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Ask Slashdot: What Windows-Only Apps Would You Most Like To See On Linux?

Posted by timothy on from the that-one-with-the-blue-e dept.

An anonymous reader writes: With all the recent brouhaha about Windows 10 privacy violations and forced updates, I'm one of those that wants to thank Microsoft very gently, while taking it by the hand, and slamming the door behind it for good. Fortunately for me, I don't use any special software that is tied to Windows, except games, of course. One program I would really miss though is Total Commander file manager, which is basically my interface to the whole OS. So, I know there are Linux alternatives, but which one is the best? Also, I currently use PaleMoon fork of Firefox as my main browser, but there doesn't seem to be a Linux variant. What other software would you want to transplant to Linux, if any?

13 of 889 comments (clear)

  1. Photoshop by jfdavis668 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think Linux memory management would go well with Photoshop. Might struggle with video card support.

    1. Re:Photoshop by orasio · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Gimp eventually did become decent feature-wise, but of course it can't replace Photoshop for people who want Photoshop. People learn to work with images, using photoshop, and they don't want to learn a different way of doing things. They shouldn't need to. If you need Photoshop, you should just use that.

      For me, I never learned photoshop, I tried to, several times, but just couldn't do basic stuff. Gimp was very easy for me to learn, I use it only for very simple stuff, like resizing pictures, color management, basic compositing, sprites, logos for web development, that kind of thing.

    2. Re:Photoshop by damn_registrars · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm not sure what it is that you dislike so much about GIMP or why you find it so intolerable. Yeah, it is not a direct drop-in photoshop replacement for most people, but nothing can be.

      I can tell you from my experience that I was once traveling with my wife - who is a graphic designer who uses the latest versions of every Adobe product - and we only had my laptop with. She needed to edit an image in a hurry so I told her to try GIMP (as her Adobe licenses are all Mac, which made them unusuable for me anyways). She didn't love it, but she was able to do what she needed in a short amount of time. I myself use GIMP all the time, but my needs as a scientist are much different from hers as a designer.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    3. Re:Photoshop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People say this a lot, but Photoshop's UI is just as clumsy and awkward as GIMP's. You're just too used to its weirdness to see that anymore.

    4. Re:Photoshop by goose-incarnated · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm not ragging on gimp because you can't do stuff on it as obviously you can its just you shouldn't fight the tool to use it. Car analog, you go from driving a nice auto luxury car to diving a hoopty, manual with a bad clutch. They're both gonna get you to your location is just you'll be frustrated as hell with the hoopty.

      I feel your analogy is inaccurate: I've never used Photoshop but I have used Gimp since it came out. Now when I try to use Photoshop I cannot understand the workflow and find it very unintuitive.

      IOW, you're labelling one of the options bad because you're used to the other way of doing things. The way you're used to doing things may not necessarily be the best way to do things.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    5. Re:Photoshop by Jim+Hall · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Gimp eventually did become decent feature-wise, but of course it can't replace Photoshop for people who want Photoshop. [..] For me, I never learned photoshop, I tried to, several times, but just couldn't do basic stuff. Gimp was very easy for me to learn, I use it only for very simple stuff [..]

      I think that's the important point, and something that I found a few years ago when examining the usability of several free/open source software packages. Does GIMP have good or bad usability? There were some strong statements on either side: About half said it had good usability, and about half said it had bad usability. However, I decided to skip GIMP in my usability study, as it is intended for people who do need/want to do graphics work, and my usability test targeted the general user. But I didn't discuss the split opinions in the usability of GIMP.

      In following up, it seemed that two types of users thought GIMP had poor usability:

      1. Those who used Photoshop a lot, such as professional graphics editors or photographers
      2. Those who never used Photoshop, and only tried GIMP because they needed a graphics program

      Users who thought GIMP had good usability used Photoshop occasionally, such as hobbyist photographers or casual web designers. Digging further, I believe this is because:

      • Those who only occasionally use Photoshop understand the concepts and terminology used in Photoshop and so are easily able to transfer their knowledge from Photoshop to GIMP.
      • But those who never used Photoshop were completely lost in the terminology and concepts. GIMP relies on layers for image construction (so does Photoshop). "Layers" are a difficult concept for someone who has never worked with them before. A simple paint program like MS Paint usually suffices for these users.
      • And those who use Photoshop all the time were confused that functionality and features differed slightly from Photoshop v GIMP, or was accessed differently, or used different terminology; these users were stymied by what they perceived as a dramatic change from Photoshop to GIMP.

      So GIMP is an interesting case. It's an example of mimicking another program perhaps too well, but (necessarily) not perfectly. GIMP has good usability if you have used Photoshop occasionally, but not if you are an expert in Photoshop, and not if you are a complete Photoshop novice.

  2. Games by Gaygirlie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Almost all the actual apps that I use are more-or-less open-source already. Or, well, Netflix I would also like as a native app; as far as I know the web-browser client still doesn't support 1080p resolutions or surround-sound.

  3. Games by Snotnose · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Steam is getting there from what I've heard, but as a hard core gamer I need games.

    Embedded toolchains would be nice too (esp ARM), but that's my boss' Windows box, not mine :)

  4. Definately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt!_Pinball#3D_Pinball_for_Windows_.E2.80.93_Space_Cadet

  5. Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cygwin

  6. Pale Moon does work on linux by Xenolith0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Also, I currently use PaleMoon fork of Firefox as my main browser, but there doesn't seem to be a Linux variant.

    Pale Moon does work on Linux, just fine a I might add. You can even copy over your profile from windows to Linux and everything will continue to work:

    http://linux.palemoon.org/download/installer/

  7. Re:Microsoft Paint by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    oekaki

    Ohhh, no, I ain't googling that.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  8. Regedit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Come on, Poettering, you can do it.