Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications
The following is a list of about 100 of the best OpenSource Applications, that actually help make Linux more usable for people. It is my hope that this list shows potential Linux users that there really is a large, effective, productive and usable range of free,
OpenSource applications. For existing Linux users (like myself), I think this will provide a great resource in finding applications that may better suit your needs, or just for fun! Needless to say, this is just some of the thousands of applications available! I develop web sites, so this list tends to focus on applications which support that type of work.
The majority of these applications can be installed by either apt-get or synaptic, however I’ve included the web site addresses of these applications so that you can obtain more information. I’ve tried many of these applications myself – and they are pretty good!
Audio Applications
Ardour:
(http://www.ardour.org/)
Ardour is a digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. You can produce your own CDs, mix video soundtracks, or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound.
Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-destructive editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a powerful mixer, unlimited tracks/busses/plugins, timecode synchronization, and hardware control from surfaces like the Mackie Control Universal. If you’ve been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Pyramix, or Sequoia, you might have found it.
Audacity:
(http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:
Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more!
Grip:
(http://nostatic.org/grip/)
Grip is a cd-player and cd-ripper for the Gnome desktop. It has the ripping capabilities of cdparanoia builtin, but can also use external rippers (such as cdda2wav). It also provides an automated frontend for MP3 (and other audio format) encoders, letting you take a disc and transform it easily straight into MP3s. Internet disc lookups are supported for retrieving track information from disc database servers.Grip works with DigitalDJ to provide a unified “computerized†version of your music collection.
Hydrogen:
(http://www.hydrogen-music.org/)
Hydrogen is an advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux. It’s main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming.
Jokosher:
(http://www.jokosher.org/)
Jokosher is a simple and powerful multi-track studio. Jokosher provides a complete application for recording, editing, mixing and exporting audio, and has been specifically designed with usability in mind.
The developers behind Jokosher have re-thought audio production at every level, and created something devilishly simple to use.
LMMS:
(http://lmms.sourceforge.net/)
LMMS aims to be a free alternative to popular (but commercial and closed- source) programs like FruityLoops/FL Studio, Cubase and Logic allowing you to produce music with your computer. This includes creation of loops, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples, having fun with your MIDI-keyboard and much more…
MusE:
(http://www.muse-sequencer.org/)
MusE is a MIDI/Audio sequencer with recording and editing capabilities written by Werner Schweer. MusE aims to be a complete multitrack virtual studio for Linux.
Midi sequencing
Record/Playback/Import
Input filter
Audio sequencing
Record/Playback several mono/stereo inputs/outputs.
AudioGroups
LASH
Perform audio effects like chorus/flanger in realtime!
Jack – jack-audio-connection-kit
Use the jack for midi/audio routing.
Internal Audio Routing Interface
ALSA – based on the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
You can use several soundcards to access external midi devices and record/playback them with MusE.
Rosegarden:
(http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/)
Rosegarden is a professional audio and MIDI sequencer, score editor, and general-purpose music composition and editing environment.
soundKonverter:
(http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=29024)
soundKonverter is a frontend to various audio converters.
The key features are:
Audio conversion
Replay Gain calculation
CD ripping
Streamripper:
(http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/)
With the emergence of file sharing protocols such as Napster, Gnutella, and now Mojonation and Freenet, the average Internet user can download nearly any mp3 he wants in a matter of no time, but many times people don’t know what they want. Streamripper allows you to download an entire station of music. Many of these mp3 radio stations only play certain genres, so you can now download an entire collection of goa/trance music, an entire collection of jazz, punk rock, whatever you want.
Graphic Design Applications (2D)
Cenon:
(http://www.cenon.info/frame_gb.html)
Cenon is a graphical tool of a special kind. Build upon a modular graphical core, Cenon offers a wide variety of possibilities and applications.
The best of all, the Cenon core is free software, available with full source codes, and at home on many computer platforms.
GIMPshop:
(http://www.gimpshop.com/)
GIMPshop is a modification of the free/open source GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop. Its primary purpose is to make users of Photoshop feel comfortable using GIMP.
