Today I have made the leap from full paying Apple user to the arms of a Linux mistress. Apple has lost me in the past two months with a variety of things and my Macbook Pro is too old to do what I need it to. I teach gaming material so I need a computer that can handle the mustard and today I have purchased such a device that will be created and sent to me sans any operating system in any way shape or form.
The distribution of linux is still up in the air and I will likely be trialling them on my macbook until I get the actual computer delivered. The first to be tested will be Elementary OS. Regardless of the Linux distribution that I end up with I want to know what I need to be downloading to make my RPG management the best it can be.
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| Goodbye Apple, hellooooooo Linux! |
For example, I do a lot of work with Evernote (similar to One Note) on my Mac where I send a goodly deal of information on to my specific notebooks when I see what I want on the internet etc. Is there a program on Linux that can emulate the idea of basically a scrapbook approach to collecting data. I work really well brainstorming and that is the general process, I will hit the web, get what I need and then go through all the material in the notebook and flow through to design what I need.
Flowing on past that, is there anything better than Gimp out there for image manipulation. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gimp but if there is something out there that is really good for image manipulation and map making style material I would love to hear about it.
Also, I will need some IDE’s for Java as I actually do a lot of programming that supports my RPG work. For example, when designing statistics and dice rolling conventions I use Java or C to run some simulations and get a bunch of statistical data back far quicker than rolling the dice a million times and working averages from it.
Which I suppose leads me to my final question. Office software? Open Office the main choice out there or is there something a little more sophisticated. Is there authoring software out there that is reminiscent of Scrivener which I have a licence for on my Mac so that I can refine my own RPG and GM Advice book, both of which are progressing steadily.
Plus, if there are any other suggestions that you have for me in regards to applications you find yourself returning to often to aid with your games I am all ears! Until tonight’s Reign of Winter game, keep rolling!