Top Ten Windows Applications that are Hard to Live Without
Now that I have been using Ubuntu Linux for about 6 months pretty much full time, here is my list of software I cannot seem to replace:
- iTunes: This is one application that I have not even tried to replace on the Linux side. I refuse to do it. I think iTunes is that good. Hands down the number one app for Windows that is hard to walk away from and it’s made by Apple! I have to say Rhythmbox does come close though…
- Outlook: I know everyone says Thunderbird or Evolution but it just doesn’t come close. In an exchange environment (like we are) Outlook is king.
- GreatNews: Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little RSS reader? I have replaced it with Newsgator Online, but for a client app that can run from my thumb drive, GreatNews takes the cake.
- Visual Studio: Being a ex-developer, this application is missed greatly. I haven’t found anything on the Linux side that even comes close. In fact I don’t even know what to use for application development in Linux.
- Zoundry and Post2Blog: I’m grouping these together because they are both excellent client blogging tools that I use almost exclusively. The client tools for Linux do not even come close (from what I’ve seen). Where’s the WYSIWYG editor in the Linux choices? Post2Blog even supports installing it to your thumb drive now to create a mobile version.
- ePrompter: This little application is a blessing for checking multiple Hotmail or POP3 accounts and takes almost zero system memory. Almost the perfect little email tool for managing multiple accounts.
- Dreamweaver: I don’t care which version. Anything after 2004 will work. Hands down the best HTML editor in my opinion. Maybe Scream on the Linux side gets close but I cannot get used to the childish looking interface.
- Blackberry Syncing Software: I’m not even sure what the official name for this software is but I do know that it does not work in Linux. Good thing for Over the Air installs. It still leaves me helpless when it comes to having a backup of my contacts and other info on a regular basis…
- Flickr Uploadr: There is supposed to be a third party tool that works on Linux, but I can’t get it to run on Ubuntu. If anyone knows how please pass on the knowledge… F-Spot works pretty good to upload to Flickr, but it does not allow me to create new sets on the fly.
- QuickBooks: Even though I just started using it this year, I cannot figure out how I ever ran my business without it. I just wish they would offer a Linux version, because even their online version requires Internet Explorer.
I’ve heard other people say that Photoshop cannot be matched however for my light usage, The Gimp provides more than ample features and is easily navigated for the quick image or photo manipulation.
So there it is. My list of gotta-have Windows software. What do you miss?
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:27 am
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October 3rd, 2006 at 9:53 am
Have you tried Wine? Or are the versions of the named software that will run on Wine not sufficient? I know some will just not run, but iTunes older versions will.
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:36 am
Some replacements:
iTunes – try Amarok or Banshee. Amarok is fantastic; Banshee is getting there.
IDE on Linux – try Eclipse. There are others as well… But what language(s)?
Dreamweaver – try Vi. What are you doing using WYSIWYG for HTML?
QuickBooks – try running MSIE on Wine (or Crossover Office). Quickbooks Online works very well using MSIE6 on CXOffice on Linux. Really!
For me, there is no app on Windows that I miss. I refuse to get locked in to any proprietary system and am willing to put up with some of the shit that comes along with Linux. Along with the shine, of course.
later…
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Here’s some suggestions for software to replace these:
1. Amarok – definitely got an edge on iTunes in most aspects in my opinion, and the newest version works flawlessly with iPods.
2. Evolution has an Exchange plugin, but it’s buggy and annoying; no such luck yet.
3. Akregator is pretty decent, as is the Sage plug-in for Firefox
4. Check out KDevelop, does everything that VS does with the exception of the web stuff (it’ll still edit HTML / XML, of course)
5. No dice on this one, someone should write a Windows Live Writer knockoff (or just get it to run in Mono since it’s .NET!)
6. “mail-notification” does everything you want
7. I believe DreamWeaver runs in Wine, you may want to check it out.
8. No idea, I don’t have a BlackBerry, sorry.
9. What is the third-party tool?
10. Again, Wine may help you out here, QuickBooks is too specialized an app right now for a small group to maintain.
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Ken: I have tried Wine but it seems kinda flaky and what I have found is one version of wine seems to work better with certain apps over another version, so to use all the apps as I would like, I would need multiple versions of wine installed.
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:54 pm
JDS: I agree completely. I do not absolutely need these programs, but I do miss them occasionally. I have been able to fill my desires with VM Ware server running a Win XP client with my leftover license…
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Paul: the tool is jUploadr which for whatever reason I cannot get compiled in Ubuntu. Always flakes out with the Video driver and flash, or so the error says…
Any ideas would be appreciated on how to get it to work though!
