Posted: 23 Feb 2005

Once upon a time, way back in December, I posted some Novell Linux Desktop equivalents of Windows software. The concept seemed to agree with people, but with one complaint. It wasn't complete enough. I'd like to remedy that with the newer, fuller list found in this article. Much of the information found here came from the Novell Linux Desktop manual, Appendix A.

The name or a description of the Windows Application is found in the first column. The equivalent Linux Application is in the second column. In the third column, I have put the menu location of the software.

	appears where the menu location is in Gnome.
	appears where the menu location is in KDE.

In some cases, the software is not installed by default. Many times, you should be able to find it in YAST. In cases where it is not installed by default and not in YAST, a link to the homepage of the software appears. I've also divided the software into different categories.

Office Applications
Windows	Linux	Location
MS Word	OpenOffice.org Writer	Programs => Office => Word Processor N Menu => Office => OpenOffice.org Writer
MS Excel	OpenOffice.org Calc	Programs => Office => Spreadsheet N Menu => Office => OpenOffice.org Calc
MS Powerpoint	OpenOffice.org Impress	Programs => Office => Presentation N Menu => Office => OpenOffice.org Impress
MS Access	Rekall	http://www.rekallrevealed.org/
Address Book	Evolution	Programs => Internet => More => Novell Evolution N Menu => Internet Novell Evolution
Calendar/Schedule	Evolution	Programs => Internet => More => Novell Evolution N Menu => Internet Novell Evolution
Acrobat Reader	Acrobat Reader	Programs => Office => PDF Viewer N Menu => Office => PDF Viewer
Quicken	GNUCash	http://www.gnucash.org/
Notepad	gedit	Programs => Accessories => Text Editor N Menu => Accessories => Text Editor

Internet Applications
Windows	Linux	Location
Web Browser	Firefox	Programs => Internet => Firefox Web Browser N Menu => Internet => Mozilla Firefox
E-Mail	Evolution	Programs => Internet => More => Novell Evolution N Menu => Internet Novell Evolution
Instant Messenger	Gaim	Programs => Internet => More => Gaim Instant Messenger N Menu => Internet => More Programs => Gaim
Video Conference	GnomeMeeting	http://www.gnomemeeting.org/
Audio Chat/VoIP	Skype	http://www.skype.com/
Frontpage Express	OpenOffice.org Writer	Programs => Office => Word Processor N Menu => Office => OpenOffice.org Writer
FTP Client	Gftp	http://gftp.seul.org/
News Reader	Pan	Programs => Internet => More => News Reader N Menu => Internet => More Programs => Pan Newsreader

Data/File Management Applications
Windows	Linux	Location
Windows Explorer	Nautilus (Gnome) Konqueror (KDE)	Programs => Accessories => File Manager N Menu => Home
WinZip	File Roller (Gnome) Ark (KDE)	Programs => System Tools => Archive Files N Menu => System => More Programs => Ark
CD Burning	K3b	Programs => Multimedia => K3b N Menu => Multimedia => K3b

Multimedia Applications
Windows	Linux	Location
Windows Media Player	Totem	Programs => Multimedia => Totem Movie Player N Menu => Multimedia => More Programs => Totem Movie Player
Audio Player	amaroK	Press ALT + F2, type 'amarok', press ENTER. N Menu => Multimedia => More Programs => amaroK
CD Player	Gnome CD Player (Gnome) KsCD (KDE)	Programs => Multimedia => CD Player N Menu => Multimedia => KsCD
Adobe Premiere	Main Actor	http://www.mainconcept.de/
Real Player	Real Player	Programs => Multimedia => RealPlayer 10 N Menu => Multimedia => RealPlayer 10
Audio Editing	Audacity	http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Adobe Photoshop	Gimp	Programs => Graphics => GIMP Image Editor N Menu => Graphics => GIMP Image Editor
Adobe Illustrator	Sodipodi	Programs => Graphics => More => Sodipodi N Menu => Graphics => More Programs => Sodipodi
Photo Archiving	gThumb	Programs => Graphics => Thumbnail Image Browser N Menu => Graphics => More Programs => Thumbnail Image Browser

This list deals mainly with major, day-to-day software used in most desktop environments. It is much more comprehensive than the prior list that I compiled. Much of this software is probably already installed on your computer. If you have more specific needs, please see The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux.