The OpenOffice is probably the chief competitor Microsof Office. The OpenOffice pack contains text editor, spreadsheet, presentation editor and draw editor. This pack can open and edit common MS Office documents in all version including last Office XML format. For routinely home using is OpenOffice very good and suitable. Very useful is a function for direct export to the PDF format.
OpenOffice is worth to try, it’s free.
Mozilla Thunderbird is probably the best open source e-mail client for Windows. You can download it in many language mutations and also for other operating systems. It supports extension by many add-ons and is very easy to add a new function. Of course you can develop your own add-on and provide it community. There is how-to help on the official website. For developer’s advices serves Add-ons forum.
Open Source For Windows
The classic scenario a few years back was as follows. One used to work on UNIX Desktops/workstations at the workplace and use Microsoft Windows at home. Over the past few years, there has been significant developments in the Linux arena; Flashy Desktops like GNOME and KDE have emerged, which have brought Linux closer to Windows as the platform of choice, even for the home users. The difference between Windows and Linux was largely from the fact that Linux, or UNIX at large, was regarded as a platform for the “geeks”.
This has however changed over the past few years, with several applications being developed, both for Windows as well as Linux operating systems. However, there are still several people, who are comfortable with Windows as a platform and appreciate its features and capabilities. The traditional home user had to practically purchase the software applications, for word processing, image processing, etc. and the cost of the software exceeded the cost of the entire infrastructure. This was one of the main motivators for Linux platform to gain popularity among the home users. There are still several people out there, who wish to use Windows as their preferred operating system, but would like to cut down or completely eliminate the need to pay for the other software applications. In this article, we shall address this audience and I shall provide you with a few sample applications that a normal home user may wish to use and which are completely free.
A few years back, the business model was based on product, where the revenue was derived from selling software licenses. However, this is a one-time earning. The scenario has changed over the years. Software development is no longer about developing and selling military/ consumer applications from scratch. Its evolved to be much more than that. Software development has moved to integrating different services to a cohesive whole which then implements your business/personal needs. With that, the value addition comes from “software services”. Software services is where concerns could reap their profits, in addition to the mainstream software sales. This should not be a surprise, as the products to evolve to address the developments in business. With globalization being the trend of the day, the product has to keep evolving to stay in the market place. And with additions to the product, the services also need to be revamped, creating new areas of business and consulting. This works perfectly well in a corporate setting, where the changes in the business needs far reflects on the IT infrastructure, which evolves with the business. However, the normal home user’s needs do not usually evolve at this pace. The home users often are happy to use products, which they are comfortable using or have used already and are familiar with. This is why the home users still prefer Windows to Linux desktops, though Linux desktops are cheaper than their counterpart.
Microsoft is still regarded as a “closed source” platform for which one has to shell out money by way of software purchases. The difference between Linux and Microsoft computers, in the market, is also large. As a matter of fact, several companies offer pre-installed Windows versions on the notebooks and work stations. And not everybody is computer savvy. Several people I’ve met are typical home users, and the computer is a tool to communicate or for low end usage such as writing letters and documents or processing the fotos from the vacation. This is also a selling point for the Linux gurus, who argue on the lack of free software for Windows. This argument would have been valid a few years back, when the Open Source community was still small. However, now a days, there are several Universities, companies and research institutes moving their business into mainstream Open Source. Going open source has open up a new means to do business, of which we are gaining the community support and engagement, which would accompany us a long way into the future. That way, an ecosystem is created, which produce components that supplement your product. Along these lines, one could find almost all the applications for Linux as well as Windows. So, the argument that one needs to pay “big bucks” for the software has been deemed invalid.
Coming back to my original claim, with open source, the product development is no longer an issue. The quality of the software is better and the modifications to source, meaning feature additions, deletions or improvements to the developmental code, are mostly integrated back by the community into the mainstream product at various releases or versions of the software product. There are several software applications for Windows that I use, which are open source. One also has to analyze one’s needs, before one could make claims regarding the availability of software. For instance, a company secretary may be interested in Word processing application, whilst a software developer may be interested in compilers, IDEs and the like. Addressing the individual needs is the main point that one should consider when arguing for/against open source applications. Towards this, I shall point out a few free/open source software applications that I currently use.
1. Notepad++ : A better notepad with syntax highlighting and support for programming languages
2. Freemind : Mind mapping software
3. Paint. NET : A better paint application
4. GIMP : An alternative to Adobe Photoshop
5. Open/Star Office : An alternative to MS-Office. I absolutely like it. Its from Sun, the company I work for.
6. Firefox : An alternative to Internet Explorer. I think you may already be using this by now.
7. Thunderbird : A snappy e. mail client. An alternative to MS-Outlook or other proprietary e. mail clients
8. iTunes : An audio player
9. Audacity : An audio processing application
10. Jahshaka : A video processing application
11. VLC Player : A comprehensive video player application
12. RSS Reader : A news reader application
13. Webshots : An application to process your photos to a nice looking desktop
14. OpenWorkbench : A free project management application
15. FileZilla : A good FTP client to transfer files between clients
16. NetBeans : A great IDE to develop Java applications. Support extends to other programming languages too.
17. XAMPP : An integrated Apache, MySQL, PhP and PERL stack for web servers.
18. Scribus : Desktop publishing in PDF, PS and several other formats
19. Juice : Listen to and collect interesting podcasts. A supplement to iTunes.
20. Blender : 3D modeling and animation toolkit. I use this very occasionally.
21. World Wind : A product, similar to Google Earth, from NASA.
22. CCleaner : A system cleaning utility
These are a few applications that I have on my Windows notebook. The only problem is that one has to spend time researching the suitable Open Source applications. A software engineer by profession, I am strongly against pirated software. The thought of paying for the software I use occasionally or never is another driver behind using such open source products. Software, though its virtual and cannot be seen or touched physically, is pretty much like any other Engineering product like a dam or a bridge, calling for talent, engagement, commitment, time and much more to produce. So, the presence of such open source applications allows you to either “buy” the software that you want or look for the open source alternative. Additionally, these efforts are all community driven. you may contribute to these communities, either with your free-time by means such as blogging, e. mail advertising, marketing, recommending these products to friends and family, etc or by making small monetary contributions.
So, open source is not only the order of the day in a corporate setting, but also extends itself to the normal home user.
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