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hrmmmm again there are linux replacements for Autocad. Not sure about the controlling software. Thats a specialized case though that many businesses in America don't need to worry about.

http://www.linuxcad.com/
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/
http://www.adina.com/
http://www.lx-office.com/LX/products/architektur/i ndex.html/

So far the only responses to my question seem to be making the mistake that industry standard software means irreplaceable software. That's not what I asked though. Still waiting for someone to name a windows business app that doesn't have a working linux replacement.

• Photoshop: The GIMP - how many times does this need to be said, the interface is slightly different but the gimp has most of the features of photoshop plus a few of its own.
  Why don't I do the rest of the main Adobe stuff while I'm at it:
  
  • Pagemaker: Scribus
  • Illustrator: Inkscape
  
  
• Games: Cedega - but maybe you'd be better off using a console (not as in bash you blockhead) as they're cheap and while piracy for them is a bit harder its doable if you're commited.
• Autocad: a quick search reveals two commercial solutions LinuxCAD and VariCAD and a guide to getting AutoDesk's Autocad running under wine
• Dreamweaver: NVU, Amaya, hell even fckEditor or, if you're hardcore then vi(e)macs.

LinuxCAD looks pretty bad, both from a GUI point of view and in terms of licensing. It's $199 just to _try_ it; the demo link says:
http://www.linuxcad.com/demo_WE_DO_NOT_OFFER_DEMO_ THIS_WEB_SITE_PROVIDES_SUFFIUCIENT_DEMO.html [linuxcad.com]
Please excuse me for not putting all my faith in that.

" From the perspective of a home user / small business those may be options..."

As a home/academic user, I've looked....hadn't seen all of these before. But none of them are free/open source, if that matters to you. (It does to me, but I'm a grad student...I don't have $500 to throw at something that may or may not work. From what I've seen, commercial software and F/OSS have about the same chance of working - low. Both fields push software out the door before it's ready. But at least with F/OSS I don't waste money buying junk.)

LinuxCAD looks pretty bad, both from a GUI point of view and in terms of licensing. It's $199 just to _try_ it; the demo link says:
http://www.linuxcad.com/demo_WE_DO_NOT_OFFER_DEMO_ THIS_WEB_SITE_PROVIDES_SUFFIUCIENT_DEMO.html
Please excuse me for not putting all my faith in that.

Arcad's page seems to be German-only, though the program may not be. Again, commercial software - at least maybe you can get a free demo. It seems to be geared heavily towards architecture; I'm not sure how useful it is for drafting a design to send to the machine shop. And no autocad-style command line - which I'm moderately convinced I need in order to get done in any reasonable amount of time.

VariCAD is also not free software, though they have a demo. Again, it looks architecture-heavy. And no command line.

Ditto for Cycas.

Synergy looks like it may be more oriented towards mechanical drawings. However, there's no autocad-style command line in the screenshots.

AutoCAD used to be offered as a UNIX program. Like the "Photoshop for UNIX" that Adobe offered, it was distributed as a binary for Sun Solaris, I believe. A quick Google search didn't turn up any definitive information on whether or not it's still being offered (I'm thinking no) but there's one university that still has it available for students to use, and you can read the instructions for using it here. Based on the list of packages installed on their UNIX systems, I'm going to guess they're older SparcStations.

This doesn't do us modern Linux users much good, since it means the software was probably distributed as SPARC binaries only. So unless you know of a good way to emulate/virtualize a SPARC (which shouldn't be impossible, given that it's an allegedly open architecture) system from within x86 Linux, I'd say we're SOL there.

There are some people in South Africa who have AutoCAD running (apparently) to their satisfaction under Debian WINE, according to this page. They mention a "German GNU/Linux clone of AutoCAD which is quite impressive and very cheap" in the article, but sadly don't give a name.

LinuxCAD, which rather hilariously describes itself as "the Best application program for Linux. Period." claims to be an AutoCAD replacement, but just from first glance the site seems questionably maintained (as in, '1995 called, they want their web page back'). The company behind it has also been alleged to be behind some Usenet spam. On that last site there are several "alternatives to LinuxCAD" listed, including VariCAD, which seems like a pretty polished (it ought to be, for $500) product from a company in the Czech Republic.

