The Linux Side
Software for Linux
A free, 32 bits operating system, is a nice thing indeed but to use your computer effectively, you need software. Last week I covered the server side of Linux, this week we will checkout its "workstation" capabilities.
Windows and Mac are both touted as "user friendly". The main reason for this label is that they have a Windowing system. In that respect, Linux can be qualified as "user friendly," for one can use a windowing system with Linux, X-Windows. X-Windows was developed in the early 80's at MIT. Despite its age, X-Windows has unmatched features. One of them is the ability to run a software on one machine and display it on another. For example you could run a software on a Sun Workstation and use your Linux-PC display, mouse and keyboard. Another great feature is that you can tailor the Look-and-Feel of X-Windows to your particular taste by choosing the right "window manager". So if you like the Look-and-Feel of Win95, checkout "fvwm95", if Mac has your heart, try out "mlvwm", if NextStep is your trip, "AfterStep" is for you. Actually, each user login onto a Linux system can select his own style. As usual on The Linux Side, the choice is yours.
The workhorse of computer software are so-called productivity tools. Almost everybody use a Word Processor or a spreadsheet. Linux, like other OS's has many to choose from.
The trend these days is to offer "Office Suite" packages containing Word processor, Spreadsheet, e-mail tool and more. Linux is not immune to this fad and there are at least 5 commercial and 1 free "Office suites" for Linux. The commercial suites are from Applixware, Caldera, Cliq, GoldMedal and StarOffice. The free one is Carnegie Melon's Andrew system (Note that StarOffice is also free for personal use).
Caldera's office suite (http://www.caldera.com) contains a number of well-known applications: WordPerfect, NExS and Z-Mail. This is the solution for those who wish to continue to use widely used tools. Those tools are well integrated into Caldera's OpenLinux distribution.
Applixware adds some nifty presentation tool an its word processor can import and export files in many different formats including MS-Words, WordPerfect and HTML. This is useful for exchanging documents with poor souls slaving away on less advanced systems. Better, Applixware includes the RedHat Linux distribution.
Goldmedal and Cliq come with useful groupware utilities (Appointment tool, calendar,...) and database tools, while StarOffice offers those tools too, but is still beta software (i.e. not yet released).
Corel Office for Java can also run on Linux, for Sun's JDK (Java Development Kit) has been ported to Linux. But this is not really a "Linux" product except for the fact that Linux was the first (still the only?) OS with direct support for Java binaries.
Beside all those "Office Suites", there are numerous stand-alone tools, both Commercial and free. Free Word processors are worth mentioning.
Papyrus is a free WYSIWYG word processor. It has limited capabilities (i.e no table, no formulae and no graphics) but if what you want to do is simple text, Papyrus is nice and simple. LyX is also free and is almost WYSIWYG. It is based on LaTex, a complex document typesetting system that can run on most computers. It is "almost" WYSIWYG because the structure of a document is apparent and may not reflect its layout. For example, the "signature" in a letter document may, when editing, appear before the body of the letter. When printing LaTex will make sure it appears where you expect it.
X-Word and Cicero are other free WYSIWYG Word processors running on Linux
On the commercial side, Xclamation is a powerful publishing application from Axene. It interacts seamlessly with Xquad, Axene's spreadsheet.
A great many spreadsheet, database and graphic softwares are also available.
As you can read there is a rather vast amount of software to choose from. But some people, all they want is a specific application like MS-Words or Photoshop on Mac. Well that ain't no reason to throw Linux out of the .... window. Now that you mention it, Linux can do that too.
With WABI (Windows Application Binary Interface) you can run many Windows 3.1 applications under Linux, and that includes MS-Words. WABI was developed by Sun Microsystem and ported to Linux by Caldera.
For those addicted to Apple, Executor can run Mac binaries on Linux.
Because Linux is such an efficient OS, both emulators run software with little or no speed degradation. Sometimes you even get better performance under Linux!
Linux can also run SCO-Unix binaries. So the commercial softwares available for SCO are available on Linux. And that includes Oracles database software.
If you want to know more about these or other applications for Linux Check out http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/linux-app-list/linapps.html It is a Linux software treasure chest!
By now you may wonder: "If Linux is such a good OS, how comes I have not heard of it before?"
There are several reasons for that. First, Linux is developed and maintained mostly by volunteers. Although some commercial companies have joined the fray, their combined marketing power is less than what Microsoft Mighty Marketing Machine might spend on one of its "vaporware."
Another reason may be the misconception that free software is of lesser quality. This could not be more false. Even some commercial companies are shipping free software with their products. For example, SunSoft includes Emacs, arguably the best editor, with its SparcWorks product. Another example, Linux was the OS used on one payload experiment on the space shuttle last March and again in July. Have you any idea of how much a failure would cost? Still they selected Linux.
Reaching the end of this column, I hope I convinced you that Linux is real. That Linux is a viable platform, an effective computer solution. It is both an outstanding server and a great Workstation. Will it solve your problem? I don't know, but if I had to answer I would say probably. It is free| So why don't you give it a try? It is easy and it works. With Linux, you can unleash the Workstation in your PC!
Happy Linuxing