Favorite Open Source Apps

Jun 13

I enjoy open source applications for a number of reasons. And they don’t really relate to the fact that I program.

1. They are free. How could you want to pay for software when you can have it legally for free?

2. It’s more agile (updated more quickly) in general.

3. It supports freedom and the opportunity for anyone to get into the software market simply by having a good product.

4. They are built by a community that by definition is giving and supportive.

5. If I wanted to, I could try to understand the code on my own. Now, I don’t because I don’t exactly have all of the time in the world to understand the source code of applications that are extremely complicated (why would I be using them if they weren’t complicated). Nevertheless it’s rather comforting to know that I could. :P

Anyways, enough of why I like them. Here are some of my favorites!

1. Firefox - the now ubiquitous web browser has come out of the open sourcing of the Netscape Navigator. It is a “modern” web browser with pretty much full support for web standards. Plus I love the extensions that you can add on at will. Someday I’ll write a post of my favorite extensions. But in any case, it’s standards-compliant, customizable, and supported by a huge community of developers and testers.

2. Open Office - an awesome replacement suite for your office needs. It has all of the programs that you would need if you’re a Microsoft Office user. It supports more formats than MS Office does, and it is instantly easy to use for anyone who has used any office productivity program.

3. AmaroK - this is an awesome music player. The only drawback is that it’s only available on Linux. It is an iTunes-like player with integration with a myriad of services including automatic lyric retrieval, last.fm synchronization, and wikipedia integration for information about the artist that you’re currently listening to! They’re starting work on porting this application to other systems, but this would be a huge incentive for any music lover to go to linux.

4. VLC media player - plays pretty much any format of media that you can throw at it (with the exception of the closed Real media). It’s lightweight and it is on any platform that you could have!

5. Pidgin - recently renamed from GAIM because of a settlement, this is an instant messaging program that supports lots of different protocols out there. And that means that you can replace all of your chatting programs with this single program. Its looks are similar to other projects, but it surpasses them in features.

6. GIMP - the Gnu Image Manipulation Project is a full-featured replacement for your image editing needs. It can even help you make your own passport pictures. Photoshop is ridiculously expensive. People always cheat and install illegal copies. This is a great replacement for pretty much everyone out there. You can even make it look like Photoshop with Gimpshop!

7. Ubuntu - this platform is obviously getting more and more recognition. I could have stated that I like Linux, but I do in fact just use Ubuntu. There is a huge community, and it’s growing quickly. It is a really easy operating system to use (familiar enough for anyone who has previously used an operating system) with some very good hardware support. It plays nice with older hardware (the server that this blog is currently hosted on was originally running Windows 98, but now runs quite nicely on Ubuntu).

8. Apache - on that note, the Apache software foundation is making some really awesome server software. It powers quite a lot of the Internet. It’s easy to set up and there is lots and lots of documentation out there for its use.

I guess that was basically split up with the top half being the more “usable” programs that everyone would want to use while the end was geared more towards specialized uses. Nevertheless, I think that everyone out there could stand to try out the products coming out of these software projects. Even if you decide to use your commercial program (which is not a problem if it’s better and more for what you need) then that’s fine. But for lots of people, especially those with illegal software, you might want to try out these programs. And then you should read Music Piracy Makes People Stupid for a longer post about why I think that cheating, stealing, etc is so despicable. And then you should own up, repent, and go sit in the corner. We can all sit there together while we think about what we’ve done.