3.2.3 Desktop Applications
The Linux ecosystem has a wide variety of desktop applications. There are games, productivity applications, creative tools, web browsers and more.
3.2.3.1 Email
The Mozilla Foundation came out with Thunderbird, a full-featured desktop email client. Thunderbird connects to a POP or IMAP server, displays email locally, and sends email through an external SMTP server.
Other notable email clients are Evolution and KMail which are the GNOME and KDE projects’ email clients. Standardization through POP and IMAP and local email formats means that it’s easy to switch between email clients without losing data.
3.2.3.2 Creative
For the creative types, there is Blender, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), and Audacity which handle 3D movie creation, 2D image manipulation, and audio editing respectively. They have had various degrees of success in professional markets. Blender is used for everything from independent films to Hollywood movies, for example. GIMP supports high-quality photo manipulation, original artwork creation, graphic design elements, and is extensible through scripting in multiple languages. Audacity is a free and open source audio editing tool that is available on multiple operating systems.