Ubuntu Wiki

   1 [16:02] <Pendulum> Next up is leogg to talk about Ubuntu Equivalent Programs
   2 [16:02] <Pendulum> Leandro Gómez is a system engineer and free software advocate from Uruguay. He currentlly lives in Nicaragua and is one of the six members of the Ubuntu LoCo Council.
   3 [16:02] <leogg> Thank you Pendulum!
   4 [16:02] <leogg> Hello and welcome everyone!
   5 [16:03] <leogg> My name is Leandro Gómez and I'm here today to talk about applications on Ubuntu that can replace commonly used applications on Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X.
   6 [16:03] <leogg> This session is aimed at users that have recently switched or are considering switching to Ubuntu.
   7 [16:04] <leogg> Many of the applications I'm going to present today are cross-platform.
   8 [16:04] <leogg> That means that they can be run on Ubuntu, or Microsoft Windows, or Mac OS X.
   9 [16:05] <leogg> The cool thing about this (for those of you who haven't made the transition yet) is that you can try all these open source applications on your non-free operating system.
  10 [16:06] <leogg> That makes a smooth transition from your proprietary operating system to Ubuntu.
  11 [16:06] <leogg> I'm going to start with some basic applications included on a standard installation of Ubuntu.
  12 [16:06] <leogg> OpenOffice.org
  13 [16:07] <leogg> I'm sure most of you have used or heard of this office productivity suite.
  14 [16:07] <leogg> OpenOffice.org (or OOo for short), was developed by Sun Microsystems and the OOo community. OpenOffice.org has been acquired recently by Oracle.
  15 [16:08] <leogg> OOo is a modern, full-featured, free and open source office productivity suite, and a great replacement for Microsoft Office and iWork.
  16 [16:08] <leogg> The suite includes a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation software (Impress), database (Base) and a basic drawing and vector graphics editor (Draw).
  17 [16:09] <leogg> These applications are equivalent to Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access.
  18 [16:10] <leogg> One of the biggest fears people have when switching to Ubuntu is that their friends and colleagues at work won't be able to exchange documents with them.
  19 [16:10] <leogg> OOo is able to read and write in numerous formats, including -of course- Microsoft Office propietary formats.
  20 [16:11] <leogg> You can open a Microsoft Word document, make changes in it with OOo Writer, and save it as a Microsoft Word document, or as a standard OOo document (ODF).
  21 [16:12] <leogg> ODF, or Open Document Format, is the default file format for all OOo documents, and approved as a mandatory standard by a significant amount of countries, including the USA, United Kingdom, many countries in the EU, Brazil, South Africa, etc.
  22 [16:12] <leogg> OOo is included on the Ubuntu Live CD and is installed by default.
  23 [16:12] <leogg> http://www.openoffice.org
  24 [16:12] <leogg> Some derivatives of Ubuntu doesn't include OpenOffice.org.
  25 [16:13] <leogg> That's the case of Xubuntu and Lubuntu.
  26 [16:13] <leogg> Both of these derivatives are aimed at low-specs PC's, and requires applications that doesn't consume much RAM.
  27 [16:13] <leogg> Two of the most popular replacements for OpenOffice.org are Abiword and Gnumeric.
  28 [16:14] <leogg> Abiword is a word processor included in Xubuntu and Lubuntu.
  29 === shadeslayer_ is now known as evilshadeslayer
  30 [16:14] <leogg> It's very fast and light and has some cool features such as collaborative edition of documents using TCP or Jabber/XMPP.
  31 [16:15] <leogg> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiword
  32 [16:15] <leogg> Gnumeric is a lightweight, yet powerful, spreadsheet application.
  33 [16:16] <leogg> It has most of the features included in Calc, and more. Gnumeric can export documents to OOo, Excel and LaTeX.
  34 [16:16] <leogg> Gnumeric is famous for its precision.
  35 === lkjoel is now known as eviltux
  36 === eviltux is now known as eviltux2
  37 [16:17] <leogg> Gnumeric is part of the GNOME Office suite, developed by the GNOME community.
  38 [16:17] <leogg> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnumeric
  39 [16:17] <leogg> Both of these applications are available in the official repositories and can also be installed in Ubuntu using Synaptic or the Ubuntu Software Center.
  40 [16:18] <leogg> Another application that all (or most) users needs is a web browser.
