Portals
Unesco free software portal http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12034&URL
_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
info about and links to free software.
Download.com http://download.cnet.com/windows/
Find lots of stuff here. You can search for many
of the software listed here, and see how popular or well rated
they are.
The Free Software Foundation http://www.fsf.org/
The directory http://directory.fsf.org/
has
lots
of
software,
but
probably
lots
of
technical
stuff.
The GNU project http://www.gnu.org/
also links to the same directory.
Open Source Alternatives http://www.osalt.com/
lists open source alternatives to commercial software.
Idealware http://www.idealware.org/
provides candid Consumer-Reports-style reviews and
articles about software of interest to nonprofits.
International Open Source Network, http://www.iosn.net/
stuff
about open source. See FOSS general, then software. I think the
portal to software is here http://www.iosn.net/foss/software/
International Free and Open Source Software
Foundation http://www.ifossf.org/
actually,
I'm
not
sure
what
this
is,
whether
it
has
software or not. But it seems like an interesting organization.
101 Fantastic Freebies http://www.pcworld.com/article/143642/101_fantastic_freebies.html
March 2008 lists a lot of downloads, some of which
are listed here, like AbiWord
Best free software http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2260070,00.asp
from
Feb
2008.
Briefly
mentions
many
software,
like
Lotus
Symphony
and
others.
and Best free software 2009 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2338803,00.asp
from Jan 2009
Free Country http://www.thefreecountry.com/
has pages for word processors and office suites http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/wordprocessors.shtml
and free security stuff, and all sorts of free stuff.
Freecountry.com is listed here
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/Regulated/Returns/mtr/trs/faq/index.shtml
http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Resc/netres.html
Gizmo's free software http://www.techsupportalert.com/
has for example http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-online-backup-sites.htm
listed here
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codec/cc/Pages/Editions/navig_02_04.pdf
http://www.auditor.ky.gov/Public/BJSecurityapp/bestpractices.html
Office
suites,
word processors,
This recent Earthlink newsletter http://www.earthlink.net/elink/issue121/home.html
lists
some
free
suites
and
stand
alones,
includin
OpenOffice,
NeoOffice,
ThinkFree,
Google Docs and Spreadsheets, AbiWord, Ajax13 and others.
Abiword http://www.abisource.com/
free
word
processor,
good
for
basic
stuff,
according
to
reviews
in pc world and msnbc. These reviews are linked to from the
abiword site. Abiword also runs on any platform, e.g., windows,
linux, mac, etc.
Abiword is from Gnome Office http://live.gnome.org/GnomeOffice
which also has Gnumeric http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/
mentioned below in the spreadsheet section.
IBM® Lotus® Symphony
tm http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home
documents, presentations, spreadsheets. Based on open
office.
Announced here
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22326.wss
and
reviewed here
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9780362-7.html
a C|Net story posted on Sept 18, 2007
and here
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2338820,00.asp
best free software of 2009
NeoOffice
http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php
a
fully-featured
set
of
office
applications
(including
word
processing,
spreadsheet,
presentation,
and drawing programs) for Mac OS X
listed here
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2338820,00.asp
best free software of 2009
OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org/
OpenOffice
is
another
office
suite.
Based
on
staroffice.
OpenOffice
2.3
is
now
(sept 2007) available. Pretty good, almost comparable to MS Office
suite. One main advantate (besides being free) is you can save to
pdf. Get more info on the support page,
http://support.openoffice.org/index.html with
forums, faqs, tutorials, etc.
Hmmm, Open Office 2.3 was posted to
download.com on Sept 18. On Sept 21, there had been 880,000
downloads. Popular! Five stars rating from downlaod.com, and 4 1/2
stars from users/reviewers.
StarOffice is no longer available for free from
Sun, but it is from twocows.com.
Open Office add on stuff
http://www.ooomacros.org/
includes stuff for the writers, spreadsheet, etc. Some of
this is statistical analysis.
OxygenOffice Professional http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooop
This
"is
an
enhanced
version
of
free
OpenOffice.org
what
is
a multi-platform office productivity suite. OxygenOffice
Professional contains more extras like templates, cliparts,
samples, fonts and VBA support."
LibreOffice http://www.libreoffice.org/
Apparently
when
Oracle bought Sun, who supports Open Office (OO), a lot of OO
people were unhappy with possibly problematic support and future
of OO, so they left to create LibreOffice. So LibreOffice looks
a lot like OO, for now, many of the same features and
funtionality. However, the people at LibreOffice seem to be
developing their package more.
See the story and some comparisons
here
Siag Office - A Free Office Package for Unix http://siag.nu/ I found
this through the Unesco free software portal. Spreadsheet, word
processor, file manager, etc, for unix.
EditPad http://www.editpadpro.com/
text editor. Listed as editpad lite on the site. Easy
to use.
