Linux is commonly referred to as an operating system, but in truth a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu is much more. In addition to the basic operating environment, Ubuntu ships with a variety of popular software applications, which means you can get to work as soon as you familiarize yourself with the available options.

Linux for the Office

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The de facto standard office application suite for Linux is called OpenOffice.org, and it’s installed by default when you first load Ubuntu. Like Microsoft Office, it consists of several components: Writer for word processing, Calc for spreadsheets, Impress for presentations, Draw for diagrams, and Base as a GUI front end for databases. On the whole it’s a reasonable replacement for Office, though not quite as feature rich.

OpenOffice.org has garnered media attention for OpenDocument, its groundbreaking XML-based file formats, but the reality is that most users will often need to read and write Microsoft Office files. OpenOffice.org handles this well, for the most part: Opening files is completely transparent, and you need only remember to choose “Save As” to save in a format that

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Office can read -- but note that, at least for the moment, OpenOffice.org does not support any of the new Office 2007 file formats.

If OpenOffice.org is not to your liking, you have a few other options. AbiWord, for example, is a fast, lightweight word processor that offers similar features to OpenOffice.org Writer, and Gnumeric is an alternative, powerful spreadsheet program. Both are similarly Microsoft Office-compatible.

For graphics, the choices are more limited. The Gnu Image Manipulation Program, known as the GIMP, is the stock bitmap graphics program for Linux. It’s mature and packed with features, but it’s no Photoshop. For one thing, its user interface is somewhat arcane compared to what

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commercial OS users are accustomed to. More importantly, it lacks support for the CMYK color space, which makes it unsuitable for print production work. If working with images is your primary occupation, for the moment you’re stuck with Windows or Mac OS X.

Accessing the Internet
Internet connectivity is one area where Linux shines. Internet clients number among the most polished open source applications -- so much so that many of the most prominent ones have also been ported to Windows and other operating systems.

The Firefox Web browser is a prime example. Not only is the application available on Windows and Mac OS X in addition to Linux, but user themes and add-ons written for Firefox are all completely cross-platform. It’s even possible to share a single user profile between your Windows and Linux installations.

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Ubuntu’s IM client is called Pidgin. It’s different from the vendor-branded clients in that it doesn’t only connect to a one instant messaging service. It can connect to all of them at the same time, allowing you to manage all of your IM conversations from a single program. A version of Pidgin is also available for Windows.

Evolution is the default e-mail application on Ubuntu, and it aims to be a complete replacement for full-featured groupware clients such as Microsoft Outlook, including support for Exchange Server. Its calendar and address book can also integrate with other programs on the Ubuntu desktop, such as Pidgin. It can be very complicated to configure, though, so if you don’t need all these features, you may want to install Thunderbird, the e-mail companion to Firefox.