© Copyright Darrell Anderson.
As the old adage goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. I am not as heavy a user of my computer as are many of today’s professionals and hobbyists, but my usage is sufficiently complicated that a road map is necessary to help me remain focused. Therefore, I created a cross-reference table trying to address my migration concerns.
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Windows Task
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Possible GNU/Linux Equivalent
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Word 97; templates, styles, books, complicated sections, headers, footers, structured documents |
OpenOffice, Word on Crossover Office (CxO) or WINE |
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Single-source control of rich text files to create books, PDFs, DocBook Help, or web site HTML pages |
OpenOffice? |
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InCtrl3, used to track software installations |
Distro dependent? |
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Adobe Acrobat PDF macro and template for Word 97 |
OpenOffice provides PDF output but is that tool as featureful as the Adobe macro? |
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Adobe Distiller |
? |
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Adobe Reader |
Adobe Reader? |
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Web browser (Firefox) |
Firefox |
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Improved web caching to help my dial-up connection |
Squid? |
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Kerio Personal Firewall |
No identical replacement because firewalls in GNU/Linux are front ends to IPTables. Front ends: Shorewall, KMyFirewall, Guarddog. |
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Proxomitron web filtering that improves my dial-up connection |
Privoxy? Proxomitron on WINE? Firefox extensions? |
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EDexter to simulate port 80, works in conjunction with the hosts file; helps avoid time-out issues on Windows |
Unnecessary? |
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Hosts file, helps improve my dial-up connection, serves as a first layer in avoiding some advertisers |
Same, formatted for Unix |
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Stay Live 2000 time sync and “keep alive” pinger (ISP knocks people off line after 15 idle minutes) |
Email can be scheduled to check mail but I still want my computer’s clock set regularly. Is NTP overkill? |
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Recovering deleted files |
Difficult under GNU/Linux unless using a GUI trash can? |
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Text editor: I prefer MDI or tabbed environment, ability to compare files, color coding for various types of projects |
Arachnophilia (requires Java), Xemacs, Kate, Gedit, Kedit, EditPadLite and EditPadPro |
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Eudora |
Thunderbird, KMail, Eudora on Crossover Office (CxO) or WINE? |
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TClockEx task bar clock add-on |
Part of desktop environment? |
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ITK (Insert Toggle Key tool) provides audio feedback when pressing the Insert key; also desire audio feedback for toggling Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock (built-in feature of Windows). |
Must find a way to provide audio feedback when pressing these four keys. |
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Hard drive backups, currently supported by batch files |
Bash scripts? Dedicated program? |
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WYSIWYG HTML editor |
Quanta Plus, OpenOffice, Nvu |
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HTML code validator |
Quanta Plus? |
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FTP uploading and synchronizing |
IglooFTP, gFTP, KBear |
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Whois, a command-line utility that determines the domain name for an IP address or an IP address for a domain name |
Whois? |
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Visio 4.0 Technical; old and outdated but works fine for my needs |
Dia? Visio on Crossover Office (CxO) or WINE? OpenOffice Draw? |
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Excel, simple spreadsheets |
OpenOffice Calc |
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Customized/colorized command line session |
Bash scripting |
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WinZip 8.1 |
KArchiver? |
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Hex editor/converter |
KHexEdit? |
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Ad-Aware spyware prevention |
None needed |
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SpyBot spyware prevention |
None needed |
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Norton Anti-Virus |
None needed? |
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Norton Disk Doctor, chkdsk |
None needed, part of file system |
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Norton SpeedDisk (defrag) |
None needed? |
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Norton System Info, MS System Info |
KDE System Info? |
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Norton Scheduler |
KAlarm, cron |
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Graphical Task/Process Manager |
KDE System Guard, XKill |
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CD writing, ISO burning |
K3B |
Important to me is to I find as many GUI oriented tools as possible. I can and do work with the command line, but I am not a command line zealot. I have no desire, for example, to learn how to hand-tweak PDF files or play with LaTex. The Adobe Acrobat macro created for Word 97 has been a staple for me for many years and I expect the same ease-of-use after I migrate.