  41 [16:18] <leogg> In Ubuntu we have a lot of applications to choose from.
  42 [16:19] <leogg> The default web browser is Internet Explorer in Windows and Safari in Mac OS X.
  43 [16:19] <leogg> The default web browser in Ubuntu is Mozilla Firefox.
  44 [16:20] <leogg> Firefox is very popular and can also be found on numerous Windows and Mac computers.
  45 [16:20] <leogg> Many people complaint about Firefox being very resource hungry.
  46 [16:21] <leogg> It may be true, but the availability of thousands of plug-ins that brings additional functionality to the Firefox web browser, is priceless.
  47 [16:22] <leogg> If you want a lightweight web browser, you can always try Chromium, the open source fork of the Google Chrome web browser.
  48 [16:23] <leogg> Other options include Epiphany and Galeon, web browsers for the GNOME desktop, or Konqueror, the KDE web browser and file manager (great choice if you're using Kubuntu).
  49 [16:24] <leogg> You can also try Midori, a lightweight web browser based on WebKit, or Kazehakase, that can use either Gecko or WebKit as its rendering engine.
  50 [16:24] <leogg> And if you feel super geeky, take a look at ELinks, a text based web browser for your terminal.
  51 [16:25] <leogg> http://www.elinks.cz/
  52 [16:26] <leogg> And while we're talking about web applications, let's take a look at what options you have for instant messaging.
  53 [16:26] <leogg> Ubuntu uses Empathy by default.
  54 [16:26] <leogg> Well... not Ubuntu, GNOME does. :)
  55 [16:27] <leogg> Empathy is an instant messaging application supporting text, voice, video and file transfers.
  56 [16:27] <leogg> Empathy supports many different protocols, including: MSN, AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo!, Facebook, ICQ, etc.
  57 [16:28] <leogg> That means that you don't need to have multiple messaging applications installed for all the different protocols/services.
  58 [16:28] <leogg> With a single application you can chat with all your friends and family. It doesn't matter what protocol they're using, you'll have them all in a single window.
  59 [16:29] <leogg> Another excellent application for instant messaging in Ubuntu is Pidgin.
  60 [16:29] <leogg> http://www.pidgin.im/
  61 [16:30] <leogg> If your contacts use the MSN network exclusively, you can try aMSN, or Emesene. Beware that these apps aren't multi-protocol, they only support MSN.
  62 [16:30] <leogg> http://www.amsn-project.net/
  63 [16:31] <leogg> http://www.emesene.org/
  64 [16:31] <ClassBot> IdleOne asked: Could you explain the difference between Google Chrome browser and chromium-browser that is available in the Ubuntu repos?
  65 [16:33] <leogg> IdleOne: Chromium is free as in freedom.
  66 [16:34] <leogg> IdleOne: Google Chrome has a dual license. BSD with some proprietary bits.
  67 [16:35] <leogg> IdleOne: I've only used Chromium, but AFAIK they both share (almost) the same code.
  68 [16:35] <leogg> IdleOne: The proprietary bits aren't included in Chromium, of course.
  69 [16:35] <ClassBot> ech0tk asked: Why choose Empathy over Pidgin?
  70 [16:36] <leogg> ech0tk: It's a matter of choice.
  71 [16:36] <leogg> ech0tk: I like Pidgin more, but I'm getting used to Empathy, so... :)
  72 [16:36] <ClassBot> mohi57o9 asked: I am not able to change the status in pidgin. Is there any package error? I am using Lucid Lynx
  73 [16:37] <leogg> mohi57o9: Please try the #ubuntu channel for support :)
  74 [16:37] <ClassBot> Nandu201 asked: I am not able to transfer files using pidgin.Is there any solution to rectify it?
  75 [16:37] <leogg> Nandu201: Same as above :p
  76 [16:38] <leogg> Ok, let's move on...
  77 [16:38] <leogg> Let's talk about software for more specific needs.
  78 [16:39] <leogg> In almost every talk I have given about Ubuntu, people ask about applications for designing.
  79 [16:39] <leogg> There's a common perception that Ubuntu (or Linux as a whole) is not suited for graphic design.
  80 [16:40] <leogg> People that know their stuff buys a Mac, or install the latest Adobe design suite on their Windows box.
