50 Open Source Replacements for Really Expensive Software

[Spork]

Is there a silverlight solution for Linux yet ?    My main computer is my htpc and when I built it, that's what prevented me from going Linux.

There has been for quite some time:  http://mono-project.com/Moonlight

Now... that doesn't always help.  For instance (last time I checked, which has been a while) Netflix streams with silverlight.  But it uses encryption.  It's more than having silverlight.  You also need the keys.

caveat: I'm on a tin-can-and-string slow-as-crap internet connection and I can't stream.  ...so I haven't had an opportunity to play with this in quite some time.

[the fixer]

I totally agree with your iTunes assessment. I hate it for Windows. But I keep all of my music on a classic iPod. I think I'll give Linux a try, both to get rid of some bloat as well as expand my horizons. With Linux, what would be my best option for a music player that I can use to manage my iPod?

Most all of them can manage older iPods without trouble, and short of that, there's always disk mode. Just give the default a try with whatever distro you choose.

I have not had much success managing an old iPod (iPod Video) through Rhythmbox on Ubuntu. It could read everything on there, but I couldn't add new songs. I gave up and put Rockbox on the iPod, which isn't perfect but doesn't require software that understands a proprietary database format and directory structure to catalog all the files.

[the fixer]

For occasional use of commercial software under Linux, I thought I'd point out that most software companies have free "evaluation" versions of their software. For instance, you can get free trial versions of Windows 8 Enterprise and Photoshop. Unfortunately it looks like Office's only free trial is subscription-based, so you have to cancel to avoid getting hit with monthly fees.

All of this can be run inside a virtual machine using VirtualBox on Linux.

[jnik]

Now... that doesn't always help.  For instance (last time I checked, which has been a while) Netflix streams with silverlight.  But it uses encryption.  It's more than having silverlight.  You also need the keys.

There's an Ubuntu PPA for Netflix support; it's a custom Wine install + the Windows Mono + a bunch of other stuff. It doesn't seem to have broken Wine for other things (and the actual stuff runs in a different WINEPREFIX.) I've watched a lot of Star Trek through it...

Hulu, Crunchyroll, CBS's streaming site, and Funi's streaming site all do fine in stock Firefox. So no problems with Xubuntu for the HTPC here.

[AlanStache]

http://xkcd.com/934/

It has been my experience that older boxes get a new life with Ubuntu.  And it might be worth spending something to double the ram if all you are doing is surfing with tons of tabs. 

I would say yes free/open can replace lots of things people pay for, BUT pay versions will probably always have some advantage for power users.  Matlab is a good bit faster than Octave.  And  think Office is more polished than OpenOffice.   (I have both octave and open office installed at home but the pay version at work).

[grantmeaname]

I would say yes free/open can replace lots of things people pay for, BUT pay versions will probably always have some advantage for power users.  Matlab is a good bit faster than Octave.  And  think Office is more polished than OpenOffice.   (I have both octave and open office installed at home but the pay version at work).

There are exceptions to that rule too, though. No closed source program is half as good as R is, to name one example.

[AlanStache]

There are exceptions to that rule too, though. No closed source program is half as good as R is, to name one example.

Honestly I thought R was pay for a long time because of all the great things people said about it. Is just not used in my field and am to lazy to learn it.  Much easier to kick around in Octave when I want to play at home.

[grantmeaname]

Oh, it's beautiful. If futzing around in programs is your idea of fun, it doesn't get much better than R. I like it ten times better than SAS and MATLAB.

[the fixer]

It has been my experience that older boxes get a new life with Ubuntu.  And it might be worth spending something to double the ram if all you are doing is surfing with tons of tabs. 

Yes! I'm using a 7.5-year-old Macbook maxed out on 2G of RAM with Lubuntu. I used to use the full Ubuntu but Unity+compiz take too many resources. When the hard drive started dying I replaced it with an SSD and installed Lubuntu to try it out, and this thing is screaming fast for basic usage.

Linux is a key component to minimizing costs associated with computers, both in Windows/OSX licenses and in upgrading hardware.

[AlanStache]

The cost per gig is not pretty but SSD's are soooo fffffing fast.  My years old p.o.s. netbook with SSD boots ubuntu cold in under 10sec and feels as fast as gf's new mac.