Open Source "Free" Software

[imported_n/a]

Just thought I would post a list of some of the most common open source software programs and info available for free download. No need to download illegal software if good stuff is available free.

If you are new to this and want more info look to the links below the line. Like the dude at ING Direct says...Save your money

Must haves will be in bold. Similar to (commonly used software) in brackets

7-Zip Data Compression File Archiver (WinZip)
www.7-zip.org/

AbiWord Word processing (Microsoft Wordpad)
www.abisource.com/

Audacity Digital audio editor (Adobe Audition)
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Blender 3D Modelling and rendering 3D graphics and animations (Alias Maya)
www.blender3d.org/

CDex CD ripper program
http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/index.php

ClamWin Antivirus software (Norton AntiVirus)
www.clamwin.com/

Dia Diagrams, flowcharts (Microsoft Visio)
www.gnome.org/projects/dia/

FileZilla FTP client and server (SmartFTP)
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

FlightGear Flight simulator (Microsoft Flight Simulator)
www.flightgear.org/

Gaim Instant messaging client (MSN Messenger)
http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

GanttProject Plan projects using a Gantt chart (Microsoft Project)
http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/index.php

GIMP Graphics editor (Adobe Photoshop)
www.gimp.org/

Gizmo Project - Open Standards Internet telephony (VoIP) network (Skype)
http://gizmoproject.com/

Grisbi Personal accounting application
http://www.grisbi.org/

Inkscape SVG editor (Adobe Illustrator)
www.inkscape.org/

Mozilla Firefox Web browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer)
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Mozilla Sunbird Calendar and personal information manager (Microsoft Outlook)
www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html

Mozilla Thunderbird Email and news client (Microsoft Outlook Express)
www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

MySQL Database (Microsoft SQL server)
www.mysql.com/

NASA World Wind (Google Earth)
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/index.html

NVU Web Authoring System (Microsoft FrontPage)
www.nvu.com/index.html

Open Clip Art Library
www.openclipart.org/

OpenOffice.org Office applications suite (Microsoft Office)
http://www.openoffice.org/
Download version 2.0 not 1.1.5

OpenSolaris Operating System (Microsoft Windows)
http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/opensolaris.jsp
http://opensolaris.org/os/

OpenWengo Open source (VoIP) network (Skype)
http://www.openwengo.com/

Open Workbench Project scheduling and management (Microsoft Project)
www.openworkbench.org/index.php

PhoneGaim Digital quality phone calls (Skype)
www.phonegaim.com/

PostgreSQL Database (Microsoft SQL server)
www.postgresql.org/

Scribus Desktop publishing (Adobe PageMaker)
www.scribus.org.uk/index.php

Shareaza Peer-to-Peer client (Kazaa)
www.shareaza.com/

TightVNC Remote control software
http://tightvnc.com/index.html

TrueDownloader Download manager/accelerator
http://francis.dupont.free.fr/truedownloader/index.html

VLC Media Player (Windows Media Player)
http://www.videolan.org/

WinHTTrack Offline browser utility
www.httrack.com/

WordPress Weblog content management system
http://wordpress.org/

Xara Xtreme Commercial-standard graphics program (Adobe Illustrator)
http://www.xaraxtreme.org/

************************************************** **********

Open source software packages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tware_packages

MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm

NewsForge
www.newsforge.com/

OpenCola
www.colawp.com/colas/400/cola467_recipe.html

Open Source Spotlight
www.pcmech.com/cat/opensource/

Rockin' on without Microsoft
http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html?tag=lh

SourceForge
http://sourceforge.net/index.php

TheOpenCD
http://www.theopencd.org/

Wikipedia (Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

[HamiltonSteelers]

Nice. Thanks for the list.

[imported_n/a]

No problem. Some of this stuff can be a real revelation to those who aren't aware of the open source movement. Especially the progs in bold. ie OpenOffice

Also, with Microsoft now beginning to get serious about people pirating their software and taking steps to minimize this, the opportunity for open source programs will increase dramatically.

[Desigol]

I Use Firefox, that's about it.

[Sigma]

Is there a video player that is open source?

[DJT]

Yup, VLC, the same one that I've recommended (and now Massive Attack always posts when he releases a torrent) to avoid codec problems with WMP:

http://www.videolan.org

Great list posted by Joe. Of course, there's lots of really great non-open-source freeware available as well.

[shaku_bert]

VLC can get mucky if you try to advance the movie. But it plays EVERYTHING.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

Don't use Firefox 1.5 Beta.

Stick with 1.0.6 for now. The 1.5 was quite iffy in it's current Beta form. It could no longer find a lot of the sites in my Bookmarks, including this one.

Wait until 1.5 Gold is released.

[Sigma]

Thanks for the help.

[imported_n/a]

A couple of others to add are Skype alternative
Gizmo Project - Internet telephony (VoIP) network
http://gizmoproject.com/

Gizmo unlike Skype uses open standards but is not open source

OpenWengo is a truly open source (VoIP) network.
http://www.openwengo.com/

WordPress is a web publishing system (a.k.a. content management system) backed by a MySQL database used to manage frequently-updated web content, especially weblogs
http://wordpress.org/

On a slow dialup connection and want to get Linux without downloading? Go to http://ubuntu.com/ and look for Shipit - Free CDs. Presently there is a delay while a new version of Ubuntu comes out but they will send you as many CDs as you ask for. It will take about 6 weeks for them to arrive. You will receive two CDs per set. One Ubuntu CD and one Ubuntu Live CD for you to try Ubuntu Linux without loading it to see if you like it.

Look for Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 and likely Thunderbird 1.0.7 to be released soon and Firefox 1.5 to be finalized around December.

List of open source software packages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tware_packages