Open Source Software You Can’t Live Without

Open Source programs may be developed, improved and maintained by a community of programmers, but its programs can be useful to computer users of all levels. There are thousands of Open Source programs you can use to do just about anything on your computer. Here are a handful that you might find indispensable.

Create a blog. Wordpress is an Open Source application that can be used to design and publish a blog. If you have any programming skill, you can create an entire website, including static and blog pages, using Wordpress.

Go online. There are several Open Source web browsers available for Mac and PC, including Mozilla Firefox and Camino. Mozilla Firefox is considered by many to be one of the top browsers in the world.

Use your computer. There are many Open Source operating systems available, but Linux is one of the most widely known. It’s supported by many proprietary computing companies including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, IBM, and Novell.

Write documents. OpenDocument, NeoOffice, AbiWord, and Bean are all Open Source word processing programs.

Run Windows software on a Mac. The Q Emulator program will allow Mac users to run Windows software on their computers. The program can be slow for some models, however.

This list only scratches the surface of how computer users at all levels can use Open Source programs. Open Source programming makes effective, well-designed software open and available to everyone who wants to use it, share it, or improve upon it.

About the author: C.Smith works for www.on365.co.uk the UK-based server management and data centre management Company. For more info on server rooms visit www.on365.co.uk/Server-Room-Solutions.aspx.