5 Essential Linux Applications Graphics Application - GIMP Along with writing a document or designing a website, there will be a need to use graphics or images. GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is the standard graphics editor used in Linux systems. Although not as full featured as Photoshop, it is a very powerfull program and capable of most common tasks used in image editing. In my humble opinion it is a better program then Photoshop, since I find it easier to use, and when it comes to price nothing beats free. All the standard image editing features are there such as filters effects, layers and channels, custom brushes and patterns, gradients and so on. GIMP also uses plug-ins for the addition of new effects and file formats. Probably one of the best features of GIMP is scripting, which allows to specify a sequence of processing steps to a given image. This is particularly usefull when creating a collection of images which must adhere to a specific look, such as web graphics. GIMP scripting is done through an extension called Script-Fu. Script-Fu makes use of a programming language known as scheme. GIMP supports most standard file formats such as bmp, gif, jpeg, pcx, pix, png, PSD, TGA, tiff, and xpm. GIMP comes bundled with the latest Linux distributions and usually it is installed by default. For more information about GIMP or the lastest downloads go to http://www.gimp.org. Lots of goodies there. Audio Player - XMMS XMMS, which stands for X MultiMedia System is an audio player for X-windows. XMMS used to be named X11amp, basically a take on Winamp. Actually the old X11amp looked exactly like Winamp. XMMS comes complete with spectrum analyzer, equalizer and playlist editor. In addition to playing mp3, wav and au file formats it also plays audio CDs and a variety of other not so well known audio formats. XMMS also plays streaming formats such as Shoutcast and Icecast, although I have never heard of Icecast. XMMS supports Winamp skins V2.0, meaning there are thousands of skins out there which can be used to customise it the way it looks. XMMS does not come with Red Hat 6.0 or Linux-Mandrake 6.0 but the older X11amp does. To download the newest XMMS, and for more information go to http://www.xmms.org.
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