Linux on the desktop? Absolutely

It is interesting, sometimes, to look back on the past 12 months to gauge exactly how far we have come in such a short time. Around this time last year I remember moaning about many things to do with Linux, including the lack of decent word processors, the many gaps in the office armoury the operating system offered and the skill levels required to set up a Linux machine.

A year later, a lot has changed. So much so in fact, that the idea that Linux could be used as a desktop replacement for the likes of Microsoft is no longer a pipedream but a reality. I know. I now use it exclusively for everything I do.

But what has changed? For a start there are a host of new office-type applications that burned their way onto the scene in the past year, as well as a small but highly sophisticated set of standalone "productivity" tools like e-mail clients and software managements systems. Most of these I have touched on individually over the past year, but perhaps for a broad overview let`s have a look at the basics and what is immediately available.

When most people think "office" applications they think of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the like. This year saw the introduction of a new heavyweight in this category: OpenOffice (also known as StarOffice from Sun Microsystems, although this version now carries a nominal licence fee).

Evolution proves open source can compete with the rest.

Alastair Otter, Journalist, ITWeb

StarOffice has been around for years and when Sun bought the suite sometime back, many probably thought it was the end of the application as far the open source world went. Not so. Sun not only left the code in the open source world, but also added many of its own programmers to those already furiously programming the suite.

The result is a well-rounded and (almost) complete office suite called OpenOffice. I say almost because there still isn`t an e-mail client included, but there are plans afoot to include one in the near future. OpenOffice allows workers to complete the basic office tasks: write documents, share them and even, unfortunately, save them in proprietary formats such as .doc.

While there is no guarantee that OpenOffice will flawlessly open every document created using a competing office suite, it does a remarkably good job. If it is presentations you`re into, then OpenOffice is just as capable with its own slide presentation-maker included.

If you want a nimbler and equally capable word processor then AbiWord is the one. Last year I complained of its many missing features, but this year is a whole different game and now everything I do is written using AbiWord. The main reason for choosing AbiWord over OpenOffice is that AbiWord has a word count feature that includes the ability to count the words in a portion of the document and not only a full word count, something OpenOffice still lacks.

Which application do you use everyday? Which application would you miss the most if you moved over to Linux? Most people would probably say Outlook. Fortunately, Linux and other open source operating systems have an equally capable application called Evolution.

For years I struggled with sub-standard e-mail clients on the Linux desktop until I found Evolution, which has proved to be a complete revolution. I can now do all the e-mailing I want, manage my contacts and diary, schedule meetings and send virtual cards to acquaintances. All the things Outlook users have come to rely on. And it`s no problem if you`re tied to an Exchange server. Have a look at the Ximian site for the Connector application which sets Evolution up to talk to the Exchange server. If you`re only going to check out one Linux desktop application, this is the one. It proves beyond a doubt that open source developers can produce an application as good as anyone out there.

What else does the average office worker need on their desktop? A PDF viewer? Then try XPDF, which is the simplest of tools but it does what you need as far as PDFs go. Of course there is also the Linux version of the Adobe PDF Reader. If you deal with compressed files in the .zip format, the Unzip comes to the rescue.

When you`re surfing the Web, the only tool as far as I am concerned is Mozilla. Again, an application that proves how strong the open source development movement is.

Is Linux ready for the desktop? Absolutely. The list of applications and capabilities grows daily and as distributions such as SuSE, Mandrake and RedHat make Linux as simple as possible to install, there is no excuse to not investigate the possibilities immediately.