We have slowly been converting from a Microsoft Windows family to a Linux family. If it were just me, we would have switched a long time ago, but there are a few remaining programs we use for homeschool that were written for Windows that we have not taken the time to try to run using WINE. I thought it might be interesting to list some of our most used programs and which computer use them on. First it might be helpful to list the computers. We get very low end computers and upgrade them (a little) if the need arises.
- A three year old Compaq, 512 MBytes RAM, AMD64 based computer that runs Ubuntu Linux (32 bit) 8.04
- A four year old Dell Presario, 1.2 MHz Pentium, 1GByte RAM computer that runs Windows XP — we got an ATI graphics card to go with it.
- A four year old Dell Inspiron 130 laptop upgraded with 2GBytes RAM that runs Windows XP, but that Christian regularly boots to Ubuntu from a 4GByte memory stick.
Now I will just list some programs of interest. I will start with the obvious ones.
- Web browsing – Firefox for Windows and Linux
- VOIP – Skype for Windows and Linux
- Photo editing – GIMP for Windows and Linux
- Email – Thunderbird for Windows and Linux
- 3D Rendering – Blender for Windows and Linux
- C++ Programming – Kdevelop for Linux, Visual Studio for Windows
- C# Programming – I use MonoDevelop on Linux, Christian uses SharpDevelop on Windows
- Office suite – OpenOffice.org for Windows and Linux
- Bible – e-Sword for Windows and Linux
- Internet filtering – DansGuardian on Linux
- Desktop publishing – Microsoft Publisher on Windows. I am trying to get the kids to switch to Scribus which runs on Windows and Linux, but they already have everything set up for their KaktusKids publication and do not really want to switch. I might have them do a project on Scribus this summer to get them off center.
- Vector Graphics editor – Inkscape on Windows and Linux. Christian has started developing all the clipart for KaktusKids using Inkscape. That might be the thing that finally gets him converted over to Scribus as the Microsoft clipart library is the main thing that keeps them on Publisher.
- Video editing – Pinnacle Studio on Windows. This is about the only item we use for which a Linux replacement is a year or so away.
- Language program – Rosetta Stone on Windows, but as soon as we finish with Spanish 2, we will install the next Rosetta Stone course on Linux under Wine. Several people in the forums say it runs just fine there.
- Anti-Virus – ClamAV for Linux, AVG for Windows.
We are not really very far away from being an all Linux family. Lorena has made the switch to Linux and is really more comfortable using the Linux computer than the Windows computer. Because of the applications that are common to both Windows and Linux, the transition was very easy for her. Kelly does the vast bulk of her email reading and writing on the Linux box, only moving over to the Windows box to work on KaktusKids or to do her Rosetta Stone homeschool. Christian and I experiment a lot, so it kind of depends on our mood which OS we use. Still we are moving more and more to Linux all the time.
Christian
Wow; The compaq only has 512 megabytes? It runs Ubuntu like it has 2 Gigabytes! Also, I use AntiVir, AVG AND Avast on the laptop, not just AVG.
That is true about the Ubuntu box. I did not get into any of your experimental junk like the additional firewall, port forwarding, email masking, games, VPN, remote desktop, palm tweaking, and all the other stuff you do. It would have been a little bit of an overload. Mostly I wanted people to know that Ubuntu can do just about everything our family wants to do, but a lot easier, faster, and better than Windows and (this one is for Bryan) other toy operating systems like Leopard.
LOL! Whatever.
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/4641/
I was in total agreement until that last crack
WHAT!!!!??!