What Linux Cannot Do
(and Equivalent Programs it Can Run for Free!)

What Linuc Cannot Do (that you usually have to pay for) And What It Can Do In Its Place for Free Run Internet Explorer because this is a program Microsoft has decided it will only distribute for Windows, Macintosh and a few select high-end operating systems Netscape Communicator and the KDE Konqueror browsers that normally ship with today's distributions. Netscape can go virtually anywhere on the web except for a few sites (mostly Microsoft-owned) that are not designed to work with anything but Internet Explorer. Almost everyone else is unwilling to take the risk of offending the 50% of the public that uses Netscape even under Windows. For those who think Netscape is too bloated, KDE Konqueror does just fine on sites not requiring Java or JavaScript. Java and JavaScript are used only on sites designed to be interactive. I personally recommend turning Java and JavaScript OFF except when visiting a site requiring them. (This for security reasons). Of the two, Java is the greater risk, because it can give access to all your files, bypassing file-system permissions. Run Microsoft Office which is made only for the Windows and Macintosh operating systems Star Office is distributed free by Sun Microsystems. Although it does take over the desktop when run, it gives near-perfect compatibility with Microsoft-Office files. Corel Word Perfect for Linux is a viable commercial alternative. A trial version of the Corel Word Processor ships with many distributions. Run Microsoft Outlook Netscape Mail and other mail programs carry out the mail functions, while the calendar/scheduling function is duplicated on at least 2 programs that ship with today's distributions, including the Gnome calendar. Run Adobe Photoshop which is made only the Macintosh operating system and Windows GIMP can do almost everything Photoshop can do and can be scripted, which Photoshop cannot be. Run Adobe Illustrator Killustrator takes its place. Make Macromedia Flash programs No equivalent exists at the present time. The Flash plugin IS, however, distributed so that Linux users can VIEW Flash sites. But this does not mean you have to use Windows to develop Flash sites. Most design studios will probably be using Macs anyway for this, since the Power Macintosh and its processors are designed specifically for this kind of high-end work. Use Adaptec CD recording software XCDRoast which uses cdrecord and mkisofs substitutes nicely. Linux cannot read a cd previously recorded with a UDF file system, but CAN make both CDRs and CDRWs. An added advantage is that CDRW discs that it makes CAN be read on any machine running any operating system WITHOUT installing special software. You can even make CDRW AUDIO discs that can be read by any computer that has a CDRW capable CDROM drive. Linux also has more flexibility in RECORDING AUDIO discs. Run 1000s of games designed for DOS and Windows If all you want to do is play games I would suggest you stick with Windows-98, and put up with the crashing, or buy a dedicated game system. But that doesn't mean linux users can't play games. Civilization and Quake are made for the platform. There are many more free games that come with the distributions than the 3 or 4 that Windows ships with. And don't forget all the Java games out there on the web that will work just fine within Netscape. What if I really want to run a Windows or DOS program without running Windows? Run them under the wine or dosemu emulators if you don't wish to reboot or use another machine. But if you're like me, you'll want to do your serious stuff on linux (because of its greater stability) and run Windows for the games. That way if a game crashes your system, it won't take down your important work. DID YOU KNOW that Sony uses Linux as its DEVELOPMENT platform for its Playstation II games? It wanted a free and reliable platform. (The games on the actual systems run on Sony's proprietary OS)

And here are some things people think you cannot do in linux but you really can: Kill a stuck X program. Minimize all windows except for one corresponding to the program you want to kill. Double click on the title bar. This reduces it to occupy only the space required by the title. You should see an icon for "X-Kill". Click on it and then drag the "bombsight" to over the left corner of the errant program. Then click and "POOF!" Your application is instantly killed -- no waiting for extra messages like "this program does not respond". Make the taskbars disappear. There are actually two such bars in the KDE desktop. Both of them can be repositioned and made to auto-hide. I've made my bottom taskbar go on the left and the top taskbar go on the bottom and both of them auto-hide. Just right-click the main one (not the one with the open programs but the main one which by default is at the bottom) and click 'Configure' and you'll see the menu. And unlike the Windows version (which requires you to get Office 97 to get two taskbars) THE AUTO-HIDE ACTUALLY WORKS!! It does occupy about 2 pixels at the edge always, but it does not get covered over by errant programs like internet browsers that prevent it from being accessed. Bring up the menu with a key. Hit the LEFT 'Windows' button and a menu will appear! Open up a web page for editing with a right-click, like you can with Internet Explorer. For web-page editing I find the KDE (Konqueror) browser ideal. It is started up by clicking on 'home directory'. It shows a list of icons corresponding to files but also shows web pages. when a web page is shown, just right click it and when you see the 'Open With' dialog box, type 'kedit'. But why should I have to do this when with Windows one click gives me Notepad? Answer -- try this again and instead of typing 'kedit' type 'emacs', or 'xemacs'. You'll get different editors which highlight the tags (like Allaire does with Cold Fusion and charges hundreds of dollars for!). The point is YOU GET YOUR CHOICE OF EDITOR.