Web based suites or word
processors/spreadsheets stuff
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9152118/Zoho_slows_frantic_growth_works_on_integrating_Web_apps_instead
article from 2010 about zoho, but also says thinkfree is fading
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9007884/Online_Office_Suites_The_Winner_Is_Clear
Review of zoho, google and thinkfree, from 2007.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/128248-2/the_webs_most_useful_sites.html
reviews several, including thinkfree and zoho.
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/business-productivity/2006/11/28/type-and-travel-web-based-word-processors-39284895/
review of google docs, zoho and thinkfree
google suite
http://docs.google.com
docs and spreadsheets.
see support here
http://docs.google.com/support/
including a tip on making motion charts here
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=91610
google fusion tables
http://www.google.com/fusiontables/Home
for sharing and animating data, putting data on maps, etc
But also, check google.doc's terms
of services
http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS?hl=en
because
it
seems
to
say
that
you,
the
creator,
have
copyright of any material you create and post, but they, google,
have the right to publish and redistribute anything you save on
their hosted server. Other on line services may have similar
policies.
ThinkFree
http://www.thinkfree.com/
free office suite, MS compatible.
Listed here
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/critical-mass-the-reason-alternative-office-suites-stumble/4451
positive
mention,
but article from 2007
and here
http://ux.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/tlc_blog_post.php?id=11
along with google docs
and here
http://training.tamu.edu/tips/index.php?tipId=78
as a computer tip.
and here
http://statelibrary.alabama.gov/Content/News/TheBestofWeb2.ppt
Zoho
http://www.zoho.com/
also office suite.
Listed here
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_office_update_aug06.php
.
Listed here
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/critical-mass-the-reason-alternative-office-suites-stumble/4451
positive review, but from 2007
Zoho and Thinkfree are listed here
http://nnlm.gov/mar/training/productivity.html
editgrid
http://www.editgrid.com/
on line free service for delivering data on demand
Web
browsers, ftp, etc
Lesser knows webtools http://www.pcworld.com/article/130009-2/discover_these_lesserknown_web_and_email_tools.html
story about browsers. Mentions Mozilla, Avant, Maxthon,
others.
http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/htmleditors.shtml
lists
free
html
wysiwyg
editors.
Freecountry
is
listed
at
these
sites
Kent State http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Resc/netres.html
resources page
U Hawai'i 's http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/706
Info Tech page
Web Dwarf
http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/
free
program
for
web
page,
wysiwgy
web
editor.
Almost
500,000
downloads at download.com and good user reviews.
http://download.cnet.com/WebDwarf/3000-10247_4-10068166.html
Maxthon browser
http://www.maxthon.com/
free. mentioned here
http://techcrunch.com/2006/02/28/maxthon-the-browser-that-rocks/
http://download.cnet.com/Maxthon/3000-2356_4-10681895.html
high ratings, almost 600,000 downloads
http://www.memphis.edu/itd/webdev/resources/software/browsers.htm
University of Memphis web developers page
Avant home page is here
http://www.avantbrowser.com/
Also free, and can be found at download.com, here
http://download.cnet.com/avant-browser/
rated very high and over 20 million downloads.
Opera
http://www.opera.com/
also free download and rating here
http://download.cnet.com/Opera/3000-2356_4-10005498.html
rated very high, over 9 million downloads.
Google chrome
http://www.google.com/chrome/
the newest, from google.
IZArc
http://www.izarc.org/
create and read compressed files of various formats. This
program is rated very well at
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Reviews/r676.html
and
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/izarc.html.
Mozilla http://www.mozilla.org/start/
Mozilla is no longer being developed, the new
all in one application is seamonkey http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
which has browser, email, html editing, and so
forth. Mozilla also has firefox http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
a free browser, pop up blocker, other stuff.
Flashpeak
http://www.flashpeak.com/
has
many
freeware
programs,
such
as
slimbrowser,
blazeftp
and
intelliEdit.
Slimbrowser
has a good review here
http://download.cnet.com/SlimBrowser/3000-2356_4-10101563.html
from cnet, and a good user and editor rating. Over 5
million downloads.
NVU
http://download.cnet.com/Nvu/3000-10247_4-10412423.html
4
stars,
364,000
downloads
as
of
March
2010, web authoring program.
pagebreeze
http://www.pagebreeze.com/
html editor with wysiwyg and html
Operating
Systems
cnet reviews
http://reviews.cnet.com/operating-systems/
lists
OS
systems,
prices,
brief
reviews.
Ubuntu
has
a
good
review, but it's not for everyone.
http://www.tech-faq.com/where-to-download-unix.html
describes bunch of OS systems, including Ubuntu, which says
it's for laptops, desktops.
Freebyte's Guide to... Free and non-free Operating
Systems
http://www.freebyte.com/operatingsystems/
lists
a
bunch
with
brief
technical
descriptions.
