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Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:50 pm
by Knightwolf654
with all the crap with PIPA, SOPA, ACTA and many more dumb mindless bill that some politicians think are good ideas even though the people think think that they are down right stupid. but this is no long the land of the people, its the land of the deepest pocket. so with that in mind i have made the decision to no longer pay for software and look for the open source/ freeware alternative. so here is the start of a list and i hope you guys will add some too!

OpenOffice - alternative to Microsoft office.
FreeNas - Network storage solution,
PFsense - Network firewall
k.lite - Codec pack that will play most if not all videos
iSpy - turn a bunch of old web cams into a security system!
Mumble/murmer - alternative to teamspeak or ventrillo, unlimited users and in my opinion works better then the other two.
7-zip - zip utility
react OS - alternative to windows and acts and looks like windows.
Avira Antivir - Excellent free antivirus
Malwarebytes Anti Malware - Free malware scanner
Waterfox - 64 bit mod for Mozilla Firefox
TightVNC - Open source VNC program for remote desktop control
Audacity - Free digital audio editor, I use it mostly for chopping songs to make ringtones
foobar2000 - Free audio player that will play just about anything, awesomely!
paint.NET - Free replacement for MS Paint that somewhat resembles an older version of Photoshop (maybe 6?)
ImgBurn - If you burn movies or iso's a lot, check this free program out
DVD Flick - Free DVD burning program that works with ImgBurn to both build and burn DVD movies
Notepad++ - Free alternative to MS Notepad, includes syntax highlighting and some more features I haven't found a use for yet
CCleaner - Free program that effectively removes all the junk from your hard drive, also includes a registry cleaner and a few more tools
VMware Player - Free program for running virtual machines, or another OS on top of the one you're currently running (Try Linux!)
Virtual box - another good virtual program
VmWare Vsphere hypervisor - this is a O/S for virtual machines.
vmware vSphere Client - used with hypervisor to setup and control your virtual machines
Endian firewall - another good free firewall
AVG Antivirus free - very good free anti virus
Active ISO - burning program strictly for burning ISO's
FOG server - this is a fun one. at work we use it to image computers to deploy with a image we uploaded instead of installing windows and all our programs onto each one, difference between 6 min and 3 hours. at home i use it as a backup for my primary computer
Universal USB installer - install iso's onto a usb stick instead of a cd-rom
Magic Disc - Free software to mount ISO Images - http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso- ... erview.htm
SpeedFan - Monitors temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages in your computer
Speccy - Displays most of your system's specs
Defraggler - Alternative to Windows' own defragmenter (I like Defraggler better)
CPU-Z - Displays detailed information about your CPU and RAM (There's also a GPU-Z)
Daemon Tools Lite - Mounts disk images on a virtual drive
PeerBlock - Blocks known malicious computers from connecting to yours, like a firewall with a master list

also of what i find i find here: http://www.sourceforge.net

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:04 pm
by earth7man
Have been using open office for some time now...good program.

Thanks for the others I've needed a zip program.

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:54 pm
by Cecil900
Google docs is a good cloud based alternative to office as well. I use both it and office, and it works with most office file formats.

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 7:48 am
by ferrari8608
Knightwolf654 wrote:OpenOffice - alternative to Microsoft office.
OpenOffice is probably as close to MS Office as it gets for a free suite. I enjoyed using it.

k.lite - Codec pack that will play most if not all videos
I've never actually tried this codec pack, but I've read it's pretty good. Another free pack worth checking out is the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack). I haven't found a video it won't play.

7-zip - zip utility
Awesome program! It opens almost every archive there is

react OS - alternative to windows and acts and looks like windows.
This OS is still in alpha. I've been following it for a while though, and there does look like a lot of potential.


Also, some more free awesomeness for your list:
Avira Antivir - Excellent free antivirus
Malwarebytes Anti Malware - Free malware scanner
Waterfox - 64 bit mod for Mozilla Firefox
TightVNC - Open source VNC program for remote desktop control
Audacity - Free digital audio editor, I use it mostly for chopping songs to make ringtones
foobar2000 - Free audio player that will play just about anything, awesomely!
paint.NET - Free replacement for MS Paint that somewhat resembles an older version of Photoshop (maybe 6?)
ImgBurn - If you burn movies or iso's a lot, check this free program out
DVD Flick - Free DVD burning program that works with ImgBurn to both build and burn DVD movies
Notepad++ - Free alternative to MS Notepad, includes syntax highlighting and some more features I haven't found a use for yet
CCleaner - Free program that effectively removes all the junk from your hard drive, also includes a registry cleaner and a few more tools
VMware Player - Free program for running virtual machines, or another OS on top of the one you're currently running (Try Linux!)
I'm done for now, might add some more later. If you can't tell, I don't really pay for any software outside of my games and OS.

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:59 am
by Knightwolf654
Virtual box - another good virtual program
VmWare Vsphere hypervisor - this is a O/S for virtual machines.
vmware vSphere Client - used with hypervisor to setup and control your virtual machines
Endian firewall - another good free firewall
AVG Antivirus free - very good free anti virus
Active ISO - burning program strictly for burning ISO's
FOG server - this is a fun one. at work we use it to image computers to deploy with a image we uploaded instead of installing windows and all our programs onto each one, difference between 6 min and 3 hours. at home i use it as a backup for my primary computer
Universal USB installer - install iso's onto a usb stick instead of a cd-rom

more to come.

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 1:31 am
by ferrari8608
You should edit the original post to make a master list.

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 7:06 pm
by ME.
Magic Disc - Free software to mount ISO Images - http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm

ferrari8608 wrote:You should edit the original post to make a master list.


Good idea...

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:26 pm
by Knightwolf654
Done :)

Re: Open Source alternatives

PostPosted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 12:16 am
by ferrari8608
Here's a couple more:

SpeedFan - Monitors temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages in your computer
Speccy - Displays most of your system's specs
Defraggler - Alternative to Windows' own defragmenter (I like Defraggler better)
CPU-Z - Displays detailed information about your CPU and RAM (There's also a GPU-Z)
Daemon Tools Lite - Mounts disk images on a virtual drive
PeerBlock - Blocks known malicious computers from connecting to yours, like a firewall with a master list

That's most of what I have installed. Maybe I'll add some more of what I don't have installed to the list later.