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point on this web page.
This symbol shows the software that I like better than
some others.
Below is an "outline"
style list consisting of free and open source software. This is a
Windows OS based list, but some of software listed here have Mac OS and
Linux versions available. I currently run Win2000 (old IBM server),
XP/Home (old Compaq desktop), XP/Pro (HP laptop), and Vista Home
Premium (Dell laptop) computers. I am constantly looking for free
and open source software for these computers and the task they
perform for me on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. I am always looking
for software that can perform these tasks better, faster, or are just
easier to use. If I find software
that "looks good", I try it out, or not. If I like the software or
think others might, I then put the software information aside
to be added to this page every week, or so. The Bookmarks
section of my laptop's Firefox browser is stuff full with links to
potential software for this list. There are many lists out on
the web that have free and open source software, but this one was
developed from my personal search for software I need or want.
I try to stay away from the "trial-ware" software that other
sites seem to be filled with. I want software that lasts
longer than the 30, 45, or 90 days of their trial. I do not
want to get hooked on a software package and then have to pay someone
to keep it running. I do not like paying for software when
there are so many equivalent software that are free. I do use
some paid software, but either I have not found any good replacements
or am just so use to them (some over 5 or 10 years
now) that I have not changed over to the free versions out
there.
I do
not warranty any of the software or how
well the will work on your computer. Please read the information
presented on the sites that you will find the download options.
- Text
Editors, Program Editors, Office software, and other related software
- Desktop
Publishing
- Scribus
- one of the best open-source software for desktop
publishing.
- Office
Suite and Word Processors - Free
- LibreOffice
- is now my first choice for an
alternative
office suite for of Microsoft Office files. On January
28th 2011, LibreOffice came out with its first full release, version
3.3. This keeps the numbering system started by OpenOffice.org,
which is where the original open source code came from. The
developers too time to clean up the base code that gave OOo developers
problems with continued updating and upgrading. With that cleared
up, the developers have stated that version 3.4 coming out in the
spring of 2011 should be different than the current OOo 3.3 version
[which came out a few days later than LibreOffice]. One of the
other concerns is that the current owner of the name "OpenOffice.org",
Oracle may not support development of thier product much longer.
That concern is great enough for all the major Linux companies to drop
OOo from their future upgrades. Since the Linus community was one
of the biggest supporters of OOo, it looks like OOo could be in trouble
in the near future. Now developers are dropping their support of
OOo and going over to LibreOffice, which have over 5 times the number
of developers in Jan '11 as it did in Sept '10. So goodbye OOo.
- Jarte
- a
wordpad replacement. Wordpad needs one and I have read great
things about this software. I have not had time to test it
much.
- Text
Editors
- EM Editor
- text and program editor - one for the better text and program
editors.
- NoteTab
Light-
test and program editor - the text editor I used to write web pages -
before I found KompoZer.
I have used this software for many years and like it alot.
I have tried the others listed, but I usually go back to this
one. There are also some add-ons that I just found out about
and
exploring them on how they can help my using the software.
- Note
Pad ++
- text and program editor - one of the better text editors.
- Programming
Editors (used for web page editing, other than text editors)
- JEdit
-
programmer's text editor - and interesting programming editor.
- KompoZer
-
Web Page Editor - used in creating this web page.
This software is currently the best free software I have used
in
the creation of web pages. Use it in "normal" view which is
what
I would call a modified WYSIWYG editor. Also you can use it
in
"source" view. This is the same view as a text or programming
editor. There is also "HTML Tag" and "Preview"
viewing
modes. I am glad that I found this software. Try it
yourself, it's free.
- Komodo
Edit - is a free, open source editor from dynamic
language experts. Dynamic language expertise for Perl, PHP, Python,
Ruby, and Tcl, plus JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and XML, and template
languages like RHTML, Template-Toolkit, HTML-Smarty and
Django.
