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Best Free Open Source Software For Windows

Posted by timothy on from the where's-vlc? dept.

snydeq writes "InfoWorld surveys the FOSS-on-Windows landscape, detailing the 10 free open source solutions most likely to unseat proprietary offerings. 'Some, like TrueCrypt and VirtualBox, are real diamonds in the rough: enterprise-grade solutions that deliver many of the same bells and whistles of their commercial brethren, but for free. Others, like Firefox and OpenOffice.org, are already legendary, and their strong followings ensure their continued development and support at levels that rival the best proprietary solutions.'" Rather than click through 10 different pages, the slideshow presentation at least lets you hover over each page's link to preview the author's top picks.

1 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The list, for those who don't care about pictur by Killer+Orca · · Score: 0, Troll
    How on Earth is this list the top 10? Many of these products have serious competition, or betters

    FileZilla

    Didn't work when I tried it for a simple FTP transfer because of default settings I couldn't figure out how to undo.

    VirtualBox

    Never tried it

    OpenOffice.Org

    Besides the fact that it is implementing an Office 2007 style ribbon who outside of business users really needs a full office suite anymore?

    Firefox

    Maybe if Opera open sources their browser they can be on this list, not sure if Chrome is really open.

    Paint.Net

    What about the GIMP, or is it because this is dead simple to use?

    Media Player Classic

    My vote goes to VLC here, hands-down.

    TrueCrypt

    Never used it.

    PDFCreator

    I only view PDFs so I have never needed creation software, and when I view them I use Sumatra.

    7-Zip

    I've heard better things about PeaZip, but I have not used either too much.

    ClamWin

    I thought this wasn't even under development any more? Please correct me if I'm wrong.