Return to Author Return to Main PageThis article will focus on the free programs I have discovered since using the GNU/Linux operating system (OS). The programs listed below are what I have found to be relatively high quality free alternatives to Microsoft Windows programs I would normally use. If anyone reading this article uses other quality free GNU/Linux programs which I have not mentioned here, please feel free to e-mail me as I am always on the lookout for other quality programs.
My computing preferences consist of mainly a desktop computer and a laptop if I need portability as I find these systems more powerful and flexible than tablets and the like. My computer use predominately centers around completing documents, photography, Internet searching, chat, emails and computer programming. While I do play games from time to time, these are not a necessity because of the distraction from productivity. Therefore the programs I will mention here are what I am currently using, I am by no means a master of all these programs. In fact I will not be discussing programs in depth, instead preferring to provide you with URL links so you may investigate the relevant websites for an accurate description of each program. This will prevent me accidentally providing you with incorrect information.
Over the years, GNU/Linux has consistently progressed into a fully functional alternative from existing popular operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS. I have been a Windows user right back since win 3.1. Although since using GNU/Linux GUI and the command line terminal, I have now become increasingly aware of how little I knew about computers because Windows made me lazy. I have also noticed how much quicker command line programs run, install, delete and require significantly less computing resources to run e.g CPU, Memory etc. Windows and macOS are proprietary software, they do not allow the user the chance to truly explore and adapt the OS to the users needs, instead the computer user is effectively sat down, given a plate of food and told to sit their, shut up and eat it because there are no other options which is contrary to GNU/Linux. Ultimately my point is that I believe GNU/Linux has greater flexibility and the open nature of the OS means you are free to do what you want with it without fear of restriction.
After a gallant effort over the past 9.5 years, my hard drives eventually failed this year. I had decided to make the move from Microsoft Windows towards GNU/Linux for several reasons. Firstly the whole windows 10 thing I just don't like. I don't like the new GUI, I don't see the point to Cortana, I discovered unwelcome marketing advertisements would pop up on my start window in win 10. The final straw was the major Microsoft forced updates from Win 7 to Win 10 which didn't require the consent of the computer user. Because of this forced update approach, their has been a significant amount of bad media reports regarding the forced Win 10 installations, tampering with install options, the increased amount of data Microsoft collects through the system which may be seen as a privacy concern by some and more. For this reason alone I have lost total faith in Microsoft respecting my privacy as I feel I should not have to manually opt out of features that access my computer. Besides, I just don't like the idea of my computer doing things without my consent.
It goes without saying, Apple make good products with respect to hardware although as with all Apple products, they attempt to lock you into one particular system, keep you there, and then charge you excessive amounts for that privilege. So for me Apple macOS is not an option because I don't want to be using a costly handcuffed propriety system that serves the interest of the corporation and not the computer users true computing freedoms. Yes there are positives and negative for each OS, it just depends if you wish to be told how to use your computer by proprietary OS systems, or want the full power and flexibility that your system can achieve with GNU/Linux.
For the past two months I have been using LibreOffice which is a suite of programs just like Microsoft Office. The GUI interface of LibreOffice is certainly not as polished as Microsoft office, however LibreOffice is free, the programs do everything I need and they work extremely well. So one can not complain. LibreOffice comes with a word processor, database, spreadsheet, presentation software, drawing and graphics software and a math formula editor. One of the best features I love about LibreOffice is the cross compatibility between operating systems. This means that you can install LibreOffice on Windows, Linux or macOS and your documents will appear the same no matter what computer (OS) you use. The reason the documents appear the same independent of operating system is because LibreOffice uses the “open document format” which appears as a .odt file extension instead of .doc or .xdoc etc. You also have many other optional file extensions to save your documents, however I have been just sticking with the .odt so I don't have to worry which computer OS I am using.
To be honest I don't use MYOB much at all, however given I have moved to GNU/Linux, I wanted to see what MYOB alternatives their were. To date, I have found Kmymoney a fantastic program, there is another program called GnuCash which is basically very similar. The only downside with Kmymoney is if your not using the KDE desktop manager, there are many dependencies to download. However one can not complain because it is free and the Kmymoney has a great GUI and is very easy to use.
Portable Document Formats (PDF) are something I use often, and I would have to say Okular is by far the absolute best program on Linux for reading (PDF). Not only is the text clear, my favorite functions are the ability to edit the (PDF), even highlight and underline text in different colors. There are many other options that I did not find on other free PDF programs on GNU/Linux, so I can not sing higher enough praises for this program, I just love it.
