ver. 0.56 1999-10-24
Part 7: Some Essential Linux Applications (proprietary or not)
by Peter, Stan, and Marie Klimas
Answers to Some Frequently Asked Linux Questions
Distributed under the General Public Licence http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
Your feedback, comments, corrections, and improvements are appreciated.
Send them to bklimas@magma.ca
Start: Linux Newbie Administrator Guide
Part 0: For the Undecided (Linux Benefits)
Part 1: Before Linux Installation
Part 2: Linux Resources, Help and Some Links
Part 3: Basic Operations FAQ
Part 4: Linux Newbie Administrator FAQ
Part 5: How to Upgrade the Kernel
Part 6: Linux Shortcuts and Commands
Part 7: >Essential Linux applications (proprietary or not)<
Contents of this page:
7. Some essential Linux applicatons (propietary or not):
7.1 Word Perfect 8 for Linux
7.2 Star Office Suite
7.3 Applixware
7.4 AbiWord
7.5 Spreadsheet
7.6 Databases
7.7 CAD
7.8 Netscape and Lynx (web browsers)
7.9 Klyx and Latex
7.10 Writing CD-Rs (cdrecord and cdparanoia)
7. Some essential Linux applications (proprietary or not):
This is not a complete coverage of Linux applications. Selection criteria were:
o The application is not installed during the default RedHat installation--the user must take active steps to find / install it.
o We particularily like this application, or a reputable source led us to believe that it is a really worth it recommendation.There are thousands of Linux programs. If you are unsatisfied with our lean choice, try: http://www.linuxapps.com/ or http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/linuxlist/linuxlist/linuxlist.html or http://www.boutell.com/lsm/ or http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/
This is a very good and powerful word processor. A free version is available for personal use. Try: http://linux.corel.com/linux8/download.htm (free registration of the program is required). The free version lacks the equation editor, built-in graphics editor, chart editor and the "art text", but it is otherwise a fully functional version of the best word processor in the world. The full version costs about $50.File-level compatibility with MS Word is very good (I encountered cases that suggest WP8 may actually be more compatibile with the different "sub-versions" of MS Word fileformat than MS Word itself).
On the down side, Word Perfect for Linux occassionally feels slugish (for larger documents).
WP8 is normally launched through an icon or from the K-menu but you have to add this yourself after the installation. The main executabe is /usr/local/wp8/wpbin/xwp, but the location may vary, depending where you installed it. Use the command
locate xwp
or
find / -name "xwp"
if you cannot find it.
To "manually" launch WP8, try in X-terminal:
/usr/local/wp8/wpbin/xwp
Star Office is a complete office suite: word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program. Full version is free for personal use--it can be downloaded over the Internet: try http://www.stardivision.com/freeoffice/ (large, 60-80 MB download, probably not practical with a modem).Star Office looks and acts very much like MS Office for Windows (this includes that it is big and slow) and may not be worth the trouble without at least 32 MB of physical memory. It also has a good file-level compatibility with MS Office (read and write MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint file formats).
Older versions of Star Office required registration after which you obtain a "registration key". The registration key is based on your e-mail which you give to Star Office Corp., so make sure you remember which e-mail you gave them and enter the same to the program when it pops the registration box, together with the key. The latest versions (after StarOffice was purchased by Sun) does not anything like that any more.
Applixware is another office suite. It contains a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, presentation, mail, html authoring, and a few more applications. Many say it's the best. I don't know because no free edition is available. See http://www.applix.com/appware/linux/index.htm for more information. If you are really desparate for Aplixware, you can download the demo at: http://www.download.com/, but do you really want to? [Sorry, I have to say this: why do copyright lawers keep killing perfectly good software?]
AbiWord (http://www.abisource.com) is a good light-weight wordprocessor. Worth trying for simple word processing needs. Although still fairly incomplete, it is useful, and supports spelling-as-you-type.
Besides the spreadsheet applications in the suites above (StarOffice and Applixware), you may want to have a look at "xess":http://www.ais.com/linux_corner.html
They have also a slightly scaled down shareware "xesslite" version which can be downloaded from their site. We love the general design of xess (simple and almost self-explanatory). It seems to have really good power for engineering applications and in our opinion it may be the best spreadsheet currently available on Linux.
You may want to keep your eye at "Gnumeric" (included with your RH6.0 distribution, part of the Gnome project). It is still relatively incomplete but it is definitely already usable if you can install it. It is under heavy development and definitely has the potential to become really great in the near future.
Kspread is another highly promising spreadsheet (part of the KDE project to be integrated with the KDE2.0).
If you are a database person, you will be pleased to see that Linux is very well covered in this area.postgreSQL is a high-powered database available on your RH5.2 CD (free, unrestrictive licence).
mySQL http://www.MySQL.com/ is free for non-commercial use (and also free for commercial use under Linux, I am told).