It shares all GIMP’s advantages, including the long feature list and customisability, while addressing some common criticisms regarding the program’s interface: GIMPshop modifies the menu structure to closely match Photoshop’s, adjusts the program’s terminology to match Adobe’s, and, in the Windows version, uses a plugin called ‘Deweirdifier’ to combine the application’s numerous windows in a similar manner to the MDI system used by most Windows graphics packages. While GIMPshop does not support Photoshop plugins, all GIMP’s own plugins, filters, brushes, etc. remain available.
Due to the changes to the interface, many Photoshop tutorials can be followed in GIMPshop unchanged, and most others can be adapted for GIMPshop users with minimal effort.
Hugin:
(http://hugin.sourceforge.net/)
An easy to use cross-platform panoramic imaging toolchain based on Panorama Tools.
With hugin you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more.
Inkscape:
(http://www.inkscape.org/)
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.
KoverArtist:
(http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=38195)
KoverArtist is a program for the fast creation of covers for cd/dvd cases and boxes. The main idea behind it is to be able to create decent looking covers with some mouseclicks.
Supports changing covers on the fly to use cases that can house more discs.
Ktoon:
(http://ktoon.toonka.com/)
KToon is a 2D Animation Toolkit designed by animators (Toonka Films ) for animators, focused to the Cartoon Industry. This project is covered by the GPL License using G++, OpenGL and QT as programming resources from KDevelop as the development platform.
Krita:
(http://www.koffice.org/krita/)
Krita is a painting and image editing application for KOffice. Krita is part of KOffice since version 1.4. Krita contains both ease-of-use and fun features like guided painting (never before has it been so easy to airbrush a straight line!) and high-end features like support for 16 bit images, CMYK, L*a*b and even OpenEXR HDR images.
MyPaint:
(http://people.ee.ethz.ch/%7Emrenold/mypaint/)
MyPaint is a fast painting/scribbling program. It supports pressure sensitive graphic tablets and comes with an easy to use brush collection. There is a complex interface for creating your own brushes, focusing on brush dynamics (changes with speed, pressure, or randomly). The canvas size is unlimited and undo is supported, but not layers.
OpenOffice Draw:
(http://www.openoffice.org/product/draw.html)
DRAW - from a quick sketch to a complex plan, DRAW gives you the tools to communicate with graphics and diagrams.
‘Park’ your most commonly used drawing tools around your screen ready for single-click access.
Use Styles and Formatting to put all your graphics styles at your finger tips.
Manipulate objects, rotate in two or three dimensions; the 3D controller puts spheres, rings, cubes, etc. at your disposal.
Arrange objects: group, ungroup, regroup, and edit objects while grouped. Sophisticated rendering let you create photorealistic images with your own texture, lighting effects, transparency, perspective, and so on.
Smart connectors make short work of flowcharts, organization charts, network diagrams, etc. Define your own ‘glue points’ for connectors to ’stick’ to.
Dimension lines automatically calculate and display linear dimensions as you draw.
Use the picture Gallery for clipart; create your own art and add it to the Gallery.
Save your graphics in OpenDocument format, the new international standard for office documents. This XML based format means you’re not tied in to DRAW. You can access your graphics from any OpenDocument compliant software.
Import graphics from all common formats (including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and WMF).
Use DRAW’s free ability to create Flash (.swf) versions of your work.
Panorama Tools:
(http://www.all-in-one.ee/%7Edersch/)
Software to View, Create, Edit and Remap Panoramic Images :
PTStitcher: High quality, simple to use, all format stitching software.
Panorama Tools: Photoshop plug-in for panorama creation, editing and remapping.
PTViewer: High quality spherical viewer, Standalone and java versions for many platforms.
Pixelize:
(http://lashwhip.com/pixelize.html)
Pixelize will use many scaled down images to try to duplicate, as closely as possible, another image.
Pixelize works by splitting up the image you want rendered (or duplicated) into a grid of small rectangular areas. Each area is analyzed, and replaced with an image chosen from a large database of images.
Pixelize tries to pick images that best match each area.
Pixelize works best when it can choose images from a very large database of images. With about 1000 images, Pixelize can do a reasonable job.
Scribus:
(http://www.scribus.net/)
Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready†output and new approaches to page layout.
Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.
Skencil:
(http://www.skencil.org/)
Skencil is a Free Software interactive vector drawing appliction. Known to run on GNU/Linux and other UNIX-compatible systems, it is a flexible and powerful tool for illustrations, diagrams and other purposes.
