Why the title? Why Open Source?

Open source is a set of principles and practices on how to write software, the most important of which is that the source code is openly available. For a product to be Open Source it must comply with standards listed below:

# Free Redistribution: the software can be freely given away or sold. (This was intended to encourage sharing and use of the software on a legal basis.)
# Source Code: the source code must either be included or freely obtainable. (Without source code, making changes or modifications can be impossible.)
# Derived Works: redistribution of modifications must be allowed. (To allow legal sharing and to permit new features or repairs.)
# Integrity of The Author’s Source Code: licenses may require that modifications are redistributed only as patches.
# No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: no one can be locked out.
# No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor: commercial users cannot be excluded.
# Distribution of License: The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
# License Must Not Be Specific to a Product: the program cannot be licensed only as part of a larger distribution.
# License Must Not Restrict Other Software: the license cannot insist that any other software it is distributed with must also be open source.

For more information check out this local Open Source resource.

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Which Open Source applications are available that cost nothing and are the equivalent to proprietary PC programs? The list below should help:

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Microsoft Internet Explorer ===> Firefox , SeaMonkey and Opera
Microsoft Office suite ===> Open Office suite. More specifically,

• MS Word ===> OO Writer or AbiWord
• MS Excel ===> OO Calc or Gnumeric
• MS Power Point ===> OO Impress

In addition Open Office provides OO Math, OO Draw, and OO Base
MS Outlook or Outlook Express ===> Thunderbird
MS Visio ===> Dia
MS Access, Filemaker Pro ===> Open Office Base and Kexi
MSN Messanger ===> Gaim
Microsoft Money, Quicken ===> Grisbi, GnuCash and TurboCash
TruSpace ===> Blender
Photoshop, Paint, Corel Draw, Paint Shop Pro ===> Gimp, Paint.NET and CinePaint
Corel Draw, Illustrator or Freehand ===> Inkscape
Adobe Audition ===> Traverso
Adobe Framemaker ===> DocBook
Adobe After Effects ===> Jahshaka
Windows Media Player ===> VLC, MPlayer and Miro
MS MovieMaker, FinalCutPro, Adobe Premiere ===> Avidemux and VirtualDub
Macromedia Flash ===> OpenLaszlo and OO Impress
Macromedia Captivate ===> CamStudio
AutoCAD ===> Archimedes
Mind Manager ===> FreeMind
Kid Pix ===> Tux Paint
MS Visio ===> Dia, inkscape, starUML and OO Draw
Dreamweaver, GoLive ===> NVU, SeaMonkey’s Composer, Amaya and KompoZer
MS Publisher, PageMaker or Adobe InDesign ===> Scribus
Microsoft Projects ===> OpenWorkbench and GanttProject
XML Spy ===> XMLCopyEditor
Adobe Acrobat ===> PDFCreator and SumatraPDF
Blackboard, WebCT ===> Moodle, Joomla and Sakai
McAfee Virus Scan ===> ClamWin and Winpooch
MS Office Clip Art ===> OpenClipArt
Nero Burning Rom, Roxio Record Now ===> Infrarecorder and CDRDAO
SASIxp ===> SchoolTool
MS FTP Server ===> FileZilla
Symantec Norton Ghost ===> g4u
Symantec Norton Partition Magic ===> gparted
VMWare ===> Virtual Box, Xen and CoLinux
WinZip ===> 7-Zip
Skype ===> Wengophone
iTunes ===> Songbird
QuickTime ===> Darwin Streaming Server

Other applications worth considering:

Audacity: a sound editing program which can record, playback, and mix sounds or apply effects using a variety of filters. It’s an Open Source alternative to Adobe Audition

Celestia: a simulation of the entire universe, based on current astronomical information.

Juice: a cross-platform aggregator application that is used to download podcast media files, such as oggs and mp3s.

Stellarium: a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D.

GCompris: educational software which propose different activities to children from 2 to 10 years old.

Childsplay: a suite of educational games for young children.

Gramps: free genealogy program

Blender: a free open source 3D content creation suite, to model, shade,animate, render and compose interactive 3D graphics. See also PovRay.

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If you are looking for a place to find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software, visit http://www.osalt.com/.

For diverse opinions and a place to vote for your favorite Open Source applications go to GroupThink’s Open Source page.

The UK has a site dedicated to Free, Libre and Open Source Software solutions for Education (use the right column for categories)

FOSSWiki is an excellent source for freeware and open source software. For a site offering a downloadable CD image visit TTCS OSSWIN’s CD site.