Info on CONFICKER - how to tell if you are infected

[raymor]

Originally Posted by nate

I love linux (I have it on two computers) but the thought of designing websites on it without frontpage, fireworks photoshop and a hundred other apps I use daily sounds unpleasant. Also, no autocad :-(

I looked at the first few pieces of software you mentioned and it looks like
you could do those things in Linux. Photoshop, AutoCAD and Fireworks
are reported to run under Wine. Of course there's no need to use
Photoshop - several major film studios use Gimp, which is very very
similar to Photoshop. Similarly, there are a few decent CAD programs
on Linux, each with a different focus depending on what you use it for.
AutoCAD is of course the industry standard, so you might choose to
use AutoCAD through Wine, but one of the other CAD programs might
actually fit your needs better.

As far as FrontPage, I once flew out to set up a system for a webmaster.
Walking in to his office, I saw an unopened copy of FrontPage on his desk.
Without saying a word, I picked it up, walked over to the Window, threw FP
out the window, then sat down and started talking about the cam system
we were working on. Could you use FP on Linux - I don't know, all I can
say about a professional webmaster using FrontPage for a professional
site at all is .

[cd34]

Originally Posted by nate

I love linux (I have it on two computers) but the thought of designing websites on it without frontpage, fireworks photoshop and a hundred other apps I use daily sounds unpleasant. Also, no autocad :-(

http://www.osalt.com/ is a pretty decent reference to find replacements as well. As for a replacement to frontpage, there's NVU, Quanta and Aptana. They are all similar and are not too difficult to use.

Originally Posted by raymor

Of course there's no need to use
Photoshop - several major film studios use Gimp, which is very very
similar to Photoshop.

There is http://www.gimpshop.com/ which makes gimp look and act like photoshop. If you do anything with print-media, Gimp isn't for you. Gimp also has binaries to allow it to be run on Windows if you want to try it without taking the plunge.

Not that it is a great alternative, but, http://www.winehq.com/ does show a number of applications and their compatibility running using Wine. I was never 100% satisfied with Wine with certain applications. Even Gold Star applications had occasional hitches. If you pick the right machine, you can run Xen or KVM to run a virtualized OS underneath linux to run your application if you can't find a replacement. Some applications can be run in 'coherence' mode which means that it just opens up the app window rather than showing you a miniaturized desktop.

Linux will definitely be difficult for a power user to convert to. It would be great for someone that surfs the web, does email, uses openoffice.org, etc. Once you get beyond general productivity applications, it'll be more difficult.