I'm going to give a secondary comp a trial run with linux, probably the newest mandrake, but any suggestions on which programs to use for email (prefer something compatible with ms exhange server) and a webpage building (something like dreamweaver). Other than that, I think I can manage, but are there any good download sites with just linux software, and a lot of it?

I'm planning on switching my main comp soon after. I just want to know what i'm doing when that time comes.

There is a great outlook replacement called evolution, the only problem being, the exchange connector software costs 50 bucks (I think). Its really a great client though, better in most ways then Outlook. The only problem is, if you want to use evolution, you need to use one of the RedHat Distros, or go through a big headache getting it to work on something else.

-Bob

You might try vi or emacs for your website editing needs. Or ed. Seriously though, I'm pretty sure I read about a Dreamweaver workalike on /. a while back, I think it was part of KDE. I think Mozilla has an editing mode too.

Try using the tools in Open Office, it's pretty much the standard for the Linux counter part to M$ Office.
Oh and for webpage building, there's a really good app called Quanta (I think, it's been a while) but it does everything, and it works for multiple languages (php/c++/perl) and your markup language HTML.

EDIT: I take that back, I just rebooted into linux to verify, Quanta only does HTML, KDevelop is the one that does php/c++/perl/etc etc...

http://www.freshmeat.net

linux.tucows.com

http://www.gnu.org/directory

Most distros will have a package collection on their ftp servers.

For email I use sendmail + fetchmail + mutt + vim. No exchange support, but have you ever heard what the 8 ball has to say?


vim makes a nice IDE as well, unless you like ed:

Just remember to keep it fair. If by secondary you mean older/slower, keep that in mind as you use it. There's no way you can compare an old machine with a crappy video card running resource hog desktop environments (KDE/GNOME) to a new workhorse machine running XP.

Use it for about a week. Then install a completely different distro. Rinse, lather, repeat. If you base your experience with Linux on one specific vendor's wares, you miss out on quite a bit. Each has a different design philosophy and is geared toward a different niche market.

You can access your e-mail through UMR's POP3 server with virtually every e-mail program. It runs on minermail.umr.edu. You don't get all the fancy stuff like username lookups, but it will work.

Quanta (as previously mentioned) for KDE or Bluefish for GNOME

Freshmeat and SourceForge are where I look first. The search boxes will generally take you to a project if you enter a few key words related to what you want.

Browse forums, both official and unofficial. Search Google and look into your distro's Usenet group.

If this is your first time, you will run into trouble. Unix-like operating systems are based on a completely different set of rules versus Windows. Experiment. Break stuff. You'll learn. That's what it's about.

Castorite pretty much said it all, hdncollisoin.

uhhm... there was one thing I disagree with... it was from Bob Ward. I use evolution on mandrake 9.2. It is great (does weather, news sites.. everything). You do need the exchange plugin if you want to use it (just.. "aquire" it).

I like Quanta for web dev. It is not like Front Page... but still good. If you are really gay... which I know you are, you can "obtain" codeweavers office wine. It supports Dreamweaver (or get wine for free... but not as good). It can also run word and stuff.

When you instal, I prefer KDE as my gui.
http://www.kde-look.org will let you find custom icons, backgrounds, skins.. what ever.

instal xmms because it is like winamp... and supports shoutcast servers. Goto their site to get your retarded IR Controler plugins.

Brandito

PS: don't listen to them about the standard text editor crap. unless you are using console (pico is easy)... I'd just stick with kwrite/kedit and maybe openoffice/abi word as for ms word application. I downed using office wine to run word... but if that is all you want.. MS stuff, then you might as well just install MSOffice on linux... Oo is very slow... but wine stuff has it's issues (that is why I am no longer using it.. but hey have updated... so who knows)

On most realy unix systems, the man page for ed will say "ed is the standard text editor." Both Irix and Solaris do (those are the only systems I have access to right now).

pico is crap, use vi or vim.

I'm not running linux (I use Irix), but I like icewm for my window manager. See
http://www.xwinman.org for more options.
xmms, gaim, mozilla, and mplayer are excellent programs. I use Open Office, it's sluggish, but it supports almost everything MS Office does (much more so than abiword).

You shouldn't misspell people's names, how do you like it?


...too bad front page sux.


Remote controls for winamp kick ass. You're just jealous...

for some reason a lot of people down (j)pico. I am not saying it is the best for code writing... but it is probably the easiest cons. based text editor out there. If you are new... you probably don't want to run some editor like vi because, for one, you probably wont know how to close it, save it, uuhmm.. maybe if you know the command that lets you type... maybe then you could... augh never mind. Try it.



we'll see who'll be sucking what when you come by my room because you don't know what to do on the instal. moo haa haa haaaaaa

me

Yay for pico, and yay yay for vi.

Emacs!!!

I've heard real men use Pico... but that's just me... and I barely count as a real man.

Emacs and its X cousin are the best for coding and such, but for general day to day console text editing, I use joe.

-Bob