Recently, a friend of mine started using Linux. She has been at it for about three years and pretty much refuses to use Windows unless she is depressed! About a month ago, she got a real cool laptop from work and it was loaded with Windows XP "applications"; although she was happy with the laptop, she was already regretting the Operational System her high-tech company had chosen for her!  She immediately started freaking out about putting a dual boot copy of Linux on her machine. Fortunately, I was there to solve all of her problems. Many people whine and complain that the reason they don't use Linux is because of "applications." Computers were designed to make you think. Here are the top reasons why I use Linux as do many of my family and friends.

Scribus: An open source desktop publishing software that is just as powerful as the very-much-more-costly alternatives. This application is one of the best I have ever used.

Gnucash: My favorite banking software. Secure and a must-have for the accounting software.

The GIMP: Forget Photoshop, The GIMP is where it's at. The GIMP is one of the flagship open source apps with very good reason.

gFTP: The best ftp tool available.

K3B: CD burning software. Outstanding.

Evolution: My mail client of choice. It syncs with my Treo 680, keeps my calendar, threads my email and all sorts of wonderful things.

Enlightenment: I hate the Windows desktop metaphor. It's so klunky. Enlightenment is simple, fast, themable, and reliable.

Aterm: My console app of choice. Yes, I do still run some commands.

Yum (or apt-get): I love the simplicity and reliability of these installation tools.

Of course this only scratches the surface. I could mention OpenOffice because I write so much. But if I didn't have OpenOffice, I could use AbiWord or Word Perfect. I could mention FireFox, but FireFox runs on damn-near everything. 

There are also some honorable mentions that go to:

GQview, Evince, Jpilot, Kopete, xmms, rsync, tar, and a plethora of other command-line tools.

But ultimately you get the point. For every Windows application you can't live without, I have a Linux application I can't live without.
Do I use Windows? Yes, of course I do... I too am depressed and oppressed by the giant machine we call Microsoft. But, take heed opensourcemen!

 

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