There, nice and clear now.

Just wondering if the capabilities of AnyDVD, DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, Nero, Shareaza, Cool Edit, Bryce, Word, PSP, Winamp Pro (with all encoders and decoders, including .mpc and .ape), Acrobat Pro, InDesign, Maya and Photoshop can be replicated in Linux, with what apps, how well, and for what cost - if any.

I think that's the list of most used apps (that I'm not already sure about equivalents or ports for) between the two of us users, most of the time. Might be a few more though.

Don't know what all of the apps listed do, but:
I think maya has a linux version
Word -> OpenOffice or AbiWord
mplayer can play almost anything
xine is another media player
Photoshop -> gimp (but looks way different)
The are lots of file-sharing prog for linux, lemme see if I can remember what shareaza does (I'm guessing mldonkey might match it)

If worst comes to worst you can try to run the windows progrram you want with WINE.

How adaptable, and how resource-hungry, is wine?

Would I need say, double the normal memory the program would require while running under Windows?

It doesn't appear to take that much more ram, but it is slower, for example when resizing a window there is a big lag in repainting. Also not all programs will work, and many require lots of tinkering to run. Try to use linux equivalents as wine is not really a finished product.

Linux software equivalent to Windows software - LinuxQuestions.org
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...ndows_software

The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. (Official site of the table)
http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-l...en/table.shtml

DVD => DVD Rip-O-Matic , kdvdbackup but i havent tried them as i dont have a dvd , there are alot more

Nero => Nerolinux (Free but if you have the origrinal nero) , k3b (Free)

Shareaza => emule , apollon , azureus , limewire ,........ (Free)

Cool Edit => audacity (Free)

Bryce => Blender (Free)

Word => openoffice , abiword (Free)

PSP => Gimp (Free)

Winamp Pro => amarok , xmms (Free)

Acrobat Pro => Acrobat linux (Free)

Maya => Maya linux (Not Free)

Photoshop => Gimp (Free)

All the above are correct, also keep in mind OpenOffice will export as PDF natively, no third-party app needed.

Does that include editing and manipulating pdf documents? As in, ones that already exist.

For openoffice you can edit PDF but not acrobat reader for linux

OpenOffice can only exort to PDF, and can't import and edit existing PDF files.

The only program I know of that can edit PDF files under Linux is KOffice, but even that isn't very good at it.

Basically PDF files are not designed to be edited.

The Scribus URL implies some capacity to import and edit pdf files. I have to see it to believe it. I note that Scribus is included in Mandriva LE 2005 which I am about to install, so I will soon find out. The documentation does include a lengthy, complicated example, which ends with the statement that the original pdf file is now saved almost the same as it was imported.

If someone checks it our, please report the results. Thanks.

I have been looking for a way to do this recently. Here are some of the outcomes!

KWORD - will open those whole text PDFs, but does not do predictably well on forms and the like.
OOo - will write PDFs very well, but won't open or edit (strictly a one way process).
SCRIBUS will import PS/PDF (you need to use the Import... command, not Open... The importation is unreliable and some posts suggested that this may depend on the version of Acrobat used to produce the PDF. I haven't tried it with OOo-generated PDFs.
ALL KDE 'print' commands can be sent to either PDF or PS (I presume it is the same for Gnome).
MOZILLA products can send to PS.
LINUX and UNIX can convert PS to PDF very easily.

SO ....... How have I achieved the 'editing' PDFs, particularly making entries into forms?

Part 1
Give KWORD a try first - if it works, your problem is solved! If not move on to Part 2.

Part 2
I used OOo.Draw, the GIMP and KPDF.

1. Open the GIMP
2. Open KPDF (not Ghostview!), and then the required PDF.
Then use the 'select' function (+ button) permits you to draw a rectangle over the
PDF image on the screen (you can use the scroll wheel to move the image down
to include one whole page at a time). On releasing the mouse button, you can save
the selected area as TEXT or IMAGE. Obviously, with the GIMP open, you should
choose IMAGE.
3. Paste the image into the GIMP (Acquire|...Paste as New)
4. Add the required text over the image using the GIMP text function.
5. Save the resulting image as a JPEG in a handy location.
6. Open OOo Draw and import the graphic into the page.
7. Export from OOo Draw as a PDF! The resultant file will be about 5-6 times the size of the
original without typing/signatures.
8. Now you can email or print!

I know that this is messy, but it gets the job done. You just wouldn't want to be doing this all the time!

AAM

Search: edit PDFs, HOWTO edit PDFs

Hang on! You don't need to use the GIMP!!

In KPDF, the selections available after letting go of the right button includes "Save to File".

So the modified process is:

select original PDF in KPDF
save to PNG or JPEG format
import into OOO.Draw

{text can be added in OOo.Draw or GIMP}

make the modified PDF