Anyway, I thought I'd throw those options out there. If anyone has any experience with any of them I'd be interested to hear them.

I use Gimp to do what most people do with Photoshop: General Image Manipulations.
I am not a Photographer or a full-time Graphics Designer (although I love hand-drawing and designing Logos)
What I don't like about Photoshop is not the software itself but the OS : modal windows.

Gimp (and most apps in Linux) - you have that freedom of floating dialog boxes instead of Modal-windows; so you can get under it.

The general averseness with Gimp is twofold:

1. People are way too accustomed to Photoshop and unlearning stuff is short of painful.
2. Gimp on Windows/Cygwin sucks sucks badly. And sadly that is Windows-users gain their first impressions of the software.

In Gimp if you are stuck - right click (navigate the menu from thereon to do almost anything).
Gimp is definitely better what it used to be (I abhored the 1.x versions), and not that sub-standard in comparison to Photoshop.
I don't deny however that Photoshop itself is an extremely professional state-of-the-art software and that in many fronts it still beats Gimp (as I keep hearing: CMYK / Pantone profiles).
But there is much more to Gimp than people are vaguely aware.

For me its refreshing and exciting the whole evolutionary (if not revolutionary) process. Sure many Linux-ported applications are still sub-par in contrast to Windows-only:

Photogenics, MainActor, QCad / LinuxCad

Some got the timing wrong and had to pull-out as Linux wasn't popular then: NetObjects Fusion for Linux and MusicMatch Jukebox.
Others were bullied by the Microsoft lobby: most notably games.
While others still support a Linux version to this date: Maya Complete and Mathematica (way too expensive I rather settle for the free Blender, Octave and Pov-Ray)

Which leads us to the Open Source:

The were have a vast library of resources just to cater for the Designer.
But sadly we got tired and old in learning new stuff.

I cannot comment on the world of Mac. Which should be more user-oriented than developer-oriented; a means to an end as you stated.

While Microsoft itself - is a damn pain in the arse. People are stucked with it for lock-in reasons including proprietory formats - that is how they bred so many software houses writing apps just for it.
Rebooting, desinfecting - recovering corrupted documents is a hassle any business and I could do without. And so .. I resist.

Use Mac / Use Linux / but using Microsoft = very unwise.

Yes there is. It's called LinuxCAD

There aren't even programs such as AutoCad, Rational Rose or stuff like this.

You mean like Rational Rose Developer for Unix?

Or what about Pro/E, instead of AutoCad. Or maybe LinuxCAD.

Linux CAD

Phil

There are alternatives to Autocad for Linux.

LinuxCAD
VariCAD
Varkon - which is free for Linux, but their web site is down so I don't know what the status of this is.

Can't comment on how "full-featured" these Autocad alternatives are.

The solution to your quandry would be to fund the development of your project and then release the software under an open source license. However, there are already a few CAD packages that may meet your needs, though the best ones are not open source, just inexpensive.

FREEdraft Free GPL

LinuxCAD $99
ARCAD $900 ($80 Student)
OCTree Free for non-commercial use.
VariCAD $400

hmm, this one may be really obvious, but what about LinuxCAD? www.linuxcad.com

how about http://www.linuxcad.com/ ? Has anyone tried it?

Whoa. Who'd guess, looking at their professional looking home page? :-)

Try LinuxCAD . At $99.00 it's quite competitive with AutoCAD for Windows.

If you only do 2d work you can get off even cheaper with QCAD

www.linuxcad.com

www.microform.se

I haven't actually tried the software, but if the package actually meets all the claims, it is definitely worth checking out. One thing I'm not sure of is whether it supports AutoCAD's LISP extensibility features. Our company has done a lot of customization for AutoCAD using LISP, and I don't think I could realistically recommend it to our folks if it meant we had to rewrite all our menus and LISP routines.

JD