I have some friends that are Quads (quadreplegics - affectionately known as gimps), and Speach Recognition Programs....well, it'd be great to see them better developed. It'd be fantastic if they were ported to Open Source. They do wonders for those that have the patience and the computer speed.

I've made my stock market prediction before, and I'll list it again here:
The biggest market for this century = enabling the individual to be an individual. In all aspects. Enabling the individual with and toward technologies, allowing people to be functional, free, liberated, connected....

Cell phones, mobile devices
DIY stuff
Self education

Society has been built on some very mentally crippling notions. The best way to get rid of them without getting crucified is to make the remedies marketable - and cheap (or free. it is possible to market free goods and make a profit).

shareaza and apophysis .. those are the ones that i use the most.. apophisis is already open source.. but for windows.. and sharaza is a pain to run in wine...

Where's the tax prep and e-file applications?

And of course the hardware vendors need to provide drivers.

I second that and add All of the Adobe stuff

Thirds that, Adobe Photoshop was my most fave app to use for manipulating photo's

Um, Guitar Pro.... http://www.guitar-pro.com/
and the mainstream messenger clients should give linux users the respect they give windows users...
have you seen the UNIX version of Yahoo Messenger... compared to Windows Yahoo Messenger Suite 6?
or if at least Trillian had a Linux version.

-RootsMagic Genealogy Software-

I would pay for this tremendous piece of software in a heartbeat. It's too bad that none of the genealogy geeks out there can build something like this. I extensively tested all of the genealogy software packages available and RootsMagic won hands down. It is fast, efficient, intuitive and generally well put together. For now I'll just keep dreaming and maybe, I'll setup a small winblows computer to run RootsMagic.

The official Lego Mindstorms programs would be nice.

Greetings

This is the second time I post in this thread. Now I'm a more experienced Linux user and I have to say that most of my needs are already fulfilled with the current offer of open source software, of course I'm not taking into acount that many apps are still in development but knowing someone is developing is very gratifying.

I'm a designer and the apps I need are mostly related with graphics, 3d and multimedia. I'd like to list my essencial Linux applications:
- Openoffice
- Gimp
- Scribus
- Inkscape
- Blender
- QCad (autocad replacement)
- Nvu (wysiwyg html/css editor)

There are only two types of programs that are missing in Linux:

- Solidworks or something similar (this one is one of the most important programs I have to use)

- Adobe type manager, Bitstream font navigator or something similar (Linux really lacks a decent type manager - this ones allow you to browse and preview your uninstalled fonts collection and to install them directly from it)

That's it

Equis MetaStock - it is the only important profesional software which does not have a Linux equivalent/clone !!!!

I need webshots and weatherbug...

just kidding.

I'd rather see open source programs / projects that emulate windows programs show up in linux instead. I think that so many closed source vendors fall behind too quickly with their linux ports. It sound s like a better Idea to build natively first and then port to windows and compete there. This encourages more linux adoption simply because people's favorite programs will already be on the platform, in new-and-improved quality over the windows versions, Also closed-source vendors could benefit from allowing linux geeks to beta-test ehir software before they relase their new-and-improved programs for win32. Mono allows this to occur very easily

There is a java program called Opcion that works on linux (with Java installed) and it does enable you to see what fonts you've got. AFAIK it won't install them but it is a huge improvement over xfontsel...

Then there is gfontview which I couldn't get to compile on my machine, but seems to offer something similar to Opcion without java. Plus it will enable you to view uninstalled fonts.

-geomatt

Serv-U and Punto Switcher (windows platform). Serv-U - ftp-server with GUI and punto switcher

photoshop, dreamweaver

Yes Photoshop!!

As for Dreamweaver, I sent an E-Mail to the Macromedia place and let them know many here want Linux Versions of their products. Me I want Shockwave so I can have the SWF work correctly. Without Shockwave and only Flash Player installed, they SWF files only have video and no audio.