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:03 pm
jUploadr is written in java, so you don’t need to compile it. You could install this deb for Ubuntu http://3v1n0.tuxfamily.org/pool/dapper/3v1n0/juploadr_1.0-3v1ubuntu0_i386.deb
Or just download it from the website, run tar -xzf jUploadr-1.1.1-linuxGTK-i386.tar.gz
, then cd into that directory and run ./jUploadr.
This is all assuming you have Java installed, Ubuntu doesn’t include it by default, I think.
I think I am the exact opposite of you, I miss Linux applications when I use windows :p
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Jon, I will have to say that you didn’t use Linux enough! I am using Linux for more than 5 years now… but I have made the full transition to it only 2 years ago, that means I was using Windows parallel to Linux. Trust me when I say, YOU MUST TRY ALL THE FLAVORS, before you will list a couple of Windows applications that can not be replaced, sure they can 🙂 … I was thinking the same a couple of years ago, but I had the courage to live Windows behind, and start a new life in Linux… and I survived!
Applications like iTunes, hmm… I was in love with iTunes, I hated Winamp…, but I meet Amarok, 100 times smarter than iTunes. As for that piece of s**t Outlook, there is KMail and KOrganizer. Dreamweaver as far as I know (I will not waist my time to look) it costs money, and there is Quanta Plus, a powerfull Web Development Environment, and definitely NOT “childish looking interface”. You wanna do development, as one man said earlier, KDevelop is for you than. You have no idea how many applications can do Flickr upload…
But as I said, you tried one, there are hundred of distributions, and I strongly suggest to start testing a few more, like openSUSE or Mandriva (latest release, 2007 is available for download, starting today), Fedora Core 6 will be an amazing distro for you.
I recommend to the following, try KDE, not GNOME… and I think some will curse me right now, but Ubuntu stinks 🙂 And forget about Wine and other Windows emulators…
In conclusion, forget about that Windows, use Linux!
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Eric: thanks for the advice, I got a little closer with the deb package but now I am left with this error as I try to install:
Unpacking juploadr (from …/juploadr_1.0-3v1ubuntu0_i386.deb) …
dpkg-deb (subprocess): short read in buffer_copy (failed to write to pipe in cop y)
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste returned error exit status 2
dpkg: error processing Desktop/juploadr_1.0-3v1ubuntu0_i386.deb (–install):
short read in buffer_copy (backend dpkg-deb during `./usr/share/juploadr/common s-logging.jar’)
Errors were encountered while processing:
Desktop/juploadr_1.0-3v1ubuntu0_i386.deb
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Mar: thanks for the encouragement! I have tested quite a few distros over the years and have taken to gnome over KDE. Ubuntu also seems to be more friendly with the hardware I use over Fedora. I would like to pursue SUSE some more but I always seem to run into hardware problems…
I plan on sticking with Linux (as I use it both at work and home) just wished some of my favorite apps could come with me natively!
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:16 pm
I recently switched back to Windows from Ubuntu, but I find myself missing Ubuntu, not the other way around.
Here’s some things you should check out:
Rss – Firefox is a great tool, use it. There are dozens of SPECTACULAR RSS plugins for Firefox, I use one called WizzRSS, it’s great.
IDE – I don’t program, but since you’re using Ubuntu. Check out Automatix, which can install a great number of IDEs for you with the click of a button.
Dreamweaver – There is no match to Dreamweaver’s point and click uses, but Scream is a good choice for hard coding and it offers some good features.
QuickBooks – You can install Internet Explorer 6 on Linux using WINE for IE-Only applications, or just download a plugin to make their site think FF is IE.
Outlook – Thunderbird, hands down, the best OSS email application. It also comes with the extendability of Firefox.
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:39 pm
jon, have you ever thought of trying pclinuxos? there are several versions the latest of which is big daddy.
here’s the link
http://www.pclinuxos.com
have a read, see what you think and then come one over to one of the friendliest, most helpful and encouraging forums on the planet.
i’ll bet there are folk on the forum who could tell you what alternatives there are to applications that will only work in woze.
by the way, amarok rocks!
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:39 pm
For development, Linux has more tools than you could ever want. KDevelop, QT designer, Glade, Emacs, vi, GCC, GDB, LeakTracer, diff tools, syntax checkers, version control tools, GUI front-ends for all those, thousands of libraries…
It might seem strange that they’re not all in the same place like they are with VS, but there is definitely a good selection of dev tools.