While using Microsoft Windows, Thunderbird was a good product and offers cross platform compatibility between GNU/Linux, Windows, macOS etc. Ice dove is a re-branded version of Thunderbird. Both Thunderbird and IceDove programs are small, efficient, have RSS, Calendaring, email and crypto features among others. Recently I have discovered how to backup all the emails in Thunderbird and I must say it is incredibly very easy to do. Sea Monkey is worthy of a mention here because it is an Internet suite which you don't tend to see these days. Sea Monkey comes with multiple useful programs within one main program, such as web browser, email, RSS feed reader, IRC chat, cyrpto etc. Sea monkey is forked from the old Netscape Internet suite and is still a very useful program, perhaps not as polished as Thunderbird, however I do like the fact multiple programs coexist in the one suite. When I used windows I had a very old version of opera Internet suite that was in my opinion the best Internet suite ever made, although was discontinued and superseded by what I feel now is an inferior product. Sea Monkey is now the only worthy Internet suite available at the time of writing this article.
I'd have to say since the dawn of time, I have never liked the Microsoft version web browsers Internet Explorer and the newer browser Microsoft Edge. In Windows I used Firefox, Opera, Sea monkey which have all been faithful and reliable products. So I cant tell you how happy I was when I realised that GNU/Linux also has Firefox, Opera and Sea Monkey available. I have recently stumbled across two other web Borrowers for GNU/Linux called Qupzilla and Midori. Qupzilla is a quick and light weight browser which reminds me of the newer Opera and Chrome web browsers. For GNU/Linux I have found Qupzilla to be fairly reliable and downloads web pages relatively quick. With regards to Midori, I also like this program although at present seems to crash once every while. Ice cat is a rebadged version of Firefox with the proprietary plugins removed to help guard the computer users privacy.
Their are many Internet Relay Chat (IRC) programs available, however I have found both Xchat and Hexchat to be easy to use, setup, reliable and great programs.
Elinks and W3M are fairly old text based web browsers. Lynx was the first text based web browser program that I tried, however my preference has gravitated and stayed with Elinks and W3M. The three functions I like the most with these programs are they only show text and not the website images, which prevents the user from being bombarded with the endless advertisements you would normally see if your were using a regular web browser. Secondly Both Elinks and W3M have tabbed browsing just like you would normally see the tabs in Firefox, allowing the user to have multiple web pages in separate tabs. My third function I like is the rapid speed the pages are downloaded because it is just text only. Elinks is most probably the easiest to use with its internal GUI interface, where W3M is run purely from key-bindings alone. Both browsers can be used with text highlighting, mouse interface and bookmarks. Most computer users wont use Elinks or W3M, however I truly love them because I really like the fact the browsers help me to keep my reading focused without the ongoing bombardment of advertisements.
Code::blocks is a multi platform IDE programming software for development of C, C++ and FORTRAN computing languages. I first started using this software on Windows, however this program is also available in GNU/Linux. Code::blocks has many features such as syntax completion, compiler, debugger and more.
Similar to Code::blocks, Notepadqq is also an IDE that works on GNU/Linux and is said to support over 100 computing languages. The equivalent to Notepadqq on windows is Notepad++.
I have recently discovered the Atom text editor software about 4 weeks ago and as far as I can see the power of this program is within the versatility of the modules called “packages”. Atom appears to be quick, lightweight and above all, a very stable program. The Atom text editor is advertised to allow people to openly hack the software while also being multi OS platform compatible. My favorite features are the program is easy to update, easy to install packages, easy to understand interface menu, syntax colour highlighting and auto complete features. There are many package add-ons that can be installed to increase the flexibility of this coding program. All three programs are reliable, great for coding, offer syntax colour highlighting and text auto completion which are very nice touches.
Terminator is what is known as a terminal multiplexer. This means instead of having one terminal window for each program, you are able to open multiple terminals inside the one terminal window. This feature is a great idea for command line users which permits a rapid glance at all programs running in multiple terminals.
Encryption is an important factor to consider to safely lock files and emails to prevent unwanted access to our data. GnuPG is used to encrypt and digitally sign files, emails and other communications. Via the command line, this program is relatively easy to use and I have also used GnuPG to make public encryption keys without any fuss.
Darktable is an image editing program with astounding quality, reliability and it is remarkable this program is free, which shows just how the free software movement can produce premium quality products. Darktable can view images, develop raw images, edit images properties, convert images into different formats and much more. This program is definitely a must see, must have application. Anyone using GNU/Linux and works with images would be crazy not to have this free program installed!
Yet another fantastic quality program, Open Shot Video Editor is simple to use, reliable and is a powerful video editor. Make movies streams with ease in many different formats. Open Shot Video Editor works across multiple platforms such as GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS. Just like so many of the programs mentioned in this article, you would be insane not to install this program if you are particularly interested in video & audio editing movie production.