I,
a
non
techie, don't understand a lot of it.
pcmap
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,2362,00.asp
brief reviews, mostly windows and commercial stuff, but also
ubuntu
review
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9124087/Hands_on_Linux_New_versions_of_Ubuntu_Fedora_and_openSUSE_push_the_envelope_
December 2008 review of Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE.
Says all are easy to install. Ubuntu is the best for beginners.
PC world
http://www.pcworld.com/article/146400/desktop_linux_faceoff_ubuntu_804_vs_fedora_9.html
review
of
Ubuntu
and
Fedora,
from
June
2008.
Both
good,
Ubuntu better.
Guide to linux
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/158059/dont_fear_the_penguin_a_newbies_guide_to_linux.html
using Ubuntu as an example. Jan 2009.
Running linux in windows
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/articles/Windows/Run_Linux_in_Windows/
how to.
Ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/
"Ubuntu
is
a
community
developed,
Linux-based
operating
system
that
is
perfect
for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the
applications you need - a web browser, presentation, document and
spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more."
Easy Instalation guide to Ubuntu.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/155517/ubuntu_linux_the_easy_installation_guide.html
from December 2008
How To Install Ubuntu On Any PC
http://www.pcworld.com/article/164927/how_to_install_ubuntu_on_any_pc.html
"In
this
walkthrough,
senior
editor
Robert
Strohmeyer
walks
you
through
the
steps needed to install Ubuntu--a popular distribution of the
Linux OS--on a PC. This fast, simple operating system runs well on
limited system resources, boots quickly, and is very easy to
operate."
Fedora
http://fedoraproject.org/
another free linux based OS.
Misc
Scribus
http://www.scribus.net/
opensource professional page layout, desktop publishing.
Scribus is listed as part of a class, introduction to
linux, at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick,
here
http://css.ncifcrf.gov/training/catalog.asp
and listed in this presentation from the Nebraska
Department of Economic Development. Social networking and other
new technologies. See the Feb 2008 minutes
http://www.nitc.ne.gov/cc/meetings/
J
http://www.jsoftware.com/
"a
modern,
high-level,
general-purpose,
high-performance
programming
language.
...
J
is
particularly
strong in the mathematical, statistical, and logical analysis of
data. " (I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I've
seen it mentioned many times.)
This page
http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~smillie/Jpage/Jpage.html
has some tutorials.
paint.net
http://www.getpaint.net/
image and photo editing software
gimp
http://www.gimp.org/
another image manipulation package
Project managers
GanttProject
http://www.ganttproject.biz/
project management
PHProjekt
http://phprojekt.com/
is a modular application for the coordination of group
activities and to share informations and document via the web.
OpenProj
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/
desktop replacement of Microsoft Project.
Saving files on line
There are a whole bunch of sites to which you can upload and save
files. Some examples are
Mozy http://mozy.com/home up to 2 gig free
Mediafire
http://www.mediafire.com/
free
to
upload
and
save
files.
But
they
say
this
is meant to share, not save.
Idrive
http://www.idrive.com/
Adrive
http://www.adrive.com/
50 gb free, reviewed here
http://pcbackupreview.com/adrivereview.php
One review is here
http://www.pcworld.com/article/125729/store_it_on_the_web.html
with useful info
gspace, described here
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/gspace/
lets you use your gmail account to upload and save files.
I've used this. Seems pretty easy to use. Large files look funny
on the gmail accounts, broken into several parts. Get a seperate
gmail account just to back up stuff so it won't interfere with
your regular email.
Free web hosting
sites.google.com, yet another google thing.
Transfer big files via
email
This page
https://commons.lbl.gov/display/itfaq/ShareAndTransferLargeFiles
lists
a
bunch
of free services, and says you can do it via google docs too.
the services it lists are yousendit.com,
transferbigfiles.com, sendspace.com, dropsend.com and
mailbigfile.com/free
This page
https://kis.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Pages/SendingLargeFiles.aspx
also lists yousendit.com
Not
free
but cheap
CoffeeCup HTML Editor 2008
http://download.cnet.com/CoffeeCup-HTML-Editor/3000-10247_4-10003347.html
highly
rated.
3
million
downloads
as
of
March 2010. $50, 5 stars.
SiteSpinner 2.7c
http://download.cnet.com/SiteSpinner/3000-10247_4-10194134.html
also
highly
rated.
360,000
downloads
as
of
March 2010. $50, 5 stars.
Namo WebEditor Professional
http://download.cnet.com/Namo-WebEditor/3000-10247_4-10009532.html
465,000
downloads
as
of
March
2010,
$100,
4 stars.
GoBeProductive http://www.gobe.com/index.html
not free but $50, so cheap. Mentioned here http://www.zdnet.com/news/fresh-rivals-take-on-microsoft-office-goliath/136136
along
with others.
but according to this review http://office-software-review.toptenreviews.com/gobe-productive-review.html
possibly
from 2011, it can't import recent ms office docs
bravenet.com