This page intends to act as a reference so that I can see what programs can be used for equivalent tasks in various operating systems. Note: I'm not saying that any of these are good for what they're intended, just that they're there.
Unless otherwise stated, these are all free, in some sense. They may be open source, freeware or nagware, though hopefully not time-limited (i.e. they stop working after 30 days / 10 uses / whatever unless you pay for them). Some may only be free for home use, while others may be free for professional use as well. Some companies may offer older versions for free while new versions of the same program have to be paid for. If I have made any mistakes regarding licensing please contact me.
| program function | *nix | mac | windows |
|---|---|---|---|
| text editor | emacs, vi, gedit, kate | notepad, wordpad, metapad, texturizer, SciTE (The Scintilla Text Editor, file highlighting, line numbering, bracket highlighting, compiler output window, tabbed, multiple file, pdf export, word completion, multiple undo, full screen, split screen) | |
| email user agent | sylpheed, sylpheed-claws, evolution, mozilla thunderbird, kmail | mozilla thunderbird, outlook | eudora, mozilla thunderbird, outlook/express |
| web browser user agent | mozilla, galleon | safari, ie, firefox, camino, OmniWeb, iCab | mozilla, opera, ie, navigator |
| news reader | |||
| image viewer | |||
| graphics manipulation | gimp | OpenOffice Draw, gimp | |
| cd player | cdplayer, winamp | ||
| mp3 player | xmms | iTunes | winamp |
| mpeg player | winamp 3 | ||
| office suite | OpenOffice | OpenOffice | OpenOffice |
| word processor | OpenOffice Writer, KOffice, AbiWord, EMacs, Vi | TextEdit, appleworks, OpenOffice, Nisus Writer, Mariner Writer, Mellel | wordpad, ms word, open office, star office, AbiWord |
| pdf manipulation | PDFCreator | ||
| disk maintenance | DiskWarrior, Disk Utility | Scandisk, Defrag | |
| spreadsheet | KSpread | appleworks | OpenOffice Calc, ms excel |
| database manipulation | appleworks | OpenOffice Database User Tools, ms access | |
| audio recording studio | GarageBand | ||
| html editor | bbedit, WebDesign, Adobe GoLive | ||
| project management | MrProject (GNOME), KFocus (KDE) | MSProject | |
| instant messaging | Gaim, Konsole | Trillian, Miranda IM | |
| irc | bitchx | bitchx, xchat, mIRC, Trillian | |
| ftp | Fugu, Fetch | FileZilla, WS_FTP, MSFTP, WinSCP (open source), AceFTP (nagware, and have to provide email address, trial?). FTP Commander 7.3 (appears to be freeware version of FTP Commander Pro), NetAnts (ad-sponsored). | |
| rss reader | NetNewsWire | ||
| calendar | iCal | Mozilla Calendar 'Sunbird', Outlook | |
| remote access | TightVNC | TightVNC | TightVNC |
| website saving | WebHTTrack | WebHTTrack | WinHTTrack |
| presentation | kpresenter | OpenOffice Impress, OperaShow, powerpoint | |
| telnet and/or ssh | PuTTY | ||
| sound recording, playback, manipulation | Audacity | Audacity | Audacity |
| CD ripper | CDex (to wav, mp3, ogg); AudioGrabber (to mp3, freeware); Easy CD Ripper (to mp3, wav, wma, vqf, ogg, ape) | ||
| basic paint | TuxPaint | ||
| Tetris clones | Crack Attack! | ||
| Warehouse | Sokoban YASC | ||
| that game where you tilt the table to get a ball to go where you want it | Neverball | ||
| Golfing | Neverputt (based on Neverball) | ||
| Space simulation / aurery (sp?, definition?) | Celestia | Celestia | Celestia |
| Screensaver systems (not individual screensavers) | Really Slick Screensavers | ||
| zip | 7-Zip (c:\windows\command and type unzip foo.zip -d c:\bar\ to use it) | ||
| Time Synchronisation (from public NTP Network Time Protocol servers) | NetTime, Naviscope | ||
| Privacy / Security | WinPT (Windows Privacy Tools, GnuPG, digital encryption, signing) | ||
| webserver | Apache | Apache, EasyPHP (Apache, PHP, MySQL and PHPMyAdmin all-in-one, ?pre-configured?, IIS | |
I didn't understand, or bits that weren't so easy to categorise for whatever reasons
++dvd flag when compiling.