Free and Open Source Software

Below are links to various sites that provide Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools for you to enhance your computer system.

What is Free and Open Source Software?

All of the Free and Open Source Software listed below is available free of charge. In other words "free, as in free lunch". In addition, much of the following software is "free, as in free speech". These two concepts, although distinct, are often confused. For an in-depth discussion of Free and Open Source Software see Christopher Smart's article "What is FOSS" or this Wikipedia article .

Free CD/DVD writing software

Free computer tracking software

  • Adeona Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go - there's no need to rely on a single third party. Versions of Adeona are available for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Free email clients and calendaring

  • Eudora OSE Eudora OSE is the Open Source Edition of one of the internet’s most pioneering and enduring applications. It is a re-imagining and re-implementation of classic Eudora features on top of the Mozilla Thunderbird codebase. Versions of Eudora OSE are available for Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows and Linux.
  • Mozilla Lightning Lightning brings calendaring to the popular email client Mozilla Thunderbird. Lightning is tightly integrated with Thunderbird, allowing it to easily perform email-related calendaring tasks. Also see Mozilla Sunbird .
  • Mozilla Thunderbird Get the acclaimed email client from Mozilla. Versions of Thunderbird are available for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Free file archiving and compression

  • 7-Zip A file archiver with a high compression ratio. Versions are available for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.
  • 7zX 7zX is a file archiver with high compression ratio. Available for Apple Mac OS X.
  • UnRarX UnRarX allows you to expand rar archives and restore corrupted or missing archives using par2. Available for Apple Mac OS X.

Free file creation, editing and viewing

  • AbiWord AbiWord is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. Versions are available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X and Linux.
  • Adobe Flash Player For viewing web pages with Adobe Flash content. Versions are available for Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
  • Adobe Reader For viewing Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Versions are available for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.
  • Audacity For recording and editing sounds. Versions are available for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.
  • Blender A 3D graphics creation program for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.
  • CutePDF Writer Create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. Requires Microsoft Windows.
  • GIMP For photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.GIMP is written and developed under X11 on UNIX platforms but basically the same code also runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X.
  • LibreOffice Based on OpenOffice, LibreOffice is the free power-packed Open Source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base.
  • NeoOffice Based on OpenOffice, NeoOffice is a fully-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing programs) for Apple Mac OS X.
  • OpenOffice.org Office Suite "The free and open productivity suite." If you are using an unlicenced copy of Microsoft Office on your Windows computer and want to clear your conscience then try switching to OpenOffice - you'll probably love it. If you have installed OpenOffice then you should possibly also install Java listed below.
  • PDFCreator PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in any Windows application.
  • Picasa Find, organise and share your photos. Avaiable for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X and Linux.
  • Scribus Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK colour, separations, ICC colour management and versatile PDF creation.
  • TextWrangler A powerful general purpose text editor for Apple Mac OS X.

FTP (file transfer) software

  • WinSCP WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Microsoft Windows.

Free firewall appliance software

  • IPCop A Linux firewall distribution geared towards home and SOHO users. IPCop lets you take an old PC and convert it into an appliance that will secure your home network from the internet and also improve the performance of web browsers.
  • SmoothWall Express An open-source firewall that includes its own security-hardened GNU/Linux operating system and an easy-to-use web interface. The SmoothWall GPL project was founded in the summer of 2000 by Lawrence Manning (Principle Code Author) and Richard Morrell (Project Manager). Their goal was to create a Linux distribution that could convert a redundant PC into a hardened internet firewall device.

Free software from Apple

  • Apple Downloads Lots of free downloads directly from Apple to enhance your Mac, PC, iPhone and iPad.

Free media players

  • QuickTime Player A cross-platform media player for Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows

Free Microsoft Office viewers

Free Operating systems

  • CentOS CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor. CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible.
  • Debian GNU/Linux Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.Debian GNU/Linux provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over 25000 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine.
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  • Debian is available for Alpha, AMD64, ARM, HP PA-RISC, Intel x86, Intel IA64, MIPS, MIPSEL, PowerPC, IBM S/390 and SPARC computer architectures.
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  • Debian is the solid base on which many other Linux distributions arebuilt including Ubuntu and Linux Mint listed elsewhere.
  • Fedora Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join. Fedora is available for i386, i686 and x86-64 computer architectures.
  • FreeBSD FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for x86 compatible, ARM, IA-64, PC-98 and UltraSPARC architectures.
  • FreeDOS FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system for IBM-PC compatible systems. FreeDOS is made of up many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project. These days, there are three main uses of FreeDOS:
    • To run classic DOS games (like Doom, MAME, etc.);
    • To run business software that only supports DOS;
    • To support an embedded DOS system, such as a computer-controlled cash register or till.
  • Linux Mint Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories;
  • Mandriva On the consumer side, Mandriva develops and distributes Linux distributions: Mandriva One, the light, easy to use and safe free distro, Mandriva Free, the pure GPL free Linux distro, Mandriva Powerpack, the complete and customizable distro for the power user and Mandriva Flash, the mobile desktop USB key. Free products are available for download from the Mandriva site.

    Commercial products are available through Mandriva's electronic store, in retail stores and through partners worldwide. The company provides a number of electronic services through its web site. It evaluates its number of users to a few millions.

