Ten Linux Tools for Windows: Take Advantage of Open Source Software

Posted by Ahmad Barirani in Management      1 comment

Nov
15

There are tons of Linux tools for Windows and they just do a great job. Of course, most developers use a lot of GNU software on Windows, especially to port their Linux-developed applications on Windows. But things are not limited to developers. Open source products are actually targeting a wider audience. I have compiled a list of then great tools that are destined to Linux but that have great port to Windows platform.

1. Knoppix: this one is actually a Live Linux distro. What does it have to do with Windows? Well, it can be useful to recover data from a broken Windows installation. If your Windows doesn’t start for some reason and that you can’t repair it through Windows’ own repair utility, use Knoppix to restore a few files. My best story is when Windows wasn’t able to read one of my external hard-drive’s partition table but that Knoppix was able! Another story is when I wanted to downgrade to XP and that I had to use Knoppix to remove the ’sticky’ Vista hard-drive partition.
2. MinGW (Minimalist GNU for Windows): contains the great GCC compiler and can be used to build native Windows applications. The good thing is that you can then use the same source code to build the application on Linux. Among all the Linux tools for Windows, this is the one that is most popular.
3. GIMP: this is actually a great tool that was also initially destined to Linux but that has been ported on Windows. GIMP is a raster graphics editor, which means that it is in the same category as Adobe Photoshop with the difference is that it doesn’t cost a fortune. Besides being free, GIMP offers pretty much the same functionality than Adobe’s popular product.

   

4. Inkscape: this one is a vector graphics editor, which means that it competes with Adobe Illustrator. Again, it offers the same functions as Illustrator.As you can see in the image below, it can produce quite impressive images. Most users won’t need more sophistication.

   

5. XAMPP: XAMPP stands for Cross Platform (X), Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl which were all originally built for Linux. Being later ported on Windows, the package can actually be very useful for Windows web servers that would incorporate both ASP.NET and PHP web applications. Lets say you would like to use Wordprss for your ASP.NET MVC web application’s blog. XAMPP will give you all you need to run Wordpress on your Windows server.
6. CVS: this is one of the best source code version control system. It is open source, cross-platform and super stable. This thing has been working for decades and is very reliable. This is very subjective, but I personally prefer CVS to SVN because of it’s branch management model.
7. Clam Antivirus: initially built for mail servers on Linux, this free anti-virus does a great job and is in constant development. Its Windows port, WinClam, has progressed a lot and will soon compete with other known anti-virus brands.
8. Dia: a lot of people know about OpenOffice as an alternative to MS Office. But Dia is less known as an alternative to Visio.
9. VNC: this tool is for desktop sharing and did a great job on Unix/Linux systems. So much that i was ported on Windows and it can be used, for example, to have remote desktop on cheaper Windows Edition (like home versions).
10. OpenOffice: of course, this is a must. If you ever get fed up with paying a fortune for Office, then use OpenOffice. It is compatible with Office Suite, so a lot of people are considering this alternative.