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9 Free Open Source Alternatives: Part 1
By John F | March 22, 2008
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Open source is what the Internet is all about. Programs that are openly available to all to add to, amend and improve on that are freely available to all to use. There are some great open source programs that do the same [if not better] job of some paid for programs. Below is a list of 8 that are highly recommended and worth a look or even a download.
1 - Open Office - Alternative to: Microsoft Office
A great set of programs that provides alternatives to word, excel etc with equivalent programs. What’s brilliant about Open Office is that Writer, its Open office alternative to Word, can save documents as word files and Word will be able to read and open Writer documents. Open Office includes alternatives to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and also includes a graphics package.
The only downside is that no email program is bundled in. Apart from that Open Office is an excellent product that will save you money, especially against a purchase of Microsoft Office.
2 - Inkscape - Alternative to: Adobe Illustrator
Inkscape is 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. The streamlined interface is easy to use to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more.
3 - GIMP - Alternative to: Adobe Photoshop
GIMP [it means Gnu Image Manipulation Program, nothing rude, honest!] Photoshop is a beast of photo imagery, but it does come with a hefty price tag. GIMP is the open source alternative and matches up pretty well. It cannot do everything Photoshop can do, but it does come close.
4 - Kompozer - Alternative to: Dreamweaver
Kompozer is an unofficial release that fixes the bugs in NVU [which hasn't been updated since 2005]. NVU is good, but Kompozer is better. Again, it cannot match upto the features that Dreamweaver has, however it is simpler to use and it is a very good program for getting websites designed and has quite a few handy features for an open source program.
Part 2 will be along shortly.
Topics: Free Software Usefulness |