Open source software can save you hundreds of dollars

[hermione]

For those of you who aren't familiar with open source software, it is free programs designed by people operating under the GNU system and GPL license where they intend the users of the software to be free to use, copy, and share the program.

One program that has saved us a lot of money is the Open Office Suite, which is similar to the Microsoft Suite. There is a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), drawing (Draw), database (Base), presentation (Impress), and even a math program. You can install them all or just the ones you need (we just use Writer, Calc and Draw).

While they are not quite as fancy and aesthetically pleasing as the Microsoft programs, they are more than capable of most everyday and business tasks. We use the Calc program for doing our taxes, Draw for drafting patterns for our dog clothing designs, and Writer for letters, invoices, coupons, etc.

Another program we have used in the past is GIMP, which is a sort of Photoshop alternative. This program isn't as advanced as Photoshop, and we use Photoshop Elements for our graphic design and photo editing for our businesses, but is probably competent enough for the average user and basic photo touch-ups or graphics.

Last of all, if you are in need of an operating system, you should check out Ubuntu. It looks a little foreign and takes getting used to, but works just as well, and best of all it's free. We use Windows XP for the most part because it came free and pre-installed with our computer, but we have an Ubuntu CD on hand for when Windows acts up.

For email, I recommend Thunderbird, which is a great alternative to the Microsoft Outlook email program. I've been using it for a year now and am very happy with it.

Well, I hope someone finds this information helpful. These programs have saved us hundreds of dollars, and I thought I'd pass it on here as I have received a lot of helpful information from this forum.

For more info on open source and free software:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

[amandajane]

It's great isn't it Here's a few more:

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki....php/Main_Page

It's a great mindmapping software that is developed by a university, I've been using it for a couple of years for study and found it to be invaluable.

http://www.blender.org/

3d modelling software

http://jahshaka.org/

has open source video editing software, I downloaded it recently but haven't used it yet, back to Uni in a couple of weeks though, I'm sure it will come in useful there.

Also www.sourceforge.net has a great search facility where you can find just about anything.

[jkuo13]

Great suggestions. I'll add a few that I like:

Inkscape - vector drawing program (along the lines of Illustrator or CorelDraw, though not quite as slick as the commercial offerings).

Paint.net - photo/picture editor that can replace the built-in Windows paint program. Lighter download and slicker looking than Gimp, but not quite as full-featured.

Truecrypt - On-the-fly filesystem encryption

Audacity - Audio editor

Aptana - nifty Web development environment, at least for those advanced enough to be hand coding their web pages.

CDBurnerXP - for your CD/DVD burning needs (maybe not open source, but free)

[wildgift]

GIMP is great!

Other ones I like are gFTP, Filezilla, gvim, Pidgin, and Rhythmbox.

I've been on Linux as my main OS for the past four years, and it's been pretty cool.

You all should give little donations to the software authors. It'll make you feel good.

[VaranusK]

Can't agree more. Nowadays opensource has reached an excellent quality and I have a free alternative to almost all the commercial programs I use.

Do not forget Firefox, the best browser out there!! It's free, fast and SAFE

[hermione]

Oh, yes, Firefox is my main browser. I also use Sea Monkey which has a pretty good WYSIWYG html editor for making web pages. I also find that the Sea Monkey is faster than Firefox for surfing the web.

[NaturallyCheap]

Opera is the fastest and leaning browser you can get on windows!

[alex]

A couple of well-maintained lists of open source software are:

http://www.opensourcemac.org/ for Mac users, and http://www.opensourcewindows.org/ for Windows users.

[smithys1]

Dia. A create visio alternative.

http://live.gnome.org/Dia

[Miss Rosie]

This board is a motherlode for links lately! Alex, thanks for the Mac links. There are a few things in there I could use.

My son uses and loves paint.net. He has a bunch of free flash game sites that he and his friends really enjoy. I'll ask him to e-mail me a list so I can share it. He also plays Maple Story (maplegloal.com, I think), which is a free sidescrolling MMORPG. It seems to be the adolescent male equivalent of the interminable teenaged girl phone calls. They hang out in the game when they can't hang out in person.