Choice of a GNU Generation [image: [image of the Head of a GNU]]<http://www.gnu.org/graphics/heckert_gnu.html> ------------------------------ Free Software replacements for proprietary applications on the Microsoft Windows OS.
Here is a list of popular free software applications that run on Microsoft Windows--along with the proprietary applications they replace. If you are still a Windows user, you can take a first step towards free software by installing these applications. When we say these application programs are free software<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>, we're talking about freedom, not price. It means that you are free to use these programs constructively, either alone or in a community, while respecting the freedom of others. The source code is available, so that you can study the software, adapt it to your needs, fix bugs, and release versions with new features. You can also convince or pay others to do these things for you. You are also free to give away and free to sell copies, under the terms of the applicable free software license. These programs are free software because *you have freedom* in using them. Free software develops under the control of its users. Microsoft Windows is a clear and instructive example of non-free software. Its source code is a secret, so programmers cannot learn from it, fix it, adapt it to their clients (your) needs, or even verify what it really does. If you share copies with your neighbors, you will be called a "pirate", and users have been threatened with imprisonment for this. Non-free software is completely controlled by its developer, who also has power over the users. We started the free software movement because this power is unjust<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/freedom-or-power.html> . Using free software on Microsoft Windows (or any non-free operating system) is the first step towards freedom, but it does not get you all the way there. You're still under Microsoft's power as long as you use Windows. So the next step is to replace Windows with a free operating system such as GNU/Linux. However, in this page we're concerned with the first step. *Application:* 7-Zip *Replaces:* WinZip, WinRAR *URL:* http://www.7-zip.org File archiver which integrates into the windows shell and supports ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM, DEB, and it's own format, 7z, which offers a higher compression ratio than any other current archive format. *The graphical version of 7zip is currently only compatible with GNU/Linux under WINE. However, you can use the commandline program p7zip<http://p7zip.sourceforge.net/>to decompress 7zip files. * *Application:* Blender 3D *Replaces:* Maya, 3DSMax *URL:* http://directory.fsf.org/blender.html Blender is the first and only fully integrated 3D graphics creation suite allowing modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, realtime interactive 3D and game creation and playback with cross-platform compatibility. *Application:* ClamWin Free Antivirus *Replaces:* McAfee ViruScanetc, Norton Antivirus or Kaspersky Anti-Virus. *URL:* http://www.clamwin.com/ ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and 2003. ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer. It features: - High detection rates for viruses and spyware; - Scanning Scheduler; - Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database. - Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer; - Addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically. *Application:* Core Force *Replaces:* McAfee Personal Firewall Plus, Norton Internet Security, Windows Firewall, ZoneAlarm. *URL:* http://force.coresecurity.com/ CORE FORCE is the first community oriented security solution for personal computers. The security framework provided by CORE FORCE is leveraged by a community of security experts that share their security configurations for a growing list of programs. These security profiles can be downloaded by any user of CORE FORCE from the community Web site and they're also completely open so that they can be peer-reviewed to minimize security hazards. The community approach to endpoint security also allows end-users who are not security experts to work in a secure environment. CORE FORCE can be used to: - Protect your computer from compromises by worms, virus and email-borne malware - Prevent your computer from being used as a staging point to amplify attacks and compromise others - Prevent exploitation of known bugs in the operating system and applications running on your computer - Prevent exploitation of unknown bugs (0-day) in the operating system and applications running on your computer - Detect and prevent execution of adware, spyware, trojan horses and other malware on you computer *Application:* Dia *Replaces:* MicroSoft Visio *URL:* http://directory.fsf.org/dia.html Dia is designed to be much like the proprietary Microsoft program 'Visio'. