Technology Playground™

Listed here are the confirmed “Free/Libre Open-Source Software (FLOSS)” apps only. If you search the internet, there are many applications listed under “Free/Libre Software (FS)” and/or “Open-Source Software (OSS)” that are not really an FS and/or OSS. For this list, I triple-checked their official websites and licenses. Do not confuse “Libre Software” with “Gratis Software", additionally “Freeware” are mostly gratis, as Libre Software apps will call themselves FLOSS, FS, and/or OSS, and it is reflected on their licenses.

For those who are not familiar with the terminolies used, Libre means “‘free’ as in ‘free speech’” or freedom as opposed to Gratis which means “‘free’ as in ‘free beer’” or free-of-charge. Remember that NOT all Libre Software or officially called as “FLOSS” are gratis. There are a growing number of FLOSS applications that are NOT gratis/free-of-charge as the corporate world realizes there is more money to gain from developing and maintaining FLOSS applications as opposed to proprietary applications.

So without further ado, here are “My Top 23 FLOSS Applications for Microsoft Windows XP":

Follow up:

General

• 7-Zip (http://7-zip.org)
  

  7-Zip is a FLOSS compression utility and file format. It is currently the best known format available even rivaling its proprietary counterparts like WinRAR (RAR format) and WinZip (Zip format).
  

• Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net)
  

  Notepad++ is a FLOSS Windows Notepad replacement and a good source code editor for programmers. Just like other good and well maintained FLOSS applications, Notepad++ is a one-man project. It won’t be called an alternative for no reason at all, some of the features Windows Notepad doesn’t have are: (1) Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding; (2) WYSIWYG; (3) Multi-Document; (4) Multi-View; and (5) Full Drag ‘N’ Drop, to mention a few.
  

• Pidgin (formerly GAIM) (http://pidgin.im)
  

  Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all your IM accounts at once. It was formerly known as GAIM and started out as a replacement of AOL’s IM known as AIM. Pidgin is one of the top FLOSS IM around and a very good replacement for the proprietary and very popular Trillian.
  

• PortableApps (http://portableapps.com
  

  If you are familiar with the U3 USB wherein you can have your favorite applications installed as a portable in your USB Disk, then PortableApps is its FLOSS counterpart where FLOSS applications are re-compiled and optimized for portable use with just about any USB Disk (unlike U3, you have to buy a U3 USB Disk). (You better try this one!)
  

• OpenOffice (http://openoffice.org
  

  What else can I say with OpenOffice? Everybody knows this great FLOSS Office Suite to complete replace the proprietary Microsoft Office Suite! But I do have something to say: OpenOffice is using the Open Document Format (ODF) which is an ISO Standard. Which means that your documents are guaranteed to be accessible in the far future unlike MS Office’s constantly changing and not most of the time not backwards and forward compatible. Many applications and top corporations already made the switch to OpenOffice and ODF, will you?
  

• Firefox (http://firefox.com)
  

  There’s nothing else to say about Firefox, it is a household browser product, and here in the Philippines it is also an iCafe product. You know what Firefox is - the best browser available on this planet and it is a FLOSS browser!
  

• Thunderbird / Eudora (http://mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/ / http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope_Releases)

  Thunderbird is Mozilla’s FLOSS stand-alone email client and the most popular FLOSS email client. Eudora 8 is still in beta and I am actively using it, so if you’re a Eudora user like me, try out the Eudora 8 which is based from Thunderbird 2.
  

• Sunbird / Lightning (http://mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/ / http://mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/)

  This is the FLOSS Calendar project of Mozilla. Sunbird is the stand-alone version while Lightning is the add-on for Thunderbird 2 and Eudora 8, and is (as always) far better than its proprietary counterparts.
  

• DOSBox (http://dosbox.com)

  DOSBox is a multi-platform DOS-emulator. It is available for Windows, Linux, MacOS, and as a Portable USB application via PortableApps. It emulates 80286 and 80386 machines of the 80s which will make our loved classic games like the Ultima series, Scorched Earth, and Lemmings (to mention a few) playable with its original speed under today’s fast machines.
  

• winMd5Sum (http://nullriver.com/index/products/winmd5sum/)

  Simply, it is a FLOSS MD5 checker for windows. It will help anyone calculate the MD5 checksum of files using L. Peter Deutsch’s MD5 code, to guarantee that the file you downloaded is complete and what it claims to be.
  

File Transfer

1. File Download Manager (FDM) (http://freedownloadmanager.org)

   FDM, as it is commonly called, is the best FLOSS download manager for Windows I found. I started using FDM after the developers released it under GNU GPL, making it a FLOSS application. What did I replaced this with? The proprietary download managers - GetRight and FlashGet (formerly called JetCar).
   

2. FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org)

   FileZilla is The free FTP solution, it is both a client and a server released under GNU GPL. FileZilla is easy to get used to if you’ve been using WsFTP and CuteFTP with similar and better features than its proprietary counterparts. I used to use WsFTP and CuteFTP but now I am a FileZilla user.
   

3. PuTTY (http://chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/)
   

   PuTTY is a FLOSS implementation of Telnet and SSH for Windows and *Nix platforms, written and maintained primarily by Simon Tatham. This is very useful for developers who need to use Telnet and SSH to access their remote servers. I use this a lot and thus it is included here.
   

This is my closing blog post for 2007. It is already 11:30pm ACT (ASEAN Common Time) (UTC+0800H) here in Philippines, ASEAN. With that, I am greeting everyone with a Happy FLOSS 2008 New Year! And a huge thanks to God for the year 2007!! Thank you also for being with gameshogun.ws for this year and hoping you will still be there for 2008!!!

Part 2: My Top FLOSS Applications… Part 2: Welcome FLOSS 2008