Comments on: In Linux, you can… https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/ Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:22:17 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4003 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:22:17 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4003 Yes. Octave and Scilab. I am not a Matlab user, so I can’t tell you much. I’ve tested them both but it has been two years since doing that.If you use Matlab now on Windows or Mac, and want to try Linux, why not just get the LInux version of Matlab? .. or would they charge you extra. Generally, you can get software reps to give you a free license or at least a free three months when you are contemplating changing hardware.For statistics, there is R. R is in my view more flexible and powerful than any other statistical program anywhere. Totally command line. No limits of any importance.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4002 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:03:26 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4002 Physio:Zara rocks. For quite a while, Xara was considered to be the more expensive, more cool, more stable and preferred application, by many, compared to Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator was for people who were not rich or cool enough to use Zara. Then the company changed their business model and made it OpenSource. Personally, I really like it.It is certainly not the only vector based drawing package available in Linux, but it is the one I personally prefer.Regarding bib software, yes, absolutely. There are a number of different ones, and there is a project that will be excellent once it actually exists with the Openoffice project.But of the available options, I personally prefer, and use as my reference manager, a packaged called “bibus.” Bibus is written in python and uses mySQL or SQL lite (you pick which you prefer). This means that the data are stored in a format that, unlike all commercial systems, is accessible by other software or that you can write your own software for (if you want … I’ve not found the need). It has “cite while you write” in Openoffice.org, and connects to Pubmed, various libraries, etc.Since I have access to a wide range of library resources here at UMN that interface somewhat automatically with Refworks, I use Refworks (an online system) to accumulate certain data, then shoot the stuff over to Bibus. But using Bibus directly with PubMed is usually easier.For page layout: I don’t do much of that these days, but yes, there certainly are. Page layout was invented on and for *nix systems, so all the major commercial level professional page layout systems exist in some form or another on Linux, of course. However, most users do not find these professional packages as handy and easy to use as things like Pagemaker and it’s offspring (like the page maker parts that were inserted into InDesign.) But there are GUI mouse-driven page layout packages for Linux.The one that people use most these days is Scribus. I don’t use it so I can’t comment on it. Also, I have read about at least one project to either upgrade Scribus or meld it with something else, or whatever, to come up with the next generation of page layout software. But again, I don’t use these packages so I don’t have anything useful to say about them.If you absolutely need to use Endnote, that can be done as well. I thought I needed Endnote (until I discovered Bibus and liked it better), and lack of Endnote was the single reason I did not make the complete shift to Linux. I made a dual-boot system, and figured I’d finish off wirting projects by shooting them over to Windows and working there with Endnote.Then I discovered that I could easily run Endnote and Microsoft Word in Linux. So I did, and it worked great (they ran better … as in crash-free, faster startup, etc.) on my Linux machine than on Windows. This was done with “Crossover” (which costs money … like 25 bucks) and worked on versions of Office and Endnote that were not necessarily the most current version (that varies over time … when a new version comes out, it takes months for the Crossover people to get it working perfectly, so better to avoid the most current version).

]]> By: Todd https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4001 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:50:20 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4001 In razib’s defense, Linux is awesome for programmers.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4000 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 09:29:53 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-4000 Razib, you always come here these days with a chip on your shoulder, I wonder why.No, nothing in Linux compares to Adobe Photoshop! The Gimp and Digikam are free, Photo shop costs hundreds of dollars No comparison at all!!!It is not true, in case anyone would be inclined to take my friend Razib seriously, that THE wide range of software in Linux is ONLY “stuff programmers use.” Thats the troll talking. It is also true in word processing, number crunching (including spreadsheets), and other areas.I think it is probably true that the narrowest range of software in general is available on Macs, and depending on what area of application one looks at, LInux (which has exited in *nix versions of one kind or another for much longer than Windows has) would be on the other end of the spectrum.Mac people will now arrive to tell us that this is because Mac has a small number of perfected software applications, who needs more (like, how mac has only one button on its mouse, and all). Windows trolls will now arrive to tell us about specific events that they know of in which linux did something bad with an application….

]]> By: Virgil Samms https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3999 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:03:01 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3999

Gnu date can do red blood.

Thank you. You have improved the quality of my life.

]]> By: razib https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3998 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:05:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3998 Choose from a very wide range of software in certain application areas.“certain application areas” = stuff programmers would use. e.g., billions & billions of code editors and IDEs. lots fewer stuff which can compare with adobe graphics app suite.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3997 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:18:05 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3997 Well, people who use Windows should try it!

]]> By: Paul Hutchinson https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3996 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:09:32 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3996 Gnumeric has a Windows build available.

]]> By: Anonymous coward https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3995 Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:02:12 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3995 Gnu date can do red blood.$ date -d “2/15/2008 + 56 days”With platelets you’d need to store a history, but it should be pretty easy manage.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3994 Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:13:14 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/02/15/in-linux-you-can-1/#comment-3994 I think you can do that in awk.

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