Open Source alternatives to commercial software (a list)
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 |
Azureus (Win, Linux, OSX)
Comment by marten — January 13, 2006 @ 16:12Movie & stream-player
- Mplayer (Win, Linux, OSX)
Community building
- JColl ! ! ffs gus promote your projects
Completly forgot
Comment by gus — January 30, 2006 @ 17:33Correction to the list:
LinuxCAD is not an open source program. Yeah, it’ll run on linux, but it is most definately closed source, not free as in beer, not free as in freedom. $199 / closed source with an API.
Comment by Chris — March 14, 2006 @ 06:43And LinuxCAD was removed from the List…
Comment by frepa — March 14, 2006 @ 09:05[...] Open Source Alternatives to Commercial Software A common problem for schools (and others as well) is to find the right Open Source alternatives to commercial software. As I have been asked about this at several occasions I have put together a list of alternatives - a list that hopefully will grow gradually… [...]
Pingback by Välkommen till von Dewall » Blog Archive » Alternativ till kommersiella program — March 19, 2006 @ 08:16Thanks for the great list! It’s a shame most free alternatives aren’t really popular amongst regular computer users, even though they’re often as powerful as their pricey competitors..
Btw, don’t forget Paint.Net, great open source imaging solution :-):
Comment by Abby — March 4, 2007 @ 14:18http://www.getpaint.net/
I’d appreciate if you could update the link for linux4chemistry under Pedagogical Software/Chemistry/An extensive list of chemistry applications to
http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~noel/linux4chemistry/linux4chemistry.py?state=0&license=Open+Source&category=all
Comment by Noel O'Boyle — March 6, 2007 @ 13:23[...] Frepa.blog On E Learning and Learning Technology » Open Source Alternatives to Mercial Sof…Xine Linux Video Player Media Player etc. VLC media player A very petent FTP Remote Access UltraVNC Media Videowww.frepa.org [...]
Pingback by Visit Go Info » — June 15, 2007 @ 05:32Good article! your site let me learn more. Thanks!Pls keep up to date.
Comment by Oliver — June 6, 2008 @ 12:20