The Case of the Missing Applications

Kilian · n00b Joined: 24 Jun 2002 Posts: 74 Location: Canada

I've been running linux server systems for about 6 years now, and I've run linux on the desktop on one of my secondary machines for nearly 3 years. But just recently I've tried to migrate my main workstation to linux, and found things seriously lacking.

I do a variety of things with my computer, including but not strictly limited to web and graphic design, programming, and network management. So, to be brief and to the point, here's what I really need replacements for:

Dreamweaver
I can write the HTML by hand, but I need something on par with Dreamweaver's site management tools. I like it repairing links when I rename files, checking for broken ones for me, and generally taking care of the otherwise time consuming management of the site. Without this, the wasted time builds up too fast. This is an absolute must have.
Flash
There are libraries and tools, but nothing that even comes close to Macromedia's GUI. Again, another must-have.
Photoshop OR Paint Shop Pro
... and don't even think about telling me to use GIMP. It is tried and has been found seriously wanting. I'm told and have even been shown that it can do most everything Photoshop can, but only through obscure technics and endless searching for functionality. I need something better.

Running these things in wine or vmware is also not an option. I need native environment speeds. If there's a great replacement out there that I'm missing, I'll be overjoyed to hear about it, but unfortunately, until there are more good production apps of this calibre for linux, I won't be able to run it as my day to day workstation.

paranode · l33t Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 679 Location: Texas

Well, I don't think you'll find anything that will satisfy you as well as your commercial apps. This is always a good list to refer to though for equivalencies: http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-lin-soft-en/

There are some similar apps but I doubt you would want to use them. Linux isn't for everyone, you'll just have to stick with your MS apps if you need them so badly. Sorry.
_________________
Meh.

Fitzsimmons · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 5:28 pm Post subject:

I agree. Opensource may be good, but you have to remember people aren't being paid to write this stuff. There's just no way that opensource can compete with the dedication or resources of a company which is paying developers to write software. For now, stay with windows, if you really need your commercial apps. If the companies are nice, they will start porting things to *ix (macromedia has at least ported a flash player... they're getting there).

Sorry

.

kRock · n00b Joined: 28 May 2003 Posts: 73 Location: portland, or

I found that Quanta satisfied my need for Dreamweaver. You may give it a try.

Fitzsimmons · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 8:53 pm Post subject:

Kilian · n00b Joined: 24 Jun 2002 Posts: 74 Location: Canada

I'm not limiting myself to Open Source applications here either. I'd be more the willing to pay for them, if they were to exist. I don't think I'm alone on this one either. As for Quanta, it's all find and good for WYSIWYG (not a dreamweaver feature I require) and hand coding development, but it has virtually nothing for site management, which is what I really need.

chizu · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 127

Well I'm a freelance commercial web site designer. I use emacs and bluefish with a little bit of Mozilla Composer for my html/xml/php coding. For flash the ming library is good, but only if you know some programming. For a graphical flash program you can use wine to run flash mx.
And I for one believe that open source can create competing applications for those big software companies.
As for the gimp, it is lacking in some print features and a bit cluncky to use compared to photoshop 7, but if you learn it, it can be far more powerful than photoshop. Especialy when combined with perl.

Kilian · n00b Joined: 24 Jun 2002 Posts: 74 Location: Canada

I'm sure I've said this a couple times already, but all the replies seem to be missing it.

I don't need the html coding or wysiwyg apps. I know all about those. I need something that will do site management

Maybe I should just start a company to write this software, since it doesn't seem to exist.

zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

If you really only want something that will check for broken links, I think recursive wget can sniff out the 404s for you.

Good luck in writing that site management software. You'll have to keep the DOM tree in memory at all times, and continually reparse and update.

Or, you could cheat and merge all your data into a database, and provide various CGI front ends.

secondshadow · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 362

I saw it sugested briefly, but I thought that perhaps it would be more apparent as a suggestion if someone dedicated an entire post to it. Have you tried using Wine yet to run some of those windows apps in linux? I personally use transgaming Wine (www.transgaming.com) which is a version of wine that also has a built in DirectX port. Also it requires a lot less to set up. Just a suggestion, but give it a try. TGW requires a little tiny $$$ for the initial investment if you want to download pre-compiled binaries, but if you are fine with building it from source via cvs, thats free. Also I think it can be merged with emergem although its not the newest version as far as TGW (WineX) goes.

Xiderpunk · Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 11:25 pm Post subject:

Our web development company entirely uses Quanta as a development enviroment, virtually everything you can do in DW you can do in Quanta with some playing around.

Site management tools such as link repair are more or less useless in a commercial sense these days as even the smallest of projects tends to be backed with a database solution. Therefore link management is nearly always script driven. If it isn't why not?

You can be equally productive in web dev on linux as you can in a windows enviroment, it just takes a little adoption time. I would argue in fact that the increased responsiveness of the OS directly helps productivity surpass a DW solution.

As for the other tools, I'm going to say Gimp... but then Im a developer not a designer. I use the beta Gimp (in portage) and find it equal to photoshop for my needs.

Flash.. no real suggestions here. Our flash designer uses Flash MX + Swift3D plus a host of other tools on a windows box.

FormerSlacker · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 2:43 am Post subject:

If you can't find native versions of these applications, run them in vmware. On decent hardware, its very fast.