A somewhat unique (for a drawing program) feature of Skencil is that it is implemented almost completely in a very high-level, interpreted language, Python. Python is powerful, object-oriented and yet easy to use.
Synfig:
(http://synfig.org/Main_Page & http://www.synfig.com/)
Synfig is a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. While there are many other programs currently on the market to aid with the efficient production of 2D animation, we are currently unaware of any other software that can do what our software can.
2D Animation has traditionally been very expensive because every frame must be drawn by hand. Even with today’s digital inking and painting software, the process still relies on individuals hand-drawing each frame. This laborious task is called “tweeningâ€.
Our animation technology eliminates the task of manual tweening, producing smooth, fluid motion without the animator having to draw out each frame individually.
This allows you to produce 2D animation with fewer people while producing a product of a higher quality.
Xara Xtreme:
(http://www.xaraxtreme.org/)
Xara Xtreme for Linux is a powerful, general purpose graphics program for Unix platforms including Linux, FreeBSD and (in development) OS-X.
Formely known as Xara LX, it is based on Xara Xtreme for Windows, which is the fastest graphics program available, period. The Xara Xtreme source code was made available open-source in early 2006, and is being ported to Linux. This process is almost complete and Xara Xtreme for Linux is available for download.
Xara Xtreme for Linux:
Is very fast, very slick to use.
Offers some of the most powerful graphics tools available.
Is simple to use and learn.
Has a clean, un-cluttered user interface. Few floating dialogs, palettes, menus etc.
Is able to create a huge range of outstanding graphics.
* Has a huge resource of learning material, tutorials, movies, tips and a very active enthusiastic and growing user community.
Graphic Design Applications (3D)
Art Of Illusion:
(http://www.artofillusion.org/)
Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling 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.
Many of its capabilities rival those found in commercial programs. Some of the highlights include subdivision surface based modelling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials.
Blender:
(http://www.blender.org/)
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
model • shade • animate • render • composite • interactive 3d
Crystal Space:
(http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/Main_Page)
Crystal Space is a free cross-platform software development kit for realtime 3D graphics, in particular games.
FreeWRL:
(http://freewrl.sourceforge.net/)
FreeWRL supports the VRML97 and X3D open standards;
Is confirmed as “Interchange Profile†conformant by the Web3d Consortium;
Runs on OSX and Linux, it runs within Web browsers, or standalone;
Is ReWire and MIDI enabled for sound-based interaction;
Is able to interconnect to other programs using MIDI, or the EAI and SAI external programming interfaces.
G3DViewer:
(http://automagically.de/index.shtml?g3dviewer)
G3DViewer is a 3D file viewer for GTK+ supporting a variety of file types:
3D Studio (.3ds, .prj)
LightWave (.lw, .lwb, .lwo)
Alias Wavefront (.obj)
Impulse TurboSilver / Imagine (.iob)
AutoCAD (.dxf)
Quake II Models (.md2)
Quake III Models (.md3) (new in 0.2.99.1)
Neutral File Format (.nff)
3D Metafile (.3dmf, .3mf, .b3d)
Caligari TrueSpace Objects (.cob)
Quick3D Objects & Scenes (.q3o, q3s)
VRML 1.0 files (.wrl, .vrml) (new in 0.1.1, still buggy)
AC3D objects (.ac, .acc) (new in 0.1.99.1)
LeoCAD Models (.lcd) (new in 0.2.99.1)
Racer car models (.ar, .dof) (new in libg3d 0.0.5, not really complete)
Ultimate Stunts car models (.glb) (new in libg3d 0.0.5)
VDrift car models (.joe, .car) (new in libg3d 0.0.5)
K3DSurf:
(http://k3dsurf.sourceforge.net/)
K3DSurf is a program to visualize and manipulate Mathematical models in three, four, five and six dimensions. K3DSurf supports Parametric equations and Isosurfaces.
Studying mathematical surfaces with K3DSurf include doing:
Interactive visualization with mouse events (Right: Rotate, Middle: translate and left: Scale).
Real time animation (rotation) and morph (by the introduction of t_time variable). Animation and morph can also be monitored by controls that affect the CPU usage and t_time step.
