Though the war between MS Windows and Open Source Communities continue, there is no dearth of Open Source software availability for proprietary windows.
Image Source: http://www.pp-rec.com
Over the horizon, there are many more Free Open Source Software treasures waiting to be discovered. These software include tools that can improve your productivity, improve your lines of communication and manage your things well.
In continuation to our earlier posts on Free Tools For Remote Desktop Control, Free Alternatives For Adobe Reader and Free Web Conferencing Tools we would be featuring the top 10 open source apps for windows that every user would want to have on their system.
1. FileZilla
FileZilla is a free FTP solution that has both a client and a server. FileZilla is open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU General Public License. FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with an intuitive graphical user interface and lots of useful features like:
- Easy to use
- Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
- Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X and more
- IPv6 support
- Available in many languages
- Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
- Powerful Site Manager and transfer queue
- Bookmarks
- Drag & drop support
- Configurable transfer speed limits
- Filename filters
- Network configuration wizard
- Remote file editing
- Keep-alive
- HTTP/1.1, SOCKS5 and FTP-Proxy support
- Logging to file
If you like the features, just go-ahead and download it.
2. VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Virtualization allows an unmodified operating system with all of its installed software to run in a special environment, on top of your existing operating system. This environment, called a “virtual machine”, is created by the virtualization software i.e VirtualBox.
For a more detailed introduction on virtualization, see the Wikipedia article about virtual machines.
VirtualBox is an extremely feature rich, high performance product with a professional solution for enterprise customers.
Currently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.
Some key features of VirtualBox are:
- Modularity
- Virtual machine descriptions in XML
- Guest Additions for Windows, Linux and Solaris
- Guest Additions for Windows, Linux and Solaris
A full list of feature is available under WiKi and you could download the software here.
Here is a screenshot of VirtualBox running on FreeBSD with a Windows guest
3. OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
Download the latest OpenOffice.org here.
4. FireFox
Firefox is another standard carrier for the free open source movement, with has features that surpass even those of commercially developed Web browsers.
Its top features are:
- Private Browsing
- Password Manager
- Awesome Bar
- Super Speed
- Anti-Phishing & Anti-Malware
- Session Restore
- One-Click Bookmarking
- Easy Customization
- Tabs
- Instant Web Site ID
- And many more plug-in available for free
Download here and make the switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox – the faster, safer, smarter way to browse the Web.
5. Paint.Net
Paint.NET is a bitmap graphics editor for the .NET Framework. The application started as a project developed at Washington State University (WSU) for Microsoft Windows and was mentored by Microsoft as the Paint.NET is programmed in the C# programming language.
Although Paint.Net may not be ready to take on the commercial offerings, it still provides more than enough features to satisfy all, most demanding artists.
Download it now for free.
6. Media Player Classic
Media Player Classic is an extremely light-weight media player for Windows. It looks just like the good-old Media Player v6.4, but has lots of nice extra features as evidenced by the wealth of internally supported media formats.
Download the software here.
7. TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Its main features are:
- Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
- Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
- Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
- Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
- Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.
- Provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.
- Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS.
More information on the features can be found in the documentation.
Download the software here.
8. PDFCreator
PDFCreator is a free open source software made available under the GNU General Public License (GNU) using which you can create PDFs easily from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application. Forget Adobe Acrobat. With PDFCreator you can generate PDFs on the fly, with a wide range of security and digital authoring components.
Its key features are:
Key Features:
- Create PDFs from any program that is able to print
- Security: Encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened, printed etc.
- Send generated files via eMail
- Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS
- AutoSave files to folders and filenames based on Tags like Username, Computername, Date, Time etc.
- Merge multiple files into one PDF
- Easy Install: Just say what you want and everything is installed
- Terminal Server: PDFCreator also runs on Terminal Servers without problems
Download the software here.
9. 7-Zip
7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. 7-Zip is open source software whose most of the source code is available under the GNU LGPL license.
The main features of 7-zip are:
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High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
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Supported formats:
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Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
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Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z.
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For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
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Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
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Self-extracting capability for 7z format
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Integration with Windows Shell
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Powerful File Manager
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Powerful command line version
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Plugin for FAR Manager
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Localizations for 74 languages
You could download it here.
10. ClamWin
ClamWin is a Free Antivirus program for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 and Vista. ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code.
Key features are:
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High detection rates for viruses and spyware;
Scanning Scheduler
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Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database.
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Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer
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Addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.
You may download and use it absolutely free of charge.
Let us know there are more treasures for Windows that you like to see part of every Windows.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com
