Five Best Open Source Apps For Windows
Screenshot of Gimp 2.6
Infoworld today released a slide show presentation of their take on the ten best open source software applications for Windows. I’m not sure that I totally agree with all of them, so I have my own list of great free, open source apps that no Windows user should be without:
- Open Office - I agree with them on this one. While I long for the day that I can use my MS Access databases seamlessly with OpenOffice, in almost every other respect this open source software program has taken away 90% of my need to pay for MS Office. It opens, edits, and saves Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents with ease, and the development community behind it is always releasing new updates to add features and fix problems.
- Filezilla – This is the other app that I agree with Infoworld on. I use it almost every day to manage the many different web sites that I am in charge of. You can’t ask for a better free FTP client.
- VideoLan Client (VLC) - While I am also a fan of Media Player Classic, VLC has really made me a big fan of late. It is a small yet powerful media player that has been able to play almost any file that I ask it to. There is also a version that can fit on a USB stick to take with you when using someone else’s computer.
- The GIMP – I consider myself to be a very novice photographer, but I still make use of the more powerful tools and abilities of the GIMP to edit my photos. The interface and controls take a little bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you will no longer have a need for paying hundreds of dollars for Photoshop.
- Audacity – I also use Audacity all of the time as a music educator. This simple, free application is a modest yet powerful audio recorder and editor that can be used for podcasting, mixing your own remix of your favorite tunes, or cleaning up recordings of live performances.
Computer Software | admin | 
August 5, 2009 11:32 am
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