Windows/Linux equivalents/replacements

Been messing around with Linux for quite some time now, largely due to free CFD/FEA software like Code_Saturne included in CAELinux, and of course the ever popular Ubuntu. I almost feel dirty mentioning Ubuntu, it's like the iPod of Linux distributions; the trendy-not-necessarily-the-best product. At least it's free, right? Back on topic, aircrack-ng included in BackTrack is also pretty cool...got to learn how easy it is for crackers to get into your wireless network and/or decrypt your traffic unless you're using the latest encryption (WPA2 AES 4tw).

Over the years I've been able to do more and more with free software (freeware and/or truly free software), but majority of it is freeware designed solely for Windows, only a few projects (VLC Media Player, OpenOffice, Audacity, ZSNES) are cross-platform. As a programmer, I understand the pain of writing portable code and realize that you can't accomplish everything with just standard libraries; there's always going to be something that needs platform-specific code.

Ubuntu already has a lot of the things you need out of the box: OpenOffice, Evolution (email client), Pidgin (a cross-protocol instant messaging client; not going to link to it because I don't like it all that much, although it does what I need), and of course, Firefox. I didn't write this to endorse Ubuntu though; there are already far too many sites that do that. I don't think that Ubuntu is bad, in fact it's great, it just makes some things too simple I think. Of course this is great for introducing the world of free software to non-technical people and others who simply though there wasn't anything besides Windows or OS X.

Anyway, here's a list of free programs I used on Windows and what I use on Linux (will use really, I compiled this list so that when I finally make the switch I won't be lost).

Windows - Linux

Defragmenter: Defraggler - Not needed; the Ext filesystem is more resistant to fragmentation.

Cleanup: CCleaner - Again, not needed.

Archiving/encryption: 7-zip - k7z
The LZMA algorithm is superior to zip, bzip2 and rar...it'd be a shame to leave it behind.

Music: Winamp - Audacious Media Player
Audacious Media Player is superior; I wish I could use it on Windows. It supports almost every file format without having to hunt down plugins. It plays almost every module, chiptune and video game music format right out of the box. Fantastic.

Office: Microsoft Office - OpenOffice
(Included in Ubuntu)

Solid modeling: Autodesk Inventor - BRL-CAD

CD/DVD ripping/burning: ImgBurn - Brasero
(Included in Ubuntu)

File synchronization: SyncBack - JFileSync

Batch renamer: ReNamer - Metamorphose

IP blocking: PeerGuardian - MoBlock

Torrent client: BitComet - Transmission
(Included in Ubuntu)

Workspaces: Dexpot - Built in to Ubuntu

Image editing: Photoshop or Paint.NET - GIMP
(Included in Ubuntu)

Computation: MATLAB - GNU Octave
Frontends for Octave:
Xoctave - Almost identical to the MATLAB GUI.
QtOctave - Less similar to MATLAB GUI, but has a portable version and some extra tools.

Most of these can be found in the package manager :)