Sybase for Linux (edited for space):
From: Rumy Driver <rdriver@sybase.com> Organization: Sybase Inc.Check: http://www.sybase.com:80/sqlserver/linux/aselinux_install.html for more information.
[...] I do work for Sybase and we have a full-featured Y2K database for GNU/Linux which is free of cost for unlimited use. Available on the RedHat 5.2 distribution (on the 3rd CD). Rumy DriverInterbase for Linux can be downloaded free for personal use: http://www.interbase.com/downloads/products.html .
There is also Oracle for Linux: http://platforms.oracle.com/linux/index_lin.htm. For an Oracle-Linux howto, see: http://jordan.fortwayne.com/oracle/index.html
OCTREE (free for non-commercial): http://www.octree.de/html/frames/eng/f_octree.htm
VariCAD (proprietary commercial): http://www.varicad.com/
VARKON (LGPL): http://www.varkon.com/
Microstation (prorpietary): http://www.microstation.com/academic/products/linux.htm--the academic edition of Microstation includes the Linux version of their excellent CAD system (better than AutoCad).
You may have installed a 4.xx version of Netscape during your RedHat installation. To run it, try (in X-terminal):netscape
If you didn't install Netscape, you may want to put your RedHat CD into the CDROM, mount it using, for example (as root):
mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
and then start, from X-terminal: glint (for RH5.2)orgnorpm (for RH6.0) to browse the available packages and perhaps install netscape from your RedHat CD. If you prefer to do the installation from from the command line, try, after mounting the CDROM:
cd /mnt/cdrom
cd RedHat/RPMS
rpm -i netsca*Netscape is a very good browser, with the same look, feel, and power as Netscape for MS Windows, so you will have no problems navigating it. On the dark side, Netscape sometimes crashes (just disappears from the screen, no damage done, you have to restart it). Also, in some configurations, Netscape does not like to be be run without a connection to the Internet (depending on your configuration, Netscape can take it up to a couple of minutes to figure out that there is no connection). Any Netscape version 4.xx seems to have similar problems, so upgrading to a slightly higher version does not seem to help. Take your heart, once tuned-up, Netscape runs quite well, and is quite definitely perfectly usable (I use it all the time). Gecko (the already famous, revolutionary offspring of Netscape) is under way so hold your breath :-) .
For now, if your Netscape is too buggy to you, you may want to empty your mail "trash" bin and compress the mail folders on regular basis, and disable Java (in the menu "Edit-Preferences-Advanced"). This seems to make Netscape more stable. If Netscape "freezes" when you work off-line, disabling the automatic checkup for e-mail solved the problem for me.
If your Netscape crashes and on a subsequent re-start complains about the presence of a lock file, it might have left a lock file in your home directory. Just quit any instance of Netscape that you might be running and delete the "lock" file from the directory ".netscape" under your home directory:
cd ~
cd .netscape
rm lockIf your ISP connection is really slow, you may prefer a text-based browser:
lynx
which is a real piece of art and does not have any problems whatsoever.
Another choice of a Internet browser is your KDE help utility (click on the "book with the lightbulb" button on you K-bar). This is really an html browser so if you are connected to the Internet (e.g. using your kppp), you can browse almost anything using this simple utility.
To compose html pages, I use Netscape (WYSiWYG view) and WebMaker (code view).
Klyx is a "K-desktop" variant of Lyx. Both Klyx and Lyx are front ends (WYSIWYG, running under X-Windows) of Latex. Latex has for years been the most popular document prepartion and typsetting program, particularly in academia (good with equations, etc.).The good news is that even if you do not know what Latex is, you may still be able to use Klyx. Think of Klyx as a word processor, although its philosophy is different from that of other word processors these days, and therefore it may require an adjustment of your mindset. Latex (and Klyx) philosophy is to type in the text, define the "styles" and leave the formatting to the typesetting program. This means you never adjust the spacing (between words, sentences, paragraphs, chapter, etc.) manually. When done with your document, you "compile" your text to create a device independent file ("*.dvi"). The *.dvi file can be viewed using a dvi viewer and printed. The quality of the output is usually outstanding, but its creation process is typically somewhat more frustrating than using a regular word processor.
The strength of Latex is the quality of the printouts, its capability to cope with long, complex documents (technical books, etc.), availability of all foreign characters, and its portability across many different platforms.
Try it out, Klyx is free. As almost any piece of Linux software, you can download it from Linuxberg:
http://idirect.linuxberg.com/kdehtml/off_word.html
or any other fine Linux software depository on the Net.
