Novell Suggests Linux Program Replacements

An anonymous reader writes "As a result of over 14,000 votes since the beginning of January, Adobe Photoshop, Autocad, Dreamweaver, iTunes, and Macromedia Flash are currently the top 5 'most wanted' Windows/MacOS-only applications in Novell's online survey. From comments made by the survey participants, Novell has also listed suggested substitutes for each of the five. What do readers think of these suggestions?"

Help with next generation GIMP

[brewer13210]

No doubt that Photoshop has some features that GIMP lacks, and that professionals can't do without (CMYK color, higher color depth, etc.). The next generation of GIMP will be based on GEGL (Generic Graphical Library) which will provide the bulk of these features, but it's development has been a bit slow. Lend a hand and we can help bring GIMP on-par with photoshop.

http://www.gegl.org/ [gegl.org]

Todd

Re:this is SO going to be a troll-fest...

[vurian]

Besides, the Gimp isn't the only player in town... In eleven days (Feb. 27), we'll release the rc1 of KOffice 1.5, with Krita 1.5 in it. And Krita has already cmyk, 16 bit support, lab, raw import and lots of other fun features.

List of alternatives

[jbeaupre]

I'd have to agree that most alternatives that run on Linux aren't ready yet. But I was surprised to learn Pro/E is availible. http://www.tech-edv.co.at/lunix/CADlinks.html [tech-edv.co.at]

UGS is also porting software. http://www.ugs.com/about_us/press/press.shtml?id=4 367 [ugs.com]

Personally, I'd like to see SolidWorks ported. Yes, I ditched Acad for solid modelers 12 years ago and would be very reluctant to go back.

copy of TFA

[miscz]

Linux substitutes for "most wanted" Windows-only software

DesktopLinux.com has reported recently on Novell Inc.'s survey of the "most wanted" Windows/MacOS-only applications among Linux users. As a result of over 14,000 votes and comments that have been registered since the beginning of January, some useful suggestions about good Linux substitutes have come to the fore.

Adobe Photoshop, Autocad, and Macromedia Dreamweaver continue to run 1-2-3 in the balloting, according to the online survey currently in progress on Novell's CoolSolutions community website.

"All the feedback and participation has been great thus far. As the survey continues, I wanted to share some of the suggestions that people have made regarding the top-requested applications. They have been both impressive and helpful," CoolSolutions site editor Scott Morris said.

"The more people we can expose to the survey, the more the independent software vendors (ISVs) will listen," he added. "For right now, there appears to be an abundance of software available that we can use while we are waiting for our favorites to be ported to Linux. Take a look and see if you can't find something that fits your needs."

By a good margin, Adobe Photoshop is the one application that most people want ported to Linux, Morris said. Free and open-source software (FOSS) already available for Linux that have similar feature sets to Photoshop include:

* Pixel Image Editor
* The GIMP
* Krita (Part of Koffice)
* Photoshop also works with WINE

"So, if you're looking to get Photoshop ported to Linux, you might give these suggestions a try [in the meantime]," Morris said.

Many suggestions were listed as replacements for Autodesk AutoCAD, including:

* VariCAD, which has a version specifically designed for SUSE Linux
* LinuxCAD
* arcad
* Cycas
* Synergy

"After checking these applications out a little, some of them look pretty slick. If you need a CAD app, check these out," Morris said.

Macromedia has a couple of applications on this Top 10 Most Requested list, Morris said. Two suggestions for what to use in place of a Linux version of Dreamweaver are:

* Nvu
* Windows Dreamweaver, via WINE

"There were a handful of great suggestions for iTunes (replacements)," Morris said. They include:

* AmaroK
* gtkpod
* Syncpod
* Yamipod

Fifth on the list is Macromedia Flash. "Surprisingly, there are actually a number of useful resources already working on Linux," Morris said. Those are:

* SWF Tools
* KToon
* Blender3D (Available directly from YAST)
* SoftImage|XSI

"There are quite a few people taking advantage of making their opinions known," Morris said. "Let's see how many people we can get to take this survey, so the ISVs will pay attention and start porting their products to Linux."

Re:Dreamweaver and flash ...

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Flashblock.

I've not seen a monkeypunching banner in god, years now.

SVG is nice, I'm using it to do stuff I'd only have been able to do in flash or java before. I've got several interactive diagrams for a webapp of mine, even as you change the parameters, so does the image (there are too many combinations to just switch out one image for another). It's pretty neat. I'm planning on doing even cooler things, including a few 3d applets.

And the best part about it, I do not need a windows machine to run the macrodobe software, nor the $x00 for the software itself.

Re:AutoCAD

[hb253]

I'm pretty sure that Bentley Microstation and it's associated products are equal to or even better than AutoCAD products.

