Throughout the short history of the Free Line, there have been a handful of programs that have been blatantly ignored. The reasoning behind this is simple: we didn’t have access to the operating system the program calls home. Thanks to The Great Linux Experiment, that sort of thinking is (temporarily) a thing of the past. So with further delay, we present a special “Linux catch up” edition of the Monday Showdown. Enjoy!
App #1: KWord
Original Showdown: Word Processors
Site: http://www.koffice.org/kword/
Programmer: KOffice Team
First Impression: “Oh no … it looks like WordPad. And not the souped up Windows 7 version WordPad, either. The old crappy one.”
Learning Curve: None
Ease of Use (Out of 10): 10
Overall Rating (Out of 10): 5
Notes: The words “old” and “boring” were used more than once in our conversation. It’s not that it’s “bad,” it’s just bland. If you want a digitized blank sheet designed for your words, numbers, and punctuation, this will suit your needs just fine. If you want something more, it would be your best bet to pass.

App #2: Krita

Original Showdown: Image Editors
Site: http://www.koffice.org/krita/
Programmer: KOffice Team
Plugins: Yes.
First Impression: “It made me choose a template, which was kind of confusing.”
Learning Curve: A little difficult at first, but easy enough to get into.
Ease of Use: 6
Overall Rating: 7
Notes: In many ways, Krita is the open source cousin of Photoshop 6. Nearly everything found in this program, from the menus to the options to even the icons, have that old-time Adobe feel to them. Still, familiarity does not always equal usability. During our test, the preloaded flash drive, although visibile to Fedora, was not detected by the program. The “pick a template” option, designed to help users start things off with a bang, is just unfamiliar enough to confuse even the most knowledgable artist. That being said, it isn’t a bad little application once you get past all of the various quirks. It’s no replacement for Photoshop, but it does give the GIMP a run for its money.

App #3: Epiphany

Original Showdowns: Even Better Than the Real Thing, Parts One and Two
Program Type: Web browser
Name Brand Equivalent: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc.
Version: 2.24.3
Site: http://projects.gnome.org/epiphany/
First Impression: “It’s fast. Do they happen to make it for Windows?”
Ease of Use: 10
Overall: 9
Is It a Worthy Replacement?: Definitely.
Notes: Epiphany is somewhat of an oddity in the land of Linux: it worked perfectly right out of the gate. Everything we tried, from traditional sites to Flash apps, all loaded quickly and efficiently. In fact, some of the apps actually ran better here than they did in Firefox. The only real drawback, if you even want to put it into those terms, is the worrying lack of extensions and add-ons. Even then, it’s nothing really to write home about. When you’re working with something this nice, it’s always best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Service #4: KTeaTime

Original Showdown: Oddball and Fun, Parts One and Two
Website: http://www.ohloh.net/p/kteatime
Service Type: Timer
Mainstream Equivalent: Egg timer, various microwave options, “one Misisssippi,” etc.
First Impression: “It’s a timer … for your tea!”
Weirdness Factor: 5
Why It’s Weird: Do we have to say it again? It’s a timer dedicated to your tea.
Positives: You’ll never have a bad spot of tea again.
Negatives: This program is pretty much useless to anyone who doesn’t drink hot tea or have a mighty need to keep track of small instances of time.
Overall: N/A, as we’re not exactly sure how to go about rating something like this.

…And there you have it. Until tomorrow, we bid you all a fond adieu from the land of penguins and GNUs.