Open Source software which you might find useful – Post Updated December 2018
There is some very good software out there, Microsoft Office or Photoshop, for example. These are industry standard applications which you would likely use if you are in the workplace or a specialist. However, there are free alternatives for those of us who might be occasional users or who prefer to join the open source movement. You will often see software presented as free when in fact it is designed to extract money from you. You may find your version is a time trial or a cut down version with key features which you have to pay for. Here I have compiled a list of software which, for the most part, is completely free and Open Source. You might think that Open Source software might not be good software. However, the model of world wide communities of volunteers collaboratively creating applications has actually proven to be highly effective. Many open source applications are, in fact, as good if not better than their proprietary counterparts. Let me know what you think about these powerful free tools for getting the job done.
Office Suite – Libre Office https://www.libreoffice.org/ Includes word processor, spreadheet, database, presentation, charts, formula editor, templates and more – it can also open and edit Microsoft office documents and save in pdf format
e-mail client – Thunderbird https://www.thunderbird.net/en-GB/ Access all your email accounts via one interface
Twitter client – Tweeten https://tweetenapp.com/ Manage many Twitter accounts through one application
Sound editing – Audacity http://www.audacityteam.org/home/ Very powerful and fairly easy to use
Video editing – VSDC http://www.videosoftdev.com/ Full featured video editing plus conversion and screen recording tools
Diagramming tool – Dia http://dia-installer.de/ Great for process flowcharts, project plans, technical diagramming
Mind Mapping tool – Edraw https://www.edrawsoft.com/mindmap/ Get your creative ideas down as they emerge – excellent for brainstorming sessions
High End Image Editing – Gimp https://www.gimp.org/ Very powerful but takes time and effort to learn
Lighter Image editing – Paint.net https://www.getpaint.net/download.html Still pretty powerful image editing application, will meet most people’s needs
Photo Editing – Darktable https://www.darktable.org/ Digital darkroom
Project Management – Gantt Project http://www.ganttproject.biz/ Classic desktop project management tool – can open Microsoft Project files
Desktop Publishing – Scribus https://www.scribus.net/ Good for creating newsletters, flyers and brochures
Accounting/Financial Software – GNUCash https://www.gnucash.org/ Desktop accounting very useful for self employed and small businesses
Media Player – Pot Player https://potplayer.daum.net/
Plays a wide range of video and audio files without need to install extra codecs
Media Player – VLC – https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.en-GB.html
General purpose media player runs on Windows, Mac, Unix, Linux, Android
Desktop Planetarium – Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/
Explore the night sky, control time, view the stars from different locations
Text & Code Editor – Notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Great as a general purpose basic text and code editor
Code Editor – Brackets http://brackets.io/ Great code editor focussing on web development
Code Editor – Sublime Text https://www.sublimetext.com/ Great code editor that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux
Database – SQL Server Express – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-editions-express Free desktop version of the powerful Microsoft SQL Server database system – can be used with Visual Studio Development environment and controlled through the Microsoft Management Console
Database – MySQL https://www.mysql.com/downloads/ Open source relational database management system
Database Management Console – MySQL Workbench https://www.mysql.com/products/workbench/ Great tool for managing MySql databases
Open Source Web Development Environment – WAMP http://www.wampserver.com/en/ Windows based open source development environment essential for hosting WordPress, Moodle, Drupal, Joomla and many other web applications – there are versions for other operating systems such as LAMP (Linux) and XAMPP (Mac OS)
FTP Client – Cyberduck – http://download.cnet.com/Cyberduck-for-Windows/3000-18500_4-75623481.html
Great for uploading/downloading files to hosted webspace/webservers
PC Anti-Virus – Windows Defender – https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/14210/security-essentials-download
Comes with Windows 10, can be installed on earlier versions of Windows
Anti- Spy/Adware– Malwarebytes and Malwarebytes AdwCleaner – https://www.malwarebytes.com/products/
Great for cleaning up an infected PC