Taking the Plunge to Linux

[d4jaj1]

Hello,

Due to numerous reasons, I'm taking the plunge to give Linux a try. Based on what I've read thus far, Red hat (fedora) seems to be the most popular distro of Linux and can be obtained free of charge. Before I install any distro on my PC (will be separate hard-drive dual-boot with XP), I want to make sure there are opensource\freeware equivalents of tools which are important to me.

I have listed those tools below, along with what I have found is a decent alternative. Those rows with ???? are where I'm asking for assistance from this forum.

Windows Tool -------> Linux Equivalent
===================================
MusicMatch 10 -------> Xine
M$ MN-700 Wireless -------> ????
Office 2003 -------> OpenOffice
Trillain IM -------> Gaim
DVD\Video Editing software ------->????
Tivo Media Server -------> JavaHMO
Read NTFS drives -------> ????
Outlook 2003 -------> ???? Thunderbird lacks Calendar
Internet Explorer 6 -------> Firefox
Firewall (ZoneAlarm/SP2) ------->????
Virus Protection (AVG Free) -------> F-Prot Antivirus
Spyware Detection (Spybot) -------> ????
Palm desktop\HotSync -------> ????
Delphi\C++ Builder -------> Kylix

If there are better tools than the one’s I’ve listed, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[ats-tech]

Firewall (ZoneAlarm/SP2) ------->Firestarter Linux Firewall
Spyware Detection (Spybot) -------> What's this spyware of which you speak?

[d4jaj1]

Thanks for the Firestarter link, I added it to my list.

Originally Posted by ats-tech

What's this spyware of which you speak?

That was actually funny, but I'm sure there's nothing in Linux that prevents keyloggers, et al. The distro is more secure due to the smaller installed user base. Is there no way (ether third-party or as part of distro) to detect these things?

[foolish]

MusicMatch 10 -------> Xine

Assuming this is a music playback something, you're better off using a music player such as rhythmbox. (itunes-ish music player) or xmms (winamp-ish music player) as xine is really a video player and as such, it's interface isn't really good for playback of music. See www.fedorafaq.org/#rhythmbox-mp3 and www.fedorafaq.org/#xmms-mp3 for how to add mp3 support.

Tivo Media Server -------> JavaHMO

Assuming this is some kind of front-end for turning your computer into a Tivo-like box, there's two good alternatives for this for Fedora, FreeVO and MythTV, the latter beeing my favorite. Search the forum, there's some threads about this.

Firewall (ZoneAlarm/SP2) ------->????
Virus Protection (AVG Free) -------> F-Prot Antivirus
Spyware Detection (Spybot) -------> ???

The default Fedora install isn't vulnerable to viruses or spyware. So that won't be a problem. The built in firewall is also quite secure, if you want more control over your firewall, use firestarter.

Outlook 2003 ------->
Palm desktop\HotSync -------> ????

Evolution 2.0 is the default email/calender thingy for Fedora, it's the best there is. Far better than outlook IMO and it even has the ability to sync agains exchange servers. As for your pilot, this is part of the evolution productivity suite, which is included by default in Fedora. No worries.

Read NTFS drives -------> ????

Just read www.fedorafaq.org/#ntfs


As you can see, most of the software you want has free software alternatives available, and most are even included in Fedora by default. The rest you can get on your own. See www.fedorafaq.org for some basics and solution to the most common problems. Welcome to the community mate and best of luck to you. Do come back and ask as soon as there's something on your mind.

[ats-tech]

I'm not aware of any spyware software specifically aimed at Linux or the Fedora Project. (but obviously that doesn't mean that the software doesn't exist)

Chkrootkit is about the best I can come up with.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/chkrootkit/

[ghaefb]

Outlook 2003 -------> Evolution (http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/)
Read NTFS drives -------> ntfs (http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/)
DVD\Video Editing software -------> Avidemux maybe (http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/) read more -> http://www.gnomefiles.org/category.php?cat_id=12

Virus Protection (AVG Free) -------> no need
Spyware Detection (Spybot) -------> no need

[Bob D.]

Mouse: not sure what this is listed. My Logitech Cordless Mouseman Optical works just fine, albeit as a normal PS-2 mouse (i.e. the side button doesn't work, there may be a way to configure but I've never dug into it). Left, right, scroll all work as they should.

Read NTFS drives: Download and install the correct RPM for your kernal. LINK . More instuctions: LINK .

Outlook 2003: Evolution. Already installed in a normal FC3 install.

Palm Desktop/Hotsync: Evolution and gnome-pilot. Both should already be installed in a normal FC3 install. Getting the Hotsync to work takes a little bit of config, but it isn't too bad. I was able to do it. Or you could install Jpilot, which trys to replicate the Palm Desktop software on Linux.

Oh, and regarding Musicmatch 10, did you mean xmms instead of xine? I think xmms is closer to the jukebox player of the two, though xine would work but may not have all the features you may be looking for.

Bob

[d4jaj1]

Thanks folks - for your quick responses. After doing further research on my list, I've found that Borland Kylix (Integrated Delphi\C++ Builder tool) probably will not work on this core. So, does anyone know of a nice GUI\IDE based C++ and/or Object Pascal tool for Linux? Saw a few tools using Google, but they appear to lack the 'IDE' features and I can't really tell whats missing just from reading a webpage.

Any personal experiences would be nice. Thanks again for the other comments.

[ghaefb]

Anjuta IDE -> http://anjuta.sourceforge.net/