Windows / Linux Software Equivalents

Windows is definitely the big player in the game still, however Linux usage is gaining some steam. This post is going to concentrate on what programs you can use to make the switch to Linux. This process is not going to be entirely pain free if you are an avid user of all things computer related, however, if you are just a basic office user/worker or only need to check your email and play a few basic online games, Linux might be for you. There are literally thousands of choices for most applications out there so I’m only going to name the ones that I like or use and also only ones that work on Ubuntu. If you have any additions, please let me know.

Windows vs. Linux (Ubuntu)

Internet Browsing
W – Internet Explorer
U – Firefox

Email Clients
W – Outlook, Outlook Express
U – Thunderbird, Evolution

Chat Clients
W – MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, mIRC
U- Gaim / Pigdin, xChat, BitchX

Com Port Communications
W – Hyperterminal
U – MiniCom

FTP Client
W – Filezilla FTP Client
U – Filezilla FTP Client

Remote Access Servers
W – Terminal Server, RealVNC, TightVNC, WinVNC
U – FreeNX, RealVNC, TightVNC

P2P Filesharing
W – Limewire, Bearshare, Bittorrent
U – Limewire, Azureus

VoIP Clients
W – Skype, X-Lite
U – Skype, Linphone, Twinkle

Drawing / Photo Editing
W – Paint.net, Photoshop, MSPaint
U – GIMP
3D Annimation / Rendering
W – 3D Studio MAX, Blender
U – Blender, Maya

DVD Players
W – Windows Media Player, PowerDVD
U – MPlayer, Kaffine, VLC

MP3 / Music Players
W – Winamp, iTunes
U – RhymeBox, K3b

Office Productivity
W – Microsoft Office
U – OpenOffice.org

Network / Relation Mapping
W – Microsoft Visio
U – Dia

Accounting / Financial
W – Quicken, Microsoft Money
U – GnuCash

Desktop Publishing
W – Microsoft Publisher, Quark
U – Scribus

PDF Editing
W – Adobe Acrobat Professional
U – PDFEdit, pdftk

Imaging
W – Norton Ghost
U – G4u, dd

Partition Resizing
W – Norton Partition Magic
U – GParted

Backup Software
W – Symantec Backup Exec
U – BackupPC, Amanda

Web Servers
W – Microsoft IIS
U – Apache

File Servers
W – Microsoft File Services
U – Samba

Email Servers
W – Microsoft Exchange
U – Postfix, Sendmail

AntiVirus Software
W – Symantec AV, Mcafee
U – ClamAV, AVG

For more of these “like” software lists, please visit what I believe to be the most complete list on the internet, Table of Equivalents.