Rhythmbox?

[j00bar]

I'm surprised that Rhythmbox [rhythmbox.org] didn't make the list of iTunes replacements. It looks like iTunes, it interacts with your iPod in a similar fashion, and it even supports DAAP. Other than the iTMS, it's almost a complete replacement.

-jag

iTunes is more than the iTMS

[Kadin2048]

The fifth, iTunes, is a proprietary DRM package that it would be best to stay away from (although it too, is popular in geekdom).

If you could make a program which replicated everything that iTunes does, without the iTMS or DRM functions, I think you'd do what 90% of people want.

I know a lot of iPod owners (and I'm sure there are quite a few here on /.) who have never purchased any music from iTMS and have never had to use a DRMed file. Personally I've only ever bought two, out of a total library of close to 20,000. The Music Store is not iTunes' "killer feature." Ease of use, a basically seamless interface, and tight integration with the iPod are. The new automatic features for subscribing to, downloading, and maintaining Podcasts on an iPod are going to be more important as people realize how cool a thing it is.

But replicating the DRM functions isn't necessarily important in terms of coming up with a free alternative to iTunes, it's replicating that useability experience and other features that is.

Re:AutoCAD

[Fiver-]

My A/E firm, which was an AutoCAD shop, merged with a larger firm, which was a Microstation shop. My firm had to make the switch. We had training in phases and all existing projects continued to be in AutoCAD, but all new projects were started in MicroStation. It was a pretty painless transition.

Re:the most desired are ones I never use

[typical]

You must've somehow missed Outlook (the full version, not Express). Evolution has nothing on it.

Evolution lacks layers of modal dialogs (try adding someone to an address book distribution list -- three or four modal dialogs deep in Outlook!), and doesn't get into cycles where it hangs and starts barfing up dialogs about "LDAP Server found more entries than could be returned for your list" as Outlook does. I have absolutely zero idea why people rave about Outlook.

That being said, I use mutt.

Re:Dreamweaver and flash ...

[pthisis]

I suspect most of the Flash-Haters hate it for what it does, and not because it could be replaced by another standards-compliant, but equally annoying technology.

Rather a lot hate it since for some reason people write sites that rely on it, despite the fact that Flash is not free (forget open) for many users, and is not usable by many.

Most businesses I've worked at do not allow flash players to be installed, because the audit terms are very nebulous ("You agree that Macromedia may audit your use of the Software for compliance with these terms at any time, upon reasonable notice.") and open up the possibility of Macromedia getting access to your internal machines.

And use is completely forbidden on "mobile devices, set top boxes (STB), handhelds, phones, web pads, tablets and Tablet PCs that are not running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, game consoles, TVs, DVD players, media centers".

Re:No Viable Visio Alternative

[bigsmoke]

I've been using DIA [gnome.org] for some serious work and created quite a few UML, ERD and network topology diagrams with it for my employer [sicirec.org], but, with experience, I never came to actually like it.

There are some things I like about DIA.

• The compatibility between the Windows [sourceforge.net] and the Un*x [gnome.org] versions has been a real enhancer when I had to have flowcharts made and modified between my brother who was on Windows through TurtoiseSVN [sourceforge.net] and myself and another project member who are both (mostly) on Linux.
• It's open source.
• It works very transparantly and its file format is easy enough to parse and understand.

The things I dislike about DIA are more numerous, though. Just a few:

• Connection points on most, if not all, objects are too few.
• Not enough shapes.
• I can't count the number of times I've deleted an object while trying to delete a character, because I forgat to press Right-Arrow, Backspace instead of Delete.
• There's no way to indicate that two lines cross without touching, and it's also impossible to indicate the opposite.
• There's a lot of inconsistency in editing the shapes between shapesets.

All in all, DIA has made my live easier though. And also, I'm not exactly a fan of some of the Windows alternatives such as Smartdraw.

Re:CAD

[Sir_Kurt]

I am an architect with a five person practice. I have been searching for a decent non-autodesk CAD program that runs on linux for some time. I have finally found one. Check out Bricscad. http://www.bricscad.com/ [bricscad.com] It is an Autocad clone. Even has the 3-D stuff. Reasonably priced. If you are familiar with Autocad you will be up and running in an hour. It is a Linux port from there windows product and uses wine. We were a Beta test site for them It will read and write all autocad files going back to version 2.2. Worth the price just for that. Kurt.

Re:Dreamweaver and flash ...

[skarphace]

What would be really nice is a button (in the window status bar maybe) that lets one enable/disable the Flash plugin at will.

Of course, there is a Firefox extension [mozdev.org] exactly for this purpose.