many alternatives TO WINDOWS PROGRAMS

There are many alternatives to using Microsoft Windows and the
applications
that are made for it. One of the more popular alternatives is the Linux
operating system. Just about everything you can do in Windows, you can do
in Linux, sometimes even better and with more control. Linux has been
around for quiet a long time, so its no surprise that there are a ton of
applications out there that offer the same type of functionality that many
of our favorite Windows applications have. This article takes a look at
some of the most popular software applications used in Microsoft Windows
and compares them with some alternatives that get the same job done.
Accounting:
Windows: Quick Books
Linux: GNUCash

GNUCash is a great accounting alternative to Quick Books. Though not as
powerful and wide-scale as Quick Books, GNUCash is a perfect open source
tool for small business and personal finance purposes.
Audio/Video:
Windows: Windows Media Player
Linux: MPlayer / VLC
MPlayer has the ability to play pretty much every video format in
existence. MPlayer also comes with mencoder which allows you to convert
video from one format to another.
VLCis another great alternative that is available for both Windows and
Linux. It can also play just about any of the popular video formats.
Windows: Winamp
Linux: XMMS

XMMS is practically a clone of Winamp made for Linux. If you are a die
hard
Winamp user then you'll feel right at home using XMMS. Heck, it even
allows
you to use Winamp skins. What more could you ask for?
Windows: ITunes
Linux: amaroK

amaroK has many of the same features ITunes provides. It's defenitely
worth
checking out.
CD Burning:
Windows: Nero / Built In
Linux: K3b

K3b is an extremely easy to configure and use burning application. Just
about anything you can do in Windows in regards to burning a CD or DVD,
you
can do with K3b.
E Mail:
Windows: Microsoft Outlook
Linux: Evolution / Mozilla Thunderbird
Evolution is a great mail client that provides integrated mail, address
book, and calendar functionality.
Mozilla Thunderbird is another great mail client that is fast, easy to use
and very reliable. I use Thunderbird on a daily basis. When I converted my
office over to Thunderbird nearly two years ago, our internal technical
support dropped nearly 25%. We later realized that a lot of our internal
support was going to fixing issues that Microsoft Outlook was causing.
Graphics:
Windows: Adobe Photoshop
Linux: The Gimp / Photogenics

The Gimp offers many of the same features and functionality of Adobe
Photoshop, and is available for both Windows and Linux.
Photogenics is a commercialized graphics tool that may cost you some
money.
I recommend the former, though I still wanted to mention this one.
Instant Messanging:
Windows: AOL Instant Messenger / MSN
Linux: Gaim
Gaim is a very robust instant messaging application built both for Linux
and Windows. It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN
Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise
Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks.
Office:
Windows: Microsoft Office
Linux: OpenOffice / Google Docs & Spreadsheets
OpenOffice offers the ability to read and create word documents, power
point files, spreadsheets and more. There are very few functionality
differences between Microsoft Office and Open Office.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a great online tool that allows you to also
read and create word documents and excel spreadsheets. You can also save
documents as other file types.
Web Browsing:
Windows: Internet Explorer
Linux: Mozilla Firefox / Konqueror
Mozilla Firefox is a fast and powerful web browser designed to run on both
Linux and Windows. There are far fewer issues with spyware, adware, and
pop
ups making it far more secure than Internet Explorer. This is my browser
of
choice.
Konqueror is another great web browser for Linux. Designed by the KDE
team,
this browser has many similarities to Firefox.
I've covered just about all the mainstream applications and categories
that
I can think of. When it comes down to it, there will always be
alternatives
to Microsoft, some will be better, some won't. Furthermore, if your too
stuck on a particular Windows application, but want to run Linux on your
desktop, there are even alternative ways to run some popular Windows
applications on Linux. Check out VMWare and Wine to learn more about that.
http://www.foogazi.com/2006/11/10/a...-programs/