Linux - distros/packages/programs/apps/tools/guides

[arsen]

Well, titles says it all, just as i plan to move to linux soon, and noticed the software sticky post, would be nice to see what linux "things" people use, why they use it, where you can get it and so on..

ive got countless gb's of windows tools and applications etc, but i know switching to linux im gona have to start afresh, looking for new guides etc.

Interested to see if anyones found anything they use in linux and really count on for day to day, or any simple tools that make things easier, links to common linux apps or substitute programs. all links go to aiding the arsen-moves-to-linux campaign

spose i can start with a few things ive found:
Linux Live CD List
Slackware
Debian
Red Hat now: Fedora
just a few distros ive looked into
loads'a distros < american url though :<

[arsen]

Hopefull some links might come up to help the linux learning curve, or give new (or even experianced) linux users something to do/play with /discover

[directhex]

www.distrowatch.com for general linux info
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php for livecds

watch this space for a guide

[Steve]

As advice - don't get a RedHat based distro (Fedora for example) as they teach you bad habbits. My gateway is based on RedHat so now I'm running Debian on my main rig it's a bit of a shock.

Anyway, as directhex said - watch this space!

[directhex]

irc://irc.freenode.org

pick something you need help on, and try to /j it

e.g. i was having some issues this morning as debian's gnome has been half-updated to 2.6 from 2.4, so tried to /join #debian, and a link to advice was in the channel topic

ditto #alsa for sound issues, etc etc etc

[arsen]

any suggestions for alternate/replacement programs? .. i use stuff like winamp, photoshop, flash etc.. would be interesting to see what people use for graphic / audio visual proggies, CDRW might be a hurdle to get over, never heard of a nero for linux!
anyone actually use any antivirus software on linux? or just not bother as ive only ever heard of one virus for a linux system :/

[directhex]

xmms is a long-standing winamp clone for linux, bit ugly though. beep-media-player is its nicer to use but highly unstable cousin.
rhythmbox is itunesish

photoshop, you'd use the gimp

mirc you'd use xchat, irssi, virc, whatever

flash making is currently not possible, the flash plugin for browsers has been aorund a while & flash 7 was released today for linux.

avidemux is a virtualdub equivalent, audacity for mp3 editing, k3b for cd writing, f-prot for antivirus

lots o' apps

and many of them have windows versions if you wanna try, e.g. audacity, xchat, gimp

[Steve]

I have a virus scanner on my gateway - but it's for mail.

As long as you aren't running as root all the time any malicious code wouldn't do all that much damage anyway.

As for replacement programs - I'm still finding ones I like so I'll let you know!

[ikonia]

Directhex - you do know you can use winamp skins with XMMS if it looks ugly ?

[directhex]

Directhex - you do know you can use winamp skins with XMMS if it looks ugly ?

winamp skins don't make GTK 1 interface elements more attractive than "ugly as sin" though. every time you right click on XMMS your heart sinks as you ask yourself what you're doing in the 1980s - not to mention its use of GTK1 prevents it from loading UTF-8 content correctly - tags are mangled. not that XMMS is designed to feature anything as new and revolutionary as ID3v2 tags...

[Dorza]

Bit of advise when buying a book.

Dont buy a distro specific book ( eg. Learn red had linux )since it will talk about the disto more than linux (probably). Instead buy a linux specific book (e.g. Learn how to use linux) which doesnt have ties to just one distro.

This page gives a good list of windows programs and their linux alternatives, much of which are probably free


You might find this link of use to along with this one

[directhex]

first link's still busted, dorza

[Dorza]

Erm,, try it now?

[arsen]

some very nice links