My colleague, Dennis Vital, came across an article “The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy – and Their Open Source Alternatives” on the WHDb. The article is written by Jimmy Atkinson who compares various proprietary programs/products with open source programs. Dennis alerts me about this post since he knows I am a strong advocate for the use of Open Source in schools. I am glad he did and I found the article is very interesting. Overall, Mr. Atkinson does a great job of compiling the list. I am not surprised that many of my favorite Open Source programs are included although some are missing (i.e., KompoZer, NotePad++, GimpShop, VLC player, and etc). Nonetheless, here are the top 50 proprietary programs and their Open source alternative discussed in the article. To read the full article, please visit Jimmy Atkinson’s post on the WHDb.
Basics
1. Windows Vista OS to Ubuntu OS
2. Internet Explorer Browser to Firefox Browser
Office Suites
3. Microsoft Office to OpenOffice
Office Tools
5. MathWorks MATLAB to Scilab
6. Microsoft Access to Kexi
7. Microsoft Word to OpenOffice Writer
8. Microsoft Excel to OpenOffice Calc
9. Microsoft Visio to Dia
Productivity
10. Blackboard to Moodle
12. Microsoft Project to Open Workbench
Graphic Programs
14. Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape
15. Adobe PhotoShop to GIMP
16. Adobe Premiere to Avidemux
17. AutoCAD to Archimedes
18. Microsoft PowerPoint to OpenOffice Impress
19. Microsoft Paint to Tux Paint
Web Editors
21. Adobe GoLive CS2 to Mozilla SeaMonkey
22. Adobe Dreamweaver to NVU
23. Macromedia Flash Professional to OpenLaszlo
24. Microsoft Frontpage to Bluefish
25. Windows Notepad to ConTEXT
26. Altova XMLSpy to XML Copy Editor
Publishing
27. Adobe Acrobat to PDFCreator
28. Adobe Framemaker to DocBook
29. Microsoft Publisher to Scribus
Communications
31. FeedDemon to RSS Bandit
32. Microsoft MSN Messenger to aMSN
33. Microsoft Outlook to Thunderbird
34. Skype to Wengophone
Media
36. Nero Burning Rom to K3b
37. Quicktime to Darwin Streaming Server
38. TiVo Desktop to Galleon.tv
39. Windows Media Player to Miro
Utilities
42. Norton Ghost to Partition Image
43. Rational Purify to Valgrind
Security
45. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal to Winpooch
46. McAfee VirusScan to ClamWin
47. Norton Personal Firewall to WIPFW
Financial
48. Authorize.net to OpenSSL
49. Microsoft Money (Plus) to TurboCash
50. Quickbooks to Compiere
16. Adobe Premiere to Avidemux
My suggestion here would be
16 Adobe Premiere to Cinelerra
Cinelerra is a more professional software we use it very much
I want to give a Hoorah for Mr. Atkinson for doing such a wonderful job on this list. This is an incredible list. It is very informative useful, especially for me being a graduate student and always needing some type of software that will do the job that need to be done.
Comparison and contrasting is what this list feels like, and I love it. I see there is an open source program to every major program out there and the list is not conclusive. This is the type of list I would like to see on a regular basis because it gives me the knowledge to know about free programs rather than paying for the more elite. There is nothing wrong with the more expensive ones, but not paying is a great thing. Everything should be openly available to students in need.
I do want to say that use Mozilla (who doesn’t) and OpenOffice a lot. I just recently started using GIMP, which is great editing software. NVU, by the way, I had to use this program plenty of times while taking courses under Dr. Yuen. I can tell you it is great. I use all the time when I want to build a new website. It has easy navigation features and enhancements that are much better than the other web editors. Try it, you will see.
I have also used PDFCreator, which is good, but I will prefer to use CutePDF, this is also open source software that contains a lot of knick-knacks for creating PDF files. I use Thunderbird now as an email client.
Overall, this list is great and I will continue to look at this list for software that will be needed in the future. Thanks for sharing.
Dr. Yuen,
You do have a really good list of software, and Camtasia is wonderful. The biggest problem with Camtasia is the cost. Have you ever taken a look at Wink?
Wink is not as fancy, but if you’re on a budget, Wink can do the job, and do it very well. Teachers can easily create short tutorials, or even take their whole presentation and display it through Wink (although I would lean toward Microsoft Producer for that.), although with Wink and Open Office, there would be no need for Microsoft Producer.
Paint .NET is another program deserving of a place on your list. Paint .NET is a fantastic graphics editor that I use often for what little graphics I do. The program is free, and is updated quite frequently. It seems like every time I fire it up there is a new version ready for download.
On Open Office, I wonder if people know that it will do PDF’s? There a many powerful features in Open Office that may not have been explored. I was pleasantly surprised recently to find out that you can save a presentation as a flash file. It came in handy as a way to quickly add a presentation that one of my schools had authored about the programs at their school to our website.
Glad to see ClamWin on the list. I help people out with their computers a lot, and this is the first program I install. There’s no reason for everyone not to have Antivirus software on their computer, and the net would be a much safer place if they took the time to remove whatever “expireware” came with their computer, and just install ClamWin.
Yes, Yes, Yes…. I think open source alternatives to software programs are great! I spent far to much money for Microsoft Office, Dreamweaver, and SAS software this semester. I wish I had this list last summer, when I could have taken the time to explore the possibilities of the open source alternatives. I will take this list and investigate some alternative over the summer, when I am not teaching.
Open ended development reminds me of the time when people could just become curious and invent something new. This curiosity and inventiveness changed as corporations began to have employees sign release forms for inventions. Whaa-hoo for everyone involved in creating software that everyone can share and/or add to it. The day of the Corporate giants that charge extra for commercials and expensive expense accounts are coming to an end.
There are times when the cost of named branded software carries with it a reputation that is worth purchasing. I love using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) at work and for school. Using the software, I am guaranteed of the results that I am getting. However, there are times when that guarantee of other software is not necessary. For example, students doing school work in Microsoft Word, someone planning a weekly budget using Excel, or using another browser outside of Internet Explorer, should not really matter.
Young mind and independent thinkers will constantly create new ideas that will not be harness by corporate giants whose annual income is in the billions.
This list is absolutely great! Thanks for compiling it. It is very expensive to purchase the rights to use the proprietary programs and if a person were to download them without the legal rights, that person will be committing copyright infringement. These open source programs eliminates both issues. It is great that someone has created competition for some of these companies who may dominate the market with their various software(s).
The NVU project has been abandoned and reestablished as Kompozer.
It’s all on NVU’s front page.
To me the ability to access computer applications software on the Internet and be granted permission to use the software is remarkable advantage. However, there is a major argument against open source regarding software defects and security. Since Open Source software is open, all of the defects and security flaws are easily found. This might make it easier for malicious persons to discover security flaws.
I found it suspicious that a website: http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/
that featured the same list posted on this website disappeared. So this website is even more valuable. Keep up the good work. The list is fantastic.