I got quite a few of pm’s and requests at work from people asking me what sort of programs I use on a daily basis. It was a tough question but I came down to narrowing the answer to just eight softwares. It’s funny that seven out of eight that I am about to mention are free open source and that only one of them is proprietary (meaning you have to pay for it). Some of them are obvious and you’re probably using it right now (WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING) that it is for FREE! Simply because it is open source. If you don’t know what open source is, here is a wiki.
Here Is My List
1. Firefox
Best damn web browser ever! It’s security and add-ons gives this baby huge powers to allow you to customize the way you surf the web. It’s only downside is that it eats shit load of your memory processor. But there is a simple fix for it by ticking off some of web browser script that comes in by the default installation.
FireFox DL
2. OpenOffice
I’ve been using Microsoft Office for the longest time and OpenOffice allowed me to make a huge leap from Microsoft Office suite. Simply because OpenOffice works just as good as MS Office. If not, better. It has all your office needs such as Word, Powerpoint, Excel Spreadsheet, Access etc. In a nutshell, it does all your typical office stuff that you use everyday. Plus it allows you to save your work file in .doc format so that you can send and receive your documents between work colleagues or friends who use MS office to allow them to view or edit your file.
OpenOffice DL
3. VLC Media Player
An awesome video/DVD player ever! Hands down! It has all your favorite codecs embedded within the video player to allow you to watch .MKV, .VOB, .OGG, avi, wmv etc… Whatever it is, IT WILL MAKE IT WORK! Plus, It has an amazing video streaming feature that will allow you to watch your favorite TV shows, movies or listen to radio through pod-casting stations. Because there are a lot of community group who air and share their content by streaming it online withing VLC. For example you can watch a TV show like Family Guy over a VLC podcasting station. All you have to do is set your podcast program to receive TV feeds and you’re ready to go. Lastly, if you feel like broadcasting yourself or having your very own TV or radio station; VLC can help you accomplish that too.
4. Digsby
An alternative instant messenger program that can handle more than one e-mail and IM clients. It also allows you to manage your social networking pages such as twitter or facebook. Plus, it has a really good customization window to make your messenger client look unique. The only downside to this programs is that it does not have voice chat except for video calls. If your not happy with Digsby you might want to try it’s alternative IM Pidgin 
.
5. Vity’s FreeRapid Downloader
Having problems with waiting for Rapidshare or Megaupload to download your file? Did you finally gave up and decided to pay for those popular file web-hosting sites just so you can get your stuff? Well look no further. Freerapid Downloader will help you download just about any file from these popular web-hosting sites and more without you having to pay or wait till it’s your time to download. Only downside to this program is the constant annoying plug-in updates that keeps popping up almost one or two days.
6. Utorrent
An excellent torrent client. light wight. Does the job perfectly. Enough said.
7. 7zip
Just like your popular file decompressing programs such as Winrar or Winzip, this open source windows utility is great for manipulating file archives. It also fully supports both packing and unpacking file formats such as 7z, RAR, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR and more.
7zip DL
8. Photoshop
There has never been a day that I don’t use this program. I always use it for complex projects or just editing simple web images. I also tried it’s alternative open source GIMP.
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Project and it is a great open source image editing software that mimics a lot of Photoshop functionality. In my experience I would have to say that GIMP leans a lot more towards Photoshop Elements which is lite version of the original Photoshop software. However, that does not mean that GIMP is weak. If you’re in the web designing business or any still image projects such as photography, painting, photomanipulation or anything that is required for viewing on screen; GIMP will do the job perfectly. However, if you’re going to use GIMP for major print/studio production. Forget it and stick to Photoshop. Because Photoshop has it all.
Photoshop DL (30 days trial).
Hope you all enjoy this. If you know other helpful opensource software that has compatibility for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux. Please do share.
Cheers
“Photoshop DL (trial 30 days).” they actually did the mistake that M$ and others have made.
If i can get this working under wine, i’ll have an unlimited edition (just like now with M$ office 2007 🙂 )
you know simple “copy’n’paste” method is awesome, it can do magic!!!
Man you have no idea if a good chunk of the graphic software work on linux I’m switching in a heart beat.
But I will tell you this though. Photoshop CS 2 is guaranteed to work on Linux via wine. The only downside is after the installation you won’t be able to do the update for Bridge or Image Ready let alone Photoshop tweaks too. But I did some reading where people are able to download the update packages separately and install them by dragging and dropping the files in the correct folders.
But other graphic software such as Adobe Illustrator, 3ds Max or Maya will not under Linux. 🙁
VitualBox is a (Free) alternative to VMware or Parallels, though it’s not that perfect, but it does the job and it’s an open source too.
http://www.virtualbox.org/
You should also try SSuite Office for a free office suite. They have a whole range of office suites that are free for download.
Their software also don’t need to run on Java or .NET, like so many open source office suites, so it makes their software very small and efficient.
You may try these links:
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm
or
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/ssuiteexcalibur.htm
or
http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm
@ ???, Virtual Box helped me a lot in deciding which Linux distro I should try out before doing a full install on my friends old comp. Really handy for even running older OS’s just so you can run an old game for win 95 like Red Alert.
@ Didos, WOW! That’s a nice find dude. I’ll be sure to check out Ssuitsoft. I like their product description.
@ Darkwolf: “But other graphic software such as Adobe Illustrator, 3ds Max or Maya will not under Linux.” patience my friend, ppl will realize one day that linux is out there, and will start making editions for linux(or they find a way to get it to work via wine).
It’s all about the time!!!
@Anxious Nut, True. But the only reason Photoshop was able to be ported to Linux was because it was the most demanded graphic software since Photoshop 7. It was also with Google’s help that Photoshop CS 2 was able to be ported to Linux.
What I think is 3rd party company should come to terms by porting their software to Linux. However, (I might be wrong on this one) if a 3rd company was to port it’s software to Linux I think the Linux terms calls for the proprietary company to release the software source code. I assume that’s the reason why they’re not porting it. Photoshop CS2 was able to make it due to Google’s help funding and some other crap along the way too.
Utorrent sucks for not having a Linux version. I mean, they have a Mac version but no Linux? what were they smoking when came up with that idea >_>. anyway, Deluge is better than Utorrent. More lightweight 🙂
@DarkWolf80s: There isn’t any problem with proprietary software and linux.
some nice examples are adobe flash and nvidia drivers. both are proprietary and closed source, yet each is available on linux.
The problem lies -as Fencer pointed out- with what they’re smoking (probably weed), and there outstanding stubbornness.
LoL!! Sigtermer, I think your right. It is ironic how both Adobe Flash player and Nvidia work under Linux while the rest (like Fencer pointed out with Utorrent) is retarded. Geez… It kinda makes you feel you just wanted to smack the developers for not doing their job right.
Cygwin is also another (free) tool I sometimes use for porting Linux apps to windows environment, it’s not an emulator cause you have to compile your source under it.
http://www.cygwin.com/
there is also an (X) version of it.
@ ????, OmG! That’s cool! There are some apps from Linux I would like to port to windows. Such as video editors like Cinelerra and kino or mp3 player software such as Amarok.
ReactOS
Have you came across this this (project) before?
http://www.reactos.com/
If not, then you could give it a try
???? ???????, I’ve actully tried (and reviewed) this operating system. the last time i used it, it had a functional graphical shell and could even run a vertual machine! (now imagine running windows7 inside reactos, the irony )
The only issue i had with it is a small message that appears just before the system shuts down. the message alone made me hate the entire os.
a real shame that they blew a good piece of software with a cheap stunt like that…