October 4th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Mar, please, it is a little bit childish to call Outlook, like you said, s**t. And your conclusion… I just don’t get it at all. Forget about Windows, Use Linux? Your blindness is just pathetic.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Totally agree… i tried to use ONLY linux a few times, but could not live without dreamweaver and without some canon printers drivers. More, standard distributions run quite every app (from firefox to ooo) slower than on windows on my 1,1 Ghz computer. For now, linux has no chances for normal users, even if it’s sad to say.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
For blogging you can give a try to Bleezer or Drivel or BloGtk. Personally i like BloGtk 🙂 Here are the links :
http://www.dropline.net/drivel/ (gtk based)
http://www.bleezer.com (java)
http://blogtk.sf.net (needs python-gnome)
I think Quanta is a really cool HTML Editor (i use it in my SuSE box..) Even NVU is good as long as its not php. Links :
http://quanta.sourceforge.net/
http://www.nvu.com/
October 5th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
hey man, you really should look harder
everything you need to use is available free under linux, which more than makes up for pretty interfaces, i gave up on windows a long time ago
i found all i need to get through a days work
the only thing i missed was playing black hawk down…
but thats only cause i won’t use emulators,for the simple reason that if i was to emulate windows,i should have kept it
quanta is good
a simpler html editor is nvu, but i would go for mzilla suite, it has a html editor aswell as a browser,email,address book and calendar,which all shit on IE as far as looks go
anyway,the rules i live by since the switch:
don’t emulate shit like windows
the app you need is out there,it might not look as cool,but there is something that will do what you need
don’t dual boot-the way to learn a system is to live with it
oh did i mention-don’t emulate shit
look forward,not back
linux possibilities are really endless
also-don’t emulate shit
and stop whingeing
October 7th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
“Visual Studio: Being a ex-developer, this application is missed greatly. I haven’t found anything on the Linux side that even comes close. In fact I don’t even know what to use for application development in Linux.”
I would say that if you program in VB, then REALbasic is awesome! It also compiles native binaries (self-contained executables) for Windows, Linux, and Mac! Cross-platform that really works!
http://realbasic.com/
October 10th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Bluefish for HTML (reiterate no reason for WYSIWYG)
Songbird for iTunes
October 11th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
I’ve tried Amarok, Banshee and pretty much every other Linux music manager you could name, but the one I’m really digging is Listen. You should be able to find the latest version (.5 beta) here: http://listengnome.free.fr/
For blogging, news feeds and flickr, I highly reccomend the Flock browser: http://www.flock.com
October 11th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
The one thing I have yet to find a replacement for is a good, fast, DVD ripper. I’ve tried DVD::Rip, Vobcopy, Winki the Ripper, K9copy and Thoggen, but none of them do everthing I want.
My needs are quite simple, I want an app that will copy a DVD to a hard drive (without conversion, compression or transcoding) so I can watch it on the road and, secondly, make exact backups to a double-layer DVD so that I can store my original disks somewhere safe and let the kids destroy the copies.
The linux apps I’ve tried all suffer from one or more of the following: complicated interfaces, the assumption that I want to transcode/shrink, double layer DVD not an option, and (most importantly) can’t handle copy protected disks.
On Windows I use DVD43 to make duplication possible (removes protection) and 1-click DVD for the copying.
Finding an equivalent solution under Linux would mean I can finally format XP partition.
October 20th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Just keep an eye on Songbird. It’s not there yet, but when it is, you might see what comes after itunes.
I was in the same boat with flickr, but found jUploadr which makes my world happy. I’m quite happy with it and the developer is a nice enough fellow. If you have trouble making it work, let me know.
I use Ubuntu, by the way.
Peace,
November 16th, 2006 at 5:48 am
I haven’t seen anything close to Visual Studio 2005 in terms of development (VS2003 had one exceptionally annoying bug). Obviously everything can be done without it using the command line tools and NAnt (something VS can’t do yet).
As far as iTunes goes I will not install it on my pc. It installs things I don’t want (Outlook Addin for example). WMP11 is much better even if the artwork in iTunes does look cool.
Linux is too much like hard work , and I say that as somebody who works in IT. It took far too long to find suitable drivers (although thats the fault of the manufacturer) and my wireless keyboard wouldn’t work with Grub.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:23 am
For Jonathan: Make a copy of a DVD using k3b or another CD/DVD burning program! In k3b there is an option to make an *.iso copy of a DVD to the harddrive.
March 4th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
For uploading to Flickr and as a blogging tool, you can use Flock.
By following these instructions, you can easily install Flock on Ubuntu. Check it out dude.
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