There are many different media playback programs available for Linux. Some of the more popular include:
* VLC * Amarok (audio only) * Totem * Kaffeine * Dragon Video Player * XMMS (audio only) * Juk (audio only)
"Linux can run programs ranging from Apache HTTP to SSH, GIMP Office, Mozilla Firefox, and a wide range of other Windows, Unix and other types of programs."
The primary drawback to Linux would be software incompatibility. Many programs that run on Windows or Macs do not have Linux versions and therefore cannot be used in Linux (ex. games). However, there are typically programs of similar function available in Linux. Furthermore, some programs can run through a Windows compatibility layer called WINE. Not all programs are so fortunate though and dual-booting may be the only option
Some data backup software programs that work on Linux are CrashPlan, Amanda, TeraByteUnlimited, Symantec, Quest, Taper, DAR, NetVault and also Luck Backup.
Some examples of home media servers are Linux, Windows and Mac. Some places to get home media server information are Microsoft, Home Entertainment Inc and Toms Hardware.
Linux has no built-in support for Windows programs, but many Windows programs and games can be used if you install Wine, a compatibility layer. There are some commercial programs that do the same thing, such as Cedega, that are targeted specifically at games, or Crossover Office, which is targeted at Micosoft Office.
Same as Windows XP Professional with some extra media tools
Writing programs in it. Some of them are: linux, windows, bash, Oracle, MySql, Apache
Some highly rated small Linux applications include the music application Pithos, a Twitter client called Gwibber, Simple Scan, Gnome-Terminal, and for synching files Dropbox.
Looking at mainly free, open-source programs: Blender, Inkscape, and The GIMP are great graphics programs. OpenOffice is very useful as well.
Some Aspire notebooks ship with a Blu-Ray optical drive and the Acer Arcade media playback software.
As far as I can tell, all the tax software I've seen online has been Windows or Mac based. It is possible that some of the online based programs can work on Linux, but this seems to be a general issue with the Linux community.
iPod Linux is a platform for running other programs on your iPod. You can run some simple GameBoy emulators, play specially encoded videos on non-video ipods, and read ebooks.