Open Source Programs and Free Software

[Chaedi]

With the sometimes outrageous costs of computer programs it’s sad that so many people don’t know of open source software and the benefits of it. Pretty much every program that you can download and use that costs a large chunk of change are also available in open source and free software formats.

Open Source programs for those whom don’t know are programs are programs developed by web users where the coding is available to be manipulated and changed by the users themselves to create a better and more error free working environment. Most importantly since the coding is made available to all users to change the end product is also 100% free. So all those programs that we all used to download and hope not to get caught trying to sneak off of Kazaa back in the day have open source equivalents that you have no need to worry about downloading and having the police come after you.

Free Software is software that has a software license that grants the recipient the rights to modify and redistribute the software as they choose which would typically be illegal due to copyright laws.

I am going to try and create a list of everybody’s favorite open source programs so we can all enjoy the benefits of a free information society.
As we get more programs listed I will try and organize them so they are in some semblance of order in the meantime I will just list them as people post some they use.

GIMP – Raster Graphics Editor

Open Office – Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Graphics and Databases

UBUNTU – A Linux based computer operating system

Blender - 3D Graphics Creation and Animation

Inkscape - Vector Graphics Editor

Avidemux - Video Editing

Malwarebyes - Anti Malwear/Spywear

[vesseblah]

One in ten thousand who download free or opensource software are actually interested in the source, people want stuff for free...

Anyway, skipping the ideology bullshit.

Paint.net is more user friendly than GIMP for Windows
7-Zip for downloaded archive extraction
Media Player Classic Home Cinema for video playing
VideoLAN for video playing
FFDShow for video playing
WinAmp for music playing
OpenOffice is dead for FOSS community since Oracle bought it, and it was forked to LibreOffice months ago
FireFox
Thunderbird
Google Chrome

just listing first 10 things that comes to mind when looking what I have installed in my own computer.

[Chaedi]

Post links to some of these as to where to find them. I had no idea OpenOffice was dead btw. Its what I have been using for years and had no idea about this. I never had a problem with GIMP being user friendly though. How do you figure?

And I realize most people just won't the free stuff just wanted to give a background as to how it works and why it is free.

[haxartus]

Virtualbox http://www.virtualbox.org/
It creates a virtual computer inside your real one and you can do whatever you want with it.
You need to add this to your first post: http://sourceforge.net/

WinAmp for music playing

As far as I know Winamp isn't open source.

[Asera]

GIMP – Raster Graphics Editor

Open Office – Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Graphics and Databases

UBUNTU – A Linux based computer operating system

Blender - 3D Graphics Creation and Animation

Inkscape - Vector Graphics Editor

Avidemux - Video Editing

Malwarebyes - Anti Malwear/Spywear

Just dumping opinions here, a lot of the FOSS alternatives to software I use often has been lackluster at best. Open Office is horrible and is even worse now that Oracle owns it. Inkscape is ok for someone learning the concept of vector editing, but in practice and industry it sucks since it ONLY works in SVG. GIMP is awful - NOTHING can compare to Photoshop for bitmap editing. Blender is alright, probably the best of the bunch just because most other 3D suites are either ludicrously expensive, a pain in the ass, or unstable. It's interface could use some work since the last time I used it though. As for the rest, I've never used them.

Ubuntu has come pretty far for a Linux distro, but it's starting to feel more like a free alternative to OSX rather than Windows. I've never been a big fan of Linux anyway.

FireFox used to be a nice concept until the hipster community blew it way out of control and now it's just a cult. Thunderbird has always sucked due to lack of MAPI support. Most businesses use Exchange, BES or both, and the average home user will just punch in gmail.com on their browser, effectively making most of these mail clients a waste of time.

And yeah, WinAmp isn't open source at all, and is only mostly free.

