Free or Open Source Web Design Program?

TheZorch asks: "I'm looking for a good Freeware or Open Source web design program. Right now, I use Web Dwarf but its features are a little limited. I love the ability to put text and graphics wherever I want, which is also how Dreamweaver works. The main problem with Web Dwarf is that I can't insert Macromedia Flash items onto a web page. I've tried Mozilla's web page composer, FrontPage Express, and OpenOffice. None give me the freedom to do what I want to be able to do. The program has to be FREE, no adware, no turned off features until you buy it, and I have to be able to format the page freestyle similar to how Dreamweaver and Web Dwarf work. Can you recommend one for me?"

Comments

it has to be said...

[anderiv]

I love the ability to put text and graphics wherever I want

Hrm - sounds like vim would be the ticket. ;-)

All joking aside - my understanding of html/css has shot up through the roof since I ditched Dreamweaver and started coding by hand. Code cleanliness has also improved greatly, as you'd expect. If you've never tried, give yourself a week with a text editor and a good html/css book. It's quite freeing to not have to worry about anything other than the code. No application updates, no program idiosyncracies to deal with, etc.

emacs sgml-mode

[namekuseijin]

Nothing beats it in handling sgml-based content, like html or xml. It's not WYSIWYG: it's powerful.

As for Flash: dump the old thing and embrace an SVG + XForms future...