Open Source
This is adapted from the Open Source Your Day v2.0.1 thread in the OCAU forums.
"Since the Original "Open Source Your Day!" thread has faded into disrepair, I though I'd open up a new one for all you looking to change your ways. I'll start off with the Software introduced in the First thread, and, as always, please suggest your favourite Open Source Product! Now on with the programs!" - Warhamster
Contents |
Internet
Browser
Mozilla Firefox
Firefox is the king of browsers in my opinion. It's extremely easy to pick up from using Internet Explorer. Firefox is considered one of the most secure browsers to use. There is also a wide developer community that releases a plethora of customization options such as Plugins, themes, and extensions.
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is another popular Mozilla application. I haven't used Thunderbird as much as I would have liked to, but when I was using it, it was very user friendly. In the same fashion as Firefox, it's also very customizable and supported by a wide community.
Messenger
GAIM
GAIM is a great multiplatform messenger client; with support for most versions of Linux, BSD, Mac OS-X and Windows. GAIM supports such protocols as AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr networks. I used GAIM for a while a I thought it was great having IRC and MSN conversations going in the one program. As is the trend with Open Source products, it's also very customizable.
Miranda-IM
I've heard of Miranda before, but I've never had the chance to use it. After reading the support, and the face that it requires no installation I've been keen to try it out. Miranda supports the ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, Tlen, Netsend, plus more protocols. It's also small enough to fit on a floppy, so it's a definate candidate for my USB program collection.
FTP
FileZilla
FileZilla is a great little program for FTP transfers. You can get both the client and the server going. FileZilla has plenty of features you'd find in a proprietary FTP client. Great Program.
IRC
X-Chat 2
A very powerful IRC client that has support for Perl, Ruby, and TCL scripting. As the name suggests, originally an X11 app, thanks to GTK has made its way to Windows. The xchat.org site has a windows version that is trialware, but as this is a GNU GPL program, I tracked down someone who is making their own, registration free builds.
Development
Office Suite
OpenOffice
OpenOffice.org (OOo) is a brilliant free alternative to M$ Office. It's very usable and functional. As soon as my homework starts coming in and I need an office suite, I'll be installed OpenOffice. OpenOffice runs stably and natively on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), Windows, Mac OS X, and numerous other platforms. It also supports 45 languages. OpenOffice offers functionality in the form of a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, plus many other features.
Image Manipulation
The GIMP
The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is THE Photoshop equivalent. Although it's greatly underestimated by many, this is a great program for anyone who's interested in Image manipluation.
3D Modelling and Animation
Blender
Blender 3D is probably the best free alternative to proprietary 3D software. As was discussed in the old thread, Blender is fast making it's way up to the level of the likes of Maya 3D and 3D Studio MAX. I've used a little of Blender, and I found that the interface was similiar to the interface of 3D Studio MAX.
Vector Graphics
Inkscape
Inkscape is the Open Source alternative to the likes of Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, and CoralDraw. Feel free to give me your opinions on this, as I've never used Vector Graphics....
Audio Editor
Audacity
Audacity is a free audio editing program. It's available for Mac OS X, M$ Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Audacity is just great. I used it for the first time today to edit an MP3. It was quite easy to pick up. I've never used any Audio Editing program before and Audacity will definately be my pick.
Notepad Replacment
Programmers Notepad
Now this is a great program. Back when I was still interested in coding this was my pick for a Notepad. It's a great little program; offering Tabs, Syntax Highlighting, Code Folding and many more features. (Thanks Nexx!)
Notepad++
Notepad++ is a free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.
This project, based on Scintilla edit component (a very powerful editor component) are written in C++ with pure win32 api and STL (that ensures the higher execution speed and smaller size of the program), is under the GPL Licence.
It's great for programming and editing BAS files.
IDEs
PHP
Maguma Open Studio
Maguma Open Studio is a Windows based IDE for PHP. Open Studio is full of features that the average PHP developer needs to accomplish his/her tasks with precision and speed. I had a look at this program today, and it's got an interface you can easily get into.
Java
NetBeans
Netbeans is a platform independant IDE for Java written in Java. This IDE is full of features which include an inbuilt Apache server with Tomcat to assist in J2EE development. This would have to be the easiest to use IDE that is open source and focused on Java.
Eclipse
Eclipse is more than an IDE, its an open source collection of projects mainly focused on Java but includes other languages. Part of Eclipse is the Eclipse IDE which is a java based open source IDE with a focus on plugins for extensibility.
Multimedia
Codecs
FFDShow
FFDShow is a directshow filter package based on the ffmpeg project. It allows directshow based players (eg: Windows Media Player) to play a variety of audio and video codecs. All the decoders are free, open, and often faster implementations of the official codecs. It also includes a variety of filters to enhance visual quality (sharpen, blur, colour correction, deblocking)
Main Video filters: - Mpeg1 - Mpeg2 (DVD, SVCD) - Mpeg4 (DivX, XviD) - Ogg Theora - H.264
Main Audio filters: - MP3 - Ogg Vorbis - WMA - FLAC - AAC - AC3 - DTS
Movie Player
Media Player Classic
Media Player Classic looks just like Windows Media Player 6.4, but has many additional features. It has built in DVD playback and supports a variety of video formats such as Mastroska, OGM, Quicktime* and Real* The advantage of this player is its lightness and easy to use interface. Used in conjuction with FFDShow it becomes very powerful.
* requires codecs installed from the official player or alternatives.
VideoLan
Videolan Client is a portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, Ogg, OGM, MOV, wma, wmv...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream media on a high-bandwidth network. The advantage of VLC is that it uses built in decoders and is independent of your system codecs.
MPlayer
MPlayer uses the same built-in decoders as VLC, but supports an even wider variety of file formats. It has long been considered the movie player for Linux, and has recently spread out to other platforms. Its advantage is its speed and ability to play almost any file you throw at it. Its disadvantage is its steep learning curve to use. You can install the official version, and skin it for a GUI, or install the Beta GUI from the link.
ZINF
Zinf Is Not FreeA*p is a audio player similar to WinAMP, that runs on Windows and GNU/Linux. The Windows build hasn't been maintained in a while, but still works fine.
Thanks
"Thanks nexx! {PN, Mplayer, Media Player Classic, VideoLan, & FFDShow}
"Thanks to AndyFitz for the original thread, and to all of the websites for information I couldn't think of, plus the logos.
"Before anybody comments about the Freeware thread in this very section of the OCAU forums, please note that Open Source software does more than provide the Binaries for the program.
"Keep in mind that this is just a small snippet of Open Source Software. Please feel free to post your favourite Open Source program and I'll add it into this post. <3 Open Source." - Warhamster
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