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In a previous article, I discussed how you as a computer user can rid your computer of Microsoft products. That article discussed using a Mac, which in my opinion has both advantages and disadvantages (as does every computer decision). For one, in selecting a Mac, you are immediately relegating yourself to being one of a tiny percentage of computer users. Using Windows, you are among a vast majority of all computer users, estimated to be anywhere between 80-85 percent. With a Mac, that percentage drops to somewhere between 3-6 percent.
Also, many websites and Internet technologies assume you will be using Windows or Internet Explorer (both Microsoft products), just as many businesses assume you will be using Microsoft Office. By using a Mac, you do have Microsoft options available to you, but since the point of the article was to free yourself from the “need” to be using Microsoft, I’ll ignore that.
Third, switching from using Windows to using a Mac by the very act, requires you to purchase a new computer. You can use Windows (to a certain degree), on an older Mac, and run it natively on a new Mac, but you can’t run the Mac operating system on a Windows-based PC. So in order to use Mac software, you need a Mac, and that’s another investment.
But there is another option.
Linux.
Most people know the term (or are familiar with Tux, the Linux mascot), but likely not a large percentage are really “aware” of what exactly Linux entails. To boil down the philosophy of Linux (probably too much), Linux is part of the Free Open Source Software movement, or FOSS for short. What this means is that open-source software, while you may be charged for it, gives you certain freedoms. Freedom to alter the software to better suit your needs. Freedom to share those changes with others. Freedom to redistribute and repackage the software. There are certain requirements, of course, but freedom is the important aspect.
One of the major advantages of switching from Microsoft products to Linux is that it can all be done without the need to purchase a different computer, and it can all be done, completely free of charge.
As in my previous article, I will now go over the three basic areas where Microsoft seems to have a virtual monopoly among computer users:
1. Operating System – Microsoft Windows
2. Office Software – Microsoft Office
3. Web Browser – Microsoft Internet Explorer
In the following sections, I will go over your options within the Linux world, as far as replacing Microsoft products. I will try not to give any rah-rah recommendations, but it’s possible you’ll see my personal biases come through. I make no promises.
OPERATING SYSTEM/DISTRO:
With Mac and Windows, you have exactly one choice in this matter. Well, with Windows there are different levels of the product – Home User, Professional User, but in the end it’s all the same product.
With Linux, that is true, and it’s also not true. At its core, Linux is a very small piece of software, called the kernel, that is the nuts and bolts of how the operating system controls the computer. Different operating systems have different selling points and shortcomings, and much of that boils down to the kernel.
On top of the kernel is what, in Linux, is called the Desktop Environment. There are many options you can choose from in this area, but the two biggest players are Gnome and KDE. (I realize I’m annoying fans of Fluxbox, Xfce and others by their omission, but if I attempted to cover every single option in the Linux world, this article would never end!)
Gnome and KDE differ… not so much in their look, because that can be tweaked to a user’s liking, but in their philosophies. I talk about this in a bit more depth in another article (here it is). The good thing about Linux, however, is that whichever desktop environment you choose as your default, doesn’t have to stay that way. Programs written for Gnome will run perfectly fine under KDE, and vice versa.
So… once you’ve looked and seen what your options are, you’ll want to see about getting a particular distro.
What’s a distro?
Good question. “Distro” is Linux-speak for “distribution,” and what that really means is a particular distro is one person’s (or one group’s) vision of what Linux should be. For instance, in the Linux world you have people who think that all software should be completely free, with no strings attached… period. So if a particular graphics card manufacturer doesn’t make the driver for their newest card available as open-source, then those Linux users will not use the software, even if it is available at no cost. For other users, while that might be a concern, it isn’t a deal-breaker. They may hope an open-source version comes out eventually, but they’re a bit more pragmatic about their computing situation.
So that’s one thing to consider. Do you want to use a system that’s completely “free” of restrictions, or one that might not allow you to do everything you possibly “could” do. It might not matter. Personally, since I am not a programmer, and never intend to be, I fall into the second category of user. I want my videos to look good, my audio files to sound clear, and my monitor to get the best resolution it can, based on the video card I have. If I was faced with the choice of using software that I couldn’t alter versus giving up that “right,” and using software that worked… I would choose the latter.
But not everyone would, and that’s up to you to decide.
