10 Open Source Software that I use in Windows

Yes. I know, I should have put it “… in Linux”, but still, there are so many of us out there stuck with OEM copy of Windows that comes with the notebook/PC that we bought.

I think it is good, once in a while to expose Windows user on what Open Source Software could offer them on alternative software to the proprietary ones for daily computer usage.

The list is actually endless, but I will just highlight the 10 softwares that I use with Windows.

  1. Open Office.org - a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database in a complete package. I have been using it as a replacement for my pirated version on MS Office 2003.
  2. N|vu / Kompozer - the best WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML generator. I use it to create websites during my early days of webmastering, before I shifted into blogging. Still a nice piece of software to use (although still a bit buggy), as compared to my Macromedia Dreamweaver (of course, pirated version).
  3. 7zip - the award winning file archiver and compressor. The one I used to replace WinZip and WinRar.
  4. Mozilla Firefox - the most powerful web browser. The best thing about Firefox is the availability of the plugins, especially the one that increase my productivity of being a webmaster/blogger. However, it starts a bit slow…
  5. GIMP - ah… my Adobe Photoshop replacement. It can even use Photoshop’s third party plugins also!
  6. VLC media player - the all rounder media player, that can play almost ALL media format. A small but very powerful player.
  7. Audacity - the award winning audio editor.
  8. FileZilla - a full featured FTP client. I can’t function as a webmaster without it.
  9. Mozilla Sunbird - my calendar and task management program. With a vary familiar interface, it replaces my MS Outlook long time ago.
  10. XAMPP - Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, etc in one complete package for a webmaster-to-be. A good platform for me to learn about how servers operated and how to operate a server.

Do you know that you can have all the above software WITHOUT Windows?

5 Responses to “10 Open Source Software that I use in Windows”

  1. Eric Says:

    Dude, you should not be proud using pirated software. Regardless of how OSS users feel about proprietary software, if we need to use them , use original ones. I too used to pirate a lot in my schooling and university days.

    Until I discovered Linux and the whole OSS thing.

    That’s why I don’t use MS Office and it likes coz I can’t afford them; unless my company buys them.

    Me, I sticking to superior stuff like Linux, BSDs and the likes. No viruses and the best thing is, it’s free!

    Cheers dude.

  2. drizad Says:

    Hi Eric,

    Thank you for your comments, bro. I do agree with you that using pirated software is not a good way of being productive in the sense of doing daily computer tasks. That is why I would like to share some open source software as an alternative for most of our daily PC usage with you.

    Sorry if I get you wrong about me using the pirated software. I am not proud of it at all and I stopped using pirated software since I join OSS bandwagon. Not even steps into those kind of premises since the last couple of years, as I am now really comfortable with Linux.

    I dual-boot my notebook with Xandros and planning to wipe out my HD with Ubuntu after backing up all my data from Windows.

    Cheers, bro! ;-)

  3. Jusdy J. Says:

    i’m using Blender 3d, Gimp, Mozilla, Opera, 7zip, Nvu, Xampp, Notepad++, Xplorer Lite2, Inkscape, CCleaner, Media Player Classic…

    and will increase soon…hehe

  4. drizad Says:

    Bro…

    Some of your softwares are Freeware, and not Open Source…
    But yes, I do use some of the Freeware that are available.

  5. Jusdy J. Says:

    yup…but some of them are freewares that come with source…

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