Every nation advocates freedom of speech and since the evolution of World Wide Web in early 90’s there has been a glamor for freedom to control data. And controlling your data had never been easier with the plethora of open source software created by great developers. More and more innovative developers are coming out with useful software that makes our everyday transactions easier and that too without spending any money. According to Standish reports, about 60 billion people across the globe are taking advantage of these open source softwares to gain complete control over their data and also to develop useful applications.
These open source softwares developed by voluntary developers in a collaborative manner by allowing the public users to download, use, modify and improve the source code. So here is the list of 5 open source softwares that you should download today which will make your life simpler:
Mozilla Firefox
The first thing needed to experience the wonders offered by the internet is a good browser and Mozilla firefox fully satisfies that need. Features like spell checker, tabbed browsing, download manager, integrated search engine and live bookmarking make this open source a hot favorite among the masses. You can even get additional functionalities by procuring add-ons developed by various third party developers. With 22% market share firefox is the second most preferred browser and is fast gaining popularity. Download forefox with mozilla thunderbird, an advanced email client and enjoy browsing.
OpenOffice
For those freelancers and young students who couldn’t afford the luxury of buying a licensed copy of Microsoft office to prepare their gantt charts in excel or create their powerpoint presentations, open source software openoffice can well an excellent alternative. With support for over 80 languages, 90 fonts, numerous templates, more than 3000 clip arts and useful additional tools like tips for new bees and access to OOowikipedia, this software should surely be part of your windows operating system.
Avast Antivirus
With growing instances of spyware, malwares, Trojans and viruses a good antivirus is essential software for your system. And now you can enjoy the goodness of all the essential security features of a good antivirus program by downloading Avast home edition which is totally free. So its now time to bid adieu to subscriptions and regular payments to other paid antivirus software programs.
Pidgin Messenger
Earlier marketed by the name Gaim, Pidgin is open source instant message client that can help you stay connected with friends using different messenger services like AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ etc. A must have for all those that love to spend long hours connecting with friends and families.
VLC Media Player
Looking for a player to listen audio and video files in different formats than downloading open source software VLC media player will be your best bet. With a rich source of encoding and decoding library this media player eliminates the need for finding proprietary programs.
So download these open source software and gain greater control over your data and make your life more comfortable.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
“this software should surely be part of your windows operating system”
Well, for one thing, it’s an application, and thus not part of the operating system. But that’s just being technical.
Secondly, and probably more important than the semantics is that I DON’T RUN WINDOWS and wont until you pry my mac and linux OSs from my cold dead hands.
OpenOffice is available for mac and linux. Mac users wanting open source antivirus software could try ClamXav.