Open Source Software

[EnderAndrew]

I want to share with you some OpenSource projects worth looking at. I also want to ask you to help spread the word about OpenSource. When free projects rival commercial products, it pushes for innovation. Competition, especially free competition is a good thing. Especially spread the word to those less technologically challenged.

 

We all want to unlock the potential of our computers, but don't necessarily want to pay for software. Here are some programs that might help replace pirated programs on your computer.

 

Mozilla Firefox - I recommend downloading the latest beta. If you are still using Internet Explorer, then please stop now for your own sake. There are plenty of people who don't know better. Firefox users are still in the minority. Spread the word to stop spyware, viruses, etc. Use a safe browser.

 

OpenOffice.org - Office is perhaps one of the most used software programs out there, and perhaps one of the most commonly pirated. Here is an MS Office replacement that is free, opens MS Office documents, saves MS Office documents, creates PDFs (no need for the expensive Adobe Acrobat Pro) and does it all free. Download the 2.0 beta.

 

Gaim - Imagine replacing MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, IRC, Google Talk, etc. all at one with one simple program and one simple buddy list. Talk to anyone regardless of what program they use. No spyware and its free.

 

GimpShop - A Photoshop replacement, that has been overhauled to look and operate even more like Photoshop. There is a Windows port of 2.2.4, and the latest version (2.2. should get ported to Windows soon.

 

MPlayer - A media player that replaces Windows Media Player, Quicktime, ReadMedia Player, Divx Player, all at once. Or you could go with downloading Real Alternative and QuickTime Alternative. Either of those will install Media Player Classic, and codecs to allow Media Player Classic to play RealMedia or Quicktime files respectively.

 

7-Zip - this replaces WinZip, WinRar, etc. all at once. It compresses better than WinZip and WinRar and opens most any file.

 

ClamWin - Free AntiVirus program. AVG is also free and quite good, but not open-source. Housecall is also a good free anti-virus solution.

 

Shareaza - A file sharing program that downloads from 3 different networks at once, in addition to bitTorrents.

 

CDex - Rip CDs and turn them into MP3s.

 

virtualdub - Video capturing and processing.

 

Blender - 3D Modeling. This may not be something everyone needs, but it is a fine example of how powerful and professional some of these projects can be.

 

Nvu - Frontpage/Dreamweaver type HTML editor.

 

Audacity - Sound editting software.

 

Thunderbird - Email program aimed at replacing Outlook Express.

 

Sunbird - Calendar application from Mozilla. Still early in development, but you can try it out.

 

Really Slick Screensavers - Tired of the boring Windows screensavers? Try these beefed up OpenGL screensavers.

 

The Battle of Wesnoth - An example of an open source game. This is a fantasy RTS.

 

Nexuiz - FPS built upon an advanced version of Quake. Online play, server code, dynamic lighting, etc.

[Shadowstrider]

For many people using Firefox isn't doable. My company, for example ONLY works with IE. My sister for example cannot login to her school's webserver with Firefox, or anything besides IE, for that matter. If she tries she is kicked from the server and sent to a page telling her to log in using Internet Explorer.

 

Using Firefox isn't an option for some people.

[EnderAndrew]

Maxthon is a great solution for those people. I actually use Maxthon at home on some of my computers.

 

It uses the IE rendering engine, and shows up as IE. You can even use it to download updates from windowsupdate.microsoft.com

 

Anything that IE can do, Maxthon can do, but it has basically all the features and security of Firefox. I didn't mention Maxthon above because it isn't open source, but it may be better than Firefox overall.

[jaguars4ever]

I already use the first two on your list Ender. Great post btw, man.

[Serious Callers Only]

Open office is a good answer for those fools who think java can't do good aplications.

[Deraldin]

I stopped using OpenOffice. I hated that stupid program. I cold never find any of the things that I wanted. That and for some reason it wouldn't save properly so anything that I took to school ended up corrupted when I tried to open it in Word.

[EnderAndrew]

There is a pretty huge change between OpenOffice.org version 1 and 2. You may want to take a look at the 2.0 beta. I only really now consider it a serious rival to MS Office.

[mkreku]

Another picture editing program that's open source (under the MIT license) and free, and that's being continually upgraded with new features is Paint.NET. It has the most common features right now and it's very easy to learn and use. It is also much less demanding of both space and resources than Photoshop or Gimp.

 

http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

[Deraldin]

There is a pretty huge change between OpenOffice.org version 1 and 2.  You may want to take a look at the 2.0 beta.  I only really know consider it a serious rival to MS Office.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well it certainly looks much nicer now than it did before. I may have to give the new version a chance. Sounds better than the original did.

[Sammael]

I am a Microsoft-based solution developer and I'll second most of the above recommendations, except OpenOffice. In my experience, it's more trouble than it's worth.

 

There are also freeware (open source or not) replacements for Total Commander (e.g. Turbo Manager), ACDSee (IrfanView), and Adobe Acrobat (GhostScript). Ever since this spring's crackdown on IT companies using pirated software in my country, many companies have turned around and started looking for freeware replacements for otherwise really expensive software.

[mkreku]

Oohh, let me add another vote for Irfanview. That's a really great program that I use to open almost any filetype. If you don't know what a file is, just send it to Irfanview and it usually recommends the right type for you. It can also show/play everything from mp3, to divx, to jpeg and swf and txt. I love it!

[Bokishi]

Thanks for the links Ender.