PDA.
Several commercial office suites are available for Fedora in addition to StarOffice, already mentioned. None of these commercial suites are provided with Fedora. Of note is Hancom Office. Using the same QT widget set found in the KDE desktop, Hancom Office scores well on Microsoft file format compatibility. The suite includes a word processor, a spreadsheet presentation tool, and a graphics application. Corel produced a version of its WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux before it discontinued the release of any new Linux products. It still offers a support page, but the software is no longer available, nor is the excellent — but whiskered — WordPerfect 8 for Linux.
Productivity Applications Written for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is fundamentally different from Linux, but you can install and run some Microsoft Windows applications in Linux by using an application named Wine. Wine enables you to use Microsoft Windows and DOS programs on UNIX-based systems. Wine includes a program loader that you can use to execute a Windows binary, along with a DLL that implements Windows command calls, translating them to the equivalent UNIX and X11 command calls. Because of frequent updates to the Wine code base, Wine is not included with Fedora. Download a current version of Wine from http://www.winehq.org/. To see whether your favorite application is supported by Wine, you can look at the Wine application database at http://appdb.winehq.org/appbrowse.php.
In addition, there are other solutions to enable use of Microsoft productivity applications, primarily CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office. If you are after a painless way of running not only Microsoft Office, but also Apple iTunes and other software, you should really pay CodeWeavers a visit. CrossOver Office is one of the simplest programs you can use to get Windows-based programs to work. Check out http://www.codeweavers.com to download a trial version of the latest software. It requires registration, but don't worry—the guys at CodeWeavers are great and will not misuse your details. The big plus is that you get a whole month to play around with the trial before you decide whether to buy it. Of course, you might get to the end of the 30 days and realize that Linux does what you want it to do and you don't want to go back to Windows. Don't be afraid; take the plunge!
The following commands give you access to productivity applications, tools, and processes in Fedora:
> oowriter — OpenOffice.org's Writer
> oocalc — OpenOffice.org's Calc
> ooimpress — OpenOffice.org's Impress
> koshell — KDE's KOffice office suite shell
> kspread — KDE's KSpread spreadsheet
> gimp — The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Package)
> gnumeric — A spreadsheet editor for GNOME
> planner — A project management client for GNOME
> abiword — A graphical word processor for GNOME
Reference
> http://www.openoffice.org — The home page for the OpenOffice.org office suite
> http://www.gnome.org/projects/ooo — The GNOME Office site
> http://www.koffice.org — The home page for the KOffice suite
> http://en.hancom.com — The home page for the Hancom Office suite
> http://bulldog.tzo.org/webcal/webcal.html — The home page of the excellent WebCal web-based calendar and scheduling program
> http://www.codeweavers.com — Website of the hugely popular CrossOver Office from CodeWeavers that allows you to run Windows programs under Linux
CHAPTER 7
Multimedia
The twenty-first century has become the century of the digital lifestyle, with millions of computer users around the world embracing new technologies, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, and other assorted multimedia gadgets. Whereas 10 years ago you might have had a collection of WAV files littering your Windows installation, nowadays you are more likely to have hundreds, if not thousands, of MP3 files scattered across various computers. Along with video clips, animations, and other graphics, the demand for organizing and maintaining these vast libraries is driving development of applications. Popular proprietary applications such as iTunes and Google's Picasa are coveted by Linux users, but open source applications are starting to appear that provide real alternatives, and for some the final reasons they need to move to Linux full time.
This chapter provides an overview of some of the basic multimedia tools included with Fedora. You will see how to create your own CDs, watch TV, rip audio CDs into the open source Ogg audio format for playback, as well as manage your media library. You will also learn about how Fedora handles graphics and pictures.
Listening to Music
Perhaps the most basic multimedia application you will need is a CD Player. Pretty much everyone knows what a CD is, and the vast majority of people own CDs. Fedora can easily handle CD Audio through the default CD Player under Applications, Sound & Video, as shown in Figure 7.1.
If all you are after is a basic CD playing application, then you can't really go wrong with CD Player.
FIGURE 7.1 Basic, but functional, is the order of the day for Fedora's CD Player.
The default music player is Rhythmbox, which is designed to play music files in a selection of different formats, such as locally stored Ogg files, Internet Radio Stations, or CDs (as shown in Figure 7.2). It is found in Applications, Sound & Video as Rhythmbox Music Player. You can also use it to subscribe to podcasts available through the Internet.
FIGURE 7.2 Rhythmbox can handle podcasts, Internet radio stations, CDs, and local sound files.
Another popular music player is Xmms, a Winamp clone, which in the full version can play not only music, but MPEG1/2/3 video as well. Xmms (see Figure 7.3) supports a number of plug-ins that can add dancing, lighted oscilloscope-like displays, redirect its output to other devices, support unusual file formats, sync animations to the music, and otherwise increase its geek appeal exponentially. You will have to use yum to install it with the following
