There are many programs that are great and even better from microsoft. I recently have the mozilla fiefox internet browser and it is the best internet browser that i have .
ALso i would like to try something else rather than Mircosoft so what do you suggest me ?

I agree with Firefox, a much, much better browser then IExplorer. What I suggest you is a nice program called BBLean. It takes the place of Microsoft Explorer, it's far better, easier to configure and use, and not to mention the customisable part. Simply google it. Also there is another version of BBLean, called BlackBox, wich is a lil better IMO.

lets start off with Linux instead of Windows
OpenOffice instead of MS Office.
Mplayer or BSPlayer (older versions) instead of MediaPlayer.
Gaim instead of MSN Messenger.

can't think of any more at the moment...

I'm with zsz on this one Go with Linux and you can kiss the computer crashes goodbye

Well most of the linux users agree that once they used it , the computer never crashed up .
BTW i never use linux. It's is user friendly or you have to be an expert of I.T.

no, actually, you don't have to be an expert. Try Ubuntu. Installing it is even easier than installing windows.

I've never used Linux as well, but all ppl who did says me that don't need to be an expert to use it. And the fact is that Linux is becoming more popular than ever. Some PC stores are selling PCs with installed Linux without aditional costs, while with installed Windows XP price increases US$50!

And about programs better than those by Microsoft: at this moment, only FireFox comes to my mind.

If you actually want an optimized Linux system, you still need to be quite advanced in terms of computer knowledge...
OpenOffice is great but really, not much of a match for MS Office due to lack of an Outlook alternative, lack of compatibility with handheld devices, and lack of 100% equal formatting (very important if you're writing film scripts, for example).
Firefox and VLC are of course much better than their MS rivals.

@Laevos
Yeah same here. A few computers store sells pc with linux with out extra cost and slowly , linux is becoming a popular prog. And as you said Microsoft are selling thier programs more costly .

@Jupitreas.

Microsoft has domain the pc world for the recent times and made programs userfriendly. Linux from the expirience of my friend are getting more user friendly . Linux as i said are getting back to compare with micosoft. I have tried FireFox and it is amzaing and much more faster than IE

Beside Firefox, I would also like to suggest using Opera - It's faster than Firefox and has better password management and RSS tools. However, they are pretty much equal in everything else, and Firefox has it's extensions which are really great! Anyway - stay clear of IE... It's 3\/1|_
Like someone mentioned - instead of the WMP - try using older versions, or Media Player Classic. For music I use Winamp (almost 7 years now ) and for videos evertyhing else but WMP
Linux is good but you must have someone to show you how stuff works there. I have tried Ubnutu and it's probably the most user-friendly linux but still I was clueless when I tried to add another hard drive there
Open Office is pretty good for an average person's needs IMO... I haven't used it much though so can't really say

Yay for Linux! I use Slackware and am very happy with it. Firefox for browsing, Thunderbird for mail, amaroK for music (rocks!), Kaffeine for videos. I still have a Windows partition to boot up, but I rarely use it anymore, except for games sometimes. For nearly everything I do, there is a very adequate (and free) Linux compatible solution. (One thing I haven't found yet is a music score editor / composing program in the vein of Melody Assistant, which sadly only exists for Windows and Mac. If you happen to know one, please notify me.)

I agree about Opera - I used it myself for years. Mouse gestures are great, caching is great, and the amount of built-in functions makes it the best "out-of-the-box" browser in my opinion. However, Firefox extensions are just too great to pass upon. Anyway, both browsers are waay better than crappy Internet Explorer.

Written by Guest on 03.06.2006 at 03:07

Yay for Linux! I use Slackware and am very happy with it. Firefox for browsing, Thunderbird for mail, amaroK for music (rocks!), Kaffeine for videos. I still have a Windows partition to boot up, but I rarely use it anymore, except for games sometimes. For nearly everything I do, there is a very adequate (and free) Linux compatible solution. (One thing I haven't found yet is a music score editor / composing program in the vein of Melody Assistant, which sadly only exists for Windows and Mac. If you happen to know one, please notify me.)

