Recommended Linux applications for various purposes

For reasons of support, there are certain applications we recommend.

Desktop Environment

We recommend KDE due to it's maturity and networking support, but do fully support GNOME as well. Ships with all common Linux distributions. If you do have a slower machine that you would like to run Linux on, we recommend a lighter desktop environment such as XFCE.

Web Browser

Mozilla FireFox, without question. It's super fast, with lots of add-on extensions.

Mail

We recommend Novell Evolution and Mozilla Thunderbird. KMail is pretty decent as well.

Office Applications

OpenOffice. Ships with most Linux distributions.

Video Player

We recommend VLC. It can play video from just about any format. Sadly, no Linux vendors ship with it so you will have to download it yourself.

Audio Player

We recommend AlsaPlayer, a good generic MP3 player.

Windows Compatibility

If you would like to run Windows applications under Linux, we recommend CrossOver Office. It's a well supported commercial product that runs most business type applications (Microsoft Office, Photoshop, MDL Chime, Flash, Quicktime, Quicken) for only $39.95.

The other option is to use Wine, which is what Crossover is based on. It's totally free, and is available through your distributions package management console. Support is limited.