open source software

We were going to write a piece about the advantages of open source software, but somebody's already done it. Check out the People & Planet site for a good article on free software (which we're calling open source).

Here's some of the open source software we like. As far as we're aware, it will run on Linux, Windows and Macs.

operating systems

• Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that's reliable and very well supported. For Windows users, you might prefer Kubuntu, which has a look and feel that's a bit more Windows like. If you're not ready to junk your Windows or Mac system just yet, you might consider setting up a Linux partition on your PC. This means you can choose between your current closed source OS and Linux when you boot up.
• If you use Linux, you'll automagically have access to a huge range of free & open source software that's really easy to install.

media players & editors

• VLC is probably about the best movie player there is.
• Audacity is a sound editor.
• Avidemux Is a video editor.

graphics editors

• GIMP is an advanced graphics editor that's a good replacement for PhotoShop.

office suite

• OpenOffice is an office suite that has a word processor (to replace Word), spreadsheet (to replace Excel), presentations (to replace PowerPoint), as well as a drawing and a database program.

internet

• Firefox is a great web browser, far better than Internet Explorer.
• Thunderbird is good email client, and check out the enigmail add-on that lets you send and receive encrypted and signed email.

programming

• Bluefish is a good advanced text editor

other software

• This is only a very small list of all the open source software that's out there. We've limited ourselves to what you might want to run on your PC, but there's loads that's for running networks at home, in the office, or on the web. If you want to have a look at some of this, you could do worse than seeing what software People & Planet use.