There is a very good list of Linux applications against Windows applications available here. Some of the applications seems to be outdated. But this page has very valuable data and it will reduce a lot of your research time when you are looking for a Linux application which should replace your current Windows one.

I am in the process of building Gnome 2.10 from source code on my Ubuntu 5.04. The process is smooth throughout except that I had some wierd problems in ‘evolution-data-server’ module. It was because of the missing ‘libnss-dev’ package and I took a long time to figure it out as the error was something else. Finally, installing ‘libnss-dev’ and introducing a small workaround fixed the problem. I am now compiling the 72nd module (nautilus). In lot of modules, the configure stage will fail because of the absence of some ‘xyz-dev’ package. Installing the package and rerunning the configure took me till here without any problem. The only extra work I did so far is for ‘evolution-data-server’. Once I complete this build, I am planning to write a guide for building Gnome 2 on Debian quoting the issues that I faced. It will be published in Gnome Bangalore‘s Wiki page.

PS: I am not using the sources from Debian. I am getting the sources from Gnome CVS repository.

Update: I have mispelt Ubuntu in the title as “Ubutu” which made this page to appear as a first hit in the google search for the work “Ubutu”. I am changing the title now. I will no more have google’s first hit privilege for “Ubutu”

I have been an all time hardcore Debian fan. All of a sudden, I got attracted towards Ubuntu Linux. After my HDD crash before a couple of days, I lost my entire Debian installation and I was in the need to reinstall it. At this point, I thought of going for Ubuntu 5.04. Ubuntu is based on Debian and they are more up to date compared to Debian (Well, SID is always bleeding edge). I have installed it and setup most of the essential packages succesfully. I have also do one more major change in the software component. Earlier I was using Mozilla Thunderbird at home. Now, I have migrated to Evolution.