Never thought to switch from Windows to Linux? Net is full of website where you can find the answer to question “why Linux is better then Windows” or “What are Linux limitation?”, so I will not bore you explaining that. My only thought is that if you don’t have particular motivation to pay for licences, you can do this happy Operating system switch.

Here there is a list of Linux programs you can use instead of similar Windows programs. They are comparable and they do more or less same things (sometimes less, sometimes more :P).

I’m using some of those programs on my Linux Ubuntu.

Mail programs:

• Evolution (email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memo) <- Outlook
• Mozilla Thunderbird (email and news program)

Browsers:

• Mozilla Firefox <- Internet Explorer
• Opera <- Internet Explorer

IM-Chat-VoIP:

• Gaim <- MSNMessenger
• Skype
• Xchat IRC (IRC client) <- MIRC

FTP:

• gFTP

P2P – Torrent:

• aMule <- Emule
• Bittorrent client
• Azureus (Bittorrent client)

Office:

• OpenOffice Writer <- Microsoft Word
• AbiWord <- Microsoft Word
• OpenOffice Writer <- Microsoft Excell
• Gnumeric <- Microsoft Excell
• Scribus <- Microsoft Publisher
• Evince <- Adobe Reader
• Adobe Reader
• GnuCash (finance management)

Programming:

• Eclipse
• NVU <- Dreamweaver
• Quanta Plus (web development)

Graphic:

• The Gimp (Image editor) <- Adobe Photoshop
• F-Spot (photos manager)
• Autotrace (from bitmap to vector)
• Inkscape (vector graphic editor) <- Adobe Illustrator. Corel Draw, Freehand,…
• Blender (3D modeler) <- 3D studio , Maya

Multimedia:

• Totem (video/audio player)
• VLC (video/audio player)
• Audacity (digital audio editor) <- Sound Forge, CoolEdit,…
• XMMS (audio player) <- Winamp
• MPlayer (video/audio player, with WMA support)
• Rhythmbox Music Player (with iPods support) <- Apples Itunes
• gtkPod (with iPods support) <- Apples Itunes
• Kino (digital video editor)
• GnomeBaker (CD/DVD burning program) <- Nero

Antivirus:

• No need antivirus on Linux ;) <- AVG, Avast, Antivir, Norton, TrendMicro,…

You can read a fantastic Guide that explain you how to install most of those programs on Ubuntu 7.04 here: https://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_ubuntu7.04

If you want, you can try also these solutions to have your preferred windows program on your Linux System:

• VMware server + Windows + yourProgram
• Xen + VT + yourProgram

Potrebbe interessarti anche:

• The Linux Alternative Project
• Disabilitare auto-logon Windows (su Parallels e non)
• Forzare la comparsa della finestra di attivazione di Windows XP