[Seregon]

Just dumping opinions here, a lot of the FOSS alternatives to software I use often has been lackluster at best. Open Office is horrible and is even worse now that Oracle owns it. Inkscape is ok for someone learning the concept of vector editing, but in practice and industry it sucks since it ONLY works in SVG. GIMP is awful - NOTHING can compare to Photoshop for bitmap editing. Blender is alright, probably the best of the bunch just because most other 3D suites are either ludicrously expensive, a pain in the ass, or unstable. It's interface could use some work since the last time I used it though. As for the rest, I've never used them.

Ubuntu has come pretty far for a Linux distro, but it's starting to feel more like a free alternative to OSX rather than Windows. I've never been a big fan of Linux anyway.

FireFox used to be a nice concept until the hipster community blew it way out of control and now it's just a cult. Thunderbird has always sucked due to lack of MAPI support. Most businesses use Exchange, BES or both, and the average home user will just punch in gmail.com on their browser, effectively making most of these mail clients a waste of time.

And yeah, WinAmp isn't open source at all, and is only mostly free.

While I would agree that most open source software can't compare to their proprietary counterparts they can get you quite far. We're talking about software developed by the community where no one is paid a dime (more or less). With that in mind, the extent to which FOSS alternatives can help you is quite vast. Considering how expensive Photoshop is I would absolutely recommend Gimp to anyone who can't afford it.

I run Fedora Linux with a complete set of open source software on my laptop, and I get by just fine with the use of Open Office, Gimp and Wine.

[haxartus]

While I would agree that most open source software can't compare to their proprietary counterparts

There are a lot of examples for open source software which is better than their proprietary counterpart.

[Asera]

There are a lot of examples for open sources software which is better than their proprietary counterparts.

Like what.

7Zip is the only one that comes to mind.

[Seregon]

There are a lot of examples for open source software which is better than their proprietary counterpart.

I stand corrected. What I meant was that in my experience most proprietary software performs better than its FOSS alternative.

Obviously I have yet to try all FOSS.

Like what.

7Zip is the only one that comes to mind.

VLC Media Player is another that I can think of. Off the top of my head anyway.

[vesseblah]

As far as I know Winamp isn't open source.

It's free. See thread topic.

VLC Media Player is another that I can think of. Off the top of my head anyway.

VLC has the same problem as GIMP. It has UI designed by coders who don't know first thing about software usability, and user interfaces is something from 90's I definitely don't want back.

[Asera]

VLC has the same problem as GIMP. It has UI designed by coders who don't know first thing about software usability, and user interfaces is something from 90's I definitely don't want back.

Yeah... I only use it for playing one video at a time personally. Otherwise I just stream to my PS3.

[haxartus]

Like what.

Like more than half of the Internet.

[Asera]

Like more than half of the Internet.

List some...?

[haxartus]

List some...?

Well... the first thing that comes to mind is Apache.

[Asera]

Well... the first thing that comes to mind is Apache.

.... -_-

IIS7 and 7.5 outperform it in most applications, and absolutely demolish it in PHP. As far as I know Apache either doesn't or has extremely poor ASP and .net support. IIS is also much more intuitive to setup and manage websites with. Apache isn't better by any stretch. Most high profile domains use IIS, or something they hash up themselves, with few exceptions. The only advantages of Apache are that it's free and it works crossplatform, which are good advantages, but not enough to automatically make it "way better" than the alternative.

[haxartus]

IIS7

Because everyone is on Windows and Windows is actually good for something. Right...
But let's not make this thread Windows vs Unix/Linux.

[Asera]

You don't have to be running windows to go to a website that runs IIS.

[haxartus]

You don't have to be running windows to go to a website that runs IIS.

But you need Windows to run IIS

[thorimm]

The problem with a lot of open-source software, and particularly with Linux, is a total lack of user-friendliness. Poorly designed interfaces, command line requirements, off-the-shelf compatibility issues...

These are NOT options for most users. Telling someone who has a computer performance issue to "Use Linux" when they can't tell you how much Video RAM is in their machine is NOT a valid solution.

[Asera]

But you need Windows to run IIS

I know. Which is why I listed crossplatform as an advantage of Apache. :s

I'm not saying Apache sucks, I'm saying it's not "way better" than IIS, IA, Akamai, etc etc.