% Linux Installation and Getting Started    -*- TeX -*-
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% Copyright (c) 1992-1994 by Matt Welsh <mdw@sunsite.unc.edu>
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\subsection{Other applications}

A host of miscellany is available for Linux, as one would expect from
such a hodgepodge operating system.
Linux's primary focus is currently for personal UNIX computing, but
this is rapidly changing. Business and scientific software is expanding,
and commercial software vendors are beginning to contribute to the growing
pool of applications.

Several relational databases are available for Linux, including Postgres,
Ingres, and Mbase. These are full-featured, professional client/server
database applications similar to those found on other UNIX platforms.
{\tt /rdb}, a commercial database system, is available as well.
\index{databases}%
\index{Postgres}\index{Ingres}\index{Mbase}%

Scientific computing applications 
\index{scientific software}
include FELT (a finite element analysis 
tool); {\tt gnuplot} (a plotting and data analysis application); 
Octave (a symbolic mathematics package, similar to MATLAB); 
{\tt xspread} (a spreadsheet calculator); {\tt xfractint}, an X-based
port of the popular Fractint fractal generator; {\tt xlispstat}
(a statistics package), and more. Other applications include Spice
(a circuit design and analysis tool) and Khoros (an image/digital signal
processing and visualization system).

Of course, there are many more such applications which have been, and
can be, ported to run on Linux. Whatever your field, porting UNIX-based 
applications to Linux should be quite straightforward. Linux provides
a complete UNIX programming interface, sufficient to serve as the 
base for any scientific application. 

As with any operating system, Linux has its share of games. 
\index{games}%
These include
classic text-based dungeon games such as Nethack and Moria; MUDs 
(multi-user dungeons, which allow many users to interact in a text-based
adventure) such as DikuMUD and TinyMUD; as well as a slew of X games
such as {\tt xtetris}, {\tt netrek}, and {\tt Xboard} (the X11 version
of {\tt gnuchess}). The popular shoot-em-up arcade-style {\em Doom\/}
has also been ported to Linux.
\index{Doom}%
\index{games!Doom}%

For audiophiles, Linux has support for various sound cards and related
\index{sound support}
software, such as CDplayer (a program which can control a CD-ROM drive
as a conventional CD player, surprisingly enough), 
MIDI sequencers and editors (allowing you
to compose music for playback through a synthesizer or other MIDI-controlled
instrument), and sound editors for digitized sounds. 

Can't find the application you're looking for? The Linux Software Map,
\index{documentation!Linux Software Map}\index{Linux Software Map}%
described in Appendix~\ref{app-sources-num}, contains a list of many
software packages which have been written and ported to Linux. While this
list is far from complete, it contains a great deal of software. 
Another way to find Linux applications is to look at the {\tt INDEX} files
found on Linux FTP sites, if you have Internet access. Just by poking
around you'll find a great deal of software just waiting to be played with.

If you absolutely can't find what you need, you can always attempt to
port the application from another platform to Linux. Most freely
distributable UNIX-based software will compile on Linux with few problems.
Or, if all else fails, you can write the application yourself. If it's 
a commercial application you're looking for, there may be a free 
``clone'' available. Or, you can encourage the software company to 
consider releasing a Linux binary version. Several 
individuals have contacted software companies, asking them to port
their applications to Linux, and have met with various degrees of 
success. 

