you're assuming that what were are looking for is MS alternatives, and second that we haven't the skills to google what were looking for.

Well some of the posts do tend to ask for stuff which have alternatives in Linux, either similar or better. So not all have this ease of thinking about the correct keywords to search google for exactly what they're after. I know many would give up after google gives them a 1mil page listing which has little or nothing to do with their exact needs. It becomes an art to finesse google into giving you some decent answers, otherwise 99% of the stuff I would consider "spam". E.g. for the past week I've been searching for the geometry construction method of drawing an arc passing through 2 fixed points and tangent to a circle - only yesterday I found out that I should be looking for "apollonius problems" otherwise google gives me all sorts of spurious answers ... now who'd have "known" I had to know about some 2275 year old Greek philosopher to be able to search for a method of drawing?

I have noted before (in this thread) that it would be a good idea to consolidate the alternatives listed in a wiki page so it might be even easier for newbie Linuxers to find something they can use.

The LQ Wiki is open for every LQ member, so if you want to volunteer just go ahead.

I had that same idea...when reading through this thread. There is the alternative to website but it's no very up-to-date maybe it's time to start collecting linux software and putting it in one spot..

I spent too much time over the years looking for a cross-browser bookmark manager. I didn't think that I wanted too much - just seamless saving, import/export, and maybe comments. I tried eight or nine free utilities, and two paid ones.

What I finally found was Linkstash. Yes, it's commercial. Yes, it works. It's got stars, tags, comments, deadlink and dupe checking, and more. It's also light on resources. The developer, last we talked, is responsive and helpful - but says there's no way he can afford to port to Linux.

Linkstash.

Autodesk 3D modeling programs? For Linux? Maya for Linux is at least as good as Maya for Windows.

I would like to see TurboTax ported to Linux. My wife prepares tax returns as a business and TurboTax is buggy enough to cause her grief when she is under time pressure. Most of the bugs are caused by TurboTax using .NET. If TurboTax were rewritten in C on Linux it would be a far more stable program.

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Steve Stites

Yes, by Maya isn't the begin-all-end-all 3d Modeller. Again, it's more of an animation package - and for that there's already Blender available. Some would say Blender's similar (if not better) capability-wise already. I know, I've done in excess of 4 years forth of research on this.

Inventor (similar to SolidWorks) is a whole different ball-game. It's meant for producing technical 3d models for manufacture. E.g. the cut & bend schedules for sheetmetal fabrication, or the mould forms for sending to CNC machines, electronic prototyping, etc.

Revit's intended for construction documentation. Not only the drawing work (i.e. plans, elevations, sections & details). But also scheduling of components like doors, windows, etc. It's more like a database than just a modeller, actually I'd say if Revit didn't have scheduling then it would be a rather poor 3d modeller in comparison to many others (even worse than ACad).

I do know people who prefer Blender to Maya....

i would think i like linux and unix commands programming but i m sorryy if i was no clear explains

Any kind of bue-ray player app. Most apps are for windows only. Some of you may say makemkv but I don't want to rip a blue-ray movie and then watch it like that. I want a native blue-ray player app to watch movies without doing work-a-rounds as with makemkv.

I've used VLC without need of anything else (running in Kubuntu 12.03 64 bit). Personally I can't see the use of MakeMkv, if you want it do do BD - then you have to pay for it (and it simply uses a list of decryption keys for those pesky DRM'ed discs - which is the exact same keys in VLC for free). See this thread if VLC doesn't install automatically with the needed libs: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2038933

I second irneb's VLC recommendation. It installs libaacs0 and libbluray1 and works with just about every Bluray I've cared to throw at it.

dBPoweramp, CueTools, EAC

Thanks, I was unaware that VLC can play blue-ray discs. I don't want to use makemkv, the reason I mentioned it is because that was the recommended work-a-round at that time to watch blue-ray movies in linux.