The Open-Source PC - Yahoo! News

The Open-Source PC - Yahoo! News

The Open-Source PC

Exclusive from: Ziff-Davis
Wed Aug 17, 7:25 PM ET


Tim Gnatek - ExtremeTech

Open-source software is booming; SourceForge.net lists more than 104,000 active projects on its Web site alone. With all the selection, why bother with commercial software at all? You might miss out on the latest popular titles, but there are plenty of open-source applications that can handle most computing essentials.
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Don't worry if you're not ready to switch to an open-source operating system before dabbling in the software; though the process may be easier than you think, the programs on our open-source PC list all offer versions for Windows or
Macintosh systems as well as for
Linux and other open source-based systems.

Productivity suite: OpenOffice, likely the most successful open-source productivity pack and an attractive choice next to the costly Microsoft Office, comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program and Web page editor.

Anti-virus: ClamWin is among the most developed of the relatively slim options for open-source security programs. While the project has received some criticism over its scanning ability and the difficulty it has had drawing qualified developers, it does provide a measure of defense against many malware programs.

Web browser: Open source took a leap into the mainstream in 1998, when Netscape decided to release source code for its browser. The Mozilla Firefox browser, which rose from Netscape's ashes, enjoys success and a PCMag.com Editors' Choice Award thanks to its simple installation, many extensions and superior security.

E-mail client: What Firefox has done for Web browsing, Mozilla Thunderbird promises to do for e-mail, earning very good marks for its ability to custom-handle messages and filter junk mail, though online help may be lacking.

Educational programs: Celestia, a real-time, 3-D space simulation, is a free planetarium for the PC. Though Celestia is a complete program in itself, the many extensions available allow you to add further detail to the universe, by inserting additional elements like galaxies, asteroids and fictional spacecraft from your favorite sci-fi flicks.

Multimedia: Audacity, an open-source audio editor, gets the job done as a simple tool for recording streaming audio.