Free or Open Source alternatives to commercial windows apps
Internet, E-mail, IM, Web:
1. Firefox:
The best cross platform supported web browser available on the net, it doesn’t need any introduction and many of you might be using. A wide range of Firefox Add-On’s makes this the most powerful browser. An alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer.
2. Thunderbird:
Thunderbird is the open source desktop email application from Mozilla foundation. Thunderbird has the best features in the industry. “Thunderbird 2 features many new enhancements to help you better manage your unruly inbox, and stay informed. Thunderbird 2 scales to the most sophisticated organizational needs while making it easy to find what you need.”
3. Pidgin:
Pidgin, formerly known as Gaim is a multi-platform instant messaging client that supports many commonly used IM protocols. Pidgin is a free software and supports IM’s including Yahoo, Google Talk, Jabber, MSN, AOL, ICQ etc.
4. Juice:
Juice is a free open source cross-platform podcast receiver application. It is used to download podcast media files, such as oggs and mp3s. Using juice you can schedule the podcast and juice will let you know when a new podcast is available. The downloaded files media files can be automatically copied to a digital audio player.
5. Feedreader:
Feedreader is free desktop RSS aggregation tool. “Feedreader automatically downloads updates from your favorite Web sites. So, it eliminates the need for you to constantly monitor multiple Web pages, while allowing you to immediately identify and retrieve new articles”.
6. HTTrack:
HTTrack is a free and easy-to-use offline browser utility. It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer.
7. Sunbird:
Sunbird is open source desktop calender application from Mozilla foundation. Sunbird is a cross platform, open standards application built on Mozilla Toolkit
8. eMule:
eMule is a open source peer to peer file sharing (P2P) client tool.
9. Ares:
Ares is a free open source file sharing program that enables users to share any digital file including images, audio, video, software, documents, etc.
Office (Desktop Publishing)
10. OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org is the open source office suite similar to Microsoft office available to different platforms. OpenOffice.org is a collection of applications with the features similar to Microsoft Office. The Components include Writer, Calc, Base, Impress, Draw, Math, Quickstarter etc.
11. AbiWord
AbiWord is a open source and fully cross-platform word processor.
12. Scribus:
Scribus is an open source desktop publishing (DTP) application. It has some nice page layout features and can be used as an alternative to Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. “It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters and books.”
System Maintenance & Productivity: (Archiver, PDF, Launchers)
13. 7-zip
7-Zip is a open source file archiver program for windows. It supports packing and unpacking of 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR format files and supports only unpacking of RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS. It provides better compression ratio than WinZip for ZIP and GZIP formats. It is an alternative to programs like WinZip
14. PDFCreator
PDFCreator is a free program for creating PDF documents from windows programs. Once installed, it allows the user to select PDFCreator as their printer, allowing almost any application to print to PDF.
15. Pandora Recovery:
Pandora Recovery is a powerful free tool that provides its users an effective way to attempt recovery of permanently deleted files. (earlier review)
16. CCleaner:
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.
17. Launchy:
Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes! (earlier review)
18. jetToolbar:
Despite Microsoft’s best intentions, the Start Menu isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. If you’re looking for an alternative way to launch your programs, take a look at jetToolBar. During installation this well-done utility creates 14 default categories, registers shortcuts for many of your applications, and adds bookmarks for recommended Web pages.
19. MyUninstaller:
MyUninstaller is an alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all installed application, and allows you to uninstall an application, delete an uninstall entry, and save the list of all installed applications into a text file or HTML file.
Security: (Antivirus, Firewall, Encryption, Password Mgr,
20. ClamWin
ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and 2003. ClamWin is a good alternative to commercial software like Norton, McAfee etc. Clamwin features include High detection rates for viruses and spyware, Scanning Scheduler, Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database, Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer, and Add in to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.
21. ClamAV
ClamAV application is primarily for Unix based systems but now a windows version is available. This version needs a emulation layer like CygWin
22. RogueScanner
RogueScanner is an open source vulnerability management tool that is used to gain greater network visibility. This enables you to quickly identify and remove rogue wireless devices that may provide back door access to your critical data and infrastructure.
23. Open Antivirus
Open AntiVirus is not another virus scanner to put on a computer! Open AntiVirus is a platform for people seriously interested in anti-virus research, network security and computer security to communicate with each other, to develop solutions for various security problems, and to develop new security technologies.
24. SoftPerfect Personal Firewall
The SoftPerfect Personal Firewall is a free network firewall designed to protect your PC against attacks from the Internet or via a local area network. SoftPerfect Personal Firewall offers customizable security using user-defined rules for packet filtering. It works at a low level and also allows you to create rules based on non-IP protocols such as ARP.
25. Truecrypt
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Linux. Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a storage device such as USB flash drive. Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
26. Keepass
KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database.
27. Clipperz
Clipperz is a free and anonymous online password manager. Local encryption within the browser guarantees that no one except you can read your data. Nothing to install. (earlier review)
IT Professional (power tools)
28. Cygwin
Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality. A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel.
29. Flashget
Flashget is a freeware for downloading files. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols
30. Freemind
FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into high productivity tool.
Editors (Web, Text, Screencast)
31. Programmers Notepad:
Programmer’s Notepad is the free, open source, text editor for programmers.
some of the features of Programmers Notepad: Code Folding/Outlining, Docking tool windows, Excellent external tool support with user-configurable output matching, Export to HTML (using CSS) and RTF, Word Wrapping
32. NOTEPAD++:
Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.