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and simple circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape. It can load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (gzipped by default, to save space), can export diagrams to EPS or SVG formats and can print diagrams (including ones that span multiple pages). *Application:* Gaim *Replaces:* Trillian, Chat Clients *URL:* http://directory.fsf.org/gaim.html Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging client, with support for: - AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), - ICQ, - MSN Messenger, - Yahoo, - IRC, - Jabber, - Novell, - Gadu-Gadu, and - Zephyr networks. Gaim also supports plugins, for additional functionality. *Application:* GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) *Replaces:* Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro *URL:* http://directory.fsf.org/gimp.html GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. *Anyone who is familiar with the GNU/Linux operating system has probably seen/used the GIMP at some stage. In terms of compatibility, GIMP can open/manipulate the PhotoShop PSD format and the Paint Shop Pro PSP format.* *Application:* GNUnet *Replaces:* Napster, etc. See http://gnunet.org/faq.php3?xlang=English#compare *URL:* http://gnunet.org GNUnet is a framework for secure peer-to-peer networking that does not use any centralized or otherwise trusted services. A first service implemented on top of the networking layer allows anonymous censorship-resistant file-sharing. GNUnet uses a simple, excess-based economic model to allocate resources. Peers in GNUnet monitor each others behavior with respect to resource usage; peers that contribute to the network are rewarded with better service. *Application:* Inkscape *Replaces:* Sodipodi, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, CorelDraw or Xara Xtreme *URL:* http://www.inkscape.org/ Inkscape is an vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara Xtreme using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. *Application:* MinGW *Replaces:* Microsoft Visual C++ *URL:* http://www.mingw.org/ MinGW (Minimalist GNU for Windows) provides many of the GNU programming utilities on Windows. It includes the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), Binutils, Gnu Debugger (GDB), make, and more. *Application:* Mozilla Thunderbird *Replaces:* Outlook, Outlook Express * URL:* http://directory.fsf.org/Thunderbird.html Versatile and modular e-mail client. Supports themes and extensions to customise and increase it's functionality. Has integrated "smart" spam filter, to cut down significantly on spam mail. Also integrates (via EnigMail extension) seamlessly with GNU GPG. *Application:* OpenOffice *Replaces:* Microsoft Office *URL:* http://www.openoffice.org OpenOffice.org is a multi-platform office productivity suite compatible with all major file formats. *Application:* Scribus *Replaces:* PageMaker, InDesign, QuarkXPress *URL: * http://www.scribus.net/ Scribus is a desktop publishing application, like Adobe PageMaker or Adobe InDesign from the proprietary software world. It is free software, distributed under the terms of the Gnu General Public License. Scribus supports many major graphic formats including most all of the standard ones used in DTP in addition to SVG import and export. *Application:* Sodipodi *Replaces:* Coreldraw, Adobe Illustrator *URL:* http://directory.fsf.org/sodipodi.html Sodipodi is a vector-based drawing program, like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator from the proprietary software world, and Sketch or Karbon14 from the free software world. It is free software, distributed under the terms of the Gnu General Public License, Version 2. Sodipodi uses W3C SVG as its native file format. It is therefore a very useful tool for web designers. It has a relatively modern display engine, giving you finely antialiased display, alpha transparencies, vector fonts and so on. Sodipodi is written in C, using the Gtk+ toolkit and optionally some Gnome or KDE libraries. *Application:* VideoLAN Client (VLC) *Replaces:* Windows Media Player, PowerDVD *URL:* http://www.videolan.org/vlc VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. These are just a small amount of the more common free software applications available for the Microsoft Windows platform. For other lists and additional applications (such as more specialist fields; Bochs for PC emulation, or applications for CAD, for example), additional resources are available: http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/apps/en/bestlist.html The GNUWin project is a CD which has many free software Windows applications on it, all of which are available for download from their website. Return to the GNU Project home page <http://www.gnu.org/home.html>. Please send FSF & GNU inquiries to [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. There are also other ways to contact <http://www.fsf.org/about/contact.html> the FSF. Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to * [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Please see the Translations README<http://www.gnu.org/server/standards/README.translations.html>for information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article. Copyright (c) 2004, 2006 Alan Madden. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Updated: $Date: 2007/05/04 12:33:44 $ $Author: jocke $ ------------------------------ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ FOSS Nepal mailing list foss-nepal@googlegroups.com http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal Community website: http://www.fossnepal.org/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
