Considering Linux

[Dyne]

So I decided to try out a Live CD version of Ubuntu Linux and I actually quite like it. Now, I've never seen anything wrong with Windows, but I have some questions about switching:

-Can I use Photoshop on Linux somehow? I have Photoshop 7, but is there a converter I can run? I'd sorely miss it, and GIMP isn't quite good enough.
-Likewise, is there a good Windows Messenger 7 build that can run on Linux? The all-in-one program was kind of lame.
-What about Media. I have a lot of music and I use Windows Media Player every night to listen to music. Is there a good linux alternative?
-I do a lot of programming. Is Java any good on Linux?
-How would I upload something to an FTP in linux.
-What about fonts. If I went to download from dafont.com, am I not able to? Or can linux use the windows fonts?

Also, is there things I can do on Windows but not Linux?

Thanks guys.

[Bond]

Use Fedora. Best distro ever...

****, I take that back. It has been so long since I've used Fedora I have forgotten my password and can't log in. ****.

[Null]

lol, i always quite liked SuSE.


but at anyrate, they're free, so it never hurts to try. :P


and i believe i've gotten Photoshop to run in linux.... i dont exactly remember all i did, i think i ran it through wine. not really the best way to do it tho, its like a windows emulator, so its not the fastest thing. other then that, Gimp is pretty close to photoshop.

[Dyne]

Originally Posted by Null

lol, i always quite liked SuSE.


but at anyrate, they're free, so it never hurts to try. :P


and i believe i've gotten Photoshop to run in linux.... i dont exactly remember all i did, i think i ran it through wine. not really the best way to do it tho, its like a windows emulator, so its not the fastest thing. other then that, Gimp is pretty close to photoshop.

It is, but at first glance I can't figure out how to add borders, shadows, or anything like that.

[Bond]

If you do want to "switch" to Linux I would recommend using a dual boot (windows and linux). I'm pretty sure most distros already come with a preinstalled dual boot program these days.

[Dyne]

Yeah, I was thinking of doing that, but I'm only running on a laptop with 20 gigs of hard drive. I only have a gig or two free right now. I was thinking of formatting and reinstalling with Linux but I guess I could just free up some space and install it.

[Null]

its much better to have em both on, then if you need something off yoru windows drive, you can get it from linux instead of trying to copy it another way.

[Seven7]

Originally Posted by Dyne

So I decided to try out a Live CD version of Ubuntu Linux and I actually quite like it. Now, I've never seen anything wrong with Windows, but I have some questions about switching:

1-Can I use Photoshop on Linux somehow? I have Photoshop 7, but is there a converter I can run? I'd sorely miss it, and GIMP isn't quite good enough.
2-Likewise, is there a good Windows Messenger 7 build that can run on Linux? The all-in-one program was kind of lame.
3-What about Media. I have a lot of music and I use Windows Media Player every night to listen to music. Is there a good linux alternative?
4-I do a lot of programming. Is Java any good on Linux?
5-How would I upload something to an FTP in linux.
6-What about fonts. If I went to download from dafont.com, am I not able to? Or can linux use the windows fonts?

Also, is there things I can do on Windows but not Linux?

Thanks guys.

1) Wine perhaps will work, but it may be slow, so if your dual booting and want to do a lot of work in PS7, do it in Windows. Use FAT32. Linux systems can read several different file systems, whereas M$ OSs can only read their own. Do not use NTFS, because it mounts as read only on Linux

2) Gaim?

3) If one was using SuSE 9.3/9.2/9.1 I would suggest getting the media players from say http://packman.links2linux.org/ as the SuSE supplied ones is disabled if you want say play DVD movies.

There is Mplayer, xine-ui, gxine, kaffeine or totem. I prefer xine-ui, kaffeine and Mplayer, though Mplayer does not have that great controls compared to the Xine frontends, it can easier to install than xine.

5)There is command line and a small number of gui FTP options. There are a few ok gui FTP clients like gFTP. I often try the Nightly FileZilla3 builds for Linux, though there is some ways to go.

6) fonts are pretty easy to setup in Linux and you can get "MS True Type core fonts" (msttcorefonts) if you want.

Originally Posted by gekko

Major games tend to have a linux binary, or whatever they call it.

Not sure how many exist for Linux, but to my knowledge Adobe does not support Linux.

FTP is a built in function to Unix, if I remember right. If you can't find one with a GUI you like.

Yeah there are a few like Doom3 and others, but the headache I have is getting Ati drivers (Ati 9800 Pro) to work right so I have 3D, I tried the new Ati installer and it did not get 3D working with the route of install I took earler today.

There are tons of software for Linux, just how availabe they can be depends on things like how you prefer to install them depending on the distro your using, like RPM's for example, or dependacies. There is a Adobe Reader 7.0 for Linux that is rather easy to install. While there is Macromedia Flash Player, there is no shockwave.


If you need help with plugins on Linux with Mozilla or Firefox, http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/linux.html


Right now I am using Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050630 Firefox/1.0+ ID:2005063005 on SuSE 9.3 Pro and GNOME 2.10, Xfce 4.2.2

The complete version of SuSE 9.3 Pro is now available for download as either DVD or 5 CD's .. http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=02749#0

I was going to try Fedora Core 4 when it came out, but decided not to as there were issues with installer and MBR possible problems if one dual boots.


Oh you use a laptop right? that can be a issue as it can be harder to support everything, especially wireless, though distros like SuSE has fair bit of support for wireless.