best communication software for linux
Linux, for long has been thought to be a geeky affair and was widely believed that people with extra ordinary computer expertise can operate and work on Linux sufficiently. However, things are changing these days. Linux is getting strong support in the section of users who have stayed away from Linux for a long time-“The home users”. This has been made possible by very user friendly linux distributions like Ubuntu. Therefore, since a lot of users are working on Linux even at home it is essential that they should know the software that should be present on a linux based computer so that all its users can work with efficiently.
The good thing about linux is that many useful and essential and useful software come bundled with Linux and its large software repositories. These softwares are usually open source and therefore there is no licensing cost what so ever. However, I do feel that in order for users who need the similar set of softwares like they are accustomed to working on Windows, I think there is a need to explain a few softwares which I feel are essential to work efficiently and effectively on Linux. Hence I am giving a list of software that a user should download or have while using Linux. Remember, these software are for the “Layman” and doesn’t include any technical or development software.
- Yahoo Messenger: We all use Yahoo Messenger for chatting, Video conferencing and chat rooms. Yahoo Messenger can also be used on Linux based systems. Yahoo Messenger in Linux comes in three versions- For the REDHAT Linux, For the Debian Linux and the third one for the FreeBSD Linux. The redhat version of yahoo messenger works on Redhat versions 6.x, 7.x,8.0 and 9.
- Gtalk: We all also use gtalk quite a while and love to chat with friends who have gmail account especially the ones who are on Orkut because of Gtalk’s seemless integration with orkut. Howver, currently there is no GTalk implementation on Linux and therefore you can nevertheless use the GAIM client to text chat with your friends on Gtalk.
- Picasa Photo Organiser: Picasa is another product from google which is getting a strong customer base these days. Picasa is available in Linux. Picasa allows its uses to find all the photos on a computer as well as share the photos on the web. It also allows the users to make changes to photos with the help of few and simple clicks. Picasa is also bundled with google pack which includes all the required software in a computer.
- Skype: Skype is the world leader in voice communication over the internet with the customer base of 200 million users. It is a very popular service and people can use skype to freely talk when both the users are online over the internet, or using the subscription services like Skypein and skypeout as well as skype Pro. Skype is available in 7 linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora, opensuse, debian and Mandriva. you can download Skype
here
The softwares discussed above describe the best communication software available on Linux and the best thing is yahoo messenger is integrated with MSN so you can chat with MSN users using Yahoo messenger from Linux. That’s interoperatibility in its true meaning.
Next up, we will discuss the best system software that we should have for linux. So, I would just say STAY TUNED.