Table of Contents
Office Productivity
OpenOffice
OpenOffice is a free replacement for Microsoft Office. For the most part, they are compatible with programs like Writer (word processor), Impress (presentations), Calc (spreadsheet), Base (database), and Draw. It is a rather large download so don't expect to just a few quick clicks to have it up and running. Plan some time for downloading and a little more for installing.
Scribus
Scribus is the best free alternative to Microsoft Publisher. Scribus is an Open Source program which is freely available for all. It brings professional page layout to Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X and Windows desktops with an amalgam of press-ready output and new techniques to page personalization and editing. Under the hood, Scribus has some very major and professional publishing features. To name some – color separations, CMYK and Spot Color support, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation.
PagePlus
PagePlus is another good free alternative to Microsoft Publisher. PagePlus is a free desktop publishing software that empowers you to make amazingly professional-quality documents for your home, school, business or club. The software requires no such heavy experience in document editing and publishing as it is simple in nature and comes loaded with an intuitive user interface. With PagePlus you can create amazing greetings cards, flyer’s and posters with easy-to-use Templates or create your own unique designs for any special occasions. Even a desktop publishing novice will be able to use this software to its full potential and create fully personalized documents in minutes. With a whole host of preset document layouts, automated templates, fantastic color schemes, and artistic effects, this tool-set enables anyone to produce professional looking results.
Firefox
Firefox has been my browser of choice since its beta days. I've just found it much more stable, versatile, and functional than Internet Exploder -er- I mean Explorer.
Thunderbird
Thunderbird is an excellent replacement for Outlook Express or Windows Vista Mail. It also has the flexibility of easy to install add-ons exactly as Firefox. One of the nicer add-ons is Lightning, a calendar feature.
Adobe or Foxit Reader or PDF-XChange Viewer
Most people probably default to and use Adobe Reader. It works well enough, but I've found it to be rather cumbersome (over 52 MiB's with Adobe Air) for just reading documents.
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/
For the most part anymore I've been using Foxit Reader. Foxit Reader has most of the features needed at a fraction of the size (just over 6 MiB's).
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
PDF-XChange Viewer is one I'm not as familiar with but is growin in popularity.
http://download.cnet.com/PDF-XChange-Viewer/3000-10743_4-10598377.html
KompoZer
I don't use a WYSIWYG editor anymore for editing web pages. But if I did, I would probably opt for KompoZer if someone wasn't paying for the software. It's a fair replacement for FrontPage or Expression.
Programmer's Notepad
Programmer's Notepad is like Wordpad on steroids yet just as simple to use. You don't have to be a programmer to enjoy its features either. I use it for all my general text editing as well as my HTML and PHP code. It even has color coding for many programming languages.
WinSCP
WinSCP is a file transfer client capable of using FTP, SFTP, SCP and now FTPS.
Putty
An awesome little shell client. It allows you to connect via raw, telnet, rlogin, ssh, and even serial.
Gimp
If your looking for something that can do a little (lot) more than Microsoft Paint, then GIMP is probably right for you. Actually, comparing it to Paint is probably an insult similar to comparing Jim Thorpe to the kid who won the gold in the Special Olympics. A more accurate comparison would be to Corel Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop, to which it holds its own.
Picasa
Picasa is a free application from Google for managing photos. With touch-up capabilities, slide-show, movie, and web-album creation, this is a must have for anyone that takes a lot of digital photos.