7.1 Best Linux Applications

Here is my own (totally unbiased) ranking of Linux applications.

The scores are from 10 to 0, where: 10 = perfect, 9 = excellent, 8 = very good, 7 = good, 6 = perfectly usable, 5 = usable, 4 = almost usable, 3 = can use it if I have to, 2 = still fundamentally lacking, 1 = unusable but promising, 0 = started, that's the best we have. X = cross platform application.

   
   


   
Our first choice
   
Score
   
Shortcommings
   
Alternative
   
Score

   
Word processor, full featured
   
oowriter
   

7X
   
slow speed, weirdness with spellchecking, ugly equations, poor or no cut-paste to/from other application, keyboard shortcuts incompatiblities with KDE, hangs when trying to open really complicated word form, on MS Windows, makes itself a default application for opening *.doc even if MS Word is installed, populates my home directory with too many subdirectories and files that apear of no use to me.
   
kwrite
   
2

   
Word processor, light-weight
   
abiword
   
6X
   

   
-
   

   
Text editor (GUI)
   
kate
   
8
   

   
who needs another one?
   

   
Text editor (text mode)
   
pico
   
8
   

   
nano
   
5

   
Web browser (GUI)
   
mozilla
   
8X
   
Sometimes ugly or overlapping fonts appear at some screen magnifications
   
konqueror
   
6

   
Emailer (GUI)
   
mozilla mail
   
8X
   

   
kmail
   
8

   
File manager
   
konqueror
   
8
   

   

   

   
Desktop environment
   
kde
   
8
   

   
gnome
   
6

   
Spreadsheet
   
oocalc
   
5X
   
Poor x-y graphs, very slow with larger spreadsheets, limited number of rows, lack of usable array functions (QuattroPro like) for ease of editing and smaller file size,  problems with importing of ASCII delimited files.

   
gnumeric
   
5

   
Bitmap graphics editor
   
gimp
   
7
   
Complicated to use. Way too many separate pannels, cannot find the icon

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* Linux Newbie Administrator Guide Index