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Any operating system that exists on a computer depends on the availability of useful applications to make the operating system, well, useful. Fortunately, there is now a LOT of software available on Linux, and most of it is free. If you use a Linux application, you should, of course, strongly consider making some kind of payment to the author/creator, so they can continue creating new applications or upgrading their existing ones. It’s supposed to be free as in freedom, not free as in beer (at least, in most cases). Now that we learned the basics of software installation (last month – FCM #130), we can think about what, exactly, to actually install.
One of the first things you may want to install is an office suite. There are a number of office suites available, but I personally go with LibreOffice and Calligra Office.
LibreOffice is a ‘fork’ from the venerable open source suite, OpenOffice, which does still exist but seems to have less development going on now than LibreOffice. ‘Forks’ are new versions of projects derived from existing code, and one of the unique and cool features of open source software. Anyone with the inclination can download the source and change it to their liking, so ‘forks’ are much more common in Linux than in a more closed source infrastructure like Windows or MacOS.
OpenOffice and LibreOffice development seems to have a philosophy of continuing to refine the existing features of the suite and correct bugs, which is not terribly exciting and may not generate enthusiasm like in the earlier days of the suite when new features were common with version upgrades, but there’s certainly something to be said for making the project more polished. They also seem to put an emphasis on format compatibility with Microsoft Office files. I’ve been following OpenOffice and/or LibreOffice since OpenOffice version 1, and I have a lot of respect for it. It is available for Windows, MacOS, or Linux.
LibreOffice includes a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation program (Impress), drawing program (Draw), and a database front end (Base). This column is put together every month in LibreOffice Writer. The applications are of excellent quality, solid and reliable, and fulfill the needs of most office users quite admirably with the exception of having no email client/personal information manager. OpenOffice originated from the commercial office suite StarOffice, now discontinued. This column in LibreOffice Writer:
Calligra Office is also a ‘fork’, in this case from the original KOffice suite that was developed as part of the KDE project. KDE is a desktop environment available to Ubuntu users most readily in the form of Ubuntu’s variant, Kubuntu. Where the Unity desktop environment resembles the MacOS, KDE hews more closely to a Windows look.
The big advantage to Calligra Office, in my estimation, is that it has more applications and functionality than LibreOffice and OpenOffice. Calligra has a word processor (Words), a spreadsheet (Sheets), a presentation program (Stage), a drawing program (Krita), and a database front end (Kexi), like LibreOffice. But it also has an email program/personal information manager (Kontact), a bitmap drawing program and photo editor (Karbon), a project manager (Plan), a diagramming and flowcharting program (Flow), a whiteboard emulator (the unwisely named Braindump), a personal finance manager (KMyMoney), and even a recipe manager (Krecipe). The last two are kind of nominally members of the suite, but worth mentioning all the same. To me, the addition of analogues to Project, Visio, Outlook, and even OneNote (sort of, in the form of Braindump) is a major plus for Calligra over LibreOffice. There’s even a second word processor specialized for book and ebook writing projects, called Calligra Author. It does seem that Braindump and Author have reached a developmental dead-end and are no longer actively being worked on, and the Krita drawing/bitmap editing program has spun off into an independent project. Flow and Stage also seem to be currently in a development limbo of sorts. Here’s Calligra Sheets:
We’ll be looking at office suites in considerably more detail in a later column. We’ll also look at alternatives to Microsoft Office’s Visio and Project applications, in the form of Calligra Office’s Flow and Plan, and the independent applications GanttProject and Dia.
OpenOffice is at http://www.openoffice.org/. LibreOffice is at https://www.libreoffice.org/. Calligra Office is at https://www.calligra.org/.
Media players are also pretty essential to the everyday user’s desktop. I always install VLC, which seems to be widely regarded as one of the best media players, and is available on multiple platforms. I also use Kaffeine, Dragon Player, Amarok, and Rhythmbox. VLC is particularly well-respected for the fact that it will often play broken or incomplete files, at least to the extent that such a thing is even possible. Kaffeine and Dragon Player are excellent multimedia players for video or audio, while Rhythmbox and Amarok are more focused on audio files. K3B is a good burner application to install if you need to burn CD-R’s or DVD-R’s. There is also KSCD to play music CD’s, if anyone still has those in our modern digital age. For my part, I still have the long out-of-print “Hey Man, Smell My Finger” and “Millennium” on CD’s, by George Clinton and Earth, Wind, and Fire, respectively, and I believe they’re worth about $300 each as collector’s items. Yeah, I won’t be playing those in KSCD and risking scratching or scuffing them by handling them. May not be long until almost all CD’s are antiques and collectibles. Here’s a look at VLC, playing a movie of my adopted son, Baby, giving me some sugar:
Another category of basic software is internet/connectivity applications. For internet browsing, I prefer Firefox and Chrome, alternating between the two from time to time (although I’m a bit more partial to Chrome). A huge advantage here is that you can use either browser in multiple environments, so you have a fairly consistent experience from Windows, Linux, MacOS; and even ChromeOS, and on an Android phone or tablet in the case of the Chrome browser. In addition, if you care about open sourcing of the applications you use, there is an open source version of Chrome called Chromium. All (Firefox, Chrome, and Chromium) support user sign-on, which means you can see your favorites/bookmarks from different machines and platforms, and retain your interface tweaks and customizations without constantly redoing them every time you log on to a different computer. Chromium will allow you to log in via your Google/Chrome login credentials This is what Chromium looks like:
There are also a number of instant messengers available under Linux, I choose Pidgin and Skype for my usage (although I instant message very infrequently, due to not having persistent internet capability). You may already have detected a theme here: I will very frequently install two applications or suites for any function, knowing that there are advantages and disadvantages to each, and that I can switch to whatever works best for a given task. Pidgin works with a number of instant messaging protocols, so it can be used to chat with users on AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, Facebook, and others, so it has a lot of flexibility. It also has a number of compelling add-ins, including some interesting security capabilities like encryption and OTR (Off The Record). Skype is good to have for online phone calling. Here’s the Pidgin client:
Email applications are pretty central to the online experience, and I usually use Kontact or Thunderbird. When I tried to use Kontact on the machine I use for this column, though, I ran into errors, and all my Google searches indicated some pretty serious jumping through hoops would be required to get Kontact to work on this Unity desktop. I do have Kontact up and running on my other, less-used machine, an Acer Cloudbook with Kubuntu. Being an old hand with Microsoft Outlook (BOO, HISS, I know…), I do like Kontact’s interface (similar to Outlook), and more advanced capabilities, although I have to admit I don’t use those capabilities like I did when I was in the corporate world. As an email client, Thunderbird is very capable. Thunderbird looks like this:
Next time: More software essentials and suggestions.
I invite feedback on easier/better ways to do things. Any such submissions in response to articles or content will be considered the property of Full Circle Magazine for publication purposes, without remuneration, unless the writer/commenter specifies otherwise. That said, commentary and feedback are heartily encouraged and appreciated, at acer11kubuntu@gmail.com.