Now has never been a better time to switch to Linux, but you may
still be hesitant about it because you’re not sure whether your favorite
applications from Windows will work on it. To help answer your
questions, we’ll take a look at 10 popular Windows applications and
whether you have options for them in Linux or online.
With this list, you should have more confidence when trying to make the switch.
Chrome
Except for Internet Explorer, all of the major browsers (Firefox,
Chrome, and Opera) are all available on Linux. There are even several
lesser-known browsers that are available on Linux such as Midori. These
browsers give you plenty of choice and loads of features, so you should
be able to access any content that you wish with no problems whatsoever.
Native Official App: Yes
Best Linux Alternative App: Chrome or Firefox
Best Online Alternative App: N/A
Outlook
To take care of your email needs, you have plenty of options on Linux as
well — although Outlook isn’t one of them. Thunderbird, one of the most
popular email clients, is also available there. If you need an email
client that has great support for Microsoft Exchange accounts like
Outlook has, then Evolution may be better for you. Otherwise, you can
also easily use any web-based email interface with your preferred
browser, including Gmail and much more.
Native Official App: No
Best Linux Alternative App: Thunderbird or Evolution
Best Online Alternative App: Gmail
Microsoft Office
The world’s most popular office suite doesn’t have an offering on Linux,
and people who try installing it with the Wine compatibility layer for
Windows software tend to have mixed results at best. Instead, the best
alternative for the Linux desktop is LibreOffice, which is still full of
features and offers surprisingly
good compatibility with Microsoft Office formats.
In fact, you’ll only really come across issues if you tend to use very
high-level Office features such as Macros; LibreOffice has macros as
well, but they aren’t compatible with Office’s macros.
Native Official App: No
Best Linux Alternative App: LibreOffice
Best Online Alternative App: Google Drive
Photoshop
Photoshop also isn’t natively available on Linux, and although people
seem to have relatively decent success at installing it via Wine, and
that process usually involves installing an older version. If you want
up-to-date versions of Photoshop, you’re out of luck. However, you can
easily install GIMP, which is
an extremely capable image manipulation tool.
Although some of the workflows may be different (and sometimes longer)
than in Photoshop, you can achieve virtually the same tasks. And if GIMP
doesn’t provide a feature you’re looking for by default, there’s a good
chance that there’s a plugin to help you out.
Native Official App: No
Best Linux Alternative App: GIMP
Best Online Alternative App: Pixlr
Windows Movie Maker
As you might expect, Windows Movie Maker and iMovie are both meant only
for their respective platforms and therefore not available on Linux.
However, there are a couple of Linux alternatives that you can choose
from. If you’re looking to
create very simple home videos,
then look no further than PiTiVi. There’s also OpenShot and Kdenlive
for slightly more advanced projects, but they haven’t been in active
development for a while. Finally, as a professional-grade video editor
there’s Lightworks, but it also asks for a professional-grade price.
Native Official App: No
Best Linux Alternative App: PiTiVi
Best Online Alternative App: WeVideo
Eclipse
Developers need to have a trusty IDE (Interactive Development Environment) by
their side to help with all of their programming projects. Eclipse is a
popular one for a lot of developers, especially those building Android
apps. Thankfully, it is also available on Linux and easily installable.
If you use a different IDE such as Visual Studio, which isn’t available
on Linux, then you may need to switch to Eclipse. Additionally, if
you’re looking for a
lightweight IDE/code editor,
then I’d suggest Geany. If I’m working on simpler projects (such as for
school assignments), then I prefer to use Geany as it doesn’t have
excessive functions that I don’t need.
Native Official App: Yes
Best Linux Alternative App: Geany
Best Online Alternative App: N/A
Minecraft
Arguably the most popular indie game available, Minecraft, is a must for
a lot of people, and thanks to its Java roots, it can run on Linux as
well. In fact, there’s pretty much no difference between the Windows and
Linux versions whatsoever. The only difference would be that some
add-ons or mods come packaged in .exe installers that won’t work on
Linux, but they also tend to provide the files in a .zip file, so you
shouldn’t have to miss out on anything.
Native Official App: Yes
Best Linux Alternative App: Minetest
Best Online Alternative App: N/A
AutoCAD
A common complaint about Linux is that there isn’t good software for
some more specific tasks, including CAD sofware. While you can’t get
AutoCAD onto your Linux system, there’s a great free alternative called
FreeCAD which can take care of your CAD needs. It’s also made to be
modular, so you can add in extra functionality if you need it. If need
be, you can also try out FreeCAD on Windows or Mac OS X before you make
the switch to Linux so you’ll already feel comfortable with it.
Native Official App: No
Best Linux Alternative App: FreeCAD
Best Online Alternative App: Tinkercad
Steam
Steam is a popular platform for finding, getting, and managing/updating
games. Since early 2013, Valve has been pushing to turn Linux into
a viable gaming operating system,
and after approximately two years you’ll find quite a few games on
Steam that work on Linux as well. You’ll still have to skip out on huge
titles like Battlefield and Call of Duty (although Battlefield expressed
interest in Linux), but there are other AAA titles already available on
Linux such as Civilization V. The list of Linux-compatible games is
only going to grow, so you should check out Steam’s listing of games and
see which ones you want run on Linux. Alternatively, you can always try
to get a game by itself (not via Steam) and use Wine to get it to run.
Your success will vary widely from game to game.
Native Official App: Yes
Best Linux Alternative App: Wine
Best Online Alternative App: N/A
Spotify
The most popular music streaming service has spread itself rapidly with
easy access on mobile devices and desktops via a web player and a
desktop client. If you run a Linux distribution which uses .deb packages
(such as Debian, Ubuntu, or derivatives of either), then you can
install the beta Spotify client for Linux. Alternatively, you can also
just access Spotify from their web player via your browser.
Native Official App: Yes
Best Linux Alternative App: Atraci
Best Online Alternative App: Spotify Web Player, Google Play Music
Time to Switch!
With these 10 vital apps, you should be ready to tackle Linux without
breaking a sweat. With all of the benefits that an open source
operating system provides, and knowing that you have apps available to
get work done, there’s no excuse for you to not try it out.
Don’t forget to also check out our
Best Linux Software list for other great Linux apps to try out!
What’s still an issue that’s keeping you from Linux? Let us know in the comments!
Source:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/can-run-linux-10-vital-apps-youll-want-switch/