My top 10 open source and free software picks for Windows Vista

Since this is my first post on Tech Leader, I thought I couldn’t go wrong with a top ten list. Don’t worry, I’ll try not to do it too often.

This list of software consists of tools I use almost every day. Some of them are better than their proprietary counterparts, and others are just the free alternatives. Not all are open source, but they’re all freely downloadable and usable without nag screens… at the time of publishing this.

They’re in no particular order of preference, since as I said, I use them all.

1 Freemind
Freemind is a handy mind-mapping tool which I use to plot out site maps for my clients. It’s also really useful for all uses of an organogram. It’s got a simple user interface featuring drag and drop, easy implementation of icons and very nifty keyboard shortcuts to add new nodes etc.

2 Pidgin
Pidgin is the successor of GAIM. It’s a multi protocol IM application. You can configure your MSN, AOL, Yahoo (and other) accounts into one application. It’s also a lot more stable than what GAIM used to be, and sits unobtrusively in the system tray awaiting your beck and call.

3 Turbocash
This one made it onto the list because it does its job. It’s not pretty, and my PA uses it, not me. It comes with some themes to hide its ugliness, but aesthetics is not what this app is all about. It does the job that Pastel and Quickbooks does, but requires a bit of configuring and a bit of looking past the quirks. All in all, it’s a full featured accounting package, and free. If you’re not an accountant, nor have one familiar with Turbocash at hand, don’t bother. We did, and it’s working out fine.

4 Open Office
This one likely needs no introduction, but if you’re not sure, it’s the open source alternative to Microsoft Office. With rivals to Excel (calc), Word (writer) and Powerpoint (impress), you can do pretty much the same thing as the proprietary option. I’ve been using this software without problems for years now, as have many other professional creatives.

5 Firefox
If you haven’t heard about Firefox, you’ve likely be living under a rock for the last few years. Better than all the other browsers in my opinion, and with all the addons available, it’s very versatile.

6 Thunderbird
Thunderbird is part of the Mozilla family (as is Firefox) and is a replacement for Microsoft Outlook Express. It is not Outlook, so don’t go and replace Outlook with Thunderbird, unless you don’t use all the calendar features… I don’t. I’ve been a happy TB user for at least three and a half years.

7 CDBurnerXP
Sick of Nero’s bloat? I was! Every time I bought a new writer I got a new version with a new interface with a load of new, unnecessary features. I ran this software on my XP machines, and when I got my new notebook powered with Vista I was disappointed to discover that it wasn’t supported. Thankfully, that is a thing of the past, and it now runs like a dream in Vista with a new, polished and familiarly laid out interface.

8 Launchy
This is an interesting one. Some of its features can be emulated by just hitting the Windows key and typing the name of an app you want to launch, the difference being that you hit ALT+Space, but it does more than just launch apps. I use it to index txt files in which I store snippets of code and other tidbits of information like Lorem Ipsum. It also features an ALT+Space calculator, which I use all the time (my strength of my mental arithmetic is about the equivalent of a cheese sandwich).

9 AVG Free
A necessary evil on any Windows operating system. Anti virus software is something I’d be so glad not to have to worry about, but if you want to be safe and not want to have to pay for mistakes made by your OS vendor, then download this for the bare essentials and sleep a bit more soundly. I haven’t contracted anything since running AVG, but I also tend to stay away from dodgy websites and I probably have a slightly above average tech savvy knowledge of what not to download or install.

10 WordPress
This is one tool that shows me how well an open source project can be made under good, structured leadership. A branch off of the B2/Cafelog project, the now borderline legendary Matt Mullenweg built up what is now one of the — if not the — world’s most widely used blogging platforms and light CMS. Running blogs, ordinary content managed websites through to numerous user generated websites, this platform has an interesting past and present and an exciting future. If you didn’t know, this site is even run on WordPress MU.

Well, that’s my list. You might have noticed my exclusion of GIMP and some other creative tools like Blender and Inkscape. This is because although they are really competent tools, I don’t use them. Speaking of GIMP. I’ve tried. Really, I have. It doesn’t match Photoshop for my needs, but if you’re just looking for minor graphic editing on a hobbyist or amateur level, then go for it…

Perhaps you can list your favourites in the comments?