New Variety

Construction and Animation

Programs for construction and animation are in the category of software that is most demanding and challenging for hardware. On Windows, for example, AutoCAD, 3ds Max, or Architect 3D come to mind.

Linux, on the other hand, offers Art of Illusion, Wings 3D, Blender, and Sweet Home 3D, among others. They definitely satisfy typical requirements for use on a single workstation, but fail when working in cooperation with others, as well as when processing common Windows file formats.

Additionally, the software packages for Linux are not usually found in the repositories of major distributions. This means some further know-how is required to find the applications on the respective projects' websites and then to install them.

Web Browsers

Web browsers have fallen from the Microsoft tree in recent years, primarily due to shortcomings in terms of security and functions. Many users therefore switched early on to the free Firefox (Figure 2). The Mozilla browser is also used as the basis for Tor due to its modular design, which establishes a secure connection to the Internet via onion routing.

Figure 2: Probably the best-known web browser on Linux: Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox aside, some particularly lean and fast alternatives such as QupZilla and Midori have been established on Linux. A fast, proprietary alternative is also available in the form of Vivaldi. Even Google was able to gain a foothold on Linux with its Chrome browser and its free counterpart Chromium.

If you prefer a text-based browser, Lynx is available on Linux. This is suitable for use at terminals, and you can control it using only the keyboard.

Mail Clients

Thunderbird is available as a replacement for outdated and technically deficit Outlook Express and its successor Live Mail. Thunderbird has no need to shy away from comparison with the Microsoft products, and integrates the calendar management application Lightning, also developed by Mozilla.

Many other clients are also found on the free operating system, some of which have been adapted for the major desktop environments. Evolution is one such program which is available for Gnome and is equal to Outlook, or you might consider the slimline Geary. The counterpart for KDE is called KMail. In conjunction with the PIM manager Kontact, calendar functions are also available.

SeaMonkey, based on the earlier Mozilla Application Suite, scores points when it comes to integrated applications. A team of programming contributors maintains the source code, and the software integrates a fast web browser, a mail program, a chat client, an HTML editor, and an address book. Thus, the suite can replace a variety of separate applications.

Like Firefox, Thunderbird, and Lightning, SeaMonkey operates using free licenses. The browser is based on Firefox and shows a modular structure in a similar vein. This makes it possible to continue using many Firefox extensions.