Network

The following section features various Linux applications for networking purposes. Get to know the most popular Linux browsers and e-mail and chat clients.

Table 24.2. Network Software for Windows and Linux

Task

Windows Application

Linux Application

Web Browser

Internet Explorer, Firefox*, Opera

Konqueror, Firefox, Opera, Epiphany

E-Mail Client/Personal Information Management

Microsoft Outlook*, Lotus Notes, Mozilla Thunderbird*

Evolution, Kontact, Mozilla Thunderbird

Instant Messaging/IRC Clients

MSN, AIM*, Yahoo!* Messenger, XChat, Gaim

Gaim, Empathy, Kopete, Konversation, XChat

Conferencing (Video and Audio)

NetMeeting, LifeMeeting

Ekiga

Voice over IP

X-Lite

Ekiga, Skype

FTP Clients

leechftp, wsftp

gftp, kbear


Browsers

Epiphany

Epiphany is a lean, but powerful Web browser for the GNOME desktop. Many of its features and extensions are similar to Firefox. For more details, see http://projects.gnome.org/epiphany/.

Firefox

Firefox is a Web browser that runs on various platforms, including Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Its main features include customizable searches, pop-up blocking, RSS news feeds, password management, tabbed browsing, and some advanced security and privacy options. For more details, see http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ or read Chapter 14, Browsing with Firefox.

Konqueror

Konqueror is a multiple application created for the KDE desktop. It acts as web browser, file manager and document viewer. It supports most common web standards, such as CSS(2), Java applets, JavaScript and Netscape plug-ins, DOM, and SSL. For more details, see http://www.konqueror.org/ or read Chapter 13, Browsing with Konqueror.

Opera

Opera is a powerful web browser with an optional e-mail client and a chat module. Opera offers pop-up blocking, RSS feeds, built-in and customizable searches, a password manager, and tabbed browsing. For more details see http://www.opera.com/.

E-Mail Client / Personal Information Management

Evolution

Evolution is a personal information management application for the GNOME desktop. It includes e-mail, calendar, and address book functionalities. For more details, see http://projects.gnome.org/evolution/ftp or read Chapter 6, Evolution: E-mailing and Calendaring.

Kontact

Kontact is the personal information management suite for the KDE desktop. It includes e-mail, calendar, address book and Palm sync functionalities. For more details, see http://www.kontact.org/ or read Chapter 5, Kontact: E-Mailing and Calendaring.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is the e-mail client of the Mozilla suite. It is also available for Microsoft Windows and MacOS. For more details, see http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/.

Instant Messaging / IRC Clients

Empathy

Empathy is an instant messenger tool for the GNOME desktop. It consists of a rich set of reusable instant messaging widgets, and a GNOME client. For more details, see http://live.gnome.org/Empathy .

Konversation

Konversation is the IRC client of the KDE desktop with many functionalities. For more details, see http://konversation.kde.org.

Kopete

Kopete is an easy-to-use instant messenger tool supporting many protocols. For more details, see http://kopete.kde.org/ or read Chapter 10, Instant Messaging with Kopete.

Pidgin

Pidgin (previously Gaim) is a multi-platform instant messaging client supporting many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various different services from a single application. For more details, see http://pidgin.im/ or read Chapter 11, Instant Messaging with Pidgin.

VoIP, Video and Audio Conferencing

Ekiga

Ekiga (previously GNOMEMeeting) is a free and open source video conferencing and VoIP application. Ekiga supports both the SIP and H.323 protocols, and is fully interoperable with Microsoft NetMeeting and LifeMeeting. For more details see http://www.ekiga.org/ or read Chapter 12, Using Voice over IP with Ekiga.

Skype

Skype is an application for several platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac Os X) that can be used for phone calls over the Internet with a good sound quality and with end-to-end encryption. When using Skype, configuring the firewall or router is not necessary. For more details, see http://www.skype.com/. Information on Skype and openSUSE is avaiable from http://en.opensuse.org/Skype_HOWTO.

FTP Clients

gftp

gftp is an FTP client using the GTK toolkit. Its features include simultaneous downloads, resume of interrupted file transfers, file transfer queues, download of entire directories, FTP proxy support, remote directory caching, passive and nonpassive file transfers, and drag and drop support. For more details, see http://gftp.seul.org/ or read Chapter 15, Transferring Data From the Internet.

KBear

KBear is a graphical FTP client that can connect to multiple hosts simultaneously. The user can copy or move files or directories between the hosts by drag and drop or cut and paste. It also has a dynamic site database. For more details, see http://sourceforge.net/projects/kbear/.