I agree about Opera - I used it myself for years. Mouse gestures are great, caching is great, and the amount of built-in functions makes it the best "out-of-the-box" browser in my opinion. However, Firefox extensions are just too great to pass upon. Anyway, both browsers are waay better than crappy Internet Explorer.

You have give me another reason to switch microsoft to these progs. that you have mention here

For some weeks, I am now using Firefox. I think it is faster than IE and, I think, even Microsucks programmers take this software as model for improving their own products. This morning, I installed Thunderbird because my brother recommended it.

Originally, I was a little bit afraid of using this kind of software because I am not very computer literate.

BTW: Does anybody here know a good tutorial for GIMP? Thank you in advance!

I love the mac so much more, its user friendly ,extremely efficient, and doesnt freeze or crash. also the internet browser is pretty good.

I've used Linux a little bit and liked it, but I don't have much experience with it at all. I've heard that most people are satisfied with it. As Jupitreas said above, you really have to know what you're doing with this system. It can be somewhat disasterous if you're lost - I had a friend who decided to put Linux on her machine, and her and her dad were constantly "fixing" it, and it would be down for days at a time.

Macs...Well, I've never liked Macs. I used them for a semester in high school during a Photoshop/Macromedia Flash class. They're flashy, they do cool stuff, okay. But I would prefer a more bare-bones environment when I'm computing, do you know what I mean? I don't need my program to do a little dance every time I minimize it. A lot of that stuff is a total waste of time and space on a machine.

As I have had training with mainly Windows 98, NT, ME, 2000 and so forth (kinda lost interest in the computer world at about the point that XP came out, and always hated networking, so), I've always thought of Mac PC's as the "dummy-proof" system. They're set up to be simple and easy to use, but if you want to tinker with them, you're just out of luck. At least with Windows (before XP, anyway) you could take the backdoor and make it do whatever you wanted. You cannot make Macs into Frankencomputers.

As for Explorer, I have always hated it. Not quite as much as I hated Netscape, but close. Firefox is definitely a blessing.

I dont have much experience from computers but more that normal guy ^^. I think windows is good because: you learn easily to use it and learn new things all the time (have used computers/windows from 6 year old xD). In mac it is too easy and all of those things what Proud Autumn said. But still you can use them.
Havent ever tried Linux. What I heard is same. It is harder to use than mac and windows. Well it takes just some time to understand it.

Browsers: Used IE lot in start. Now Firefox. It is fast, easy and dont get so much junk to your computer like IE. Opera is good too, but it is TOO luxor to be a browser. Like it reads you text from site, have lot of extra things, you can talk with browser etc. Where you need those things? Nowhere.

I just got a new PC, I was using linux in my old one, but now Im back to windows lol these are the programs that Im using at the moment to substitute MS applications

Opera instead of IE
Winamp istead of WMP
Litestep to replace that faggy interface that windows has
Trillian for MSN, AIM, Yahoo, and ICQ
Open office instead of MS office
and a few other utilities like defrag and shit

But like Litestep is an awesome application, because it doesnt wast as much RAM as .explore does, and its highly costumable

You will have hard trouble if you want to customize your Linux, many commercial Linux don't include MP3 support and other propetary things.
Linux is not for the standard user, its for the programmer, the network admin, the computer geek etc. There are many advanced options that can screw up the system if you don't know what are you doing, sometimes, its harder to install appz or something, for example, i spent 2 months trying to install my favourite emulator games until I gave up....

But if you want to use windows and non-microsoft programs i'd recommend:

Browser: Opera : Norwegian people: support your local products!!!!
Media player: Winamp for audio, VLC for video
Office Suite - Open Office
Image editing: Paint Shop Pro or Pixia
Creating web pages: NVU
Messenger: Google talk or Yahoo! Messenger, they also support MSN
compression: WinRar

Hej,
IM client --> miranda IM, but it forces you keeping windows as OS. ^^
Video player : vlc
mp3/radio player : foobar2000
defrag : JKdefrag
image tools : paint.net (started by MS :p, only on windows), Xnview