Learning Red Hat Linux, Third Edition

Chapter 6. Using Linux Applications

Red Hat Linux includes a plethora of applications. This chapter introduces you to several of the most popular and useful applications. These include: OpenOffice.org, a desktop suite; Evolution, an email client and personal scheduler; Pilot/Handspring Tool, an application for syncing a personal digital assistant (PDA) with your system; and CD Writer, an application for burning CDs.

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org is a desktop suite that functionally resembles Microsoft Office. That is, OpenOffice.org can perform many of the functions performed by Microsoft Office and includes many of the familiar features of Microsoft Office. The distinctive advantage of a desktop suite is that its component applications are designed to work together. The applications of a desktop suite have a similar look and feel, which makes them easy to learn and use.

Linux users have long had access to applications that help them prepare documents. However, development of Linux desktop suites has lagged behind that of Microsoft Office. The applications and suites have tended to be somewhat clumsy to use, unreliable, and poor in features. OpenOffice.org sets a new standard for Linux desktop suites, providing features and capabilities that are adequate to satisfy most computer users, not merely Linux fans.

OpenOffice.org began as a commercial desktop suite known as StarOffice, created by StarDivision. When Sun Microsystems acquired StarDivision in 1999, Sun soon thereafter released ...