This is state of the art, circa 1999.
And reflects my personal thoughts.
The penguin has never had it so good. With the focus of the world slowly veering around to the open source concept, Linux is the hot new area to be in. The Linux world is full of many surprises. One common myth is that there is a lack of killer applications on the platform. While hardcore Linux fans love to glorify the lack of bloatware applications commonly found in other systems, there are apps in Linux if you take the trouble to look around. After all, if you feel this pressing need for a particular application, it is possible someone else did too. Moreover, even you could create and add a new application to the world; this is the open source era, so get started now...
It is rather difficult to complete a summary of all Linux applications considering the dynamic nature of software written for Linux. Therefore, the Linux readers out there must forgive if their dearest, favorite application is missing from the list. This is the reason why specific version numbers for the software are not be specified. The readers must also realize that software on Linux is forever changing. Some sites such as offer the latest and newest software that is on the block. The writer himself could not find an app he was looking for, until he arrived at the portals of that hallowed site. So, to stay current, make sure that you use that Internet link pretty well.
With the emphasis on GUI apps, mainly X windows based applications will be discussed below, although many text-based alternatives to each application generally exist. A precaution that is to be taken when working in X windows is to ensure a decent resolution (1024x768 preferably) for your monitor. The virtual screen area is a gorgeous idea, but it can be a trifle annoying at times, be warned!
There are not too many Linux applications being developed commercially. This however, is something that is being corrected. Corel’s famous WordPerfect ships for Linux. It is a fairly common app to the users of the word processing world. Among the many editors, there are a plethora of options to choose from. There are also many default variants of vi such as the vim series and Elvis. Many of these also have versions that work on X windows. There is unfortunately very little across the board common functionality.
However, in the area of group-ware suites StarOffice from Star Division takes the lead. It is a very excellent office suite that resembles the most common office application suite. It is pretty stable and intuitive to work on especially if you are moving to Linux from other platforms. It comes with the standard word processor, presentation tools, database, graphics, a scheduler and so on.
Another more well know product is Acroread from Adobe. It is their Postscript reader and is as stable as apps can get. The scientific community is happy on Linux. Matlab, Maple, Mathematica, and such scientific applications are all available on Linux. There are also a large variety of plotting software including the ubiquitous GNU app Gnuplot.
There are many desktop environments for Linux and X windows. The most famous of these include KDE, AfterStep and GNOME. GNOME is the Gnu Object Model Environment that promises to be the window manager of preference everywhere. Fvwm and Fvwm-95 are very similar to the commonly available GUI’s. What to use is a matter of intense debate, they all perform pretty well.
Some of the interesting things that are available as default in X Windows systems go by the name of amusements. Xeyes, Xsnow and Xfish are some amazing dynamic backgrounds into the standard GUI interface. They convert your desktop from some boring wallpaper image to a constantly changing and morphing scene. Again, a word of advice is not out of place, these are resource hungry!
One of the finest examples of the open source movement’s success is the program GIMP. This is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. This is a stable, high quality, fast program with amazing features. It can match the best competing image software and works well with many image formats. It is regularly used for photo manipulation, composition, and such high-end applications. It is a fine example of how high level features can get added to ordinary software by the efforts of users like you and me. Pov-Ray (Persistence of Vision) is also available on the Linux platform for any ray tracing graphical applications. Xv and Electric Eye are the most commonly used application to view and organize graphics files. There are many graphics editors and viewers available; the choice merely is personal. Among the Linux community, XFree86 remains the most widely used X Window server for PC’s.
There are many database implementations to choose from in Linux. The most familiar name that springs to the mind is that of LEAP, the free educational RDBMS used by students to learn databases. However, there are software like Virtuoso, MySQL that support SQL and database engines like Oracle and DB2. There ODBC, JDBC drivers from Openlink to ensure that there is easy access to databases from any programming environment into Linux. The net result is that you can be programming in any language on Linux and still be able to access the database of your choice.
There is a GNU version of an RDBMS, the GNU SQL Server, which is a free, portable multi-user relational database system. In this round up of databases, Oracle 8 and Sybase ASE represent the industry’s participation in the DMBS market that Linux presents.
Programmers from everywhere working co-operatively created the Linux environment. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a very high degree of support for programming and development on Linux. Almost all languages are supported. Some languages use the renowned GNU series (the C and C++ compiler, gcc). There is a really sophisticated debugger that is part of the GNU set of utilities. The X variant of this software, Xgdb would put all other commercial debuggers to shame. It accepts the compiled languages of the GNU stable in one debugger!
Other languages like Java, Pascal, Fortran are supported indirectly. There are third party GUI based IDEs for most of these languages. Perl is shipped with Linux so add to flexibility on the platform. There are also packages such as GraphApp which provides for a platform for the X-Win programmers. Commercial versions of many packages include the very stable Kai C++, support for DCOM, Tcl/Tk and many other legacy and cutting edge development platforms.
