Open Source Software On Windows

Introduction

"Open source software on Windows... WHAT?!?!!" may be your first reaction to this post. However, there are many good reasons to promote the use of open source software on Windows. First, it is a great way to introduce people to the wonderful world of open source software. They will be amazed at the amount of great software that they get for FREE!

This will be your cue to inform them that the software is not only free of cost, but free of restrictions. In fact, they can run these same applications on an operating system that is entirely based on those concepts. Next, you hand them an Ubuntu disk and help them try it out. See how that works? Now give it a try with your friends, family, and co-workers.

In this post I will highlight some of the most useful open source applications for Windows (listed in alphabetical order). If I missed your favorite application, please leave a comment so that I can include it in a future post. If you want to find more open source applications, then you can get great information from Linux App Finder and Open Source Alternatives.

Audacity - The Free, cross-platform sound editor - Great for editing podcasts


Azureus - The most popular BitTorrent client - Runs on Windows and Linux


Firefox - Award-winning web browser with thousands of useful Add-ons that enhance Firefox


GIMP - Software for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring


HomeBank - Free, easy personal accounting for all


InfraRecorder - The free CD/DVD burning solution - Allows you to burn ISOs - Replaces Nero and Roxio


MediaCoder - The universal audio/video transcoder - Compress your videos so they can be uploaded to YouTube


OpenOffice - Multilingual and multiplatform office suite, compatible with all other major office suites


Pidgin (formerly GAIM) - Multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once


Thunderbird - Powerful email client with calendar integration and many useful Add-ons


VLC Media Player - The cross-platform media player and streaming server (supports many different multimedia formats)


7-Zip - File archiver with a high compression ratio, supports many different file formats

Comments

  1. Hub7/11/2007 6:14 PM

    Dude, you forgot AbiWord !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown7/11/2007 6:34 PM

    According to their download page, there are no Windows files available for the download of HomeBank at this time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Von_old7/11/2007 7:00 PM

    And there are a lot of Windows-only OpenSource applications, by the way. For example, audiocd-ripping application CDex or peer-to-peer (ed2k,gnutella 1/2, bittorrent) clientShareaza. These are the applications I used in Windows for some time. And, by the way, I didn't even knew about GPL and OpenSource then. :)

    Also, I'd like to mention VirtualBox here. It's an OpenSource virtualisation application. It has a nice GUI and it is very simple in use.

    There are some cross-platform OpenSource games too. Frets on Fire for example, or X-Moto.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tristan Rhodes7/11/2007 7:15 PM

    Hubert - OpenOffice does the same stuff and is much more popular. I agree that Abiword is good software.

    Jason - Good catch! It looks like this will be a future Windows application.

    Vonderer - I like all of your suggestions, and may include some of those apps in a follow-up post. The great thing about open source is that anyone can port them to another operating system if they have the skills and the desire.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7/11/2007 7:41 PM

    I recommend Windows users use Paint.NET for graphics. Unfortunately, it is pain to get running on Linux, with or without WINE.

    http://getpaint.net

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7/11/2007 9:26 PM

    We need to advertise cross-platform software among Windows users - it's the first step towards their migration to Linux.
    Windows users must get familiar with basic cross-platform apps, like Firefox (or Opera), Thunderbird, Pidgin (or Psi or Gajim), and OpenOffice.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7/12/2007 12:23 AM

    I like this post but wonder if you've heard of the Linux Alternatives Project? Maybe you could help them too?

    http://www.linuxalt.com/

    Cheers,

    Clint

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous7/12/2007 12:33 AM

    http://osswin.sourceforge.net/ has a good, but definitely not complete, list of OSS for Windows. Please submit all interesting "FLOSS" applications for Windows to the project... :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous7/12/2007 9:50 AM

    We shouldn't forget gems like Inkscape and Blender!

    ReplyDelete
  10. ChamPro7/12/2007 7:47 PM

    I still assert that Mplayer coupled with a decent gui like MPUI is still better than VLC.

    I guess that's just my preference.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous7/14/2007 3:18 PM

    Inkscape, too: http://inkscape.org/download/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous7/14/2007 7:34 PM

    Hello Tristan

    You possibly forgot to mention NeDi.

    regards
    Marco

    ReplyDelete
  13. Steve7/18/2007 5:54 AM

    @Azrael, I completely agree. I'm just now starting to make the move to Linux, but I doubt I would have gone near it if I hadn't been introduced to OS through Firefox, and from there to Open Office. I think that OS cross-platform software for Windows has nothing but upsides

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10/28/2007 1:51 AM

    ajaxflakes - Read all about the latest developments on web design 2.0 and ajax + lots of tips. TOP 100+ best Free Opensource Software for windows XP and Vista. Thought i should add it might be helpful to others… http://ajaxflakes.com

    ReplyDelete

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