Best open source freeware programs?

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:47 pm

Now I'm all for sticking it to the man by using freeware programs but how do you feel about the Open Office programs? They seem very competent and have many options and a few bugs too. I love the concept of completely undermining the Microsoft's Office programs with open source freeware. I hope that in the future more people will make open source programs. The only problem is that most of these programs have awkward GUI's. Lets us discuss open source programs here and maybe recommend some.

Here are some great open source programs:

Open Office - Very full featured alternative to Microsoft Office. Many formats supported but a few bugs/quarks here and there.

Inkscape - Freeware alternative to Adobe Illustrator

Paint.Net - Upgraded drawing program. Somewhere between Photoshop and Microsoft Paint.

The Gimp - Much like Photoshop except with a HORRIBLE GUI.

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:24 am

I think the reason why these freeware apps have awkward GUIs would probably be because they don't want to look too much like the industry application they're making an alternative to. Anymore familiar and companies (like Adobe) would probably start suing for some reason.

MathU · Post by **MathU** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:36 am

VirtualDub is an awesome video editor.

tommyb · Post by **tommyb** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:20 am

Renoise is a great music synthesizer.

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:35 am

http://www.osalt.com

Aru-san wrote:I think the reason why these freeware apps have awkward GUIs would probably be because they don't want to look too much like the industry application they're making an alternative to. Anymore familiar and companies (like Adobe) would probably start suing for some reason.

I think it's just because they're made by coders in their spare time. Programmers typically aren't good designers (and vice versa), and a good interface for geeks is not a good interface for normal people. Plus they don't have the resources to do user experience testing and such. Stuff like OO.o and Firefox will because they're backed by corporations, but stuff like Gimp are completely community driven AFAIK.

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:42 am

Adding to the list of open source freeware apps, I use Audacity for my sort-of-basic sound editing stuff...or when I feel the need to slow down or speed up my music to fit the mood I'm in right now. For some reason, I have a liking towards songs in the D-major/B-minor range.

t0yrobo · Post by **t0yrobo** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:31 am

Not a particular program, but gnome with compiz is easily my favorite environment to work in.

croikle · Post by **croikle** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:59 am

Vim (a text editor) and Blender (a 3d modeling/etc program) are both very nice, although they do take a while to get used to. Also, everyone uses Firefox.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:45 am

Are you just looking for freeware where source code may or may not be available, or are you specifically looking for open source?

There is an old topic about freeware already...

Personally, having source code doesn't help me (or most freeware users) much since I'm way too lazy to tweak things myself if there is something seriously bugging me about the software.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:49 am

Foxit craps all over acrobat reader. Get it. Now.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:18 am

I just like the idea of rogue programmers forcing companies to compete with quality freeware. They must either charge less for programs or build even better programs.

kengou · Post by **kengou** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:26 am

I think it's Linux-only but Amarok is by far my favorite music application.

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:33 am

kengou wrote:I think it's Linux-only but Amarok is by far my favorite music application.

Here here!

I love Amarok. One of many reasons to use Linux/KDE

As a musician, I simply LOVE Ardour and think it's the greatest. I use it to do all my home recordings and have no reason to switch to anything else.

tommyb · Post by **tommyb** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:50 am

Kingbuzzo wrote:
kengou wrote:I think it's Linux-only but Amarok is by far my favorite music application.
Here here!

I love Amarok. One of many reasons to use Linux/KDE

As a musician, I simply LOVE Ardour and think it's the greatest. I use it to do all my home recordings and have no reason to switch to anything else.

Off topic, but I like your name. The Melvins rule. So does Big Business.

Anyway, I tried using Linux one time and just could not figure it out for the life of me. I like to consider myself somewhat of a geek, but I dunno. It just ran awfully slow and I couldn't figure out how to install things 0.o

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:54 am

We had a topic like this a while ago:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=17600

There's probably nothing new that hasn't been named in the first thread already.

captpain · Post by **captpain** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:49 pm

Here is your answer, comprehensive and fully annotated

http://shsc.info/UsefulWindowsSoftware

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:47 pm

Ceph wrote:We had a topic like this a while ago:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=17600

There's probably nothing new that hasn't been named in the first thread already.

