Submitted by Charles on Wed, 05/17/2006 - 23:40.
Recently I read the cover article of PC World which advertised 101 Fabulous Freebies (www.find.pcworld.com/52516). It is a description of 101 software downloads or Internet based services that are free. A number of the software products listed are open source. Wikipedia defines Open Source software as "computer software available with its source code and under an open source license. Such a license permits anyone to study, change, and improve the software, and to distribute the unmodified or modified software."
Over the the last few months I've gained a much greater appreciation for the variety of applications and incredible value that can be had through the use of applications that are legally available for free. In many of the major categories that I would want to use, there are open source counterparts available. Instead of using Adobe Photoshop, you can use The GIMP. Instead of using Microsoft Office, you can use Open Office. Instead of using Dreamweaver for web design, you can use NVU. After reading the PC World article above, I downloaded PDFCreator, so that I could create PDF files without having to buy another copy of Adobe Acrobat. It works great.
All this made me wonder what applications the readers of this site use and would recommend. Please post your answers as comments below.
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Firefox web browser
Without a doubt my favorite open source application is the firefox web browser. This corss platform app has saved me more time than any other app out there. I do not worry about the multitude of virus' that are delivered by Internet explorer's many falws. Pages render fast and the number of site on the internet that only support IE are dropping every day.
I consider firefox to be the best browser available to date. The fact that it is open source is just a bonus.
Linux, Open Office, Gimp, Drupal... ACTlab TV, next...
REALNEO runs the world's best Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS/FOSS) content management system - Drupal - and we are honored to be part of the development community for that.
Internet browsers were always free, as the development was funded by the government of the world for scientific purposes - Microsoft just perverted the marketplace by branding and forking thier version into a poison pill. What I find most imortant in the FLOSS world is Linux - the operating system that takes UNIX free and open and blows the Microsoft and Apple operating systems (OS) out of the water - to which you add and OpenOffice to close the MicroSoft office forever...
NOTE - most Microsoft OS sales (80%) are for their crappy OS, preloaded on new computers sold to ignorant consumers. Lenovo, new owners of dominant IBM's PC business (for which they are dropping the name IBM, in the interest of escaping any appearance of lock-in to America), and the growth of the international PC market will change all that, as global consumers refuse to be ripped off by Microsoft and collusive hardware vendors (even though Microsoft is deeply discounting their garbage to dump it in developing markets). So, quickly the computer manufacturers will stop forcing worthless product expenses on the lives of ignorant newbies and the poor.
But my favorite personal FLOSS ap right now is Gimp, which puts Adobe/Marcomedia Photoshop out of business - thanks to Charles Burkett, Phllip Wlliams and the Digital Photography SIG for providing me the introduction to this great world, and saving me from wasting my money and time getting locked into Photoshop.
Next on my curve innovating my life through FLOSS is the rich media world, which would not be accessible to me if I had to pay for closed solutions like from Apple - my team and I are now looking to Univesity of Texas Austin's Department of Radio, Television and Film's ACTlab for free open source development in the "video" production and distribution world, which will help finish off Apple, while putting broadcast televison where it belongs, behind us on the withered ramparts of the digital divide. Power to the people!!!
More on ACTlab here - watch REALNEO for developments on and with the FLOSS world - leading the freedom movement in NEO since 2004!
OpenOffice.
OpenOffice.
It does everything Microsoft Office does - and it's free!
http://www.openoffice.org/