Beyond that distinction, different distros might target different users. For a list of literally thousands of different distros, check out Distrowatch, and look at their most popular 100 distros on any given day.
You’ll see names like Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, Mandriva, Debian, DSL (Damn Small Linux), Saboyan and Slackware, along with many many others. Each one of these is distinctly different, although some may be close relatives. For instance, Freespire is based on Ubuntu (the most popular distribution at the moment), and Ubuntu is based on Debian. But if you would load all three, you would see some differences, both in what they look like, and what programs are installed by default.
One other thing to consider is how you’ll get new programs onto your computer. Unlike in Windows or Mac, it is the “responsibility” of the maintainer of your distro to provide a decently comprehensive collection of software. Unless you’re using a distro where you physically compile the original source code yourself, of course.
But for a “normal” home user, who just wants to download a game or install a different email client or spreadsheet application, ease is paramount. So is selection, and this is another area where distros will differ.
Some distros, like Debian (and distros based on Debian, of course), will have somewhere around 18,000 different pieces of software available. Not all 18,000 are separate programs, of course. Some are simply libraries (pieces of code), which will allow your computer to perform a certain function. Other distros will have a smaller selection, although still typically at least 3,000 options. In reality, the major pieces of software (the ones I will discuss in the next couple sections), will certainly be available on any standard, mainstream, Linux distro.
Now that you’ve selected and installed a distro (or at least thought about it), you’ll definitely want to know what software is available to you. The good news is that some, if not most, of these programs will likely have been installed already. If not, find out what program your distro uses for package management (which basically means which program you use to install different programs), and have fun trying them out. Now, without further ado…
OFFICE SOFTWARE:
For the Linux user, there are three different ways to go as far as office software. They are OpenOffice, KOffice, and Gnome Office. At the moment, the first two are what I would consider best of class for Linux users. They are truly organized and integrated, while Gnome Office is, at the moment, a few applications thrown together without really having anything linking them except in name.
OpenOffice – This is by far the most popular office suite for Linux users. It has modules similar to Microsoft Office – word processing, spreadsheet, database, drawing, presentation and html editing. The goal of OpenOffice is to be compatible with the second most recent version of Microsoft Office. At the moment, OpenOffice is very nearly a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office 2000, but with the release of Office 2007, the new goal will be to duplicate the features of Office 2003. As far as compatibility goes, OpenOffice again stands head and shoulders above other Linux competitors. This is due in large part to OpenOffice’s relationship to StarOffice, a commercial office suite for Linux. The two programs are based on the same code base, but because StarOffice is intended to be a true Microsoft Office replacement, a great deal of time has been spent ensuring the two (Star Office and Microsoft Office) are compatible. Because of this, OpenOffice has a great deal of success in reading Office formats as well as writing them. One criticism OpenOffice faces is that it is slow and bloated. And it is true that the program can be a bit slow to start up initially, but once the program has loaded, most users will find it quite responsive.
KOffice – This is the official office suite of KDE. Of the three suites, this is probably the fasted to load and according to many computer users shows the most promise. Unfortunately, development is not even across all aspects of the suite. The database, for instance, is quite advanced, while other modules – the graphics program, for instance – seem to fall a bit behind the rest of the suite. KOffice has the advantage of having very tight integration, by using a feature of KDE called KParts. What this enables the suite to do is load a spreadsheet within a word processing document, or a drawing area within a spreadsheet. As well, KOffice is quite small as far as taking up hard drive space, and is also quite reasonable in its memory needs. Reading and writing Microsoft Office formats isn’t nearly as good as with OpenOffice, and because of this, is probably best recommended to people who would be reading and writing documents for their own use, as opposed to sending them to someone who might be using Microsoft Office.
Gnome Office – Not really a suite as far as being a tightly organized group of programs, Gnome Office consists of Abiword (word processor), Gnumeric (spreadsheet), and GNOME-DB (a database program). In addition, a few Linux distros, in order to better round out the suite, have added programs for graphics, drawing diagrams, vector graphics and project management. Each program within each category has good points and not-so-good points. The word processor, for instance is fairly decent at reading/writing Microsoft formats, but tends to be a bit more limited (especially compared to OpenOffice), in what it can do. As a basic word processor it is certainly fine, but don’t expect to product complicated documents. Gnumeric, on the other hand, is a very good spreadsheet. It has most of the common functions as Excel, and while the formatting of cells might not import and export perfectly, the formulas certainly will. As far as the non-official modules, The GIMP (image editor), is considered best-in-class among Linux users, and the other programs are definitely serviceable.