- Jalbum
- a free Web Page Photo Gallery software - Jalbum is a very easy web
photo editing software with many skins to change the look and "feel" of
the gallery you create. I use it myself for a site with three
years worth of photos with over 700 photos in over 45 folders of
events/dates.
- Text
to Speech
- DSpeech
- a good text to speech software. Works fine for my use.
- Dictionaries
- Lingoes
- dictionary and translator
software. Used it and it does work fine.
- Word Web - look
up and define words via web
services. Used it a few times. Works well.
Will be working with it more later.
- Translators
- Lingoes -
dictionary and translator
software
- Spell
Checkers
- tinySpell
- free spell checker for those
applications that do not include one. It is not great, but it
works if you have no spell checker otherwise.
- Security
software and "Cleaning" and Optimizing
You need
Anti-virus, Firewall, Anti-spam, and other security
software
installed
and running to protect your computer from all those threats.
- Anti
virus
- AVG
- free
anti-virus - one of the top 5 anti-virus products. Best I
have
used. Best on most of the published lists on any anti-virus software,
not just free or paid versions. It is better than most of the
paid anti-virus software I have ever used. I had to try the $300+
versions to find any better, but that one was not better than the paid
version of AVG which is about $55. The free version is what I use, but
if I had to pay for it, I would. It is worth it. What can I
say
more.
- Avast! -
free anti-virus software I
would
suggest that you try this software. Between AVG and
Avast!, I would try each one to see which would serve your needs. Both
are highly rated and both are free. I like this one and AVG,
but
you can only use one at a time. So I choose AVG, since it was the one I
found first.
- Comodo-
Here is another good and free Anti Virus package It is free
and
they state that their software is award winning. You can get
it
alone or with their Firewall
software.
- Firewall
- ZoneAlarm
-
free Firewall - one of the top 5 firewall products. This is the best
firewall software I have used. The technology in it is now
going
into routers, since it is the best. Free or paid, it is the
best.
It is as simple as that. Try it.
- Comodo
- Here is another good and free Firewall package. I use
ZoneAlarm, but now it does not support XP. So I now have it
load on my XP laptop. I am doing some testing, so we shall
see what happens with it.
- Anti
spam
and Malware { I use the all to protect my computers!!! }
- Ad-Aware
2009 Free
-
free version of an Anti-Spyware software - another updated classic
software.
- a-Squared
Free - free version
of a great anti-spam, anti-malware, product There are several
scan options, but start with "Smart Scan". "Deep Scan" can
take several hours to complete. Though it does catch sofe
file that the other software did not catch. The free software
does not have the resident blocker and auto-detecting parts as much as
the paid version has, but if you run it every week, then it help alot.
- SpywareBlaster
- "Protect against the fastest growing threats on the Internet.
Powerful protection against spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers
and other potentially unwanted software. Trusted and effective."
Their 'Immunize' feature is the best part. It help
prevent the troubles, including suspected web sites are in its
protection.
- Spybot
Search
& Destroy - detects and removes spyware
- classic
software and works great for me. Their
'Immunize' feature is the best part.
- Spyware Doctor
- help protect PC from spyware, ad-ware and other threats - great
package to use, but their "repair" function ends after awhile, untill
you pay them for that part. It still helps identify and bad
things.
- "Cleaning"
and Optimizing
- Advanced SystemCare Free
- formally know as Advanced Windows Care Personal --
computer cleaner and optimizer. I use this one more than the
other ones listed below. I have used all of them I list and
have
them all installed. But you will find that you will use one
more
times than the others. This software has alot of "searches" for files,
registry entries, and other things that need to be searched out and
cleaned from your computer.
- a-Squared
Free - free version
of a great anti-spam, anti-malware, product There are several
scan options, but start with "Smart Scan". "Deep Scan" can
take several hours to complete. Though it does catch sofe
file that the other software did not catch. The free software
does not have the resident blocker and auto-detecting parts as much as
the paid version has, but if you run it every week, then it help alot.
