The 10 Great Essential Free Open Source Software

Did you know? Some software you pay a lot for (or use the pirated versions of) aren't worth it. Almost every expensive and popular software can be replaced by a  free software which may also be open source. Open source software are software which do not hide their source code. The code of these software are available for public to modify and redistribute under some terms. To know more about open source and technology freedom,


Read: A note on Information and Technology Freedom

Here is a list of 10 open source software which you can use instead of your expensive regular set of software:

Ubuntu
Alternative to Windows, Mac OSX etc.


Ubuntu is an open source free operating system which is based on the Linux kernel. If you are planning to shift from Windows or trying a new OS on your old PC, this can be it. Ubuntu can be downloaded free from the official website and can be installed to dual boot with any other OS on a computer machine. It comes with many other open source and free software which can give you a totally new OS experience.

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Ubuntu

OpenOffice
Alternative to Microsoft Office


OpenOffice can be a great alternative to the expensive other office suites. This is a powerful tool which can handle your documents, presentations, database, spreadsheets and more. Open Office was launched by the Sun Microsystems and currently managed by Apache. OpenOffice supports the open document format (ODF) as well as Microsoft office documents.

Open Office

Mozilla Firefox
Alternative to Internet Explorer, Google Chrome etc.


Firefox by Mozilla is the world's most popular open source web browser and the third most used web browser in the world after Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Firefox is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. It has a lot of exciting features and extensions which can make your web browsing experience better for sure.

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Mozilla Firefox


VLC Media Player
Alternative to Windows Media Player


VLC media player is a popular multi platform media player which can beat your paid media player in almost every aspect. It supports many audio and video formats, even those which normal players fail to support. It is a media player, a video editor, video converter and much more. With it innumerable set of features, VLC media player is open source and free, and is available for many platforms.

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InfraRecorder
Alternative to Nero Burning Studio


InfraRecorder is an open source CD and DVD burning software for Windows. It is a powerful tool and offers a wide range of features including image recording and audio disc burning. It can be a good alternative to Nero as it is a way expensive.

Download

Open Source Burner



CalmWin Antivirus
Alternative to Norton Antivirus, AVG etc.


CalmWin is the only anti virus suite available for windows which is based on Calm AV antivirus solutions which was developed for UNIX. CalmWin can detect and remove many virus and malicious software on your system and you probably will not need any other paid antivirus.

Download

Open Source Free Antivirus

7-Zip
Alternative to WinZip, WinRAR etc.



7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. It is open source and comes under a GNU LGPL license under which it is free to use, edit and redistribute. It supports many archive formats including zip, rar and tar.gz. 7-Zip comes with many features which makes it a complete file archiver tool.

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7 zip

GIMP image editor
Alternative to Adobe Photoshop


GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a free and open source image editor which can be useful when you don't want to use Adobe Photoshop or any other image editing program for any reason. GIMP is available for many platforms including Linux, Windows and Mac OS.

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GIMP



Mozilla Thunderbird
Alternative to Outlook


Thunderbird by Mozilla is a popular open source email client for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. It is easy to install and can manage all your mail accounts in a sync with your PC. It can also organize your calendar and make appointments. I personally user and prefer Thunderbird over any other email client.

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Thunderbird logo



PDFCreator
Alternative to Adobe Acrobat


PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application. It is open source and free so you don't have to worry about heavy expenses. (OpenOffice can also be used to create PDF files).

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So these were 10 software which can replace your day to day expensive software and give you a better software experience. This is all in this post. Thank you.


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