My Conversion to Linux (Part 2)
Posted by Simon North on May 8, 2008
Welcome to part two of my journey to converting from Windows to Linux. In this part I will look at how I adjusted to using the new applications, what I needed to change and how I was able to use some of my Windows applications on Linux.
When I converted I was using my computer for building .NET applications which meant that I had no choice but to use Visual Studio, which isn’t available on Linux. This meant that I had to find a way of using the software on Linux else it would be pointless switching. I had a look around and found VirtualBox, which is an application that allows you to run Windows inside a window on your linux box. Meaning, that you can use Windows on Linux which inevitably results in being able to use Windows applications on Linux.
This then led me on to my web design work. At the time of converting I was just starting out as a web designer so I was using applications like Frontpage and Dreamweaver, non of which are available on Linux. I installed a program called Wine which enabled me to run Dreamweaver but it wasn’t the nicest experience on Linux.
I started to look into alternatives to Dreamweaver and found NVU, it was a great alternative although it added bits of code that made the html look untidy. It was at this point that I started to understand the code behind websites and so moved to the code editor, Bluefish.
I used Open Office instead of Microsoft Office which was a valuable contender as it offered many of the features of MS Office and also allowed me to save into the MS Office .doc format so I could use my documents elsewhere.
I use Banshee instead of Windows Media Player/iTunes because it has a similar interface to iTunes, is fast and plays all of my music. Amarok is another worthy alternative in this area.
And finally, as for my .NET programming, I have now learnt Java and use NetBeans on Linux.
Just because you convert it doesn’t mean that you have to stoop on the quality of the applications you use. The people who make applications for Linux put a lot of work into making them into the standards of their Windows counterparts and best of all they are all free to use. And if you don’t want to convert then you can use Wine or an virtual machine like VirtualBox or VMware.
And that’s it for part 2, in part three I will look at my overall experience with the conversion and one year on, was it the right choice to make?