Shotwell is a nice image viewer that is fairly quick to load and easy to use. Shotwell also has basic editing features, sideshows, handles video and RAW photos while allowing social media sharing of images.
The gimp program has been an age old GNU/Linux tag along, however it is still being maintained with ongoing updates. The most recent update at the time of writing this article was 15/05/2017. I haven't had a great deal of use with Gimp, however it is also an image editor, retouch photos and image authoring tool.
Blender is yet another astounding application with unprecedented quality likes Darktable. Okular and LibreOffice. I haven't had a great deal of use for this program yet, however I wanted to check it out and was impressed with the quality so I wanted to mention it here. Overall Blender is a 3D graphics creation suite which does animation, modeling, simulation, rendering and much more. Take a look at this seriously cool short cartoon movie animation that was made with blender.
This media player appears to be very flexible, versatile and plays arrange of codec formats. VLC Media Player is also a multi-platform media player that can be used on GNU/Linux, Windows, macOS, BSD and its directives and more.
Xine media player is another free and great program the GNU/Linux user can use to watch movies and listen to music. Like VLC, Xine will play a variety of codec's such s MP3, MOV, WMV, AVI and more.
GNU/Linux comes in many different distributions, however not all are free (without proprietary software). Therefore for a list of free GNU/Linux distributions without proprietary software, please go to www.gnu.org to download. As mentioned earlier in this article, GNU/Linux is extremely flexible, even allowing you to change kernels and desktop managers whenever you wish. With Microsoft this is just not possible (well not that I am aware of). Hence with Microsoft as I mentioned before, they give you food, tell you to sit down, shut up and eat what they serve because there are no other options.
One of the beautiful things about GNU/Linux is the massive variety of desktop managers (DM) to choose from. Given I prefer fast and efficient computers, I have found the light weight (DM) XFCE and LXDE to be my favorite. At the time of writing this article there are plans to supersede LXDE with LXQt, I cant make any comment regarding LXQt because I haven't used it yet. However it will also be a light weight (DM) so I'm sure I will like it when the time comes for me to try it. I would say that KDE would be my next favorite (DM) however this is not as resource light if compared to LXDE and XFCE. I love the KDE programs as you might of guessed because Okular and Kmymoney are from KDE. Unfortunately I'm not really a fan of the KDE (DM) menu system, although it certainly does look pretty. Gnome is another popular (DM) even though its pleasant to look at, I have found it to be a fat pig on the computer system resources, slowing it down and much more resource intensive. There are literally dozens of (DM) for GNU/Linux, even (DM) that look like macOS and Windows.
Htop is a command line program which is a system and active process viewer. This program is easy to use and allows the computer user to easily identify and cancel any computing processes in the event of program crash.
Wine apparently is not an emulator, although Wine attempts to translate Windows programs into a usable format on GNU/Linux. I have currently used wine for a windows game which appears to work well. I have yet to use other Windows programs with Wine as of yet, because my main focus it to have a sole GNU/Linux operating system without the need of Microsoft dependency.
Rsync is a program used to transfer and sync files and directories, either locally or remotely.
As I was writing this article I have just learnt that I can use my drobo backup system with GNU/Linux, without the need of using the proprietary software for backup. YAY!
Filezilla is a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program that permits you to transfer or obtain files through (FTP) over computer networks e.g uploading website. Filefilla is lightweight, fast, free and easy to use because of its GUI. What more can you ask for! A special warning though, only download from its main website and not from third parties as it has been reported some third party vendors contain Malware.
As you can see, I have discovered many high quality programs that have been of great use and greatly assisted in alleviating the fear of being trapped behind a Microsoft Windows or Apple macOS. At the time of writing this article there are only a few other programs I am seeking to replace, however at present I feel I have covered at least 95% of my computing needs and in time I am sure I will find the other replacements needed. With the above programs downloaded and installed, all I needed to buy for my existing computer was a new hard drive and that's only because the old one failed. GNU/Linux works great with older and new systems so I have been able to have a complete computing system overhaul for the costs of a hard drive. What a bargain! My computer might be old, it runs very smoothly and fast just like a new computer. No I am not exaggerating. If you are concerned about the dangers of proprietary software , then installing a GNU/Linux system such as Trisquel is ideal. So what are you waiting for? Give GNU/Linux a go, I am sure you will be surprised just how well it operates. Just as I am sure GNU/Linux will leave you scratching your head wondering why on earth you ever paid for such restrict (OS) such as Microsoft Windows or MacOS.
This article is to give thanks to Mr. Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation and all of those people who have and continue to contribute to the free software movement, without such efforts no viable alternative (OS) and programs free from proprietary software would exist.
Until next time...
Darren Hamburger
Page Last update:05/06/2017
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