    On the corporate side, Mandriva helps large and medium size organizations to migrate to Linux, thanks to its Corporate Desktop and Enterprise Server products and helps them administer large number of machines thanks to its system administration tool, Pulse 2 and MDS. The company provides to its corporate customers technology, products and services (consulting, training and support).
  • NetBSD NetBSD is a free, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system available for many platforms, from 64-bit Opteron machines and desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices.
  • OpenBSD The OpenBSD project produces a free, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based Unix-like operating system.
  • OpenSolaris OpenSolaris is free and open source and well-suited for desktops, laptops, servers and data centers.
  • openSUSE The openSUSE project is a worldwide community program sponsored by Novell that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. The program provides free and easy access to openSUSE. Here you can find and join a community of users and developers, who all have the same goal in mind - to create and distribute the world's most usable Linux.
  • Tomato Firmware Tomato Firmware is a free HyperWRT-based, Linux core firmware distribution for several wireless routers, most notably the Linksys WRT54G (including the WRT54GL and WRT54GS), Buffalo AirStation and Asus Routers.
  • Ubuntu Linux A complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. Ubuntu Linux is available in both desktop and server editions and supports various computer architectures. Free downloads are available for Ubuntu Linux and a copy of the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference is available here .

    There are Linux distributions available which are derived from Ubuntu, changing it in various ways. These distributions include:

    • Edubuntu The Edubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to schools, through its customised school environment. The current version of Edubuntu is aimed at classroom use, and future versions of Edubuntu will expand to other educational usage, such as university use;
    • Kubuntu Kubuntu is a user friendly operating system based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment. With a predictable 6 month release cycle and part of the Ubuntu project, Kubuntu is the Linux distribution for everyone;
    • Xubuntu Xubuntu is a complete Linux based operating system with an Ubuntu base. It is lighter on system requirements and tends to be more efficient than Ubuntu with GNOME or KDE, since it uses the Xfce Desktop environment, which makes it ideal for old or low-end machines, thin-client networks, or for those who would like to get more performance out of their hardware.
  • Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference Written by award-winning author Keir Thomas, Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference is a totally unique and concise guide for everyday Ubuntu use. It is the world's most popular and widely-read Ubuntu book!
  • Yellow Dog Linux An open source, Linux operating system for home, office, server, and cluster users. Built upon Fedora, Terra Soft has since the spring of 1999 developed and maintained YDL for the Power architecture family of CPUs. This focus and dedication has lead to the world's leading Linux for Power OS.

Free Support software

  • Java Java software allows you to run applications called "applets" that are written in the Java programming language. Versions of Java available for computers running Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.
  • PuTTY A free Telnet/SSH client for Microsoft Windows.

Free Telephony software

  • Skype Make phone, text and video calls from your computer. It's free to other people on Skype and cheap to phones and mobiles across the world.

Free Web authoring

  • Drupal Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website.
  • e107 A content management system written in PHP and using the popular open source MySQL database system for content storage. It's completely free, totally customisable and in constant development.
  • Google Sites A free and easy way to create and share webpages.
  • Joomla! Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications.Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.
  • KompoZer The unofficial bug-fix release of Nvu. KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking website without needing to know HTML or web coding.
  • Nvu A complete Web Authoring System for Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver.
  • Open Source Web Design To put it simply, Open Source Web Design is a collection of web designs submitted by the community that anyone can download free of charge!The Open Source Web Design project was founded in September 2000 by Francis J. Skettino. The goal was to provide the Open Source community with quality web designs to help get people's projects on the web in a way that is both organized and good looking. From personal blogs to content management systems and fully fledged businesses, OSWD has been providing free web designs for years.
  • Serendipity Serendipity is a PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to maintain an online diary, weblog or even a complete homepage. While the default package is designed for the casual blogger, Serendipity offers a flexible, expandable and easy-to-use framework with the power for professional applications.
  • TYPO3 TYPO3 is a free Open Source content management system for enterprise purposes on the web and in intranets. It offers full flexibility and extendability while featuring an accomplished set of ready-made interfaces, functions and modules.
  • WordPress WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.

Free Web browsers

  • Camino A web browser for Apple Mac OS X which is powerful, secure, and ready to meet the needs of all users while remaining simple and elegant in its design.
  • Google Chrome Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Versions are available for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.
  • Mozilla Firefox The award-winning Web browser is better than ever. Faster, safer, and easy to use, Firefox delivers a better Web experience.
  • Opera Opera delivers robust security and a far-richer feature set than any other Web browser.
  • SeaMonkey Not just a Web browser but a suite of Internet tools powered by Mozilla, it includes a browser, a client for mail and newsgroups and an HTML editor. Versions are available for Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux.
  • Safari "The world's best browser" — For Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Free virus protection for Macintosh

  • ClamXav ClamXav is a free virus checker for Apple Mac OS X.
  • PC Tools iAntiVirus PC Tools iAntiVirus is a free virus checker for Intel based Macs running Apple Mac OS X. Support is available at additional cost.

Free Windows spyware and virus protection

  • Advanced SystemCare Free Advanced SystemCare Free (formerly Advanced WindowsCare Personal) has a one-click approach to help protect, repair, clean, and optimize your PC. With over 35 MILLION downloads since 2006, this fantastic, award-winning, free PC repair software is a "must-have" tool for your computer. 100% safe with no adware, spyware, or viruses; a PC maintenance program that's incredibly easy to use.
  • Avira AntiVir Free antivirus software for private and individual users of Microsoft Windows.
  • ClamWin Free antivirus for Microsoft Windows.

Free Virtual Machines

  • VirtualBox VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software.

Even more Free and Open Source Software

  • Christopher Smart's website Switch to Linux and other open source software packages. They offer a viable alternative to the expensive, proprietry software which you may now be using.

Disclaimer

We provide links to these applications as a courtesy, and make no representations regarding the applications or any information related thereto. Any questions, complaints or claims regarding the applications must be directed to the appropriate software vendor.

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Page version: 2012-02-11.