- CCleaner - a
popular registry cleaner and
other cleaning options
- Graphics
software - Photo editing, Image creation, Vector graphics,
Paint programs, plus image viewers.
- Image
Viewers or Converters
(not editors)
- XnView
- image viewer and image converter
--
(English site link)
- IrfanView - Image
Viewer and converter - This graphics viewer has too many
options to show in a small space. The basics of this program
is to view many file formats (including some multimedia) and then do
some sort of conversion to them. There is even a batch
conversion option. The web site even states it supports Adobe
Photoshop Filters (8BF). I installed it on my computer and
it did all the things I asked it to. Works fine.
Batch conversion from CMX (a Corel Draw image format) to JPG
works faster than most batch conversion options I have in other
software. The only file type it could not read, that other
graphics editor/conversion software I have, was CDR (Corel Draw default
output format). Well it may not be able to read every image
file format, but it still works well.
- Editors
- Artweaver
- a Photoshop alternative? - was told
so by a national syndicated tech guru. Looks good and works
well
for
me. Currently there are not many filters and other add-ons,
but
as time goes by, I feel that the support community will change that.
Currently, it is a good started system, but the "hard-core"
users
would go with one of the two "GIMP" software titles or Paint.NET.
- GIMPshop
- a "hack" of GIMP that looks easier to use that the original.
Has all of the "goodness" of the original GIMP (below) but
with an easier working environment. This is one of the best, free,
non-vector, image editing software that I have found.
From the web site: "While GIMPshop does not
support Photoshop plugins, all GIMP's own plugins, filters, brushes,
etc. remain available."
- GIMP
-
image and
photo editor - the original. It is not easy to work with, but it is one
of the most
popular for "hard-core" artists using the Linux machines. There is a
massice support community and many filters and add-ons to choose
from.
- Inkscape -
vector graphics (like Illustrator or Corel Draw). I have used Corel
Draw
for many year. Now I use Inkscape for all my vector graphics needs. For
me, it is very easy to use and has all the features I need.
From their web site: "An Open Source vector graphics editor, with
capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw,
or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file
format. Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones,
alpha
blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined
interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path
operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a
thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented
development.
- Paint.NET -
image and photo editor. This is a very good alternative image
editing software.
- Photoscape
- is a fun and easy photo
editing software
- Tux
Paint - Tux the
penguin has his own paint program for kids. This seems to be
one of the best painting programs designed for kids.
- Slide
Show or other photo to video converters
- 3D
Creation
- Internet
Related software
- Web
Page
Editors
(beyond text editors)
- CSS
Toolbox - CSS editor and validation via an
online site
- KompoZer
- Web Page Editor - used in creating
this web
page.
This software is currently the best free software I have used
in
the creation of web pages. Use it in "normal" view which is
what
I would call a modified WYSIWYG editor. Also you can use it
in
"source" view. This is the same view as a text or programming
editor. There is also "HTML Tag" and "Preview"
viewing
modes. I am glad that I found this software. Try it
yourself, it's free.
- SeaMonkey
- Internet all-in-one Application
Suite - from the same people that created Firefox
and Thunderbird.
I have not used it so I have not rated it "for me".
I do know people who use it for much of their web work.
- Browsers
- Firefox-
browser (more secure than IE) Best web browser I have ever used.
When the 3.0 version came out, over 20 million downloads were
recorded from their site in that first month alone. Add the
add-ons and extras and you will get the browser you want to use, not
what others say you have to use.
- Email
clients
- Thunderbird
-
email client (better than Outlook Express and maybe Outlook itself.)
I make sure to have it installed on most all of the computers
that I setup for friends and family. The greatest part of the
Thunderbird client is the themes and add-ons. You can
customize the client with a large number of security, readability, and
usability add-ons. To my view, this email client is the most
secure and customized clients I have used. Please check the
theme and add-on sections [
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ ]
to see all of the options for yourself.
