Tech Smartly

Let me start by introducing myself, seeing as this is my first time posting. My name is Jonathan Robertson, and I’m an IT specialist and Linux user. I am an old friend of Joe, which you of course all know. I will be writing a few articles on Linux for this blog, starting with my kLife series. I’m sorry if some articles come at a delay, I’ll try my best to keep writing whenever possible, but due to recent events, I know that I will be busy for a while.

Some stuff about me: I’m a Linux user! I have successfully deleted Windows from my machine, mainly because I don’t have the time for games these days so I don’t have anything to loose :-P. I use the openSuSE Linux distro, and am an active activist for Linux and Open Source. I truly believe in the potential of open source and Linux in particular, and the potential it has (with time, not overnight of course… but give it 10 or so years…) to challenge Microsoft Windows in the OS marketplace. To show Linux’s readiness today, I’m writing these articles that will cover the apps that we would use for the main uses we have for our computers. Namely: Music playing, photo management, picture editing, movie editing, movie playing, web designing, instant messaging, email and groupware and of course simple web browsing and basic office uses. The programs I plan to review for each of these (suggestions for changes are welcome of course)

Music player- Amarok
Photo manager- DigiKam
Picture editor- Krita
Movie editor - KDENLIVE
Movie player - Kaffiene
Web design - Quanta Plus
Instant messaging- Kopete
Email and groupware - Kontact
(Web browser - Firefox)
(Productivity suite - OpenOffice.org)

I will of course talk about the shortcomings of each, but I think I will prove that for anyone which only needs to do the basic tasks listed above, Linux is a viable option.