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Are you tired of always being prompted to buy a trial software? Are you annoyed to look for cracks and patch to most software you end up installing on your computer? Honestly, many Windows users (higher market share) have pirated programs or even copied versions of their operating system. The real issue is not to spiral and grab $900 worth of your software downloaded from P2P or BitTorrent. There are many alternatives. Free software always existed, but even more interesting are the open source software that are community driven.

To stay concise an open source application distributes it source code so it could be viewed or edited freely. Groups are there created and everyone can bring their improvements to the program. It’s with that philosophy that free operating systems (OS) like Ubuntu or Gentoo (Linux distributions) got to see the day.

So why use open-source software? Because it’s free and it has close concern to the opinion of it’s community. In the digital world data can be shared/copied without the loss of part of your own work. This way any improvement you bring to a program can be copied/given to others and they too can contribute. It’s in that conception that shared efforts created legion of free software, some that will be showcased on this blog.

Mozilla Firefox
Perhaps one of the hottest web browser out there. It has grown to be a solid alternative to the default Windows web browser, Internet Explorer. Firefox stuck with innovation by the use of extensions that allow to increase the capabilities of this browser surfing experience.
Firefox on Wikipedia | Official Web site

OpenOffice.org
Here is an alternative that will save you a lot. The Microsoft Office Suite is expensive and even the student edition is not the price a you would like to pay. What if there was an alternative to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher. Needless to look further the OpenOffice.org Suite is a complete package that can deal with those standard Office files. Whether you need to write a paper on the French revolution, make scientific graphics for chemistry or physics class or even better create a slide show presentation for your business you got it all. The tools included will satisfy a large number of users and you might realize just like I did that they always try to sell what you don’t need.
OpenOffice.org on Wikipedia | Official Web site

FileZilla
You either have a web site or you need to transfer files from a server, FileZilla is for you. Simply put, it’s a brilliant FTP application. I’ve tested CuteFTP, SmartFTP, FlashFXP and never knew I could get the same result without getting a Pro edition or living with a trial edition. It is simple and easy to use. Beeing free of charge it’s a great solution for your file transfer needs.
FileZilla on Wikipedia | FileZilla’s space on the web

GIMP
You’re on Windows and you got Paint, you can make nice little drawing a 3 years old kid could beat, not enough? If you need more horse power to make professional photo editing or designing a web page layout the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) will save your life and your wallet. It’s a solid program that can compete with industry leaders like Adobe Photoshop or the late Jasc Paint Shop Pro (bought by Corel). This tool does work precisely like it’s counter parts but can pretty much do all the same. Next time you need to resize an image or adjust the color balance of a picture think GIMP!
Look it up on Wikipedia | The GIMP Web site

Mozilla Thunderbird
This software completes the Microsoft Office alternative by challenging Outlook, or even the free version Outlook Express. Their slogan, “Reclaim your inbox” symbolize the freedom and flexibility of this open source. It includes RSS feed support and anti-phishing, key feature of Mozilla products is tigh security and frequent updates.
Thunderbird on Wikipedia | Official web page

Nvu
Pronounced n-view, that smart little WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor will let you create an entire web site with professional tools. Unlike Word you have complete control over the code. It supports templates and site manager. It allows a complete newbie to make an advanced looking web site. At the same time veterans in web design have greater control over the content of their web site. It’s a valid alternative to Microsoft FrontPage or even Macromedia Dreamweaver. It is based on Mozilla’s Composer.
Nvu described on Wikipedia | Nvu’s on the web

Gaim
The name of this fellow sounds a lot like AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). It might of started like a simple alternative but over the time it became compatible with ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, IRC and Jabber protocol (Google Talk). Meaning that there is no more need to have multiple programs running and you can have all your friends on one contact list. Gaim can make use of plugins that increase functionality and can be made to work very much like the programs you usually love.

But wait! The original programs are free as well, why switch? How about the constant advertising inside MSN Messenger, and the fact that the other software that can do the same job is not free on it’s PRO edition (Trillian). So not only does it support the native emoticons of most other instant messengers it does it all in a sleek interface.
Gaim on Wikipedia | Official Web site

This is only a small sample of what you can get from the open source crowd. Imagine that Ubuntu for instance witch released it’s 6.06 version today features only open source software and is free. The great thing about open source besides it’s lack of profit orientation is it’s multilingual support and multi platform as well.

In other words you can have Linux, Mac or Windows in French, Polish, English or Vietnamese and still be able to use those products. In the case of proprietary software they usually target their main market to boost profits and start off with an English version and may take months before bridging to an alternate language. Since open source is mostly community driven members contribute to translations and most of the time it doesn’t need any translation because the language is not coded directly inside the program, meaning you easily switch the language from within the program.

In an effort to promote free and open content, reference to Wikipedia is omnipresent, this online encyclopedia is based on the same Open source concept where everyone can contribute to improve the content, it’s use or efficiency. It’s not a program but it could be a potential replacement for that old CD Encyclopedia (MSN Encarta or Grolier Interactive). I know there is still many more applications and you can find more through Google or this link (OpenDen). Feel free to comment on those software or others I haven’t mentioned.