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