- FTP
clients
- FileZilla
-
FTP
file transfer client.
- WS_FTP
(6) LE - over 10 years
old,
but still one
of the easiest ones to use. It is a hard version to find, so I have
placed it on my site for download. Right Click on the
following link, and save it to you computer.
Download
from my site
for WS_FTP
- Other
Web
Related
- Mozilla Web
Site, all their products and their online store,
think
gift shop.
- WOT
- Web of Trust browser extension.
Help prevent the access to "bad" web sites that try to give
you viruses, trogans, malware, and try to get info to use "against"
you.
- OpenDNS
- Use with Home networks, K-12 School networks, Small/Medium Business,
and Enterprise uses. I heard about this on a tech radio show
and
wanted to know more. It seems to be a great way to protect
online
users from the threats that are out there on the Net. It
works
with Windows, Mac, Linux, some smartphone, and even Nintendo Wii.
Place it on your computer, router, or DNS server.
Most
people will place it on their computers, I think, but businesses may go
with the other solutions.
"OpenDNS is the leading
provider of free security and infrastructure
services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content
filtering, anti-phishing and DNS. OpenDNS services enable consumers
and
network administrators to secure their networks from online threats,
reduce costs and enforce Internet-use policies. OpenDNS is used today
by millions of users and organizations around the world."
"Taking a few minutes to unbundle your DNS service from your ISP's
Internet connection means a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable
Internet experience for everyone in your household."
"Today's schools make Internet safety a top priority. Use OpenDNS to
make access to online learning tools easier, while blocking unsafe and
inappropriate Web sites altogether. There's no pricey appliance to buy
and you can be up and running with OpenDNS in minutes."
- WeatherBug
- have an icon on you taskbar
that
shows live weather information for your area. I have Vista
sidebar widgets installed for a school 3 miles away and the airport 12
miles away. The differences between those two locations can
be
profound. In the morning of 1-17-09 the airport was
-12° and
the school was at 2°. That is a big difference for about 15
miles
from each other. Then there is the software, not widgets, that may show
live wind conditions and weather maps like doppler radar, clouds, and
temperatures. I have used it for years on Win2000, XP and
now
Vista computers.
- You
Tube Downloader - Download a YouTube file from
the URL
link then convert it to other formats. I have not tried others, yet,
but for my needs, it works fine.
- Internet
Radio Players
- WinAmp
-
audio and video player, plus Internet Radio player and other streaming
media.
My default multimedia player for years. Winamp is the default player
for
the SHOUTcast.com
Internet Radio Service.
- Internet
Radio web sites (just starting the search)
- Internet
TV
players
- Miro
-
media player, plus Internet video/TV player
- Internet
TV web
sites
- Audio
and Video software - players and editoring
- Video
Players
- GOM
Media Player
-
media player that is great for XP and Vista. I use this when not
using WinAmp.
- Miro
-
media player, plus Internet video/TV player
- Quintessential
Player - player,
ripper,converter - many plug-ins and skins.
- Video
Editors
- Avidemux
- video editor - touted as a good one. I have not worked with
it much yet, but hope to have time later.
- FlasKMPEG
- from their web site: "FlasKMPEG is a free open
source
digital video converter software that
allows you to convert MPEG content into a other formats using your
computer. It has a few editing capabilities so you can use to prepare
your film or video assets. The program has an open architecture that
allows for extended capabilities through the use of plugins."
- MPEG
streamclip - clip a video "stream" and keep only
what you want.
- ZweiStein
video editor
- I have used it several times. It is touted as one of the
best.
I have not used it enough times to decide that, but I have
several video projects that I will test this software to its limits.
"Told" that this software will do most anything a person
would
need for video editing. Even some professionals will like it,
as
I have read. We will see.
