How Do I Do That?

There are lots of tasks that may seem relatively simple in Windows, but may be a bit more difficult to do in Linux. This page presents a variety of these tasks, and the best ways to solve them using tools in Linux. Wherever possible, we'll try to notate when a solution is presented using Free software, and when a solution requires the use of proprietary software in Linux.

If you have other ideas, feel free to add them to this table, if you're not comfortable editing the HTML in this table, then add them to the list at the end of this page. If you can answer an issue, add it to this table and make a note that you can do it.

How do I do that?

Multimedia
Issue	In Windows I'd Use...	In Linux I'd Use...
Burn a CD
Burn a DVD
Rip a CD
Rip a DVD
Record live television	SageTV	MythTV - Supports a wide variety of both standard definition and high definition tuner cards, including firewire cable boxes and the HD Homerun Ethernet attached HDTV tuner. Allows for pausing of live television, themable user interfaces, automatic commercial cutting, and more. User:Pwagstro Freevo - while Freevo is much easier to setup than MythTV, it is not nearly as robust of a solution. It does not allow viewing of television until after the complete recording is done, and is lacking support for a wide variety of hardware.
Office Tasks
Issue	In Windows I'd Use...	In Linux I'd Use...
Write a letter	Microsoft Word
Design a presentation	Microsoft Powerpoint
Create a small database	Microsoft Access
Design a spreadsheet	Microsoft Excel
Collaborate using groupware	Microsoft Outlook
Balance a checkbook	Quicken
Manage business finances	Quickbooks
Fill out tax forms	TurboTax, TaxCut
Create a PDF File	Adobe Acrobat	Most Linux programs can print to PostScript, check the "Print to File" option if it's not available. Then use the ps2pdf program to translate. OpenOffice.org has a feature to save directly to a PDF file
Internet Communications
Issue	In Windows I'd Use...	In Linux I'd Use...
Browse the web	Internet Explorer	Mozilla Firefox Opera - this lightweight and fully standards compliant browser is available for a huge variety of operating systems. not open source Epiphany - the fully GNOME integrated web browser
Send an email	Microsoft Outlook	Mozilla Thunderbird Evolution Mutt - console mode email client that goes by the slogan "all mail clients suck, this one just sucks less"
Send instant messages	Microsoft Live Messenger AOL Instant Messenger Yahoo Instant Messenger Google Talk	GAIM - a multi-protocol, multi-platform instant messenger client that can connect to almost any instant messenger client. also available for Windows Gossip - a jabber focused instant messenger client, that now supports a huge variety of networks thanks to integration with Telepathy - User:Pwagstro
Participate in Internet Relay Chat (IRC)	mIRC	X-Chat Irssi
Server Tasks
Issue	In Windows I'd Use...	In Linux I'd Use...
Run a large scale database	Microsoft SQL Server	PostgreSQL - known as the workhorse of the OpenSource Database field. PostgreSQL supports a variety of languages for stored procedures, foreign keys, has interfaces to many programming languages, and runs on a variety of systems.User:Pwagstro MySQL - is a very fast SQL server that is easy to setup and scales fairly well. Despite it's earlier faults, MySQL is now a fully functional relational database program.User:Pwagstro
Provide email services	Microsoft Exchange	Postfix Sendmail Hula
Serve web pages	Microsoft IIS	Apache
Customer Relationship Management	Microsoft CRM	SugarCRM - markets itself as "Commercial Open Source". A very high quality package of CRM tools to manage all aspects of business relations.
System Maintenance
Issue	In Windows I'd Use...	In Linux I'd Use...
Scan for viruses	Symantec AntiVirus
Scan for malware/spyware
Scan for rootkits
Backup my hard disk		Bacula is a very robust network based backup system.

I'd like to see how to do that!

Add your questions to this list!