Frightened to try Linux?

I know lots of folk who constantly moan about their Windows setup. When I point out that they should try Linux, one of the favourite excuses is that they don't think that they could survive without their usual applications.

So, let's dispel some of the myths.



At present, this is how my desktop looks. Hmm, surprisingly Windows like, isn't it? This is KDE, which is a window manager system used in Linux. One of the major differences between Linux and windows is the names. Windows is a window manager. On Linux there are loads of them. I use KDE, other folk use Gnome or Fluxbox or any others that take their fancy. I use the Mandriva version of Linux, other systems are RedHat, Slackware, Mepis, Linspire Ubuntu ,Suse, the list is endless.

My desktop works much the same way as Windows. click the star at the bottom left and a menu appears. Select an application and it runs.

How would I use the net without Internet Explorer?



Windows uses Firefox, so do I.



I suppose most folk have heard of Opera as well.



This is Konqueror , which is the default browser on KDE. I could show other browsers, but I'm sure you're picking up the idea.

So that lets the browser question out of the way.

I need Office!

You don't really, I'm making this article on OpenOffice 2 writer, which is similar to word.



Looks similar, or near enough for most people. Open office has an equivalent for all parts of office and will open them, edit them and even save in the same formats as you would in office.

Ok, what about other media programs?



This is Amarok, a multi featured media player. It can do practically anything that Media player can.









Then again, there's XMMS, which looks similar to Winamp.





Video players, there's loads!
























Above is Kaffeine, to the side is VideoLan. I could mention some of the rest but why bother.















Even Realplayer........





There, not so hard, is it? The names may be different but you'll fin d installing Linux (whatever flavour), will have most of these options preinstalled and ready to work. We can look at some of the others next issue.




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