One thing to keep in mind when looking at any of these office suites (and any of the programs mentioned in this article), is that although the point of this process is to free a computer user from using Microsoft products, that user will, most likely, still have the need to use Microsoft’s formats. Unless you’ve managed to completely isolate yourself or convince everyone around you to use a true, open office standard, you’ll still need to worry about opening Word documents. Such is life.
WEB BROWSERS:
The area of web browsers is quite a fertile one for Linux users. In fact, for computer users who have experimented with alternate web browsers in Windows, a couple may be quite familiar.
Firefox – Firefox is second to Internet Explorer in overall users, is highly standards compliant (although the newest version still fails the Acid2 test (which is used to test a web browser’s standards compliance), although not as badly as Internet Explorer), and is completely free. It also has tabbed browsers, but what makes Firefox so attractive to so many users is its use of extensions. With extensions, you can block advertising images, change the look of Firefox, give it new features to better integrate it with your life, get weather updates in the status bar, and control your music player. The drawback to this is the more extensions you use, the more memory Firefox takes. But Firefox is easily the most extensible browser available today.
Konqueror – This is the default web browser for KDE. As with many KDE programs, if used in a vacuum, they are wonderful. The browser is quick, responsive, has many features, but… there’s always a “but,” right… since Linux is not very common, occasionally you will find websites (banking sites in particular), that don’t behave very well with Konqueror. But one feature that can make this bearable for a user is that Konqueror is able to spoof its user agent. What this means is that Konqueror is able to “tell” a website that it is, in fact, Firefox… or Internet Explorer… or whatever. In some instances, this is enough for the website to treat Konqueror like it would any other browser, which is often all that is needed for the site to work correctly. One advantage Konqueror has over Firefox is that Konqueror can easily be used (without additional extensions), as a file manager to browse your hard drive. As well, because of KParts, Konqueror is able to display text documents, Word documents, pretty much anything KOffice can open, Konqueror can be told to open as well.
Epiphany and Galeon – These two browsers are both built for Gnome, and are fine in and of themselves. They fit in well with the Gnome desktop (as does Firefox), but the problem with them – at least in my eyes – is that they are dependent upon Firefox being installed in order to work. Because of this, even if you never use Firefox, it will still be sitting on your computer. The reason for this is because Galeon and Epiphany use the same Gecko rendering engine (used to display html and other web pages), as does Firefox, but instead of requiring only the rendering engine to be installed, most Linux distros also require Firefox. Because of this, I’ve found it somewhat pointless to use either of these browsers, as it feels a bit like overkill. There is certainly nothing wrong with either browser, and if there ever comes a day when either can be installed without Firefox, they’ll definitely be deserving of another look.
Opera – Opera is not open-source, but is free to download and use. Opera, like Firefox, comes with a load of features, including a built-in email module, news reader, download manager and bittorrent client. It also takes advantage of what it calls Widgets, which are tiny one-trick programs to make your browsing experience more fun and efficient. It also includes standard the ability to take notes and have them associated with a web page, the ability to control Opera by voice commands, and the ability to change the look and feel of the program via skins.
The above lists are by no means complete, but hopefully gives you an idea of what is available to you. If you are among the people considering the move away from Microsoft products and have elected to try Linux, a good recommendation would be to download and burn what’s called a Live CD. Most Linux distros have available for download .iso images which, when burned to a CD, will actually boot your computer using Linux. You are able to load web pages, surf the Internet, try out programs, all without installing anything or endangering the data already on your hard drive. With many of these distros, should you decide you like them enough to use full time, you are able to then install to your hard drive, right from the Live CD.
Before doing anything, I would recommend assessing your computer needs. If you find yourself locked into certain Microsoft products, this guide may not be for you. See what your format requirements are. If you have to use Word… why? Is there some particular formatting feature being required of your documents, or is it a case of “everyone else is using Word,” that forced the issue? Find out if an alternative format – or one that might not be 100% “exactly” the same as everyone else – would be acceptable. I think it’s likely you’ll be able to get by, but a little research now can save a major headache later. So… enjoy the new world of Linux and good luck on your journey!
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