  81 [16:40] <leogg> I'm not a designer, but I've made tons of stuff for my local community;
  82 [16:41] <leogg> Web buttons, huge printed banners, t-shirts, stickers, CD labels, posters, flyers... all of it using only free and open source software on Ubuntu.
  83 [16:41] <leogg> You can see some of my stuff at http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/en/users/leogg
  84 [16:41] <leogg> Feel free to download the artwork, improve it and pass it on! :)
  85 [16:42] <leogg> The GIMP is an image editing and processing application equivalent to Adobe Photoshop.
  86 [16:43] <leogg> In my opinion, The GIMP has always been underestimated.
  87 [16:43] <leogg> It's not as pretty as Photoshop, but it's a very powerful tool with a lot of cool plug-ins.
  88 [16:43] <leogg> And yes... it's cross-platform too!
  89 [16:44] <leogg> http://www.gimp.org/
  90 [16:44] <leogg> Inkscape is a free vector graphics editor and the open source equivalent to Adobe Ilustrator or Corel Draw.
  91 [16:44] <leogg> I must say that I just love Inkscape!
  92 [16:45] <leogg> Inkscape is very intuitive and easy to use. There's also a lot of tutorials for Inkscape out there, so it's quite easy to learn.
  93 [16:45] <leogg> I recommend http://screencasters.heathenx.org/
  94 [16:46] <leogg> Ãœbercool!
  95 [16:46] <leogg> The official website of the project is at http://www.inkscape.org/
  96 [16:47] <ClassBot> eviltux asked: Does linux software work on Mac? I have heard that Ma uses Unix.
  97 [16:48] <leogg> eviltux: Most of the apps I've mentioned are cross-platform, so they will work on both Linux and Mac.
  98 [16:49] <ClassBot> IdleOne asked: Can I get all these programs from the Ubuntu Software Center?
  99 [16:49] <leogg> IdleOne: Yes!
 100 [16:49] <leogg> I'm going to name a few more applications that I use on a daily basis, and that are pretty cool;
 101 [16:50] <leogg> Synfig Studio, a vector based 2D animation package.
 102 [16:50] <leogg> http://www.synfig.org/
 103 [16:50] <leogg> Scribus, graphic page layout and publication software.
 104 [16:50] <ClassBot> There are are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.
 105 [16:50] <leogg> http://www.scribus.net/
 106 [16:50] <leogg> Blender, for 3D modelling, rendering and animation.
 107 [16:51] <leogg> Blender has a high learning curve, but it's extremely powerful, and the results are amazing! (Be sure to check out Big Buck Bunny at the Blender web site ;)
 108 [16:51] <leogg> http://www.blender.org/
 109 [16:51] <leogg> Agave, a colorscheme designer for the GNOME desktop.
 110 [16:51] <leogg> http://home.gna.org/colorscheme/
 111 [16:52] <leogg> Screenie, a small tool for composing fancy and stylish screenshots.
 112 [16:52] <leogg> http://code.google.com/p/screenie/
 113 [16:52] <leogg> All of these applications are available in Ubuntu, and they're just a few clicks away!
 114 [16:53] <ClassBot> eviltux asked: I couldn't use Scribus for some reason. But the last time I used it was on 2008. Was there an update after 2008?
 115 [16:54] <leogg> The latest stable release is 1.3.3.14
 116 [16:54] <leogg> eviltux: January 2010
 117 [16:54] <leogg> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribus
 118 [16:55] <ClassBot> regi asked: Is there an opensource alternative for MS Visio?
 119 [16:55] <ClassBot> There are are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.
 120 [16:55] <leogg> regi: Yes! There's a lot!
 121 [16:56] <leogg> regi: You could try Dia, http://live.gnome.org/Dia/
 122 [16:56] <ClassBot> eviltux asked: Is there a development release channel for scribus? (channel such as repository)
 123 [16:57] <leogg> eviltux: Yes. The development release is the scribus-ng package in Ubuntu.
 124 [16:57] <leogg> Some useful links for finding free and open sources alternatives;
 125 [16:57] <leogg> http://linuxappfinder.com/
 126 [16:58] <leogg> http://www.osalt.com/
 127 [16:58] <leogg> If you have any questions, this is the right place to be; http://ubuntuforums.org/
 128 [16:58] <leogg> That's all from me... thank you very much and enjoy the rest of the day! :)