Can anyone help me find linux replacements for windows apps

[jcmkk]

I've really enjoyed using linux, and now my uncle wants to try using it. His biggest problem with it is finding replacements for software that he uses daily. He needs a replacement for Fox Pro, Visual C & C++, and Lotus Organizer. KOrganizer seems like it should be the easiest transition from Lotus Organizer. I know that I could run them in wine, but Microsoft products always seem to put up a fight when trying to get them to run in wine. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

<Edit> I just thought I'd mention that any developement he does will be for windows. I don't know if there is a whole lot of differece programming for the two since I'm not a programmer.

[garion911]

I don't know about FoxPro, but Visual C/C++, you can use any of several programs. Do a search on Freshmeat.net for IDE (integrated Development environment). Alot of them have screen shots there. Then you can check gentoo's site to see if they already have a package for it. I've used kdevelop in the past, but not fanantical about it.

His other option is to learn how to do things the old-fashion Unix way. vi/Emacs/other religious war (nano!) editor, and make.

[pjp]

Anyone know if a GUI frontend exists for mysql or postgres?
Those would be my recommendations for replacing Foxpro.
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[phantasm]

http://www.mysql.org/downloads/gui-mysqlgui.html

[n0n]

If he's going to be developing for Windows, unless he wants to deal with VERY different programming practices, he's probably going to want to just stick with Windows. Typically you want to develop in the same environment it'll be running in, and if he's going to develop in Linux, the app is going to be cross-platform, which will probably mean that it'll be gtk-based in some form or another, and likely that'll be very, very different from the kind of Win32 programming he's used to. And no, you're certainly not going to want to run MSVisStudio via Wine.

[klieber]

I'd have to agree with n0n. If your uncle is developing primarily for a Windows environment, he's probably best to stick with Windows as his OS. Not to mention that MS VisualStudio is a pretty darn good IDE, all things considered.

--kurt
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[delta407]

[n0n]

To be fair, there ARE some good IDEs for Linux out there, just not ones that'll be able to generate native Windows executables for you. I've heard good things about KDevelop, and there's certainly a number of things out in Freshmeat's IDE Category. I haven't used any of them myself (as I tend to write apps without graphical frontends, which is where IDEs come in REALLY handy (IMO, anyway)), but I remember a friend of mine using one that was really good for GTK apps. Don't know if it was KDevelop or not.

But anyway, yeah. Stick with Windoze if you're doing Windoze-only development. (However, if he's willing to jump into the realm of cross-platform stuff, that'd be cool, but somehow I doubt it...)

[rphillips]

If he doesn't mind paying the licensing fee for the Trolltech QT libraries, then he should. It'll create a crossplatform linux/windows application with native widgets, and is quite fast.

[maystorm]

VMware Workstation allows an easy transition from Windows to Linux as it gives you a fully functional Windows environment on your beloved Linux box. I'm using this great piece of software for a couple of months now and got every Windows application running (well, almost, the only programs not being supported well are DirectX-based games).

The drawback is its price: it's currently 299.00 US-$, however, there is a 30-days trial version (fully functional) available for download.

[Edit] ...or try this: emerge app-emulation/vmware-workstation.
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[delta407]