Continued:

2. MP3 Players: So, how do you listen to that vast collection of MP3's that you have? Well, if you are a Winamp user, for any version before 3.0, then XMMS is the program for you. This Winamp look-alike works identically, and you can even use the exact same skin that you used for Winamp, for a completely seamless experience.

If you use iTunes, Windows Media Player or the like, then take a look at RhythmBox. This works with your iPod, and has all the Library management features you'd need.

AmaroK, Kaffeine and JuK are very good players, too. They all have library management features, skinnable interfaces, and all manner of interesting tweaks.

We like all of them. XMMS is especially good for its small memory footprint. If your machine is "not exactly new", then XMMS is a good choice. On the other hand, if you have all the bells and whistles, and want a snazzy looking player, try AmaroK or Kaffeine. JuK is great, too. In the end, it boils down to personal choice.

3. Media Players: So you feel like watching James Stewart in that Hitchcock classic Vertigo? You have the DVD (or DivX or XVID...), now what? Well there are many, many players available.

One of the best players that plays almost all formats without much tweaking is the Video Lan Client, or VLC player. It has support for most formats, DVD menus, Subtitles, and multi-language DVD's.

Other good players are Xine and Mplayer. Both of these let you watch DVD's and other file formats with ease. VLC, Xine and Mplayer are all skinnable, so you can make them look great.

The default player on many distributions is Totem. This may require you to download codecs before it is able to play some formats, but is otherwise a good player, with a clean interface. The site was down when we tried, but since it comes installed by default, you probably already have it.

Kaffeine plays video files as well.

There are many more players out there, but these are the most common ones. Any one, or a combination of these will satisfy your video needs.

You may have to download a library called libdvdcss on some distributions before you can watch DVD's. Most distributions don't bundle this due to legal restrictions, but it's very easy to find and install. If your DVD isn't playing, this is most often the cause.

4. Instant Messaging: An instant messaging application is extremely important. You will be glad to know that there are many quality IM (instant messenger) programs available for Linux. Yahoo Messenger is natively available for Linux. If you use MSN, then you can try aMSN, which is an MSN clone. Gaim is also a program that lets you log into Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ and a few more to boot. You can log into all these using the same program, which makes it easy for you to handle your contacts. Heavy MSN users may prefer aMSN, but we suggest you try out Gaim.

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