Feb 13 2006

Open-Source Tools for Everything

Filed under: Linux Notes

I thought I’d post a list of the best open-source utilities (at the present time) for performing various tasks. This isn’t necessarily a list of the “best” tools, but just tools that have worked the best for me.

  • OpenOffice.org - Word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, etc.
  • Firefox - Web browser.
  • Xine and/or MPlayer - Play DVDs and various video formats. (Linux only)
  • VideoLAN - Play videos, DVDs, and streams.
  • XMMS - Audio player (Linux only). Requires a special plugin to play MP3 and WMA files.
  • The GIMP - Drawing and image processing
  • The Paint.NET - Simple yet very powerful image editor.
  • dvd::rip - DVD ripping and transcoding (Linux only)
  • CDEx - CD ripping (Windows only)
  • Audacity - Audio track recorder and editor
  • VirtualDub - Video capture/processing utility
  • FileZilla - FTP client and server (Windows only)
  • WinMerge - File and directory compare (Windows only)
  • 7-Zip - Archive utility (Windows only)
  • gaim - Instant messaging client
  • Wireshark - Ethernet packet analyzer (formerly Ethereal)
  • Metasploit - Framework for testing exploits
  • HxD - Hex editor

Miscellaneous open-source (or otherwise free) things that are nice to have:

4 Responses to “Open-Source Tools for Everything”

  1. CHC says:
    February 15th, 2006 at 10:37 pm

    Thanks for the FileZilla tip (tho I had to use download.com). However, I find OpenOffice’s version of “Calc” (Excel) to be really boggy on my PC, and not quite as handy as Excel yet. (If you can tell me how to eliminate the delete cell contents dialog, it would be appreciated).

  2. db says:
    February 15th, 2006 at 11:23 pm

    To be honest, I haven’t used the “Calc” component of OpenOffice. I’ve never had much personal use for spreadsheet applications. And at work I only use Excel. I would probably agree that OpenOffice as a whole hasn’t quite reached the usefulness level of MS-Office.

  3. db says:
    February 15th, 2006 at 11:25 pm

    But I will suggest how to get rid of the Delete Cell dialog: go into the source code, and hack away!

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