Getting started with Free Open Source Software

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Introduction

Free and open source software, also FOSS (free/libre/open source software) is software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. This approach has gained both momentum and acceptance as the potential benefits have been increasingly recognized by both individuals and corporate players.

Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Firefox had 22.48% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of April 2009, making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide, after Internet Explorer.

Discussion: Communication

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org (OO.o or OOo), commonly known simply as OpenOffice, is an office application suite available for a number of different computer operating systems. It is distributed as free software. It supports the ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office formats among others. As of March 2009[update], OpenOffice supports over 80 languages.

Discussion: Productivity

Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser. On December 7, 2004, version 1.0 was released, and received over 500,000 downloads in its first three days of release, and 1,000,000 in 10 days.

Discussion: Communication/Productivity

Linux

Get Linux

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Ubuntu

Ubuntu, is a free Debian-derived computer operating system based on GNU/Linux.

Freemind

FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map) software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into high productivity tool. We are proud that the operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster than that of MindManager because of one-click "fold / unfold" and "follow link" operations.

Discussion: Productivity

Open Clip Art and Inkscape

Open Clip Art

The Open Clip Art Library project aims to create a collection of vector clip art that is free content. The project was started in early 2004 by Inkscape developers Jon Phillips and Bryce Harrington to collect designs of flags from all around the world, having been inspired by the efforts to create collection of flags created by users of vector graphics software Sodipodi. It progressed very well and the project goals were extended to generic clipart, and as of October 2007 it incorporated over 10,000 images from over 500 artists, and offers the entire collection for free download. All images have been dedicated to the public domain by their contributors. They are stored in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format, often with thumbnails in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format.

Discussion: Creativity

Inkscape

Inkscape is a free and open source vector graphics editor application. Its stated goal is to become a powerful graphics tool while being fully compliant with the XML, SVG, and CSS standards.

Discussion: Creativity