Warez Rehab - Web Development & Music

[PartyLikeARockstar]

Looking for Linux alternatives to Adobe CS and Rhapsody...

GIMP -> Photoshop...We all know it falls short.
I haven't found anything like DreamWeaver...Nvu/Kompozer just suck.

Rhapsody only allows streaming, no subscription downloads :(

Wine is unstable, VM's work. Any ideas?

Help me leave closed source behind!

[OvRiDe]

Well there is no Linux free alternative to Photoshop. PS is in a class of its own and there is a reason it costs as much as it does. It's a pro grade tool, used for making money. The point being, they charge as much as they do, because they put a lot of resource back into it to ensure that it is pretty much THE top of the line image manipulation software.

There is a modification of GIMP called "Gimpshop" which does make at least the interface a bit more like PS for those that are used to it. You can read more about it at http://www.gimpshop.com

NVU/Komposer are about the only wysiwyg editor that comes close to resembling Dreamweaver. For me they work just fine since I don't really rely on the "design" portion and rather use the code window. Lately I have found that something like PSpad does just fine for me, since really the main thing I am looking for is the color coding feature, and it supports opening and saving to an ftp address. So I don't have to work locally and upload it separately.

As for Rhapsody.. not sure there.. since I don't use the service, but there are plenty of streaming music websites, probably not the same thing your looking for.

Finally you could use a VM situation, but you will still need a Windows license, and depending on the VM software, such as VMWare... you will need a license for that as well. I know there are some free virtualization platforms so that might not be an issue, I just don't have a lot of experience with their stability.

[x88x]

I can't help you on the Adobe stuff...or Rhapsody, for that matter... But if you're looking for good, full-featured VM software, I would highly recommend Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org/). It has made huge improvements over the last year or so, and is imo at least as good if not better than VMware Workstation on almost all counts (moving VMs between machines is still a pain, unfortunately), and is free to boot. You can even run your VM in what they call 'seamless mode', where the windows separate out and behave almost as if they were native applications.

[Drum Thumper]

I believe that PSPad is Windows only, so I am gonna open big can of worms here and offer vi and emacs.

[Diamon]

I'd second VirtualBox. I haven't been able to find anything that can compete with the Adobe suite under linux and with VirtualBox you can just give it like 75% of the RAM (assuming you have 4gb+) and you can even enable passthrough graphics. That is the Virtual machine can use the graphics card directly instead of using an emulated graphics card, which will increase the graphics performance a lot. I've even played Warcraft 3 on a windows xp VM under an ubuntu host :). NOTE THAT PASSTHROUGH GRAPHICS ONLY WORKS IN XP AND VISTA 32-BIT VM'S.

[DaveW]

Dreamweaver. For me they work just fine since I don't really rely on the "design" portion and rather use the code window.

Dreamweaver always confuses me as a product. Its programming section is severely lacking, missing all the stuff you expect from a modern IDE such as a code organizer or auto-complete, variable trackers, etc. I wouldn't trust a professional web develop who used the design view, and it's unequipped to deal with anything more advanced than basic HTML. Essentially, the product feels like something you'd use as an amateur to manage small websites, but it carries a price tag that puts it well beyond the reach of said amateur. So it's not for amateurs, programmers, or designers. Who is it for?

Eclipse has a lot of plugins, as does Netbeans, and those will both work on Linux. Those are good if you're coding, although personally I found them both tricky to work with as they expect many developers working on a single site, as opposed to one developer working on many sites (my situation). If you're looking for a WYSIWYG editor I can't help you. :(

Also, I'm not entirely sure you should dismiss WINE as unstable-from what I've been hearing, it's a pretty stable platform now. It might be worth giving it a shot.

-Dave

[dr.walrus]

Dreamweaver always confuses me as a product. Its programming section is severely lacking, missing all the stuff you expect from a modern IDE such as a code organizer or auto-complete, variable trackers, etc. I wouldn't trust a professional web develop who used the design view, and it's unequipped to deal with anything more advanced than basic HTML. Essentially, the product feels like something you'd use as an amateur to manage small websites, but it carries a price tag that puts it well beyond the reach of said amateur. So it's not for amateurs, programmers, or designers. Who is it for?

EXACTLY. The Javascript it dumps into otherwise good websites is awful, and it encourages really bad practice (confusing content and presentation). HOWEVER, the code markup is really good, and frankly is the only reason I use any IDE for simple web development, other than file management.