All Things Microsoft > Microsoft Software
Decisions
bossesjoe:
quote:Originally posted by Emiko:
1. I have pretty much a airtight routine for installing the programs I use on a regular basis, under Windows XP.
a. Adobe Photoshop
b. Some games ( Anarchy Online, SWG perhaps )
c. Macromedia Dreamweaver for html/notepad )
d. Leap FTP for uploading edited webfiles
etc ... ad nauseum
Also my internet connection under windows, as it applies to my Adsl.
--- End quote ---
Its too bad you can't afford a Macintosh because it seems perfect for you. Mac OSX has Photoshop :D and Dreamweaver. OSX also has almost all major games ported to it and and lots of mac only games. I don't know about Leap but I am sure there is something like it out for OSX. Are you sure you can't afford a mac, maybe you should look into the Apple Instant Loan program
Pantso:
quote:Originally posted by Emiko:
What I do and do not know:
1. I have pretty much a airtight routine for installing the programs I use on a regular basis, under Windows XP.
a. Adobe Photoshop
b. Some games ( Anarchy Online, SWG perhaps )
c. Macromedia Dreamweaver for html/notepad )
d. Leap FTP for uploading edited webfiles
etc ... ad nauseum
Also my internet connection under windows, as it applies to my Adsl.
My concerns are:
a. Will I beable to use these programs under Linux?
b. if not what is the alternatives?
c. ( self explanatory fear of the unknowns )
Thanks again for all the input!
[ May 31, 2003: Message edited by: Emiko ]
[ May 31, 2003: Message edited by: Emiko ]
--- End quote ---
Let's look at those Linux counterparts, shall we:
1) Adobe Photoshop. Now you have 2 options for this. Either use Crossover Office from Codeweavers, which is a commercial product with 30 day evaluation period and which can also run M$ Office natively in Linux, or use Gimp, which is a competely "free" image manipulation program, that comes with virtually any Linux distribution.
2) I don't know about games unfortunately, since I don't play games on my machines.
3) I believe that Dreamweaver can run under Crossoveroffice as well. HOWEVER, I would suggest that you take some time and learn how to work with REAL HTML code by using Quanta Plus, Bluefish, vim and a dozen other text editors that are freely available in Linux.
4) I always use gFTP for my FTP transactions, which also comes free with every modern Linux distro.
Furthermore, I've gotten sick of this argument that because Linux is "open", it's insecure as well. That my friend in three words IS NOT TRUE. It is because of Linux's "openness" that it is more secure as an OS, simply because an ever-growing and really HUGE worldwide community is working around the clock to discover any bugs or holes in the Linux kernel as well as the programs that accompany it. Linux is by far a more secure OS than Windows. ;)
Kupotek:
So far the feedback here has been incredibly helpful! I would say the biggest of my iceberg-style fears have been totally obliterated and the little fears chipped into little shards and dropped into a nice tall glass of ginsent-peppermint iced tea!
Thankyou.
Decision time.. as I continue to save money :D
dishawjp:
Hi Emiko,
For me the easy way to convert from M$ to Linux was to take an older computer and just put Linux on it and give it a try. I'm a relative Linux newbie, but I got an old P 166 w/ 48 MB of RAM and a 2.5 GB hard drive and installed Red Hat 6.2 on it. This was less than a year ago.
The GUI was a bit crude by today's standards, but I found the underpinnings to be quite solid. About 6 months ago I built my first real Linux computer; a P 4 with 256 MB of RAM and installed RH 8 on it. I was seriously impressed with the OS, and now it's a dual boot computer. Red Hat 8 amd Red Hat 9.
You don't need Macromedia's Dreamweaver to make web pages... learn HTML and XML and if necessary a bit of java. You can create your web pages using an ascii editor. If you're serious about web design, this should not be a real hardship.
As for notepad replacements, there must be at least a dozen Linux equivalents. I use vi/vim, but there are also pico, joe, emacs, gedit and kedit just off the top of my head. And any of them will beat notepad, DOS edit or <shudder> edlin </shudder>.
I can't comment too much on Photoshop. I've never used it and don't need to. But my daughters do a lot with gimp. As a matter of fact, my background is a photograph my youngest daughter took with her digital camera, transferred to the computer with gtkam, and edited with gimp.
Take the easy route. Grab an older computer that has no data on it that you need; install Linux; play with it for a while and get to know it. Then , when you're certain that Linux can meet all your needs, build a real Linux computer. Keep your old Windows box to have something to fall back on, but when you know for sure that Linux will meet all your computing needs as well or better than Windows ever did. put Linux on that one too.
Good luck with Linux. I doubt that you'll ever be sorry for leaving Windows behind.
Oh, forgot.. I don't know what leap FTP is, but FTP, the real one, is a part of all Linux distributions. It's simple and straight forward. You have to learn about 5 simple commands. Use it to upload or download your files.
Jim
[ June 03, 2003: Message edited by: DOSman ]
Darkheim:
I have learned to use linux by myself, but if you're a complete newbie it is better to have a friend to help you install and configure it...
quote: The GIMP! I'm not a high paid graphics dude so I can't comment on whether it's as commercialy useful but I've used both it and photoshop, and to an "end user" like me there is not much difference. If you're paid to design graphics you might want to get a second opinion but I quite like the GIMP.
--- End quote ---
I'm using Photoshop alot...in fact Photoshop is the only reason I keep a Win98 partition on my HDD..and the GIMP is pretty good for low-level graphic editing and design, but it can't be compared to Photoshop...yet
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version