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| Intro and Web Browsers | ||
Does Open Source mean free?While there are many intricacies to the terms “Open Source” (which doesn’t necessarily mean ‘free’) and “Free” (which doesn’t necessarily mean “libre”), rest assured that all of the options listed here are licensed such that you may use them and redistribute them at no cost. You even get to read and modify the source code if you like. If you really want the long explanation, Wikipedia has some wonderful information on Open Source, Free Software, FOSS, FLOSS, and other pedantic quagmires. Also, be aware that there are usually conditions to redistributing *modified* versions of open source applications. So, you will want to consult the individual application’s license for the exact details of how a particular program/source may be redistributed should you make changes to it. Web Browsing:We’ll practically skip this category for two reasons: 1) Browser preference has been known to start holy wars, and 2) because nearly everyone is long familiar with the best known option: Firefox. Chrome does not quite meet the criteria of this list as it is not completely open-source. However, the Chromium browser, with which it shares most of its code is both free and open-source.
The beauty of web browsers is that for 99% of the functionality your personal preference doesn’t matter. That’s because they are all written to implement open standards. Very seldom do browsers extend these standards in proprietary ways that break a site's compatibility with other browsers and operating systems (*cough-ActiveX-cough*), except for one closed-source solution that is available on only one operating system. |
| Graphical Content Creation/Manipulation |
Graphics and Image Editing:The GiMP
Is it as good as Photoshop? No. Adobe’s talented Photoshop developers have invested a lot of time and money into creating THE #1 image editing program, and The GiMP has yet to close the gap. The incredible thing is that TheGiMP is good enough that, unless your profession revolves around image editing, it’s probably way more than you will need.
As with Photoshop, the learning curve for The GiMP can be quite steep. However, there are many online tutorials available to get you on your way, and there’s a Gimp magazine launching in the fall. Inkscape Inkscape does for vector graphics what The GiMP does for bitmaps. That is, it stops us hobbyists from going to jail for copyright infringement when all we want to do is dabble with vector graphics and not shell out $250 for Adobe Illustrator. From the Inkscape 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.”
Blender 3DS Max and Maya may have once been better known, but there is a free 3D creation alternative that is incredibly powerful and becoming more and more pervasive: Blender. It supports modeling, rendering, animation... it even includes a 3D game engine. This is a professional level tool, that can generate professional results.
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| Audio and Multimedia |
Audio Production:AudacityBack when Microsoft was preparing audio files for Windows 95, they used a pirated version of Sound Forge 4.5 (true story!). Apparently even Microsoft employees couldn't stand the $500 price tag... and it was really the only high-end solution. Luckily for Microsoft, there’s now a great free feature-filled alternative: Audacity. From the Audacity web sire: "Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:
Multimedia:VLC
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| Productivity and Development |
Productivity Apps:LibreOfficeThe one true successor to OpenOffice (which is still in existence, but was largely abandoned by its primary developers and users when Sun was acquired by Oracle), LibreOffice is the most powerful of the free office suites available. Or, as their website puts it: “LibreOffice is the power-packed free, libre and open source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base. Support and documentation is free from our large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers.”
;) In addition, Libre's compatibility with Microsoft Office formats is very good (and ever-improving).
In the Windows development world, Microsoft’s Visual Studio has always been the proverbial 800-lb gorilla. But, what if you’re just learning, don’t have $3,800 dollars, or want to write software that can run on all operating systems (including Windows)? Luckily, there are some full-featured free alternatives. |
| Games and Final Thoughts |
Free, Open Source Games:It’s hard for free games to compete with the highly-financed triple-A titles on the market today. However, if you're the kind of person who likes not only to play cool games but to be able to pick-apart their source code for educational purposes or customization, here are a couple of gaming picks:0 A.D. 0 A.D. is a historical RTS game that features six unique civilizations, realistic maps and terrain, naval warfare, multiple play modes and a full-featured editor. The game is still in development, but it is already a very nice (and graphically impressive) Civilization-style game.
;) Alien Arena “Do you like old school deathmatch with modern features? How about rich, colorful, arcade-like atmospheres? How about...retro Sci Fi? Then you're going to love what Alien Arena has in store for you! This game combines some of the very best aspects of such games as Quake III and Unreal Tournament and wraps them up with a retro alien theme, while adding tons of original ideas to make the game quite unique.” I myself was never much a fan of the Q3-style FPS games. But that’s probably because twitch-kiddies always handed me my... er, hat. However, if that sounds like something you would enjoy... you can’t end up with buyers remorse at a price of zero dollars. ;)  The preceding list barely scratches the surface as to what’s available out there. There are literally thousands of available apps and tens of thousands of libraries (and even many complete operating systems) in the FOSS ecosystem. If you know of one that’s worthy of recognition, jump in and tell us about it in the HotHardware Operating Systems and Software forum. |
As the resident open source zealot, I thought it might be nice to have a quick rundown of some of the best apps that are free, open source, and cross-platform available to our readers. Experienced users may find fault with me for leaving out their favorite app, but hopefully they will agree that the ones I’ve picked here are deserving of recognition. I especially hope this is useful to those that are unaware of the existence of these applications due to the long shadows cast by the proprietary icons of their respective categories. If you feel I did miss an important app, please let us know in the comments and share your favorites with everyone.
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