Already beat you to it ;)

And I also tried to raise the point that freeware and open-source are not the same, and tried to get P_O's reasons for open-source specifically so that this does not become an exact clone of the earlier thread. The reason he gave does not seem satisfactory as I think it can be accomplished by freeware.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:02 pm

Sorry, didn't see your post.

My philosophy is: Freeware is good, open source is better.

Of course that doesn't mean I wouldn't use a free program just because it isn't open source

JUX.Jaggsen · Post by **JUX.Jaggsen** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:20 pm

Specineff wrote:Foxit craps all over acrobat reader. Get it. Now.

Crapola. Acrobat Reader 8 (Win32) runs fast on my old tablet pc (Pentium III, 1 GHz, 512 MB) that I just use for e-books and some pixel stuff. How good's Foxit for pdf-files over 200 megs, files with unicode naming convention or support for document catalogs? Right.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:19 pm

Specineff wrote:Foxit craps all over acrobat reader. Get it. Now.

Agreed on Foxit reader, I ditched the Adobe one quite some time ago when it kept crashing my system on shutdown and leaking memory, and constantly trying to piggyback unwanted bloatware onto its all-too-frequent updates.

I've also been messing with Inkscape recently to create vector files for a vinyl cutter that some of my aunts recently purchased, and it's got some usability issues, but considering the fact that all the alternatives cost hundreds of bucks, I'm not complaining too much.

JUX.Jaggsen · Post by **JUX.Jaggsen** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:57 pm

Other good stuff:

> HTTrack Website Copier for mirroring websites.
> VallenJPegger. The alternative for IrfanView if you need unicode support. It's a bit slower and not as intuitive as IrfanView, though.
> LyX + MiKTeX. Excellent TeX distribution plus frontend.

Ex-Cyber · Post by **Ex-Cyber** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:04 pm

Acrobat Reader itself is fine; what's obnoxious is the "suite" mentality that's poisoned a lot of software vendors. They don't want you to merely use their flagship application, they want you to use their whole suite/platform of purportedly related stuff. Sometimes they try to tack it on in the installer or nag you to "upgrade" (Acrobat Reader, Quicktime). Other times it's all bundled into one gigantic trial download (there are whole operating systems smaller than Nero 9's 370 megabytes).

Never_Scurred · Post by **Never_Scurred** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:10 am

tommyb wrote:Renoise is a great music synthesizer.

Too bad its not free...

tommyb · Post by **tommyb** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:21 am

Never_Scurred wrote:
tommyb wrote:Renoise is a great music synthesizer.
Too bad its not free...

Really? When I used it about a year ago it was completely open-source. My mistake.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:31 am

kengou wrote:I think it's Linux-only but Amarok is by far my favorite music application.

So true. iTunes is such a gigantic turd in comparison. The only problem I have is that my USB support is somewhat fubar on my main box now, so makes using Amarok w/ my iPod a bit tricky. The interface is tops though.

And I'll add this one to the list: Linux + any number of window managers.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:02 am

Davey wrote:http://www.osalt.com

Whoa - didn't know this site existed. One of my programs is on the top 10 =) That was a surprise.

Edit: Why won't that thing quote right?
Edit2!: Thanks Ed.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:05 am

'cuz you forgot the / in the last [/quote] tag

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:32 pm

landshark wrote:One of my programs is on the top 10 =) That was a surprise.

Which one?

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:41 am

tommyb wrote:
Kingbuzzo wrote:
kengou wrote:I think it's Linux-only but Amarok is by far my favorite music application.
Here here!

I love Amarok. One of many reasons to use Linux/KDE

As a musician, I simply LOVE Ardour and think it's the greatest. I use it to do all my home recordings and have no reason to switch to anything else.
Off topic, but I like your name. The Melvins rule. So does Big Business.

Anyway, I tried using Linux one time and just could not figure it out for the life of me. I like to consider myself somewhat of a geek, but I dunno. It just ran awfully slow and I couldn't figure out how to install things 0.o

Sounds like you didn't install proprietary graphics drivers (windows runs slowly too without these), and as for installing things.... I don't meant to be rude, but it couldn't be any easier if you're using Ubuntu. Most distros will at least have an add/remove programs in some tab on the desktop.

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:11 am

Modplug Tracker!