How To Go Open Source

This guide will explain where to go for open source software, give a lot of helpful links and offer some suggestions as to what to download. It will not guide you on how to use any of these programs. If you have questions about using a particular piece of open source software then I'll answer you as best I can.

Open source software can be modified by anyone, used by anybody and is - most importantly - free. It isn't hard to acquire brilliant open source software either, and it really is great if you don't want to shell out for commercial software or go to the trouble and take the risk of pirating. The first thing to know about open source (free) software is that it is a real and effective alternative to programs you would normally have to buy or pirate in order to use, and that it is very easy to get hold of.

The best website for getting open source software is SourceForge, where you can browse the thousands of programs available.

Some of the top programs available for Windows are listed here.

My personal recommendations when it comes to open source programs are as follows:

1) FireFox - A highly customizable internet browser with countless plugins.
2) PCSX - A great PlayStation 1 emulator, use it to play your old PlayStation games if your console is broken.
3) The GIMP - A versatile image editing application.
4) coLinux - For running Linux in parallel with Windows. (see my guide for this here: http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=418043)
5) Pidgin - An instant messenger client.
6) Azureus - A powerful and highly configurable BitTorrent client.
7) Media Player Classic - The best media player there is.
8) OpenOffice - An alternative to Microsoft Office

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of great open source applications to be had.

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Perhaps the most famous piece of open source is the Linux operating system, a free alternative to Windows. If you want to take the plunge and give up Windows, there are many versions (distributions) of Linux up for download. Simply visit some of their sites and see what each distribution has to offer:

http://www.debian.org/
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html (this will work off a CD without you actually needing to install Linux)
http://www.ubuntu.com/ (ideal for beginners)
http://fedoraproject.org/

You can download all the major free Linux distributions via torrents or SourceForge. The only major disadvantage with Linux is the lack of support it has for newer games (as they are usually designed to work under Windows).

Here's a screenshot of me here, a Windows user, using nothing but open source software that didn't cost me a penny (minus Windows XP of course :noworry: ):

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8065/88093939jm4.png

So, why not give it a try? It won't cost you anything.

 

I like it, bold some font and make things a little more organized and it would be a good guide. 7/10