One of the biggest reasons some people may never come over to the Linux side (Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc …) is because of this notion that you have to be a huge programmer, do everything from command-line, do everything by hand, and nothing will be the same* Lets face it, people like familiarity. Coming from Windows to any Linux distribution, the first thing one might look for is IE and the ‘Start’ menu.** This can be a huge road block. That shouldn’t be. Let it be known, just because you’re moving from one operating system to the next doesn’t mean you have to learn your “abc’s” all over again. Everything you used to do in Windows can be done in most any Linux distro.*** This guide will take you through a few of the most popular (can’t live without) programs in Windows and put some names to their Linux alternatives.***
Internet Explorer (IE) (The thing you use to view Facebook and Youtube while at work *Hehe*)
(We’re starting with this one because if that icon ever went missing from the desktop, every computer repair hot-line would be buzzing!)
Alternatives
Firefox
The name speaks for itself. Many Windows users are already familiar with this alternative to Windows IE. It does everything IE can: browse the web; handle flash, java and other embedded media. One of my personal favorites is Firefox’s ability to save your previous session.What does that mean? Lets say, you were working on a homework assignment, or company report. Then for no reason at all, the power goes out. This would suck right? Yes, but Firefox will fix this problem for you by restoring whatever tabs and content you may have been browsing before the power started acting stupid. This feature is not limited to catastrophic failures though: just by closing a window with multiple tabs open Firefox will ask you if you wish to save this session (in so many words). In all fairness I’ve read the latest version of IE (8) does this feature too but as an alternative, Firefox more than holds its own.†As I stated above, this is not a full review article, so the details of either browser are kept to a minimum.
Opera
Gotta love Opera. I myself am actually quite new to the Opera web browser but I already like it. Back in the day when I was running (K)Ubuntu 8.10 with KDE 4.2 (4.2 in my opinion was almost like the ‘Vista Failure’)††I preferred the look and feel of Opera: it fit right in with KDE and the Qt, scheme (after all, its interface is Qt). Whatever I stated above for Firefox, ditto that for Opera. It does however do something different that I like; Like Firefox, it has its own download manager. Unlike IE’s ‘manager’†††, Firefox and Opera both have there own managers that handle the download functions, such as, stopping, starting, pausing and even restarting a failed download. Firefox has its manager defaultly as a separate window, Opera keeps its manager as a separate tab (awesome!). A download manager is important for lots of reason. Lets say you went to www.example.com, navigated through lots of directories to find a single file (www.example.com/q/w/e/r/t/y/file-with-weird-name.ext) and then file failed to download because of that stupid power outage mentioned above. Well instead of having to find that file again, just click the ‘restart’ button. Simple? Yes. Can IE do that yet?
I’m currently using both Opera and Firefox (on three different systems). I however have tried some others, like Kazehakase, Epiphany and Konqueror. Check out this Wiki for a list of other web browser for the Linux(UNIX). Most Linux distro provide a decent browser that has all the features you need to find, download and install another one if that one is not to you liking.