If instead of easier Klyx, you wanted to try straight, hard-core Latex, here is some info to get you started:
* Use your favourite text editor to create a Latex document, spellcheck it, etc., save the text file with the extension "*.tex". Read on to see my sample Latex document.
* Envoke Latex to "compile" the text file into a "*.dvi" ("device indepenent") file by typing on the command line:latex my_letex_file.tex
* Print the "my_latex_file.dvi" file which was created by the previous command by invoking the dvi to postscript utility, that on default send the output to the lpr printer:
dvips my_file.dvi
You can also save the output to postscript file by typing:
dvips -o output_file.ps my_file.dvi
Here is my sample Latex file:
% Any line starting with "%" is a comment.
% "\" (backslash) is a special Latex character which introduces a Latex
% command.\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\begin{document}% Three commands are present in every Latex document. Two of them are
% above and one at the very end of this sample document.This is a simple document to try \LaTeX. Use your favourite plain text
editor to type in your text. See how the command \LaTeX produces the
\LaTeX logo. Here is the end of the first paragraph.Here starts the second paragraph (use one or more empty lines in your
input file to introduce a new paragraph).The document class of this sample is ``article'' and it is defined at the
very beginning of the document. Other popular classes are ``report'',
``book'' and ``letter''.Please note that the double quote is hardly ever used, utilize
two ` to begin a quote and two ' to close it.Here are different typefaces:
{\rm This is also roman typeface. It is the default typeface.}
{\bf This is bold typeface. }
{\em This is emphesize (italic) typeface.}
{\sl This is slanted typeface, which is different from the italic.}
{\tt This is typewriter typeface.}
{\sf This is sans serif typeface.}
{\sc This is small caps style.}You can itemize things:
\begin{itemize}
\item one
\item two
\item three
\end{itemize}You can also enumerate things:
\begin{enumerate}
\item one
\item two
\item three
\end{enumerate}Try some foreign letters and symbols:
\aa \AA \o \O \l \L \ss \ae \AE \oe \OE \pounds \copyright \dag \ddag \S
\P. There are also three dashes of different length: - -- ---.Try some accents over the letter ``a'': \'{a} \`{a} \"{a} \^{a} \~{a}
\={a} \.{a} \b{a} \c{a} \d{a} \H{a} \t{a} \u{a} \v{a}. Other letters can
be accented in a similar way.The pair of ``\$'' marks a math context. Many special characters are
available only in the ``math'' context. For example, try the Greek
alphabet:Small: $ \alpha \beta \gamma \delta \epsilon \varepsilon \zeta \eta
\theta \vartheta \iota \kappa \lambda \mu \nu \xi o \pi \varpi
\rho \varrho \sigma \varsigma \tau \upsilon \phi \varphi
\chi \psi \omega $Capital: $ A B \Gamma \Delta E Z H \Theta I K \Lambda M \Xi \Pi P
\Sigma T \Upsilon \Phi X \Psi \Omega $Try some equations: $ x^{y+1} + \sqrt{p \times q}=z_{try_subscripts} $
\begin{center}
$ \frac{x \times y}{x/2+1}=\frac{1}{3} $
\end{center}\LaTeX math commands are very similar to those in the old ``Word Perfect''
equation editor.Use the verbatim mode to print the 10 special symbols which normally have
special meaning in \LaTeX: \verb|%${}_#&^~\|. The special symbols must be
contained between any two identical characters which in the example above
is |. Most of these special symbols can also be printed by preceeding the
character with a backslash: \% \$ \{ \} \_ \# \& \^.% This command ends the document (this is the third one that *must* be
% present in every document).
\end{document}
Disclaimer: Copying copyrighted material is illegal. Do NOT use the instruction below for anything illegal.Return to homepage: Linux Newbie Administrator GuideSetting up a CD writer can be tricky. For good info see the page http://www.guug.de/~winni/linux/cdr/html/CD-Writing-3.html
I used the above document to set up an ATAPI CD writer on a PC running RH6.0. Here are the steps I followed (almost everything has to be done as root):
o Download the program "cdrecord" from your favorite Linux software repository (e.g., http://idirect.linuxberg.com/ ). Then install the source code, compile it, install the program, and make symbolic links so that the executable are easy to run (the installation would be much easier if you found a binary *.rpm file):
cd /usr/local
tar -xvzf /the_path_to_which_you_downloaded/cdrecord-1.6.1.tar.gz
ls
cd cdrecord-1.6.1
make
make install
ls /opt/schily/bin/
ln -s /opt/schily/bin/* /usr/local/The program cdrecord is a spartan, command line utility for writing CD. There are several GUI front ends to it, but they will be useless if the underlying cdrecord does not work proprely.
o Add the loop devices. This is not a must, but a nice feature to have if you plan creating your own data CDs. The loop device will permit you to mount a CD image file to inspect its content.
