Open Source alternatives
My list of Open Source alternatives to commercial software
(Please feel fee to comment and suggest other software to be included in the list!)
| Type of software | Open Source alternative(s) |
| Office Software | |
| Office Suites (Microsoft Office) | Open Office (Win | Linux | Mac) NeoOffice (Mac) KOffice (Linux) Gnome Office (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Word Processing | Abi Word [word processing] (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Desktop Publishing | |
| Desktop Publishing | Scribus (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Diagram Software | |
| Diagram (Visio etc.) | Dia (Linux) |
| Bibliography Software | |
| Bibliograpgy & Reference DB (EndNote etc.) | RefDB Pybliographer (Linux) |
| Graphics and Image Software | |
| Image Editing (PhotoShop) | The Gimp (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Vector Graphics (FreeHand, Illustrator etc) | Incscape (Win | Linux | Mac) XFig (Linux) |
| 3D modeling, animation, rendering | Blender [Very competent] (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| CAD | |
| Digital Camera | gPhoto (Linux) |
| Web Software | |
| Webeditor (DreamVeawer, Frontpage) | NVU (Win | Linux | Mac) Bluefish (Linux) |
| Webbrowser (Explorer) | Firefox (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Flash | Flash for Linux (Linux) OSFP |
| Project Management | |
| Project Planing (MS Project etc.) | GanttProject (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Utilities | |
| CD/DVD Burner | CDBurnerXP Pro XCD Roast |
| Zip (WinZip etc) | 7-Zip (Win) |
| Hot Key Utilities | Qliner (Win) |
| Windows software in Linux | Wine (Linux) [for runing Windows software in Linux] |
| PDF (Acrobat) | PDF Creator (Win) |
| Notes | A-Note [Post-It notes] (Win) |
| Security & Privacy | |
| Encryption | GnuPGP (Win | Linux | Mac) Windows Privacy Tray (Win) |
| Secure Erase Utilities | Eraser (Win) DBAN |
| SSH | Open SSH for Windows Putty [Secure SSH , Telnet and FTP] |
| Remote Access | UltraVNC |
| Media | |
| Video Editing | Linux DV/Kino [Basic] (Linux) KDEnlive (Linux) Cinelerra [Advanced] (Linux) Media Portal [Multi-Media Center / HTPC] (Win) Virtual Dub [Video editing] (Win) |
| CD players and Rippers | MPlayer (Win | Linux | Mac) Grip [Player and Ripper] (Linux) Xine (Linux) |
| Video Player (Media Player etc.) | VLC media player [A very competent media Player] (Win | Linux | Mac | BeOS) WX Music (Win | Linux) |
| Music (editing, composing) | Audacity [Sound recording and editing] (Win | Linux | Mac | BeOS) |
| Communication Software | |
| e-mail (Outlook etc.) | Mozilla Thunderbird (Win | Linux | Mac) Pegasus Mail (Win) |
| Web browser (Explorer etc.) | |
| FTP Client | Filezilla (Win) |
| Instant Messaging (ICQ, Messenger) | Gaim (Win | Linux | Mac) Kopete (Linux) |
| Chat/IRC | ChatZilla (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Groupware Client (Lotus Notes, MS Outlook) | Evolution (Linux) |
| Bit Torrent | Azureus (Win) |
| "Pedagogical" Software | |
| Chemistry | Kalzium (Linux) An extensive list of chemistry applications |
| Math | Kgeo GraphCalc (Win | Linux) |
| Information Organization & Concept Map | |
| Minmap (Mind Manager) | FreeMind |
| Organizers/Outliners | NeoMem (Win) |
| Concept Map | Conzilla (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Ontology | Protege |
| Misc. | |
| P2P Clients | MLDonkey (Linux) Sancho (Win | Linux | Mac) Azureus [BitTorrent] (Win, Linux, OSX) |
| Fonts | FontForge (Linux) |
| Spellcheck | Aspell (Win | Linux) |
| System Development | |
| Programming | Eclipse (IDE) (Win | Linux | Mac) Netbeans (IDE) (Win | Linux | Mac) BlueJ Free Pascal Python (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Java implementations (SUN JDK/JRE) | An extensive list |
| Code Editor | JEdit (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| E-Learning Software | |
| Virtual Learning Environments (VLE, LMS, LCMS etc.) | LAMS Moodle VWE JColl [Community Building] |
| Learning Content Authoring | eXe (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| e-Portfolio | SCAM Portfolio (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Online presentation | ePresence (Win | Linux) |
| Operating Systems | |
| Linux | Debian Fedora [RedHat] Ubuntu Knoppix [Runs Linux from CD ROM] An extensive list of Linux distributions |
| Free BSD | Free BSD |
| Server Software | |
| Database (SQL Server, Oracle etc.) | MySQL (Win | Linux | Mac) PostGreSQL (Linux) Hypersonic (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| Catalogue (Active Directory etc.) | Open LDAP |
| Groupware Server (MS Exchange, Lotus Notes etc) | Open Exchange [Open Source implementation of MS Exchage functionality] |
| Web server (IIS etc.) | Apache http server |
| FTP Server | Filezilla Server (Win) |
| Application servers | JBoss TomCat Apache Geronimo |
| Spam Filter | POPFile (Win | Linux | Mac) |
| P2P Server | OpenNap [Napster server] |
| Media Streaming (Real Server, Media Server etc.) | Video Lan Streaming Server [VLC] |
| Web Publishing (CMS, blog, Wiki etc.) |
|
| Content management Systems – CMS | OpenCMS InfoGlue Zope Plone Apache Lenya Post Nuke Typo Xoops |
| Portals | JetSpeed uPortal |
| Bloging | Wordpress Typo Drupal |
| Wiki | MediaWiki |