Create screenshots by copying the draw window or by using the best ray tracer on the net: Povray.
Create movie scene is also supported.
Generate Mesh files that describe the shape of the mathematical model.
Supported formats are:
Povscript: Povray is the best ray tracer available on the net…and it’s free.
VRML2: to use with the majority of current browsers via an appropriate plug-in.
OBJ: a well-known file format supported by the majority of 3D applications (Blender, MAYA and Moray…).
KPovModeler:
(http://www.kpovmodeler.org/)
KPovModeler is a modeling and composition program for creating POV-Ray(TM) scenes in KDE.
For most of the modelers, POV-Ray is nothing but a rendering engine and they bring a lot of limitations to the innate possibilities of POV-Ray scripted language. This is not the case for KPovModeler which allows you to use all the features of POV-Ray through the translation of POV-Ray language into a graphical tree.
Almost all options of POV-Ray’s script language can be used within KPovModeler. “Almost†because variables, loop instructions, macros and some operators can’t directly be, unfortunately. On the other hand, KPovModeler allows you to include a part of a script with the “Raw POV-Ray†tool; such a raw code will only be taken into account by POV-Ray during the rendering stage.
Among the features you can find:
Management of the scene through a graphical tree.
Object modification with control points in a graphical view or direct manipulation of object attributes in a dialog.
Nonblocking scene rendering with OpenGL as wire frame views.
Freely configurable view layout with dock widgets.
Copy/paste and drag/drop of (a subset of) povray(!) code into and out of the object tree.
Undo and redo.
Scene rendering and texture preview with povray inside the program.
Support for almost all povray objects.
Support for all textures.
Prototypes (declarations) and references.
All projection modes of the camera.
PovRay:
(http://www.povray.org/)
The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.
White Dune:
(http://vrml.cip.ica.uni-stuttgart.de/dune/)
White_dune is a low level VRML97 tool for Unix/Linux/MacOSX and Windows.
It can read VRML97 files, display and let the user change the scenegraph/fields.
Unlike most highlevel tools, it uses a light model based on the VRML97 standard.
Video Applications
AvideMUX:
(http://avidemux.berlios.de/index.html)
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEGfiles, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.
Cinelerra:
(http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3)
Cinelerra does primarily 3 main things: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample level accuracy. It’s a seamless integration of audio, video, and still photos rarely experienced on a web server.
If you want to make movies with the same kind of compositing and editing suite that the big boys use, on the world’s most efficient UNIX operating system, it’s time for Cinelerra.
CinePaint:
(http://www.cinepaint.org/)
CinePaint is used to retouch feature films and in pro photography. CinePaint opens high fidelity image file formats such as DPX, 16-bit TIFF, and OpenEXR, and conventional formats like JPEG and PNG. It has a flipbook for movie playback of image sequences in RAM. It supports 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit color channels, HDR and CMS.
CinePaint is used for motion picture frame-by-frame retouching, dirt removal, wire rig removal, render repair, background plates, and painting 3D model textures. It’s been used on many feature films, including The Last Samurai where it was used to add flying arrows.
For still photography, CinePaint can import bracketed HDR exposures. It has gallery-quality 16-bit per channel color printing with GutenPrint. CinePaint’s high dynamic range is crucial with B&W still photography, where images only have a single channel.
Jahshaka:
(http://jahshaka.org/)
Edit with flexibility and speed.
Create Effects in real time.
Animate with unlimited features.
Paint and design on moving video.
Create music with all the tools the pros use.
Work in any format at any resolution.
Kino:
(http://www.kinodv.org/)
Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in Raw DV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.
You can load multiple video clips, cut and paste portions of video/audio, and save it to an edit decision list (SMIL XML format). Most edit and navigation commands are mapped to equivalent vi key commands. Also, Kino can export the composite movie in a number of formats: DV over IEEE 1394, Raw DV, DV AVI, still frames, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. Still frame import and export uses gdk-pixbuf, which has support for BMG, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PPM, SVG, Targa, TIFF, and XPM. MP3 requires lame. Ogg Vorbis requires oggenc. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 require mjpegtools or ffmpeg. MPEG-4 requires ffmpeg.
