Linux Alternatives for Popular Windows Programs?

A

Acronix

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I just started to use Linux again after several years of being stuck with Microsoft. I figured out that maybe I'll just install some good counterparts of the software that I'm using with Windows 7. I would like to ask you guys about your opinion as to wich are the best alternatives for the following popular windows software:

  • 3D Studio Max
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Lightroom
  • Adobe Dreamweaver
  • AutoCAD
  • Google SketchUp
  • Microsoft Office
  • Nero Burning Rom
  • Picasa
  • Quickbooks
  • Sony Vegas Pro
  • Staad Pro
  • Windows Movie Maker
I'm using Kubuntu Linux by the way and it would be great if they can run smoothly in Kubuntu.
I also prefer programs which are free and under GPL.

You can post alternatives of softwares that are not included in the list as long as they are popular and are commonly used programs.

Thanks in advance!
 


I believe most of those windows applications can be run on Linux using Wine(Windows application emulator). Like in the case of Photoshop, you can run that in Wine. Also the best alternative would be GIMP which is free. But running stuff over Wine is also buggy at times.

Eyeon's Fusion 5 : http://www.eyeonline.com/Web/EyeonWeb/Products/fusion5/fusion5_linux.aspx is a good alternative for Adobe After effects.

For AutoCAD there's LinuxCAD. For Window movie maker you can try our Avidemux- it's good for splitting,filtering and encoding videos.

In place of microsoft office you can use Libreoffice or Openoffice, both of them are free and open source.
 
Here's a few:

Adobe Photoshop: GIMP
Microsoft Office: LibreOffice
Nero Burning ROM: Tons of options here. Just look around.
Windows Movie Maker: OpenShot
 
I used to have Openoffice in place of Microsoft Office. Now I have changed to Libre Office. It's much smaller and still gets the job done. If you are only doing word-processing, then I would recommend Abiword.
 
Libre Office or Open Office are great alternatives to Microsoft Office. I was an avid user of Open, but moved to Libre - I am very happy with the results. I think that it is much lighter on my system when compared to how Open Office runs. On a good day, Open Office would lag, but I have experienced many freezes or crashes with it. So my vote is for Libre as well.

Gimp is a great replacement for photo editing. If you are not familiar with it, I would suggest looking around on the forums - there is some great information and a huge selection of plugins that you can add to the program that are very similiar to what is available in Photoshop.

I definitely recommend OpenShot as a Windows Movie Maker alternative. I have not used it a lot as I do not do many video projects at all, but what I have used of it, I think it is great!

There is a variety of choices available when it comes to cd/dvd burning applications. I like Xfburn (xfce driven program), Brasero, and K3B.
 
Sound editor nch, lgviewer (view dwg files). For 3d dont have a choice but use google.
 
Thank you for your suggestions. Sorry I've been quite busy lately so I wasn't able to check this thread for a while. I'm quite familiar with some of the software you mentioned and thank you for all your advice. I tried using wine before but some software just aren't that stable with it.

Well, I tried using VirtualBox and switched to "seamless mode" and it works great. It's similar to wine but is much better looking and it seems that the Windows desktop merges with your Linux. How ever I think it slows my computer a bit because I just have a Dual Core processor and 3GB of RAM.
 
I used to have Openoffice in place of Microsoft Office. Now I have changed to Libre Office. It's much smaller and still gets the job done. If you are only doing word-processing, then I would recommend Abiword.

I've used all three and I must say LibreOffice is definitely my top choice also. Then OpenOffice and then Abiword.
 
I've used all three and I must say LibreOffice is definitely my top choice also. Then OpenOffice and then Abiword.

If you are using a wordprocessor for blogging, I would suggest using Scribefire. It's an addon for Firefox. I think it's also available for Chrome. With Scribefire, you can write a blog article and upload it directly to your blog.
 
Thanks for your suggestion guys. Right now I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 and I think I'm going to settle with this distro. I've used wine for AutoCAD 2004 and it works great. Gimp is also a good image editor and pretty much similar to Photoshop. I was having resources problem when running VirtualBox because my laptop isn't able to handle it well due to lack of memory.
 
GIMP for editing.
OpenOffice is the daddy for an MS Office replacement and if you are clever enough you can try to make it look like office 2012 - not that it is worth bothering to do that like.

The Linux Alternative Project is a must go for all those needs.

Audacious is a great WinAMP alternative.
 
GIMP for editing.
OpenOffice is the daddy for an MS Office replacement and if you are clever enough you can try to make it look like office 2012 - not that it is worth bothering to do that like.

The Linux Alternative Project is a must go for all those needs.

Audacious is a great WinAMP alternative.

Thanks for your suggestions but how do you exactly make openoffice look like ms office 2012? Do you mean you can also turn the toolbars into ribbons? That would be cool. :D
 
I don't think Gimp is as easy to use or has as many features as it's Windows counterparts. It is a good piece of software though and I'd highly recommend it for graphics
 
I have spent time comparing Windows programs to Linux programs and here is what I find.

The real comparison lies in the issue of whether it is a Windows only program or not.

Most if not all open source programs can run on Windows and Mac.

But many Windows and Mac programs can run on both systems but not on Linux.

This I believe is not a coincidence. I believe programmers have to decide early if they want their programs GNU and if not there is very little to no financial incentive for programmers to support Linux based versions.

So I believe that as a Linux OS user, I take each program at face value and whatever features it has to offer is solely dependent on the motivations of it's developers whether or not they are open source or proprietary developers.

For example:

Photoshop has a great following and their users openly brag of finding creative uses for Photoshop features.

Gimp has many features but the Gimp community isn't as motivated to video tape their skills. So the features that Gimp has to offer are not as widely known.

Sent from my HTC Status using Tapatalk 2
 
What is the Linux alternative to Adobe Premiere?

OpenShot is the best imo. Then there's a few others on there that I can't remember the names of.
I actually had Linux installed for a while for the sole purpose of using OpenShot since I couldn't afford Premiere.
 

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