cd /dev/
./MAKEDEV loopo In the file /etc/lilo.conf , add a line at the end of the Linux "image" section:
append="hdb=ide-scsi"
Adjust the line above if your CD writer is not "hdb" (second drive on the first IDE interface). It makes the IDE-ATAPI CD-W(R) to be recognized on your Linux system as a SCSI device. Run lilo after making any changes to /etc/lilo.conf .
o Add these two lines at the end of the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local so that the needed kernel modules are automaticly loaded on system startup:
/sbin/insmod ide-scsi
/sbin/insmod loopo Reboot so the changes to /etc/lilo.conf can take effect. Check if your CD-RW still works properly for regular reading.
o Create or modify the device /dev/cdrom so it points to the correct device, most likely:
ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/cdrom
o See if your cdwriter is recognized. If it is, it should now show in the output from this command:
cdrecord -scanbus
o Create a CD image containing data:
mkisofs -r -o cd_image input_data_directory
The option "-r" sets the file permissions so all the files on the CD are publicly readable. The option "-o" indicates that the parameter that follows is the output filename.
o You may want to inspect the image file by mounting it through the loop device:
mount -t iso9660 /dev/loop0 cd_image /mnt/cdrom
cd /mnt/cdrom
[inspect the file mounted through the loop device]Change your working directory away from the mountpoint and unmount the file:
cd
umount /mnt/cdromo If everything worked, you may burn your data CD:
cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=1,0,0 -data cd_image
The numbers in "dev=" stand for the scsi bus number (0,1, ...), device id on the scsi bus (between 0 and 7), and the scsi lun numer (always 0) respectively. You must customize them: the first two number can be read in the output from cdrecord -scanbus, the third number is 0. Make sure to use the correct numbers or you may write to a wrong drive and corrupt your data.
The timing of writing to CD-Rs is very important, or an error may occur (the laser cannot be switched on and off at will). Therefore avoid doing intensive tasks during creating a CD, e.g. don't create or erase large files on the hard drive. My system will not permit me to start new tasks when using cdrecord .
o Audio tracks have to be in files of *.cdr (I guess it is the same as *.cdda.raw), *.wav (wave), or *.au format before you can write them to a CD.
[The utility sox converts between the various audio file formats (sox understands quite a few of them). For example, this will convert a .wav file to a .cdr file:
sox my_file.wav my_file.cdr
You don't need to do the conversions manually - cdrecord supports *.wav and *.au directly (it does a conversion from *.wav or *.au to *.cdr "on the fly"). This is very convenient because audio files tend to be large.]
To read audio tracks from an audio CD and write them to a suitable file format (typically *.raw or *.wav) , you need a "cd ripper". A popular one is "cdparanoia". After downolading the source, install it (use the autocompletion <Tab> shortcut when typing the long filenames):
cd /usr/local
tar -xvzf /the_path_to_which_you_downloaded/cdparanoia-III-alpha9.6.src.tgz
ls
cd cdparanoia-III-alpha9.6
./configure
make
make installThe installation program places a proper link to the executable (/usr/local/bin/cdparanoia) so I don't have to create the link manually.
To rip the first track from an audio CD, I can use:
cdparanoia 1
which will automatically put the track into the wave file "cdda.wav" in the current directory.
To rip tracks 1 to 2 from an audio CD to a "raw" file format, I can use:
cdparanoia -B -p "1-2"
The option -B specifies to use a "batch" mode, so that each track is put into a separate file (this is probably what you want). The "-p" option specifies output in raw format. The files are named track1.cdda.raw and track2.cdda.raw .
To rip all tracks from an audio CD, each track to a separate *.wav file, while forcing reading speed 4x, I can use:
cdparanoia -S 4 -B "1-"
Make sure you have sufficient free space on your hard drive. You can use use the space on your DOS partition (if you have dual boot).
To write the resulting files to a CD-R(W), I can use:
cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=1,0,0 -audio track*
Older stereos often will not play CD-Rs.
o Re-writable CDs (CD-RW) are used the same way as regular write-once CDs (CD-R). You have to blank re-writable disks before you will be able to re-use them, e.g.:
cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=1,0,0 blank=fast
To see other options for blanking, use:
cdrecord blank=help
My home stereo cannot read CD-RW disks at all, only CD-Rs, so re-writables are good for data but useless for audio (unless I plan to play them exclusively on my computer).
o To simplify writing long commands required by cdrecord, I may define a global alias by placing the following line in the file /etc/bashrc:
alias cdrecord=cdrecord -v speed=2 dev=1,0,0
Re-login for the changes in /etc/bashrc to take effect. Now, a I can write a CD using the following command:
cdrecord -audio track*