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Making the jump to Linux is making more sense all the time. Now with the stable release of WINE 1.0, you can run most of your favorite Windows applications on the Linux platform.

The main reason a lot of people have held off from changing over to Linux is for just that reason. It’s hard to want to relearn a new software as extensive as Photoshop, so we just stay with Windows or Mac because it’s more comfortable. Not to mention time saving when there’s a business decision involved. But WINE claims that Photoshop CS2 runs on Linux with it installed on your machine, along with 10,336 other Windows based applications.

The biggest problem for them is going to be keeping up with the changes and upgrades to Window’s operating system. And to make it even more difficult, keeping up with the software changes to the individual applications themselves.

A little bit about WINE.
WINE (WIN Emulator). The name is actually derived from the acronym Wine IS Not An Emulator. The project has been in the development stage now for 15 years. The project has proven to be very time-consuming and difficult for the developers because of the continuous advances in software technology. Wine is always going to be having to play “catch-up”!
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Before I start my rant, just let me clarify that I still feel Firefox is far superior to Internet Explorer. It’s still my browser of choice, but I really don’t appreciate not being given the choice to make Firefox my default browser upon installation.

I’ve read that some people feel this is amusing, but I found it disturbing that Firefox takes deliberate measures to hijack your browsing.

After the installation, just try clicking on your IE icon. It opens up FireFox instead of Explorer. NOT NICE, and BAD BUSINESS I say!

Just before the completion of the installation of Firefox 3.0, there’s a message that says something like “Firefox will become your default browser”. There was no choice given at that point! I saw it, but didn’t care much about that. I figured I could just go in and change it.

After searching for the box to tick or untick, I couldn’t find one. I did find a box in Tools/Options/Advanced/General, that says “Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser on startup”. This box by default was unchecked. So obviously this check would never be performed.
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It’s been a month now since I installed the Linux platform with the Ubuntu bundled package. I spent a few days tweaking things, and exploring some of the different plugins. It comes bundled with the latest FireFox 3.0.

I was very pleased with how easy it was to install. There is a very user friendly interface, with a menu running along the top of the screen. Under the “System” tab, there is a full suite of Administrative/System tools at your disposal.

There is a vast catalogue of open source software that can easily be installed simply by using the very user friendly “Add/Remove” tool. You can choose from different categories such as:

Accessories

Education

Games

Graphics

Internet

Office

Other

I must admit, this is much more user friendly than I thought it was going to be. I’ve read that in the past, the Linux user interface required some technical understanding beyond the every day user’s capabilities. However, after some recent upgrades, someone coming from Windows or Mac could easily get started.
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I’ve been seriously considering checking out Linux for a couple of years now. The only thing that’s been stopping me is the fact that I can’t use my favorite apps like Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

There are great open source alternatives available, but I’m mostly just too lazy to want to
relearn. Not to mention, Photoshop is the industry standard for professional graphics designers and web developers. I’ve invested a lot of time into Photoshop.

For those of you that are unaware of what Open Source is, it basically refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge. For a complete understanding, you can read more at the official website of the Open Source Initiative.
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There is some great software available that can easily replace the expensive popular ones. If you’re on a budget, then here’s a list of some great alternatives you can check into! I’m only going to list the most popular, but if you were to do a search on this, you’d definitely find more.

1) Windows This is of course the most obvious one, so we’ll start with it.

Alternatives:
Linux Taken straight from the Linux site. “Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers all over the world. Linux is freely available to everyone.” Personally, I have always wanted to learn more about Linux and try it out, but I don’t want to have to give up Photoshop and other Windows and Mac based softwares I’ve already invested so much time into learning. Still might make the jump someday though.

2) Adobe Photoshop Probably the most well known and widely used graphics editing software.

Alternatives:
Paint.Net An open source bitmap drawing and editing application. Known for their simple and easy to use application with an intuitive user interface.

Gimp Probably the oldest and most well-known open source graphic application. It’s been around since 1995, and has become a widely used alternative to Photoshop. You can also checkout Gimpshop, it’s a modification of GIMP, intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop.

3) Adobe Dreamweaver This is the most widely used WYSIWYG editor on the market. The most expensive, too!

Alternatives:
Quanta Plus Steadily becoming a worthwhile competitor to the commercial web editors on the market. Quanta Plus’s features include multi-document interface, and WYSIWYG editor.

KompoZer It’s a wysiwyg HTML editor aimed towards advanced users. I’ve heard this comes equipped with a very good CSS editor.

4) MicroSoft Office Very expensive on it’s own.
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That brand new PC that you bought a while back inevitably slows down. This is caused by a number of things. Depending on how computer savvy you are, will depend on how many different things are slowing your PC down. Some people regularly delete files like temporary internet files and cookies by doing a Disk Cleanup on a regular basis. These same people typically do a regular disc defrag. This helps, but there’s much more needed!

Let’s talk about some other things that can be done to put some zip back into your aging and ailing PC.

Number 1 - Do a Fresh Install of Windows XP
I’m mentioning this option first, because if you decided you had enough know how to do this, then you can skip the next two options.

By doing a complete reinstall of Windows, I’m talking about completely reformatting your hard drive and installing Windows fresh. This means that you’ll have to reinstall all of your software, some hardware, and probably set up things like mail and internet service again. Not to mention you’ll need to go get all the recent security and critical updates.

The benefits to reinstalling Windows fresh are:

• The registry will be clean and unfragmented
• All unnecessary files will be gone
• Boot up will be much quicker

So if you’re not ready to tackle a fresh install of Windows, skip this option and move on to the simpler optimizing options.

I’m not going to go into a step by step tutorial on reinstalling Windows here. If this option doesn’t frighten you, then you probably can handle it. If you have another computer available to you while doing this, just put any problems you come across in Google or Yahoo. That’s what I do when I get into trouble.
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Ok, maybe you haven’t actually been dreaming of it. At least maybe daydreamed! Actually, to be honest with you, I never really gave it much thought until I came across this product.

The idea of having color coded file folders in your My Documents folder for instance could be pretty cool. Not to mention the organizational value. Or maybe your desk top Icons. Especially if you have some real artsy applications going on. Why do all the file folders have to be boring old manilla anyway?

The best feature of Folder Marker is that it’s FREE! Once you’ve installed the program, you can change any folder icon on the fly. Just right click on it, and choose a color coded icon from the drop down menu. You can also highlight a group of folder icons and changed them in one click of the mouse. One last cool feature I’ll mention, is that you can add up to 10 of your own icons to Folder Marker and also use them from the right click context menu.

For a full list of the features, go directly to Folder Marker and download it for FREE! Get the feeling I get excited about the FREE part?

Happy marking. Hope you like it!
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