LiVES:
(http://lives.sourceforge.net/)
LiVES mixes realtime video performance and non-linear editing in one application. It will let you start editing and making video right away, without having to worry about formats, frame sizes, or framerates. It is a very flexible tool which can be used by both VJ’s and video editors – mix and switch clips from the keyboard, trim and edit your clips, and bring them together using the multitrack timeline. You can even record your performance in real time, and then edit it further or render it straight away as a new clip!
recordMyDesktop:
(http://recordmydesktop.iovar.org/about.php)
recordMyDesktop is a desktop session recorderfor GNU/linux that attemps to be easy to use, yet also effective at it’s primary task.
As such, the program is separated in two parts; a simple command line tool that performs the basic tasks of capturing and encoding and an interface that exposes the program functionality in a usable way.
Slideshow Creator:
(http://slcreator.sourceforge.net/)
With Slideshow Creator and dvd-slideshow you can transform your pictures in a beautiful dvd-quality slide show rich of fashinating effects like ken burns, pan and animated transitions. Adding a musical soundtrack too you will have a really cool result!
System Applications:
APTonCD:
(http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/)
APTonCD is a tool with a graphical interface which allows you to create one or more CDs or DVDs (you choose the type of media) with all of the packages you’ve downloaded via APT-GET or APTITUDE, creating a removable repository that you can use on other computers.
APTonCD will also allow you to automatically create media with all of your .deb packages located in one specific repository, so that you can install them into your computers without the need for an internet connection.
Beagle:
(http://beagle-project.org/Main_Page)
Beagle is a search tool that ransacks your personal information space to find whatever you’re looking for.
More technically, Beagle is a Linux desktop-independent service which transparently and unobtrusively indexes your data in real-time. For example:
Files are immediately indexed when they are created, are re-indexed when they are modified, and are dropped from the index upon deletion.
eMails are indexed upon arrival.
IM conversations are indexed as you chat, a line at a time.
Web pages are indexed as you view them (with a browser extension).
ClamAV:
(http://www.clamav.net/)
Clam AntiVirus is an open source (GPL) anti-virus toolkit for UNIX, designed especially for e-mail scanning on mail gateways. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and advanced tool for automatic database updates.
Conky:
(http://conky.sourceforge.net/)
Conky is a light-weight system monitor under active development, a highly configurable system monitor for X based on torsmo
Ekiga:
(http://ekiga.org/)
Ekiga (formely known as GnomeMeeting) is an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. Ekiga uses both the H.323 and SIP protocols. It supports many audio and video codecs, and is interoperable with other SIP compliant software and also with Microsoft NetMeeting.
Endeavour Mark II:
(http://wolfpack.twu.net/Endeavour2/)
Endeavour Mark II is a complete file management suite that comes with a File Browser, Image Browser, Archiver, Recycled Objects system, and a set of file & disk management utility programs.
FileZilla:
(http://filezilla-project.org/)
FileZilla is a fast FTP and SFTP client.
GParted:
(http://gparted.sourceforge.net/)
GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the filesystems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).
gZIP:
(http://www.gzip.org/)
gzip (GNU zip) is a compression utility designed to be a replacement for compress. Its main advantages over compress are much better compression and freedom from patented algorithms.
K3b:
(http://k3b.plainblack.com/)
K3b was created to be a feature-rich and easy to handle CD burning application.
MondoRescue:
(http://www.mondorescue.org/)
Mondo Rescue is a GPL disaster recovery solution. It supports Linux (i386, x86_64, ia64) and FreeBSD (i386). It’s packaged for multiple distributions (RedHat, RHEL, SuSE, SLES, Mandriva, Debian, Gentoo).
It supports tapes, disks, network and CD/DVD as backup media, multiple filesystems, LVM, software and hardware Raid.
OpenBerg:
(http://openberg.sourceforge.net/)
Read, write, publish e-Books with open standards and free software.
OpenOffice:
(http://www.openoffice.org/)
OpenOffice.org the product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office, and the vendor-neutral OpenDocument standard from OASIS.
