Software for Linux that also works on windows

[coolred]

I am posting this more as a question then as the first post of a possible future sticky.

SO here goes, I am currently using Win XP, but want to start learning linux, hopefully eventually abandoning windows for good. But that is probablly a ways away, so for now, I would like to find some programs that I can install and use on windows, but also later take with me to linux.

Unfortunately windows has its hold on me and I find myself using many of its bundled apps. I used to use IE, but have since converted to firefox. I still use WMP, need a good replacement for this. I also use outlook express, so a replacement for this is also needed. Those are a couple of specifics I am asking about. But really post anything you want. Maybe its a program myself or someone else might want, that I am not specifically asking about. Thanks

 

[drag]

Just stick with Free software. Any free software is very likely to be working on many platforms.

Firefox is a good start. There are a lot of media players... you can try out Zinf for audio. I liked it, it kinda had stability problems but the playlist features makes it powerfull.

For movies and such you can look at Xine, or Mplayer. The windows versions aren't as nice as the Linux versions but they are similar.

Thunderbird is ok, I use Evolution which is suppose to be similar to the full Outlook mail app, but I don't know if that has a Windows version.

If you have any software that you have grown realy attatched to, their is always Wine....

wine application database

But realy the applications aren't going to be the big deal. Linux is very different from windows, the little things that your used to in Windows will be different in Linux. And usually it's very nice to know a bit of the command line, it's just very usefull and unlike the Windows CLI is desiged to be actually used everyday. So it's a lot more pleasent after you get used to it.

But realy. Boot up with knoppix and give it a try

The quickest way to adjust is just by doing, there isn't much preporation you can do if your not aware what your getting into. I mean when I dual booted windows, I didn't learn much. But when I switched completely with no dual boot is when I realy made the adjustment.

 

[everman]

If you want something for programming then check out Eclipse. Eclipse is actually a platform written in java. There are many plugins, many of which include programming in many different languages. It's free, very flexible, I love it Using it mainly for J2EE stuff, and PHP.

And yes it's available on any OS that supports Java as far as I know. Win & Unix for sure.

 

[coolred]

Yeah Knoppix will be my first try with limux, just need to wait till I can get my hands on someones broadband connection to download it, since I am still on crappy dial up till i move.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Cygwin and SFU are pretty nice. I'm using SFU for the NFS server. Their ksh doesn't seem to work right, but it might be me or my system. Of course, SFU isn't Linux software. Nor is Firefox, Mozilla, Thunderbird, Mplayer, xine, etc. But most people don't really understand the intricacies of portable programming, since everything is wintel. Or something.