Getting into open source
When you talk about open source software, most PC users conjure up images of trying to get Linux installed and failing dismally.
Which is unfortunate because there are countless open source applications that both run on Windows (and often Mac OS X) and are great alternatives to expensive proprietary software. Here we take a look at eight of the best open source applications for Windows.
Office suite: OpenOffice.org
It’s hard not to start with OpenOffice.org. Two weeks ago version 3.0 of this open source office suite was released and within one week more than three million copies were downloaded. What is also interesting is that almost 2.5 million of those were the Windows version.
OpenOffice.org has pretty much everything the average user could expect from a desktop office suite. And perhaps a lot that most users don’t need. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, a graphics application and, now, even an Access database application replacement.
For most users OpenOffice.org is a relatively easy replacement for something like Microsoft Office, because it both opens and writes documents in the .doc, .ppt and .xls format. And OpenOffice.org 3.0 also includes support for opening documents in the .docx format, the new format in recent Microsoft Office releases. http://www.openoffice.org
Vector illustration: Inkscape
Not all of us are full time graphic artists. So, as fantastic as Adobe’s Illustrator is, its price tag is overkill if all you want to do is make up simple vector graphics for your website. Which is not to say Inkscape is simplistic. It has enough features to impress most illustrators but is simple enough to be used by even the less experienced illustrator. And with a price tag of zero is a great alternative for desktop drawing. www.inkscape.org
Image editing: GIMP
Much has been said about the Gimp. It is a Photoshop clone that runs on most platforms and is great for editing photos, deep-etching and the like. The one drawback to Gimp has always been that it doesn’t do CMYK output, which is a big hurdle if you’re a print publisher, but aside from that Gimp does a whole lot more than most users will ever need. And it supports countless formats, does full layering as well as text control. www.gimp.org
Multimedia: VLC
Looking for a video player that can play just about every imaginable media format? Then look no further than VLC. This is one of the best tools around for video playback. VLC can play, among others, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, and ogg format files as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. VLC can also be used to server to stream media across a network. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Instant messaging: Pidgin
Instant messaging is one of the more popular methods of communication on the Web. So you need an IM client that supports as many protocols and networks as possible. Pidgin, which used to be called Gaim, is one such tool. The list of networks Pidgin supports is pretty long and includes the likes of AIM, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, XMPP and Yahoo!. Pidgin is clean and makes it easy to manage multiple networks. www.pidgin.im
Email: Thunderbird
If you’re looking for a free quality email client then consider Thunderbird. It is from the Mozilla people, makers of Firefox, so you have an idea of what to expect. Thunderbird runs on just about any platform, supports POP and IMAP email, has a great tagging facility for managing your email, a built-in RSS reader and built in warnings of potential scams hitting your email inbox. The nice thing about Firefox is that it runs on all popular platforms so if you have multiple machines it can be used on all so you don’t have to make a mental switch every time you switch mail clients. And because it is built in the same way Firefox is, Thunderbird has a good collection of extensions that enhance its capabilities. www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/thunderbird
Accounting: Turbocash
We all need to keep our finances in order. But paying a whole lot of money for an application to do this doesn’t always make sense. So, if you’re watching your budget and need a financial application then take a look at TurboCash. The free money application is simple to use, developed locally by Pinksoft, and so is well-tailored to local conditions.TurboCash is a full featured accounting system that can be used for everything from running the household budget to keeping the finances of a small business in check. www.turbocash.co.za
Web browsing: Firefox
Finally, the big one. Most people probably already know of Firefox even if they don’t yet run it. Firefox is one of the success stories of the open source world. From origins in the original Netscape code, Mozilla created Firefox, the browser that changed much of the way we think about browsers. Instead of the all-in-one approach of early Netscape editions, Firefox introduced the world to the idea of a slimline base package that could be extended in every which way possible. It also made popular the now ubiquitous tabbed browsing interface that most users could not live without. It may not be as popular as Internet Explorer yet but it is among the best open source software around. www.firefox.com
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