Available in over 65 supported languages with more being constantly added by the community, OpenOffice.org runs stably and natively on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), Windows, Mac OS X (X11), and numerous other platforms. Our porting page lists the platforms (ports) that OpenOffice.org can run on.
openSSH:
(http://www.openssh.org/)
OpenSSH is a FREE version of the SSH connectivity tools that technical users of the Internet rely on. Users of telnet, rlogin, and ftp may not realize that their password is transmitted across the Internet unencrypted, but it is. OpenSSH encrypts all traffic (including passwords) to effectively eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other attacks. Additionally, OpenSSH provides secure tunneling capabilities and several authentication methods, and supports all SSH protocol versions.
PDFedit:
(http://pdfedit.petricek.net/pdfedit.index_e)
Free (and open source) editor for manipulating PDF documents. GUI version + command line interface.
Pidgin:
(http://www.pidgin.im/)
Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once. Pidgin can work with:
AIM
Bonjour
Gadu-Gadu
Google Talk
Groupwise
ICQ
IRC
MSN
MySpaceIM
QQ
SILC
SIMPLE
Sametime
XMPP
Yahoo!
Zephyr
PuTTY:
(http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/)
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.
Reconstructor:
(http://reconstructor.aperantis.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)
Reconstructor is an Ubuntu GNU/Linux CD Creator.
It uses the Desktop(Live), Alternate(Install), or Server disc as a base, and then allows for user customization.
For the Ubuntu Desktop base, you can customize the entire environment. For instance, you can add/remove software, change the default look (splash, themes, fonts, wallpaper, etc.), add desktop links, etc.
For the Alternate and Server bases, you can add any additional software to the disc that you would like installed.
Rox-Filer:
(http://roscidus.com/desktop/ROX-Filer)
ROX is a desktop environment, like GNOME, KDE and XFCE. It is an attempt to bring some of the good features from RISC OS to Unix and Linux.
Traditionally, Unix users have always based their activities around the file system. Just about everything that’s anything appears as a file: regular files, hardware devices, and even processes on many systems (for example, inside the /proc filesystem on Linux).
However, recent desktop efforts (such as KDE and GNOME) seem to be following the Windows approach of trying to hide the filesystem and get users to do things via a Start-menu or similar. Modern desktop users, on Windows or Unix, often have no idea where their programs are installed, or even where their data files are saved. This leads to a feeling of not being in control, and a poor understanding of how the system works.
The ROX Desktop, however, is based around the file system. Its core component is ROX-Filer, a powerful graphical file manager which, in addition to being a popular filer in its own right, provides a couple of extra features which allow it to solve the above problems.
TrueCrypt:
(http://www.truecrypt.org/)
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
1) Hidden volume (steganography – more information may be found here).
2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).
VNC:
(http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/attarchive/vnc/index.html)
VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system which allows you to view a computing ‘desktop’ environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures.
WINE:
(http://www.winehq.org/)
Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix.
Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.
XFE:
(http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/)
X File Explorer (Xfe) is an MS-Explorer or Commander like file manager for X. Although all these file managers are feature rich and cleverly designed, let’s face it, they are huge! If you’re a console addict, light desktop user or have an older system, resource hogging file managers just aren’t the way to go.
Especially since most file managers are Desktop dependent (KDE, Gnome, Xfce, etc.), requiring you to load all kinds of unwanted bloat onto your system.
Developer Applications
Bugzilla:
(http://www.bugzilla.org/)
(I know Bugzilla is web-based, but it’s so good). Bugzilla is a Web-based general-purpose bugtracker tool originally developed and used by the Mozilla project. Released as open source software by Netscape Communications in 1998, Bugzilla has been adopted by a variety of organizations for use as a defect tracker for both free software and proprietary products.
Eclipse:
(http://www.eclipse.org/)
Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large and vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse platform.
Gambas:
(http://gambas.sourceforge.net/)
Gambas is a free development environment based on a Basic interpreter with object extensions, a bit like Visual Basicâ„¢ (but it is NOT a clone !). Read the introduction for more information.
With Gambas, you can quickly design your program GUI with QT or GTK+, access MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, ODBC and SQLite databases, pilot KDE applications with DCOP, translate your program into any language, create network applications easily, make 3D OpenGL applications, make CGI web applications, and so on…
Geany:
(http://geany.uvena.de/)
Geany is a text editor using the GTK2 toolkit with basic features of an integrated development environment. It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other packages. It supports many filetypes and has some nice features.