Networking is built into the core of Linux. Most of the time, in order to fix something the user can putter around, recompile the kernel and get a network in order. Whether that is easy to do or not, is the subject of much personal soul searching. Setting up your modem is not so simple, but it possible. Minicom resembles the well-known Telix in use and functionality. To connect to shell accounts, that is all that you will need to use. Most of the SLIP or PPP links can be configured within Linux itself. The Kermit project provides C-Kermit for usage on Linux. There are also packages such as Samba and SATAN (expand this acronym!), which are used by system administrators to optimize and secure access to the network.
Linux is fully integrated with the Internet. From Apache, the world most popular and open source Web Server to DNS Registry details, Linux can be used to set up and configure a complete web server. This includes Ftp servers, Usenet News access to shell access. There are many Apache derivatives available that add features and performance to the default server. Another useful program is SQUID, which enables a server and a single connection to function as a proxy server for multiple users. This allows caching and security to be built into Internet access via the server. It is also possible to configure Linux into serving as a dial up server for multiple users. This is the kind of setup that most ISP’s use to configure the local end of their operations.
Many email management programs are part of Linux. Pine, Elm, Majordomo, and Sendmail require no introduction to Linux users. These full-featured utilities would be prohibitively expensive elsewhere. By going into the open source movement, Netscape Navigator has become the Web browser of choice in the Linux world. It is exactly as is on other platforms, with no noticeable differences. The NCSA’s Mosaic browser is also another popular option, but it is beginning to show it’s age.
Gaming on the Linux platform has been limited. The ports of Doom Decent and Quake to the Linux arena have occurred mainly due to the nature of the source code being provided by the authors (Bless their souls! Long live the Open Source movement!). These games are the most popular ones on the platform, although some DOS based games run off the DOSemu (DOS Emulator - more on this later).
This is in addition to the hundreds of X games that one can install. Two of these are graphically noteworthy for they will grab your attention – Xtrek, Xevil. Other additions include XBoing (remember bricks, well it has grown up here!) and XTetris (the Russian plot to destroy capitalist America!). The console-based games include hundreds of mind-bending madness that include word puzzles, card games and other such sports. There is still hope for hard core gamers though, as companies are coming forward to port versions of their games to Linux. Until it happens though, get that shotgun and kick someone around in multiplayer Doom on whatever networks you can assemble.
The setup procedure for sound in Linux used to be pretty complicated. Today, all you need to do is point and click. Thus, there are more applications than ever before. Among the many applications that merit a mention in this area, but the most frequently used ones are xplaycd (for all those music CD’s) and x11amp (for all those MP3 files, a WinAmp clone). For those Internet Radio sites, there is also a version of Real Audio for Linux so that you can tune in too!
Xmpeg is a stable and very useful application for all those mpeg files that you want to play. There are many variations to the sound and multimedia apps on the Internet. You could probably find one that is tailored for your specific sound card or video board. Support for the various accelerator cards is also beginning to become widespread.
Many emulators exist on the platform for the user to experience other platforms and operations systems. There are emulators that try to give you a feel of the real thing when you don’t really work on X. This includes the Xterm, Eterm and the ever present GNOME project emulator. There is a Mac emulator Vmac that allows you to run Macintosh applications of Linux. A rather stable and sensible emulator is Dosemu, the Linux emulator for good ol’dos. Another valiant attempt is Wine (Windows 3.1) emulator. It’s unstable and cannot really be used for any large applications. It must be added that this is not a fault of Linux or the Wine code. The rest is left to the reader’s imagination…
What can a mere mortal speak about giants in software packages like Emacs, Tex, Perl or even the supremely complicated and adored vi? Even the ever so comprehensive and humble man has graduated to an X variant that is far more comfortable to use. Programming environments like python, tcl/tk, awk and smalltalk are part of coding legends and hacking history. There are tools available on Linux such as Lex and Yacc that are either difficult to find or costly in other environments. Such experiences are fundamental to the real Linux experience.
These packages are more or less standard with Linux. Here is a point that needs to be made here and reiterated often. More often than not, applications are available on your distribution or CD. Look around and search that dev/hda2 drive or the mnt/cdrom before you complain!
In totality, the state of the Linux application scene is much the same as the state of general acceptance of Linux. The focus is now slowly but surely changing from that of small programs written by individual programmers to commercial software with support and help. There is no doubt that this will indeed be a very interesting segment of the software pie to watch. This segment should see immense growth.
Can companies make substantial profits from the Linux application market? Whether the free, open source nature of current applications will remain is a interesting question. Will the current software payment paradigm work with Linux is another question. The most important question here however is – “where will the penguin go today?” You are part of that answer too. Think about it.
News and odd apps here : http://www.slashdot.org/
New App postings here : http://www.freshmeat.net/
Linux Software map : http://www.linux.org/apps/lsm.html
Linux app listing : http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapps.html
GNU main site : http://www.gnu.org/
X windows site : http://www.xwindows.org/
Star Office site : http://www.stardivision.com/
Word Perfect 7 : http://www.sdcorp.com/wplinux/wplinux.html
Apache Web server : http://www.apache.org/
MP3 Winamp clone : http://www.x11amp.bz.nz/