Previously, I mentioned some challenges people are facing when they would want to switch from XP (or Vista) to Ubuntu (or other Linux Distros). After that I wrote about steps you could take to try out Ubuntu to decide for yourself if the switch is something for you.

To show that it shouldn’t be difficult to switch, I’m going to compare some of the applications I used on my XP installation to their alternatives on my current Ubuntu box. Hopefully, this can help some folks to make the switch. These comparisons will be ordered according to importance to me.

I need to make a note that the idea for this article was drawn from Rea Maor’s article Open Source Alternatives to Commercial Programs.

Dreamweaver vs Quanta Plus
One of the applications I will miss the most from the Windows environment is Macromedia Dreamweaver (Macromedia has been acquired by Adobe). But the more I work with Quanta Plus, the more features I discover that I used in Dreamweaver. Quanta Plus even has some nice features that I missed in Dreamweaver. One of those is the highlighting of opening en closing brackets, curly brackets, etc. This makes it easy to debug functions and clauses.

Microsoft Office vs OpenOffice.org
Even when I was using Windows, I started looking into OpenOffice.org (OOO) when Microsoft made the stupid move to charge for the Beta version of Office 2007. With OOO you can do virtually the same as with Office. Even people currently still running any version of Windows I would advise to try out OOO.

OOO consists of the following components:

• Writer: This is the word processor of the suite. The feature I like the most in Writer is that, in the out of the box installation, you can publish your documents to PDF without the need to buy any extra software. Writer save documents in OpenDocument format by default. This is the new international standard for office documents, which mean that you will be able to open these documents in all word processors that use these standards.
• Impress: This is the application for creating presentations. Impress has a built-in ability to create Flash (.swf) versions of your presentations. Writer is also OpenDocument compliant.
• Calc: this is the all-purpose spreadsheet in the suite. It is said to be more user friendly and easier to understand than Excel. “Advanced DataPilot technology makes it easy to pull in raw data from corporate databases; cross-tabulate, summarize, and convert it into meaningful information.” It also converts to PDF and is also OpenDocument complaint.
• Base, the component with a nice descriptive sub title: The new way to access databases. Base comes with a full installation of a HSQL database engine, where data is stored in XML files. It can also access dBase files natively. Base can access virtually any database through ODBC and JDBC.
• Draw is the graphics package of the suite. “From a quick sketch to a complex plan, DRAW gives you the tools to communicate with graphics and diagrams.” Import possible from popular graphic formats (GIF, PNG, JPEG, etc) and export to Flash (.swf) can be done for free.
• Math is OpenOffice.org’s component for mathematical equations. It’s used as equation editor in other components in the suite, but it can also be used in standalone mode to create and edit math equations and formulas.

Fireworks vs The GIMP
Macromedia Fireworks is also one of the applications I am missing a lot. But with GIMP it is the same as with Quanta Plus: The more I use it, the more I like it. The only thing I’m still missing in using GIMP is that I can’t seem to “stick” the panels to the editing window. It may be just something I have overlooked, but I’m missing that part.

Rea has a nice comparison of GIMP and Adobe Photoshop. I sporadically used Photoshop, so I did not mention it here.

Microsoft Outlook vs Evolution
Evolution is my Outlook alternative. It offers a lot of features that Mozilla Thunderbird is lacking when you want to switch from Outlook, such as calendar integration, powerful filters, memos, tasks, contacts. The list of features goes on. You can check them out on the Evolution site.

Live Messenger vs aMSN
Live Messenger (previously known as MSN Messenger) was the only IM I had been using constantly. I used ICQ for a long time, but since I installed Ubuntu I decided to leave it out for now. aMSN Messenger, Alvaro’s Messenger, is a MSN Messenger clone, most of the features of MSN. There are some features of Live missing, but this is probably the IM application that comes closest to MSN.

Try it first on Windows
Even though it might take a little time to get used to these alternatives when you are used to Windows applications, it is well worth the switch. The best motivator should be that it’s all free.

Since most of these programs are platform independent, you can install them on your Windows installation to try them out. Get used to working with them. The more you can get used to working with these great applications, the easier it will be to switch to Ubuntu (or just get rid of Microsoft product).

Highly recommended reading
Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks: A Pain-Free, Project-Based, Get-Things-Done Guidebook