Try BricsCAD, They are beta testing the basic version of thier CAD programme to run in WINE. You can apply to be a tester and they will give you a serial no. The programme is easy to download and comes with its own unpackager and installer - very easy. The programme is basic, and does not have the architecturals pluggins last time I looked.

I was trying to get on with this untill i upraded my pc. to amd64 with pcie graphics and serial ata raid. I can not now run my SuSe 9.2 as it will not now get further than the kernel load, then goes blank. Back to windows im afraid. Its all very well for all these smug windows hating IT geeks slagging off people who dont know how to get this wonderfull OS working, perhaps they also know how to design and project manage a £M construction project as well as understanding how to get linux to recognize and use new hardware???? Derrrrrrr ...i dont think so. For us professionals out in the real world were PC's are merely tools used to doing real work, I regret to say that you cant do without windows.

I tried really, really hard to do my taxes under Linux this year. I'm in the USA and just installed SUSE 9 on our home computer as the primary system (Wintendo 2k is installed as a dual boot for a little longer during this transition).

I tried the online tax software at turbotax.com and taxcut.com. I tested with both IE under Crossover Office and with Firefox. turbotax.com simply wouldn't launch completely at all! Seems to me they've done some unnecessarily funky stuff wtih their web app; I simply coudn't get past login. taxcut.com did much better; I was able to complete my taxes using that system. The core functionality worked fine, but the popup helps did not work under Firefox, only under IE/cxoffice.

However, taxcut.com was going to cost me upwards of $60-70 to file (federal + state). From OfficeMax, after rebates (which were not available for the on-line product), filing cost me $25. So, I launched W2K and did my taxes there. If I'm going to spend the extra to use LInux, I'd rather that extra $25 go to an open source company, so I'll send it to my favorite project.

And, you TaxCut guys, get your marketing folks in line! The online app ought to be cheaper (or at least the same price) as the in-store application!

Amen to that brother. I'm your typical home user with just enough HW & SW savvy to throw together a new PC or upgrade my existing one - not w/o frequent hiccups mind you. Recently ran into a problem during an upgrade to my 3 yr old Presario that locked me out of the MoBo BIOS. Since it was a bit old anyway I ended up having to replace my MoBo so decide to also replace the CPU, video card, RAM, & PS with the main goal of retaining my original HD as is so I wouldn't lose my apps and data...

Come to find out that enough 'critical' components were changed to require WinXP activation... BUT, since I had an OEM vsn that came w/ the Compaq my changes were 'too' significant to justify it being the same system so I'd have to buy a new copy of Windows since I'm installing in on a 'new' PC...

What crap. All I want to do is get my PC back up and running w/o messing w/ or erasing my hard drive. I didn't want to put in that many new components but it's what I had to do to get back up and running.

Well, that did it for me... it's why I'm at this site now in fact. It has prompted me to do research into favorable newbie distros (only have a few days worth of Suse experience from a bit of playing around I did a couple of years ago).

Gonna put my old HD in the system AND a new one. My original to keep my home and business stuff going while I put Linux on the other and gradually ween myself off of windows completely.

If XP pulls this sh** I shudder to think of what type of wallet crushing, privacy erasing, enslavement tools Longhorn will have...

Let the Linux freedom adventure begin,
Malac

Check out 'dvdrip' for DVD -> CD conversion or 'lxdvdrip' for a good DVD -> DVD backup.

lxdvdrip is basically a frontend to a bunch of other DVD programs (ie: DVDbackup, DVDauthor, transcode, etc.). It will print out what program it is about to use and what arguements it'll send.

Using the other DVD apps, lxdvdrip will shrink dual-layer DVD's to fit on a standard single layer DVD+/-R(W). For single-layer DVD's, it'll create a straight backup of it.

HTH...

What functionality do you need from Alcohol?

When I heard about that authentication crap, that
was the very day I went looking for Linux distro
that a beginner to Linux could easily install and
use right away. I found it. No more M$ CRAP!!!!

We're 95% Linux (suse) at home now. I have W2K as a dual boot for some of the kids game CDs that I simply cannot run under Wine or Crossover Office. The kids haven't forced the issue and so far, none of their games are actually installed in Windows; they've been content w/ the online games they can use.

