Clemson Laptop Software
Comparable Linux Applications
Bill Moss
May 2002
This article is for members of the Clemson community who may be considering running a dual boot configuration or Linux only. For each application in the Clemson Laptop image, we list in the first table one or more open source Linux applications that my be considered a reasonable substitute. In the second table, we list software that is only required in certain laptop courses.
Clemson Laptop Windows Image - Linux Software Comparison
| Windows | Linux | Comments |
| Windows desktop | GNOME, KDE desktops | KDE is a Windows desktop look-alike. |
| MS Word | OpenOffice Writer | Windows version available. File compability with MS Word. Both have a "Save As Web page" feature. |
| MS Excel | OpenOffice Calc | Windows version available. File compability with MS Excel. |
| MS PowerPoint | OpenOffice Impress | Windows version available. File compability with MS PowerPoint. |
| MS Access | MySQL, Interbase, PostgreSQL | OpenOffice may eventually choose one of these as the official OpenOffice database. |
| MS Equation Editor | OpenOffice Math | Windows version available. OpenOffice translates between math formats in both directions. |
| MS Draw | OpenOffice Draw | Windows version available. OpenOffice Draw is a standalone application that can open and save using numerous image and drawing formats. |
| OpenOffice HTML Editor | Windows version available. OpenOffice HTML Editor produces clean HTML. | |
| J2RE 1.4 | J2RE 1.4 | Sun's Java 2 run time library is an optional component of OpenOffice. It includes the Sun Java VM which is also used by Mozilla. |
| Netscape 6.2.2 | Netscape 4.79 | Composer can be used for HTML editing. |
| Mozilla 1.0RC2 | Windows version available. The core of Netscape 6.x is Mozilla. Mozilla supports MathML. We hope an upcoming version of Netscape will as well. | |
| Internet Explorer 6.0 | No longer comes with the MS Java VM but user is prompted to download the first time a Java applet is run. If the Sun's J2RE is loaded, the user can choose between these VM's. With the free MathPlayer plugin installed, IE supports MathML. | |
| Secure Shell Client | OpenSSH (ssh, sftp, scp) | Preferred method of connection to remote machines from on and off campus. |
| Secure File Transfer Client | sftp, gftp | Like the Secure File Transfer Client, gFTP has a nice GUI interface. |
| Hummingbird | telnet | The campus should move away from telnet for security. |
| WS FTP LE | gftp | Like WS FTP LE, gFTP has a nice GUI interface. The campus should move away from ftp for security. |
| X-Win 32 | X-Windows | Linux window managers are built on top of the X-Windows system. |
| Acrobat Reader 5.0 | Acrobat Reader 4.05 | Read and print PDF files. |
| Eudora 5.1 | Ximian Evolution Mail | Ximian Evolution is similar to MS Outlook without the security holes. All the features of Outlook and Eudora and more including address book and contact list. Excellent GUI and integration. |
| Ximian Evolution Calendar | Your appointments. | |
| Ximian Evolution Task List | Your to-do list. | |
| WinRAR | zip, unzip, gzip, gunzip, tar, cpio | Archiving software. Windows versions available. |
| RealPlayer 8 | RealPlayer 8, Mplayer | RealNetworks audio and video media player. Mplayer plays most MPEG, VOB, AVI, VIVO, ASF/WMV, QT/MOV, FLI, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM, RoQ, and some RealMedia files. |
| Quicktime | CrossOver Plugin, Mplayer | CrossOver runs Windows web browser plugins such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player, and Shockwave, Word, Excel, PowerPoint Viewers in Linux. Not open source - $24.95. Mplayer plays most MPEG, VOB, AVI, VIVO, ASF/WMV, QT/MOV, FLI, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM, RoQ, and some RealMedia files. |
| Windows Media Player | CrossOver Plugin, Mplayer | CrossOver runs Windows web browser plugins such as QuickTime, Windows Media Player, and Shockwave, Word, Excel, PowerPoint Viewers in Linux. Not open source - $24.95. Mplayer plays most MPEG, VOB, AVI, VIVO, ASF/WMV, QT/MOV, FLI, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM, RoQ, and some RealMedia files. |
| Norton Anti-virus | Virus software is not needed on Linux. Security holes are rapidly patched. Red Hat provides software errata notifications for registered systems. It is easy to keep your system up-to-date with the update agent. | |
| WebDrive | DAV Explorer, cadaver | WebDrive is Windows drive mapping software which uses the HTTP extension WebDAV. OpenOffice supports WebDAV. |
| Winamp | XMMS, MPG123 | MP3 players |
Software Required in Certain Laptop Courses
| Maple | Maple is available for Linux. CES is working on extending the campus network site license for Maple to student owned machines. | |
| MATLAB | Octave, Scilab | MATLAB is available for Linux. CES has extended the campus network site license so that MATLAB may be launched from a mounted network directory. Octave + GNUPlot is an open source clone of the of MATLAB core. Octave is available for Windows. Scilab is a MATLAB work-alike that includes 2d-3d graphics, control, optimization, signal processing, simulation. Scilab is available for Windows. |
| Adobe Photoshop | The GIMP | Windows version available. |
| Adobe Acrobat Distiller | PStill | Windows version available. |