- VDM
- VirtualDubMod - video edition and
DVD
creation
- Video
Converters
- Any
Video Converter -
- Format
Factory -
- FreeVideoDub
- remove unwanted parts of
your video
- HandBrake
- converts DVDs to MPEG-4 and other formats.
- Quintessential
Player - player,
ripper,converter
- Video
Ripper
- Quintessential
Player - player,
ripper,converter
- Video
-
other
- Foto2AVI
- converts photos into a video
- You
Tube Downloader - see the description above.
- Audio
Players
- JetAudio
Player - read great things, have not tried it enough to
tell how good it is compared to others I use.
- Quintessential
Player - player,
ripper,converter
- VLC
Media Player -
multimedia player including DVDs and streaming media
- WinAmp
-
audio and video player, plus Internet Radio player and other streaming
media. My default multimedia player for years. Winamp is the default
player
for the SHOUTcast.com
Internet Radio Service.
- Audio
Editors
- Audacity
-
audio editor and recorder. read that this is the best of the
free
audio editor and recorder. What I have seen for myself, I
would
say it is one of the best I have used, free or otherwise.
- FreeAudioDub
- remove unwanted parts of your audio files
- MediaCoder
- audio and video converter to many formats
- MP3Split
- split up your MP3 files
- Wave
Pad - WavePad audio editing software is a sound editor
program. WavePad is designed to be a very easy and intuitive
to use audio editing package.
1) paid
program's main site (free somewhere here)
2) the free version at a
different site
- Audio
Converters
- MediaCoder
- audio and video converter to many formats
- Quintessential
Player - player,
ripper,converter
- Audio
Ripper
- Quintessential
Player - player,
ripper,converter
- Audio
-
other
- MP3Gain
- from the web site: adjust the volumn of your music files.
MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts
mp3 files so that they have the same volume.
MP3Gain does not just do peak normalization, as many normalizers do.
Instead, it does some statistical analysis to determine how loud the
file actually sounds to the human ear.
Also, the changes MP3Gain makes are completely lossless. There is no
quality lost in the change because the program adjusts the mp3 file
directly, without decoding and re-encoding.
- MediaMonkey
- Great
way to index
{or find} all of your Audio and Video Files, no matter which format.
That is what I use it for. It found all of the
duplicates
in my very large MP3 Christmas Collection - how about 30+ version of
Jingle Bells? Check it out. You will not want to use any
other
music manager/indexer/etc.
From the web site:
MediaMonkey is the music manager for serious music
collectors and iPod
users. It catalogs CDs, AAC, OGG, WMA, FLAC, MP3 and other audio files,
including contemporary and classical music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc.
It offers multiple tools for looking up and editing tags, and an
automated library organizer to organize files on the hard drive. - Use the CNET Download link
for your downloading. The other free link is for the trial
pay version.
- CD and
DVD software; Burning, Authoring, and misc. software.
- Disc
Burning
software
- DeepBurner
- a
"small-ish" in
size for
burner package.
- ImgBurn
- advertised an
an
extensive burning
application. Seems an interesting package to me.
- Infra
Recorder
- powerful CD/DVD burner (Nero Burner replacement software)
- DVD
Authoring
- DeVeDe
- free DVD authoring software. This is the best one I have found for
both Windows and Linux systems, that is free. Quote from their
web site: "DeVeDe is a program to create video DVDs and CDs (VCD, sVCD
or CVD), suitables for home players, from any
number of video files, in any of the formats supported by Mplayer.
The big advantage over other utilites is that it only needs Mplayer,
Mencoder, DVDAuthor, VCDImager
and MKisofs (well, and
Python, PyGTK and PyGlade), so its dependencies are really
small."
- SoThink Movie DVD Maker
- free DVD authoring software.