Most online games work for them, but a few require Windows-only plugins. I'll have to get a personal of Crossover for that. (My Crossover is now under a corproate license, but it's custom, so the plugin is missing since it's not a corporate need.) To save on cost, I'll probably by a single Personal copy of Crossover and set up a single user account on the PC to install it to. The $40 license only installs once (we have 5 logins in the family), and I'm not excited about a $75 license to share a single install (5 kids, $40 is a enough). They only need cxoffice for a few things, so I think I can sell them on going to a "gaming" login for that functionality.

Still doesn't solve the game CDs, including the educational CDs that simply won't run. But I'm hoping Codeweaver's can make good on it's goal to have 95% of all windows software running properly on cxoffice by year-end. They do that, I'll find the $75.....

What is it Photoshop supplies that you can't do with the GIMP?

Me too.. but I have just gotten my soundcard working, and loaded nvidia drivers to get my resolution right in SUSE. And next I suppose I'll learn the command console and an editor and then learn to install software and then I'll be weaned from XP and just in time too.. renewal fees are due soon on my anti-virus and other support software to hold XP together ;)

Hi,

I just tagged some pics with BrilliantPhoto and I'm able to see the added info with Mapivi without problems.
The keywords are visible in the IPTC keywords of the pictures.
The people are in the contact IPTC tag (which is wrong IMHO), the rating is in the urgency, but they use it the wrong way: urgency 1 is the higest, not 5.
Also they store the place in the wrong tags, but anyway the information is there and visible and searchable using Mapivi.

Regards
Martin

Keep speaking up about your needs, and a programmer
will pick up on it and write a program for it.

Dotan, have you considered Win4Lin? Win4Lin has a new Home edition for $29.95 us, which will run Windows 95, 98, 98SE and ME on top of Linux. Its just like having another application open in your Linux desktop. You just click on the icon and Windows opens giving you direct access to Windows on top of Linux. If you want to know more about it, just type in Win4Lin in you browser and it will goto Win4Lin.

penguin7009

You should try FreeCiv

there is a version of Civ on linux natively and its free. Can't remember how to get it but check on google should tell you.

go to www.irs.gov and you have a choice of over 10 (as I recall) options for free fed tax preparation. I've used H & R Block for several years with no probs. It's all browser based so you don't have to download or install any software. Thus it should run fine under linux.

Obviously unsupported, but I had no problem using TurboTax 2005 under Codeweaver's Crossover Office. I live in Texas, so I did not test any state tax stuff.

There are several income tax programs that you can run online. Tax Act is one, TurboTax has an online version, I don't know about Tax Cut. I don't know if these programs need Internet Explorer to run, but I'd be surprised if they wouldn't run on Mozilla or FireFox.

You might want to consider using Evolution. Though it may not be quite as robust it has come along way last year.

Look at Kontact if you use KDE ... http://kontact.kde.org/

I'm a straight Windows user (OK, reading this forum who's going to cast the first stone!) Actually, next time I get some money it's a new hard drive and Linux since it has suddenly occured to me that most of the software I use was built for that platform(!!) - Scribus, Gimp, Inkscape, Audacity et al.

Anyhow, as a professional musician/arranger/composer I used to use Sibelius (still do if it's straightforward stuff; one tune, no polyphony etc.) Now I use Lilypond via Cygwin with the JEdit Lilytools plug-in, and the extra time used inputting the straight data for the music files pays off immensely in the quality of the output (for an orchestral score in Sibelius I would reckon 60% of my time was spent refining the output - in Lilypond, perhaps 10% - the input time is roughly comparable, perhaps 5% more in Lilypond). Of course, it's a steep learning curve; but one that has, in my experience, paid off well.

Re the discussion going on here, well, I'll have to stick with Windows for some stuff, largely just for ease of communication with others. For the rest... well, if I don't go Linux within the next six weeks I promise to use MSOutlook for six months.. and that's punishment for you!

Roboform is a good program...and it runs under Linux too..whit CrossOver...of course you have to install IE too... or you can use Firefox...

I have used open office and like it. I would like to know what you think is needed when you say it has a long ways to go.