edit Some major free and open source software projects
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This page lists good quality free and open-source software that anyone can download at no cost and use or modify freely. Plenty more quality open-source software exists – this is just an introductory sample. Most of these programs are cross-platform, meaning they can be installed on MS Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
The software below is not freeware or shareware, which are both significantly different to open source.
Operating systems and Desktop environments
Graphics and multimedia
- GIMP - Bitmap graphics editor, similar to Adobe Photoshop
- Inkscape
 - Vector graphics editor
- VNC - cross-platform remote desktop utility. For example it enables a Mac to control a Windows or a Linux PC (or vice-versa)
- Blender - Advanced 3D modelling and rendering application. Gallery
- Art of Illusion - Java-based 3D modelling and rendering application with an intuitive user interface. Gallery
- VideoLAN - cross-platform media player capable of playing most video filetypes
- Miro video player - cross-platform media player that can automatically download videos from RSS-based "channels" and play videos sequentially from a playlist
- Songbird - similar to iTunes with built-in browser. Screencast
- Audacity - digital audio editor
- Ardour - digital audio workstation
- Scribus - Desktop Publishing (DTP)
- F-Spot - Photo manager
Office software
- OpenOffice.org - office productivity software. Comparable to Microsoft Office. As well as having using an open file format it can read and write Microsoft Office files
- NeoOffice - Mac OS X version of OpenOffice
- KOffice - office suite for KDE desktop (Unix / Linux)
- AbiWord - word processor
- Evolution - personal information manager
- PDFCreator - creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer (Windows only)
Internet related software
Content management systems
- Joomla! - CMS
- Alfresco - CMS
- MediaWiki - wiki content management software. AdCiv.org is powered by MediaWiki
- Drupal - modular content management framework and blogging engine
- Plone - python-based CMS
See more open-source CMS software here
Other
- Celestia 3D space simulation software. For a tour of its capabilities, select 'Run demo' from the 'Help' menu. Gallery and addons
- NASA worldwind - virtual Earth / Moon / Mars software
- FlightGear - flight simulator
- Second life - virtual world viewer (as in a virtual reality, rather than a virtual Earth model)
- FreeMind - mind mapping software
- Stellarium - planetarium software for accurate representations of the night's sky from any location or time
- K3b - CD and DVD authoring application for Linux
- phpMyAdmin - web front-end for MySQL database management system
- Vega Strike - Space flight simulator and trading game
- Wine - a compatibility layer for computers running Linux that enables them to run many applications that were originally written for MS Windows
- Freemat - environment for rapid engineering and scientific prototyping and data processing
Programming related
- Eclipse - software framework and Java IDE
- GTK - Popular widget toolkit for the X Window System, for creating graphical user interfaces
- QT toolkit - cross-platform application development framework
- KDevelop - Programming IDE for Linux / Unix
- PHP - server-side programming language
- PERL - Dynamic programming language
- Python - versatile, clean and powerful programming language used for cross-platform desktop applications, server-side scripting for websites, and scripting within java and .net environments
- GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
- MySQL - Database management system
- Java - Programming language
- Mono - Free and open-source crossplatform .NET implementation
- OpenCV - Real-time computer vision function library
More comprehensive list of open-source software
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These are some examples of open-source software that anyone can freely download and use, or even modify, without restriction
Click to enlarge a thumbnail image. Click a second time to get a full resolution image
 OpenOffice.org Writer (word processor) |
 OpenOffice.org Calc (spreadsheet) |
 OpenOffice.org Impress (presentation) |
 OpenOffice.org Draw (vector drawing) |
 Celestia 3D space simulator |
 KDE desktop environment for Linux (and Unix) |
 Gnome desktop environment for Linux (and Unix) |
 Inkscape 2D vector drawing |
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 Miro video player with RSS feeds |
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 FreeMind mind-mapping software |
 Audacity digital audio editing |
 Kivio flowchart drawing (Linux only |
 Mozilla Thunderbird email client |
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 Eclipse software development framework |
 Xara Xtreme 2D vector drawing (Linux only) |
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 VNC cross-platform remote control screenshot showing a windows PC controlling a Mac and Linux desktop in separate windows |
 KDevelop integrated development environment (Linux only) |
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 Songbird web-surfing music player |
 K3b CD and DVD burning (Linux only) |
 Art of illusion 3D modelling |
 Scribus desktop publishing |
 FlightGear flight simulator |
 Xfce desktop environment for Linux (and Unix) |
 Ardour digital audio workstation |
 F-Spot photo manager (Linux only) |
 Second life virtual world screenshot |
 Stellarium - accurate representations of the night's sky |
 Beryl - hardware accelerated 3D window manager for Linux |
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 NeoOffice - Version of OpenOffice.org for Apple's Mac OS X |
 Freemat - free environment for rapid engineering and scientific prototyping and data processing |
Click to enlarge a thumbnail image. Click a second time to get full resolution image
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