Gobby:
(http://gobby.0×539.de/trac/)
Gobby is a free collaborative editor supporting multiple documents in one session and a multi-user chat. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other Unix-like platforms. It uses GTK+ 2.6 as its windowing toolkit and thus integrates nicely into the GNOME desktop environment.
jEdit:
(http://www.jedit.org/)
jEdit is a mature programmer’s text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it.
Netbeans:
(http://www.netbeans.org/)
The NetBeans IDE is a free, open-source Integrated Development Environment for software developers. You get all the tools you need to create professional desktop, enterprise, web and mobile applications, in Java, C/C++ and even Ruby. The IDE runs on many platforms including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris; it is easy to install and use straight out of the box.
QuantaPlus:
(http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/)
Quanta Plus is a highly stable and feature rich web development environment. The vision with Quanta has always been to start with the best architectural foundations, design for efficient and natural use and enable maximal user extensibility. We recognize that we don’t have the resources to do everything we would like to so our target is to make it easy for you to help make this the best community based desktop application anywhere. Pretty much everything in Quanta is designed so you can extend it. Even the way it handles XML DTDs is based on XML files you can edit. You can even import DTDs, write scripts to manage editor contents, visually create dialogs for your scripts and assign script actions to nearly any file operation in a project. You can even look at and communicate with a wide range of what happens inside Quanta using DCOP.
SciTE:
(http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html)
SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla (http://scintilla.sourceforge.net/index.html), it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It is best used for jobs with simple configurations – I use it for building test and demonstration programs as well as SciTE and Scintilla, themselves.
Productivity Applications
Basket Note Pads:
(http://basket.kde.org/index.php)
This multi-purpose note-taking application helps you to:
Easily take all sort of notes
Collect research results and share them
Centralize your project data and reuse it
Quickly organize your thoughts in idea boxes
Keep track of your information in a smart way
Make intelligent To Do lists
And a lot more…
Firefox:
(http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/)
I think most people know that Firefox is a web browser. Choose from over a thousand useful add-ons that enhance Firefox. It’s easy to personalize Firefox to make it your own.
Gnome Do:
(http://do.davebsd.com/)
A powerful, speedy, and sexy remote control for your GNOME Desktop. GNOME Do is not only for GNOME. Although it was created by a GNOME lover, Do runs on KDE and other common environments.
GNOME Do is not a search tool. If you know what you’re looking for and what you want to do with it, Do will help you do it quickly. GNOME Do is not just a launcher. Send emails and IMs, play music, search the web, and launch applications too. Plugins make it possible.
GnuCash:
(http://gnucash.org/)
GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.
HomeBank:
(http://homebank.free.fr/)
HomeBank is free software. Use it to manage your personal accounts. It is designed to easy to use. Analyse your finances in detail using powerful filtering tools and graphs.
inCollector:
(http://www.incollector.devnull.pl/)
ncollector is an application to collect various kinds of information (like notes, conversation logs, quotes, serial numbers, source code, web addresses, words). All the entries can be tagged, so you can find them very easily. There are also search folders which allows you to search for entries by specified criteria. You can also export (and import, of course) entries to an external file.
Katapult:
(http://katapult.kde.org/)
Katapult is a KDE application that provides you with faster and easier access to your applications, bookmarks, and more. It is plugin-based and can launch anything it has a plugin for. Its plugin-driven appearance is completely customizable. Katapult was inspired by Quicksilver for OS X, and it is written in C++.
Meld:
(http://meld.sourceforge.net/)
Meld is a visual diff and merge tool. You can compare two or three files and edit them in place (diffs update dynamically). You can compare two or three folders and launch file comparisons. You can browse and view a working copy from popular version control systems such such as CVS, Subversion, Bazaar-ng and Mercurial.
OpenOffice:
http://www.openoffice.org/
qOrganizer:
(http://qorganizer.sourceforge.net/)
qOrganizer is a general organizer that includes a calendar with schedule,reminders,journal/notes for every day, to-do list.
But provides features useful for students such as:timetable and a booklet for marks and absences.It’s designed to be easy to use.
It represents a new approach to an organizer, with several innovative features.
