10 Great Open Source Applications
It’s the holiday season, which means it’s also the time for sharing, so with that in mind I present you with a list of my top 10 free, open source applications. All of these programs have been developed and tested by a large community of individuals all dedicated to bringing you the best in free software. So, without further ado:
Here’s one that everyone should be familiar with by now. Firefox takes the cake from Internet Explorer in almost every category, especially security and customizability. Due to its open source nature, there is an unbelievable number of plugins and extensions available that will allow you to do almost anything under the sun. All major platforms are supported, including the Mac.
So you want to play a media file, but Windows Media Player is acting up because it can’t find the proper codec? Why not say bye to Microsoft once again, and try the VLC Media Player. It will even play Apple’s QuickTime codecs and lots more.
What is it with replacing Microsoft products? I’m not sure, but it’s fun, so let’s keep going. Here another good one: Open Office. As you might have guessed, it’s the open source version of Microsoft Office. Open Office comes with six well designed applications. With it, you’ll be able to edit: documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and easily create and present mathematical equations.
If you’re tired of wrestling with Outlook, but don’t want an online service, than Mozilla has the answer in the form of Thunderbird. Like Firefox, Thunderbird is secure, reliable, and also has loads of available plugins. Plus, it also doubles as a feed aggregator for all of your RSS needs.
Nowadays it seems that with every new service that you sign up for you need yet another password. Using the same password over and over simply isn’t all that smart, but having to remember upwards of a hundred passwords is a pain – if not impossible. Well, here’s a great little application that will help you securely note down all of the passwords that you have, and where they belong to.
Let’s face it: the standard AIM client sucks. If, like me, you’re fed up with those nagging ads and the inadequate interface, then Gaim is definitely worth a shot. Not only does it support the AIM protocol, you’ll also be able to chat with your friend on the Yahoo!, MSN, Jabber, ICQ, and Trillian networks.
If simply keeping your passwords secure isn’t enough, then check out True Crypt. Using the industry’s best encryption algorithms, True Crypt will keep your most valuable data so secure that, given a thousand years, even the NSA couldn’t get to it. At its core, TrueCrypt is an on-the-fly (a.k.a. real-time) encryption program that will allow you to create multiple virtual encrypted drives, and you can even use it to encrypt portable media, such as USB drives. Just make sure not to forget the password…
It’s not exactly a Photoshop killer, but the GNU Image Manipulation Program gets pretty darn close. Its interface may be quite different from Photoshop’s, but a vast majority of the tools are all there and ready to make your favorite pictures look a whole lot more professional.
This one is rather specific, but great nonetheless. If you’ve ever tried to work on two computers at once (say, your laptop and your desktop), then you know that it can be quite a hassle to have to switch from one computer’s keyboard and mouse over to the other. Synergy solves that problem. This neat little app will let you utilize your network so that you can use a single keyboard, or any other interface device, will multiple computers. It’s also a great way to use you laptop monitor as an extension to your main system.
Last, but definitely not least, I’ve chosen to include Notepad++, a nifty little text and code editor. It was a very simple tabbed interface, and has language support for close to 40 different languages; anything from classic C all the way to XML. It’s lightweight and fast, which makes it great if you want something with a little more horsepower than Notepad, but not a full blown version Word or Visual Studio.
Since there are so many open source applications out there, I can’t possibly find and test all of them. So if you know of any more great applications, feel free to post links to them in the comments section.
