Examples of free and open-source software/print
From AdCiv
Some major free and open source software projects
Main Page > Open collaborative design > Free and open-source software > Examples of free and open-source software
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
- Linux
- Operating system kernel - Ubuntu - Linux distribution with full compliment of software for everyday use. See also Kubuntu that runs the KDE desktop which some people find this easier if they previously used MS Windows. Ubuntu is an easy to use operating system based on and made possible by the Debian project.
- Google Chrome OS - Lightweight operating system based around the web browser
- Android smart-phone operating system - by Google / Open Handset Alliance
- Symbian smart-phone operating system - by Nokia
- MeeGo smart-phone operating system - joint venture between Intel and Nokia
- BSD - Operating system
- Darwin - The core of Apple's Mac OS X operating system
- GNOME desktop environment for Linux (and Unix)
- KDE desktop environment for Linux (and Unix)
- Xfce lightweight desktop environment for Linux (and Unix)
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)
- Apache webserver - web server
- BitTorrent - distributed file-sharing
- Mozilla Foundation
- Mozilla Firefox - web browser
- Mozilla Thunderbird - mail client
- WebKit - HTML rendering engine developed by KDE, Apple and Google. Core of Safari, Google Chrome and Konqueror browsers
- Google Chrome - Google's web browser
- Sendmail - email transfer agent
- Pidgin (software) - multiple-protocol instant messaging
- Diaspora - distributed social 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
- 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
Screenshots
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
 Beryl - hardware accelerated 3D window manager for Linux |
 |
 |
 Freemat - free environment for rapid engineering and scientific prototyping and data processing |
.jpg)
Click to enlarge a thumbnail image. Click a second time to get full resolution image
