Linux web development programs !

[E Freak]

I am now considdering switching to linux for obvious reasons. The main being that windows sucks. Anyway, i need to know if there are web development programs for linux equivilent to dreamweaver, photoshop and/or other high end products.

If so where can these be found on the web ?

Please help im a linux no0b !

thanks

[randem]

The GIMP is very feature-rich, and can do a lot of the things Photoshop does. That's worth checking into.

I personally don't know of anything similar to Dreamweaver, but that doesn't mean such a thing doesn't exist. I like Quanta for web development on Linux... and in my opinion it's better than Dreamweaver.

[E Freak]

thanks. anyone else know any more ?

[hillsy]

Ahem....

The reasons aren't obvious. As a client workstation OS, Windows does not suck (since Win2k, anyway). Sorry, but it's true.

As a client web development OS, Linux almost sucks. Depends what you want to do and how you define "high end". If you're a programmer and like developing in programs like emacs, you're probably better off on *nix. Especially if you're then going to run your site in a *nix environment as you can set up all the servers etc on your development machine.

If your definition of "high end" entails design apps such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Flash, then you're pretty much out of luck on Linux. Here are some of the closest equivalents:

Dreamweaver --> Amaya
Homesite --> Quanta
Paint Shop Pro (not Photoshop) --> GIMP
Flash --> You're kidding, right?
CorelDRAW/Illustrator/Freehand --> Sketch

Now if you download these and try them out you'll see they're miles behind their Windows/Mac equivalents in most cases.

And finally:

<rant>
GIMP fans - stop already with saying how it's equivalent to Photoshop. It's not, unless you've got no idea how to use PS properly. A better comparison is with Paint Shop Pro, and Paint Shop Pro still wins IMHO.

If the GIMP was ever close (and personally, I don't see it) it was about three Photoshop releases ago.

Not to bag the GIMP - it's a great example of open source in action to produce a very useful application. But it's not repeat not a drop in replacement for a decent commercial bitmap editor.
</rant>

[Jeremy W.]

I agree completely with the above GIMP rant. If anyone has any questions on the above and why nothing stands up to PS, just ask

[M. Johansson]

Linux is a (very) good server OS, but a mediocre workstation OS. Even if you disregard the pretty serious usability problems of most distributions, you are left with below-average development software, especially if you do design work. You will waste more time that you'll save.

If you must run a Unix based OS, I recommend that you get your hands on a Mac and Mac OS X. BSD Kernel, Excellent Interface and, most importantly, access to Macromedia and Adobe products.

[deuce868]

As someone who is learning Linux and was wondering the same question I do have one thing in defense of Linux. I am writing this on a 233P2 with 192mb ram in a browser that was in the 26mb range for a download. MS service packs are bigger. At this moment I am installing openoffice and a couple of other things. I can't stand to think what win2k or worse yet XP would be doing.

I like XP. I use it on my laptop and it is a BIG improvement over 9x.


Thanks for the list of programs. I wanted to see what was out there for a decent php authoring in Linux. I was thinking since php is the opensource alternative that there might be some better opensource tools than there are available on Windows.

[Technosailor]

vi...

[redemption]

Originally posted by deuce868
Thanks for the list of programs. I wanted to see what was out there for a decent php authoring in Linux. I was thinking since php is the opensource alternative that there might be some better opensource tools than there are available on Windows.

i like winXP a whole lot more too (it's almost an OS already... anytime now MS will come out with a real one... or maybe not )... but it really does suck up a lot of RAM... and ooh how it taxes all my resources and that horrible Win32 API (imho)

anyway, yup you're right - i also thought that there would be "some better opensource tools than there are available on Windows" but i've yet to find any... anyway, whether in windows or Unix, i'm used to working with text editors (editplus in windows, vim in unix) and then firing up my browser to check the output (for php scripts)... i like that way better too... just personal preference but i never quite liked Dreamweaver MX's PHP support...

[deuce868]

I guess the two big things I would like to find are syntax highlighting (auto-complete would be nice sometimes) and a snippet system. I love that and it just isn't the same keeping a file of snippets and searching through it each time to find the code I want to copy and paste.

[redemption]

Originally posted by deuce868
I guess the two big things I would like to find are syntax highlighting (auto-complete would be nice sometimes) and a snippet system. I love that and it just isn't the same keeping a file of snippets and searching through it each time to find the code I want to copy and paste.

most editors would come with syntax highlighting so that's not a problem... auto-complete? Editplus does have auto-complete but then it's rather basic (like for-loops, no auto-complete of PHP-specific functions)... first thing i do though is turn off the auto-complete heh

as for snippet system, yeah that would a nice feature to have... let me know when you find one k?

[randem]

Originally posted by deuce868
...the two big things I would like to find are syntax highlighting (auto-complete would be nice sometimes) and a snippet system...

Seriously, try Quanta. Or, if you like command-line programs, jed (or other Emacs derivative).

[TheOriginalH]

Surprised no-ones mentioned bluefish. Fairly nifty text editor - can even be set to use xhtml 1.1 syntax. Support for css, php, Javascipt, WML - what more do you want?

Using Bluefish, gFTP and Mozilla, you've got a pretty sweet (and 100% free) suite. The Gimp is a great open source tool, but I have yet to get it to play as nicely as Photoshop - but then I'm nowhere near an expert on either...

[Chris H]

as for snippet system, yeah that would a nice feature to have... let me know when you find one k?

Snippets? Try the free CoffeeCup HTML Editor for Linux, click here