33. PSPad:
PSPad is a freeware programmer’s editor.
34. Wink:
You can create presentations or screen-casts with Wink in just minutes, you can record mouse movements or take screenshots of your application and save them as flash files. (earlier review)
File Transfer / Sharing:
35. Filezilla
FileZilla is a free, open source FTP client for Windows. It supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS protocols. It has all the essential features required for a FTP client. The main features of FileZilla are Ability to resume Uploads/Downloads, Site Manager with folders, Keep Alive system, Timeout detection, Firewall support, SOCKS4/5 and HTTP1.1 Proxy support, SSL secured connections, Upload/Download Queue, Drag & Drop.
36. WinSCP
WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer.
37. PuTTy
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.
38. ShowMyPC
ShowMyPC is now a Community for Remote Support providers. Providing tools for Instant Support to Service Providers and Users. It started as an open source Desktop Sharing and Remote PC access project, an alternative to subscription based sites like WebEx or Gotomypc.
Multimedia (Players, Codecs, Rippers..etc)
39. VLC Media Player
VLC Media Player is a open source media player from VideoLan project team. It is the best media player available in the net, it plays almost any file format available. It also supports streaming protocols. It is a good alternative to different media players.
40. Media Player Classic
Media Player Classic (MPC) is a compact free software media player for Microsoft Windows. The application has a similar look and feel to the old light-weight Windows Media Player 6.4. Underneath, however, it is a completely different application which has all the options and features one might expect from a modern media player.
41. Media Coder
MediaCoder is a free universal batch media transcoder, which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution. (earlier review)
42. musikCube:
musikCube can be an alternative to iTunes to manage your music collection.
43. mp3mymp3
Record any audio playing on your computer as mp3 or wav file with mp3mymp3 recorder. It can record any sound originating from your computer, it works by recording all audio through your sound card. (earlier review)
44. Youtube Catcher
Youtube Catcher can download videos from Youtube, Google Video, Myspace Video, Yahoo video Dailymotion Stage6 Veoh. The downloaded videos can be exported to various formats like MPG,AVI, MP4,3GP, 3G2, WMV, PSP, MOV, FLV with the quality you choose. (earlier review)
45. Media Portal
MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC / TV into a very advanced Media Center. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more.
Video/Audio Editing Tools
46. Audacity
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. Audacity can be used to record live audio, convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
47. Hanbrake
HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.
48. DVDStyler
DVDStyler is a cross-platform DVD authoring application that makes possible for video enthusiasts to create professional-looking DVDs.
49. DVD Flick
DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks as well as subtitles of your choice.
50. ImgBurn
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application. It supports all windows versions.
51. AVS Disc Creator
Write your data to CD, DVD and Blu-ray Discs quickly and easily using FREE AVS Disc Creator.
52. Vivia-The Video Editor
Vivia is a video editing program for Linux and Windows. It provides extremely easy editing of clips and transitions in real-time, along with multi-camera support for editing scenes that were recorded by more than one camera simultaneously.
53. MiNi Video Studio
MiNI Video Studio is a program for non-linear video editing. It means this application allows creating of a movie from other movies in a way, that the elements of the final movie overlap, creating a series of layers that can be rendered one by one, or all at once.
54. popCorn
popCorn is a desktop-oriented MPEG-1 audio (MP3) and video software capable of playing data streamed directly from the network. Compatibility with existing media servers is provided by the support of the industry standard RTSP protocol.
55. OpenVIP
OpenVIP editor. It provides a user-friendly GUI to the core and is based on the timeline concept - you place multimedia files on the timeline, apply filters, transitions…
Graphic Editor (Image Viewing & Manipulation)
56. GIMP
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is free open source raster graphics editor for manipulating photos or images. GIMP is an excellent software alternative to expensive Photoshop, it is used for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
57. Irfanview
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista.
58. Paint.net
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
59. XnView
XnView is free software to view and convert graphic files, really simple to use. It Support of more than 400 graphics formats.
60. ZScreen:
ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program that allows for region/window/full-screen screenshots. It can FTP screenshots and put the URL in your clipboard in a single keystroke. It supports automatic custom naming conventions with variables. It can also interface with image editing software.
61. hugin:
hugin is a open source easy to use cross-platform panoramic imaging tool. Using hugin you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into as complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more.
62. Inkscape:
Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor. Inkscape is a good alternative to commercial vector graphics tools like Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Freehand or Xara X. Inkscape uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format. It can be used to create web2.0 buttons, banners, logos, icons etc. (see earlier review)
3D Graphics:
63. Blender:
Blender is a open source free software for creating 3D animations. Blender can be used for modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and creating interactive 3D applications. Blender has robust features et similar to programs like 3ds Max and Maya.
64. Art Of Illusion:
Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modeling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java, and should be usable on any Java Virtual Machine which is compatible with J2SE 1.4 or later.
65. OpenFX:
OpenFX is an Open-Source 3D modeling, animation and rendering suite. A powerful feature-set includes a full renderer and raytrace engine, NURBS support, kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plug-in API.
Google Pack
66. Google Pack
All the programs in this pack are must have for anybody, if you havn’t already downloaded google pack get it from here
Miscellaneous
67. Virtual Box:
VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product.
