What programs do you usually use for linux?

What are they used for?

I am using windows 98 right now and only use firefox, mozilla, rarely ie, a poker game, and an 36mb rpg game called The Battle for Wesnoth, and that's basically it, but if I had sound I would use windows media player or real player or quicktime quite often.

let me know what you use because I am wondering why I should use linux over windows in 7 months and what programs linux has to offer or you could tell me what windows programs there are as well MAybe compare the programs?

Thanks for you're help.

Firefox, Mozilla and Battle for Wesnoth all have native linux versions. If you get sound down the road mplayer and xmms are both very lightweight apps for video and audio playback.

when I get linux I will search for other uses besides the ones that I am already using for windows and was wondering what else I can use linux for and what programs there may be.

Comparison of Windows and Linux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...dows_and_Linux

The best way to find out what Linux has to offer is to download and run a LiveCD.

For a detailed list of programs and their equivalent ones in Linux see:
The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. (Official site of the table)
http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html

As far as what programs linux has to offer, it all depends on what you want to do. There are literally thousands of programs available for linux and most are just a free download away. I am even using Photoshop in linux which is for windows or mac only. I agree with craigevil, you should get a live cd and check one out. You have asked a very open ended question.

another thing you could do is just make a list of what programs you want to use or types of programs and google it. ie: video edit linux, mp3 burner linux, office linux, etc..... it just mainly depends on you and your preferences. linux offers a variety of programs that match or excede nearly all windows programs. hopefully this will help you and good luck in your search.

Thanks everyone for replying and I was just wondering what people use linux for. Same thing people use windows? are the programs free to use over what windows has? Is there something special about linux?

Yes you can do everything in Linux that you would do in Windows. The big plus for linux is that when you install it your basic tools for productivity E.G office suite is also installed.

i don't know about all linux just debian.
ms has luxury features that debian cant do.
debian is spyware free, has an ultra reliable filesystem, is so very much more secure and has great science and coding/decoding software.
i miss my tts and stt though.
Thanks to Linus Torvaults though, i don't have to be a slave to bill gates.
linux disks are cheaper.
i was able to easily able to use debian to backup debian. try doing that with ms.

If you don't know what you want to use it for, why are you bothering?, you need to tell people your requirements if you want answers as to why you use it, i could tell you there is a program that can categorise my belly button lint over the last 5 years.. would that be something that attracts you to Linux? it's all perspective.

It's not a magical psycadelic trip through the land of amazement that ends you up in a bed with 20 swedish porn stars either, it's just an operating system, what you do with it is upto you.

But yes, most applications for it are free (as in beer and freedom), i use Linux for web browsing, word processing, calculation, shell scripting, python (the learning of), email, IM, file server.

As already stated, make a list of what you want to do, and match em up to solutions in Linux.

Someone posted a list between what programs are used for linux and windows and I think that is all I really needed. Thanks.