The Best of Windows Open Source Software?

Boiotos asks: "I'm cooking up a CD-ROM image of excellent Win32 Open Source software to give to friends and family who are intrigued by the whole OSS movement but don't know where to start. I figure once they're used to Mozilla and AbiWord under WinXP, a Linux partition would be less daunting. So fellow Slashdotters, how about it: what Win32 OSS projects deserve a place on the 650 Mb of Solid Gold? Remember, this is for non-geeks and families, so Cygwin is out (even though I love it) and games are in. Extra points, as always, to the obscure but beautiful. Finally, projects targeting only Win32 -- with no Free Unix crossover -- may apply, but will be subject to a strenuous physical test."

Comments

CDex

[A Commentor]

CDex -> for converting their CDs to MP3...

Well, there is always gimp

[HughsOnFirst]

Cat got your tongue? (something important seems to be missing from your comment ... like the body or the subject!)

Gnucleus

[DJ-Dodger]

Gnucleus! Open Source gnutella file sharing. For once you can be REALLY sure that there isn't any spyware in your filesharing software!

PuTTY

[Professor Collins]

I cannot imagine anyone using a Windows machine without the magnificent PuTTY ssh, telnet, and rlogin client. It is probably the best ssh programme I have ever had the pleasure of using, and its terminal emulator is superior to most xterms in many ways. Your CD collection would be incomplete without it.

Celestia all the way!

[$carab]

Celestia has to be some of the most awesome software Ive ever used. You can navigate the cosmos and it looks absolutely incredible! This would be a program I would use to show people how cool OSS is.

Does MAME Count?

[Malic]

The required ROMS make it kind of a gray app. But the full source IS available...

For your IRC friends.

[reaper20]

X-Chat is available as windows builds, works great.

virtualdub

[motardo]

virtualdub

Don't forget the games!

[jvmatthe]

Although they're not always "easy to set up", they might be decent examples of what can be done. The ones I've included on a CD of free software for friends include:

• FreeCiv - free Civ 1/2 clone
  
• Tux Racer - downhill racing game
  
• Tux Typing - typing tutor
  
• IceBreaker - Jezzball clone
  
• Maelstrom - networkable, cool Asteroids clone
  
• Angband - best dungeon crawl ever!
  
• Chromium BSU - neat-o OpenGL 2D shooter
  

I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting, but that's a good start. Hopefully other posters will list their faves...

Jabber

[jacobito]

Many open source Jabber clients are available, so maybe you can get your friends to use open source software with an open instant messaging protocol!

Personally, I use PSI when using Windows, but there are others out there that may be just as good. I do believe, though, that Psi is cross-platform, which may be a plus.

Here's a good place to start

[Mike McCune]

Open Source Software for Windows

Please Be Aware!

[jaaron]

Please note that there is already a project currently working on this. You may want to combine forces since they've been working on this since this last spring.

Check out the OpenCD project at
http://www.theopencd.org/

You are free to work on your on project of course, but I HATE to see duplication of effort.

Ghostview/GSview

[AJWM]

A great little multiplatform Postscript and PDF (Acrobat) viewer.

Here's the Ghostscript, home page, and the GSview-specific page.

Vim. No, I'm serious.

[Robin Hood]

Seriously -- if the idea is to make a Linux partition seem less daunting, put the Win32 version of Vim on there. It won't take up too much room (about 3.7 MB or so as of version 6.1) and it's a very straightforward install. Reasons for including vim? Well:

1) Every UNIX machine in the world has vi on there somewhere. Emacs may or may not be installed, depending on the preference of the sysadmin. But if you at least know four or five basic editing & navigation commands in vi, then you'll be fine if you wind up trying to use a strange UNIX system somewhere.

2) You can actually describe it in a way that won't be horrifically intimidating. Tell them it's a replacement for Notepad with a lot more features. And you can use the mouse if you want, but there's keyboard shortcuts for everything: once you learn them, you'll be twice as fast with Vim as with any other editor.

3) Vim's built-in tutorial (":help tutor") -- I wouldn't even mention it as a possibility without this one.

Yeah, a lot of people will hate Vim and run back to Notepad. But if they try it and get at least as far as finishing the tutorial, they won't be COMPLETELY lost when they first try Linux and have to edit a text file.

Re:Celestia all the way! (and Stellarium too)

[pyrrho]

it is most godlike of you to mention this incredible program that I had not ever used before! I cannot believe how cool this is. Especially since I just a week or two ago went searching for such a program (much lower standards had I) and didn't find it. And the contributer sites with all kinds of spacecraft and moon models etc. etc. I have been wanting this program for years!

btw, in my search I did find another very cool program which renders the sky accurately and beautifully, which is also quite impressive. You might like it.