Prince,
First of all, basing your judgement on Red Hat alone is not a very bright
idea. You should try other user friendly distributions like Xandros,
Mandrake, Lycoris etc etc, before feeling disappointed about the
desktop/multimedia capacities of Linux.
I am using Slackware Linux 8.1, after experimenting with RedHat,
Mandrake, Suse and Debian, for almost all my desktop needs. The following
is a list of windows programs *i* would consider important for a desktop
user and their availibility in Linux.
Programs Windows Linux
---------------------------------------------------------------
Web Browser IE,Netscape Mozilla,Netscape
E-mail, PIM Outlook, OE Evolution, Kmail
MP3 Player Winamp XMMS
Media Player Windows Media Player mplayer, xine
Productivity MS Office Open Office, Star Office.
P2P File Sharing Kazaa, Morpheus LimeWire
Image Editing Photoshop Gimp
Instant Messaging MSN, Yahoo, ICQ GAIM(MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc)
IRC mIRC X-Chat, KVIRC etc.
[I am not bothering to include editors because, besides the fact that
there a plethora of them available for Linux, i have seen that most
windows users prefer using word processors like MS Word, even for editing
purposes. Also, luggerz, please dont feel bad if ur favorite browser, etc
is not included above. This is more or less what i feel that a desktop
susbtitute for windows should need.]
*All* the above mentioned substitutes for windows applications available
in Linux, IMO, out perform their Windows counterpart in terms of
stability and security(where applicable).
As you can see, all the commonly reqd windows desktop applications have
Linux substitues. The most important factor however, is the ease of use
which is where, most people *think* windows is better than Linux. However,
beg to defer. IMHO, all the applications listed on the linux side above
are as easy to use as their Windows substitute, with the exception of the
GIMP. This program, although very powerful, does not present an
intuitive interface to the user. mplayer, although command line, has nice
GUIs available to make it look/feel like WMP.
Just my two cents,
HTH.
Bhargav Bhatt,
Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics,
Columbia University.
"If English was commutative, all of us could speak like Yoda" - Anonymous
----- Original Message -----
From: "Prince" <iamprince(a)eudoramail.com>
To: "ilug" <linuxers(a)mm.ilug-bom.org.in>
Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 10:52 AM
Subject: [ILUG-BOM] windows vs Linux
Hi there , all experts of Linux
this is Prince asking the most important Questions ?
can anybody send me the complete list of points :
1]
" In what way Linux is better [ can be ] for DESKTOP PC , for normal user
?
"
i repeat ..... For NORMAL user .
i know it's best for all Networking purposes ,,,,but abt new enthu people
who
wants to try Linux as there Day to Day
Default desktop OS ?
2]
What abt others who are normal users & wanna try Linux for a Ultimate
experience ?
where we are lacking to put this Linux OS in front of
them ? [ we are only
enjoying this thing & sharing between our
selves ]
i got Linux Redhat 8.0
it's ok
[ my xmms is without mp3 support ] , no software got MPEG with redhat
windows [ not
talking abt KDE & gnome pack ]
waiting for reply ,
Prince [ Agent 1 ]
" Digitalagents "
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