Everything you need for free
Brooklynne and I have had computer problems off and on over the last 5 years or so, and I feel like these problems have forced me to keep a constant eye on the market during that time (right now, our computer situation is great). I've noticed that although computer hardware is becoming cheaper and cheaper, the software you need to do anything on it is not. When Brooklynne and I got a new computer a month ago, I realized that I would probably never be able to afford to put a legal copy of Abode Creative Suite and Macromedia (which I have on our lappy) on our desktop.
What has happened, though, is that the quality and availability of free and open source software is growing by leaps and bounds. So, instead of running Photoshop and Illustrator, I've installed Gimp and Inkscape. I was playing with Gimp last night, and I was really impressed (again) by how little difference there is in the quality of the program. How does Adobe get away with charging so much for a tool that is not significantly better as far as I can tell? I also realized that there are probably alot of people who don't even know these things exist, but might use them if they did.
Therefore, here's a list of free and open source software that I use regularly or might be of use to others. If you have another favorite program or a good tip or suggestion, add it in the comments.
Open Office (office suite) - I've only toyed with this one, but it seems to work fine and the good news is that it is completely compatible with MS Office, so people will be able to open and edit the files you create, and vice versa.
The Gimp (image editor) - a very good tool, comparable to Photoshop, but with a different interface so it may take a few minutes to become familiar with it.
Inkscape (vector graphics) - not quite as good as Illustrator, but it gets the job done, and you can't beat the price ($0).
Firefox (browser) - more compliant than IE6 or Safari. So far IE7 seems to be equivalent in regard to standards, but since Firefox is open source, you can get all kinds of good plugins, like Zotero for example.
Notepad++ (text editor) - I've been using the regular notepad to code websites for years, but Notepad++ offers contextual highlighting for a range of languages, a tabbed workspace, and no automatic file format. If you open Notepad++, a browser, a file explorer, and an FTP tool, you essentially have the same functionality as Dreamweaver, with only a few normal-use features missing.
WinSCP (FTP app) - drag and drop, easy to use. For Mac users, there's also Cyberduck.
Movable Type, WordPress, Drupal (blogging and content management) - MT is only kind of open source/free, but my uses qualify for the free personal-use license. WordPress is really free, as is Drupal.
Apache, MySQL, PHP (server, database, and scripting language) - I don't use these at home... yet. But I could, and I certainly use them daily for this blog.
Linux Fedora (Operating System) - I don't run Linux, but I've used it before and it is as good as Windows or Mac OS and it's free. Since most computers come with an operating system already installed, there may be less demand for this one, but if your computer crashes and you can't find your old windows CDs for example, Fedora might be a good money-saver.
**Update**
When I first wrote this post, I left off 7-zip which is a great, open source file compressing and unpacking tool. you can read my post about it here, or download it here.
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Dude... I'm definitely going to bring these to Wes's attention. He is the king of free downloads. So, thanks!