This is part four of a series on Linux, click for part one, two and three.

In this continuing series of posts on Linux, we shall now take a look at programs that you can use to do the same things as you would under Windows. Linux is 'open source' software, as I described earlier. There are many programs that you can install that are also 'open source'. In fact there are distributions of Linux that only contain open source programs. But that does not mean there are no 'paid for' programs!

The linux programs can be used on many different distributions, not just Ubuntu.

Lets start with categories of programs

• Email
• Word processing/spreadsheet etc
• Web surfing
• photo management / editing
• music player
• video player

Email

Windows comes with OutLook Express and MS Office comes with OutLook, an improved version which is aimed at business. Alternatives include Thunderbird by Mozilla, the same people who created FireFox. Another open source program.

Linux also has Thunderbird available but another possibly better program is Evolution. This is the one that I use and the spam filters are really effective.

Word processing/spreadsheet etc

The most common set of programs for word processing etc is Microsoft Office. Really good software but it does come at a price. Alternatives include Sun StarOffice and OpenOffice, both based on the same open source software.

Many distributions of Linux come with OpenOffice, available on both LiveDisks and completed installations. An alternative for Microsoft Word and Writer in OpenOffice is Abiword.

Web Surfing

Of course for Windows you have Internet Explorer, now currently at version 8. Once Windows 7 arrives in Europe, you will have a choice of browsers to install. There are many browsers to choose from including Firefox, Flock, Opera and Chrome.

Linux also has Firefox and Opera, Chrome is yet to be available. There are other browsers you can use including Midori and Epiphany. There is also Flock which is based on Firefox but offers features to help you with social networking (Facebook, Twitter etc).

Photo management / editing

There are many programs available for Windows to edit and manage photo's. The most basic is MS Paint. The Windows installation comes with an image/fax viewer though you will prefer Windows Photo gallery to organise your pictures. The open source program Gimp is also available along with Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.

Linux does not go without. For editing there is Gimp, ImageMagick, CinePaint, Corel PhotoPaint 9. To organise your pictures there is the useful F-Spot program.

Music Player

Most of you will be using Windows Media player as it comes as default. Over the years it has improved and become quite powerful. It can organise your music and handle video. Alternatives include Real Player and the WinAmp series of programs.

For Linux, there is Amarok (my preferred program), Mplayer/Kplayer and RealPlayer (open source version). From what I have found, there are no programs that play both music and video in one (with organization) as Windows Media player does.

Video Player

Again Windows has it's own media player which performs fine. Other programs include Mplayer and RealPlayer. For DVD playback, drivers are required depending on video card and DVD ROM drive, however the programs to play back include PowerDVD, WinDVD and VideoLAN.

Linux can use one set of libraries or drivers to enable playback using Ogle, Mplayer, Xine, VLC etc.

Did I miss anything?

Yes I am sure I missed loads. If there are any you think I should add then let me know. Also, not all products and programs have hyperlinks. Many Linux programs can be easily added via the special package managers that come with the operating system. Use them in preference to downloading and installing. Some Windows programs are supplied with the hardware, such as PowerDVD. They should be installed from the supplied disks as they may match the supplied hardware.