RSSowl:
(http://www.rssowl.org/)
Applications that collect data from RSS-compliant sites are called RSS readers or “aggregators.†RSSOwl is such an application. RSSOwl lets you gather, organize, update, and store information from any compliant source in a convenient, easy to use interface, save selected information in various formats for offline viewing and sharing, and much more. It’s easy to configure, available in many many languages and the best of all: It’s platform-independent.
Specto:
(http://specto.sourceforge.net/)
Specto is a desktop application that will watch configurable events (such as website updates, emails, file and folder changes, system processes, etc) and then trigger notifications.
For example, Specto can watch a website for updates (or a syndication feed, or an image, etc), and notify you when there is activity (otherwise, Specto will just stay out of the way). This changes the way you work, because you can be informed of events instead of having to look out for them.
Sunbird:
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/)
Mozilla Sunbird is a cross-platform calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit. It provides you with a full-featured and easy to use calendar application that you can use around the world.
Task Coach:
(http://www.taskcoach.org/)
Task Coach is a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and todo lists. It grew out of Frank’s frustration that well-known task managers, such as those provided with Outlook or Lotus Notes, do not provide facilities for composite tasks. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks.
Thunderbird:
(http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/)
Thunderbird allows you to customize your email to suit your specific needs whether it’s how you search and find messages or listening to music right out of your inbox.
Thunderbird 2 offers a variety of ways for you to organize and display your folders, whether by favorites, recently viewed or folders containing unread messages. As always, you can also set up RSS and newsgroup folders to stay on top of news and your interests. Thunderbird 2 also allows you to maximize your message view pane by opting for a folder drop down menu instead of the traditional sidebar.
Thunderbird 2 allows you to “tag†messages with descriptors such as “To Do†or “Done†or even create your own tags that are specific to your needs. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.
tkdiff:
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/tkdiff/)
tkdiff is a graphical front end to the diff program. It provides a side-by-side view of the differences between two files, along with several innovative features such as diff bookmarks and a graphical map of differences for quick navigation.
Zim:
(http://www.pardus.nl/projects/zim/)
Zim is a WYSIWYG text editor written in Gtk2-Perl which aims to bring the concept of a wiki to your desktop. Every page is saved as a text file with wiki markup. Pages can contain links to other pages, and are saved automatically. Creating a new page is as easy as linking to a non-existing page. Pages are ordered in a hierarchical structure that gives it the look and feel of an outliner. This tool is intended to keep track of TODO lists or to serve as a personal scratch book.
Web Development Applications
Amaya:
(http://www.w3.org/Amaya/)
Amaya is a Web editor, i.e. a tool used to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium.
Aptana Studio:
(http://www.aptana.com/)
Studio is Aptana’s free, open source Ajax development environment. With over a million downloads, developers all over the world are discovering why Aptana Studio is the leading choice of web professionals everywhere. Studio offers free plugins for PHP, Ruby on Rails, Adobe AIR, and even Apple iPhone development.
Of course Studio also includes rich support for development of Jaxer-based Ajax applications. In fact, as of Studio 1.1, Jaxer is fully integrated so that development of end-to-end Ajax applications requires no further installations or server setup. Just create a new HTML document and you can build fully realized client/server applications rich with database access, network access, and much more.
BlueFish:
(http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html)
Bluefish is a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdesigners, with many options to write websites, scripts and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages, and it focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites.
FontForge:
(http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/)
FontForge — An outline font editor that lets you create your own postscript, truetype, opentype, cid-keyed, multi-master, cff, svg and bitmap (bdf, FON, NFNT) fonts, or edit existing ones. Also lets you convert one format to another. FontForge has support for many macintosh font formats.
gFTP:
(http://gftp.seul.org/)
gFTP is a free multithreaded file transfer client for *NIX based machines. One very nice feature is: “Supports FXP file transfers (transferring files between 2 remote servers via FTP)â€.
Kompozer:
(http://www.kompozer.net/)
KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.
KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.
Kruler:
(http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/graphics/kruler)
Kruler is a screen ruler (using pixels) and color measurement tool for KDE.
SeaMonkey:
(http://www.seamonkey-project.org/)
The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite (see below). Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users.
Wink:
(http://www.debugmode.com/wink/)
Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.
Xampp:
(http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html)
Many people know from their own experience that it’s not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.
Gishore James
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