- VDM
- VirtualDubMod - video edition and
DVD
creation
- DVD
-
Misc.
other Related Software
- Kid
and School
Related Stuff
- Graph
- a program to display a simple or
complex
graph from an equation
- Graph
Calculator - a simple graphing
calculator (it
is not a TI-83 replacement, but it works)
- Lego
Digital Designer - design an object
with
the
software, as you would with the actual pieces.
- Tux
Paint - Tux the
penguin has his own paint program for kids.
- Calendar
Software
- Chandler
- a nice stand alone calendar
software
- Sunbird
-
Calendar stand-alone version package for your
calendar needs.
- Utility Software
- Disk
and
File
Recovery
- CD Recovery
Toolbox - recovers files from damaged CDs.
Very slow, but it works for free.
It really help me with a bad DVD and found the files for me.
- Defragmentation
Software
- Auslogics Disk
Defrag - Disk fragmentation leads to system
slowdowns, PC crashes, slow startups
and shutdowns. Auslogics Disk Defrag is designed for fast optimization
of modern hard disks.
- Smart
Defrag -
this freeware will give you a complete
diagnosis of your current hard drives, then defragment and speed up
disk performance in minutes. I installed version 1.02 on a
Vista
laptop and it worked better than a paid defrag system. I find
it
easy to use and it runs fast. Try it, you may discover how
easy
it is to keep you computer defragged.
- PDF
Creation
Software
- DoPDF
- a PDF writer/printer - doPDF is a free PDF converter for both
personal and commercial use and
works on Windows Vista, XP, 2008/2003/2000 Server (32 and
64-bit). I was using Adobe's product, but it would not
install on
Vista, and I was not going to buy it again, plus need almost 1 gig of
space to install.
I
am now using this product.
- PDF
Creator
- a PDF software printer - "prints" to a PDF file
- print2pdf - a
PDF writer/printer - download the free software from download.com.
Adobe PDF converter
(DOC to PDF), creator, writer for Windows.
Print2PDF uses print output for conversion into an Adobe Acrobat
compatible PDF file.
- UnZipping
Software
- 7-Zip
-
file compression program (replaces WinZip and others). I use
it
as my default "unzipping" program. Works great and easy to
use.
- Extract
Now
-
extracting
multiple files at once. This program will help unzip many
files
in a batch operation. If you have a lot of files to unzip,
this
it the software you should use.
- RarZilla -
extract RAR files
- IZArc - extract
files from compressed file
formats
- Universal
Extractor
-
no frills extracting
program that extracts mose types of compressed file formats. If you
cannot get your decompression software to work on a file, this software
may do the job. I have not found any compressed file that it
cannot open.
- WinUHA
- extracts UHA formats - one of the most
"densely compressed" formats.
Security
Software:
I use AVG
8.0 anti-virus, Zonealarm
firewall, Spyware Doctor, Ad-Aware on all my Windows computers
(Windows 2000/pro, Windows XP/pro), both
laptop and desktops. Each software does a different job at detecting,
protecting, and
cleaning the computers of all of the nasties to make our online lives a
problem to a nightmare.
Web
Page Software:
I use KompoZer, NoteTab Light, and Paint Shop
Pro 5 (ver 12/X2 is out now) for most of my web page work.
You
can use GIMPshop or Paint.NET to do the graphic work.
I
when found KompoZer, I was hand coding all of my web pages. I
never found a free software that work well for me. After I
found
it, I starting using it for all my web pages. The only
problem it
has is working with standard text files needed for JavaScript and other
scripting files. So, with a web page editor, text editor, and
a
graphics editor, I can work on most basic (and more complex) web pages.
If you add a vector graphics package like Inkscape, you
should do
just find.
Software
Warranty:
I do not warranty these products. I have either used them myself, tired
them out a few times (for
most of the software listed), or read about them in various online
sources. These
are the software that I currently think may be good for the computer
used to use on their computers instead of buying any paid version
that would do similar things or tasks. If you find
a better freeware or open-source product, for these tasks, please let
me know through the listed email link.
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