off to find some GOOD reading material .....
 
Hi there, DaiMacDaddy.

It's obvious that you're just looking for a few good ideas to get started off with, and not a comprehensive ten page history of the underground culture that fostered Linux. ;) That said, what Y'Dobon said is absolutely true and the philosophy of the open-source world is an interesting study.

For those of us in the real world, however, I'd suggest you muck around with the following applications.

- The Gimp - An open source answer to image editing, it has a lot of the features of PhotoShop, such as layers, channels, etc. Though it lacks "publishing" tools it makes up for it with multimedia and web tools.

- AbiWord - A word processor. It opens M$ docs. Handy, yah?

- Gnome / KDE / Enlightenment - These great window managers let you customise your X-windows desktop to the extreme. Gnome and KDE both have great file-managers and web browsers, and a handful of office programs.

- Bochs / Connectix Virtual PC - These let you run M$ Windows in a virtual machine. Though VPC is commercial, it is the better of the two. The handy thing is, these actually allow you to access a windows "machine" - albeit not a real one - remotely using X-windows over a network. That means you can set up one good, powerful, unix server running VPC and a few dozen cheapo boxes that barely run X-windows, and the cheapo boxes will all run Windows and linux software on the server as fast as lightning.

Anyhow, for more info read the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) for specific things you might want to do. Gnu/Unix has an answer to every commercial application, from Visio to Excel.
 
Dude!!!

Check out freshmeat.net for linux software! Hey unix.com is helpful and it runs vbulletin so if your comfortable here you'll be okay there. Theres this old pc at my folks place, I might try to install linux on it. Which distribution is the best? You kinda rag on Red Hat. Is Debian or Slackware that much better? Whats the diff?

If you want cheap linux, go to cheapbytes.com. Someone told me about it and Red Hats like five bucks. That rules!!!!
 
you really don t need a list of free software. there are thousands and thousands of free softwares at places like sourceforge and freshmeat, and just a list of names and links is not too useful. a good distro will come with all the free software you want to use.

and just because somebody doesn t want to sit around explaining to people all day doesn t make her a hypocrite.

t h:
for a good price on redhat, try redhat.com, download for free
 
Lethe, thanks bro, but I dont always have a good connection to the net, so my buds tell me that cheapbytes is pretty good. I know you can download for free from redhat and debian and the other sites.

My linux bros tell me to check out Gentoo Linux. I think its right here http://www.gentoo.org

They tell me when I feel comfy with red hat or debian or whatever I should check it out. They say its power linux, optimized and everything for max performance. Sounds good tome!!!
 
yeah, actually, i ve recently switched to gentoo, and i think its the best. its a little do-it-yourselfish, but it has really become my favorite distro. the package management system is as good or better than debians apt-get/deselect, but debian is so behind. with gentoo you can have bleeding edge new software, and everything customized.
 
You might want to try Fink on sourceforge as a package to bring *nix sw over to your Mac OS X. From there you can do XFree, gimp, KDE, Gnome, etc
Jerry
 
hey, i hear a lot of yall trashing redhat and supporting debian, and i just wonder whats up with that.
I use a version of Redhat called YellowDog (pretty much redhat recompiled for PPC).
what id like to know is: has Debian gotten better?
Debian was the first version of Linux i tried putting on my Sad, Pathetic little iMac.
it was terrible.
the X windows system wouldnt config, and it just... sucked. at that time i knew very little about the shell other than CP, LS, RM, CD, and SHUTDOWN.

so id appreciate a response, because i need to know, man. this Gentoo linux or whatever its called sounds cool, im taking a look at it right now.
thanxabunch!!!
-Pat
 
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