Open Source Software Packages

From IAE-Pedia

Contents 1 General Use Software 2 Internet 3 Audio 4 Video 5 2D Graphics 6 3D Graphics 7 Mathematics 8 Miscellaneous Other 9 FOSS: Free Open Source Software 10 References 11 Author

There are many free and and/or open source software packages. An extensive list is available in the Wikipedia. Quoting from the Wikipedia document:

Software that fits the Free software definition may be more appropriately called free software; the GNU project in particular objects to their works being referred to as "open source". For more information about the philosophical background for open source software, see free software movement and Open Source Initiative. However, nearly all software meeting the Open Source Definition also meets The Free Software Definition and vice versa.

OS X	Linux	Windows

General Use Software

• Open Office - http://www.openoffice.org/

This Office Suite powerhouse can hold its own against Microsoft Office.

• AbiWord - http://www.abisource.com/

Similar to Microsoft Word, it has all of the essential word processing features most people need.

• Scribus - http://www.scribus.net/

Scribus is a page layout and creation tool that supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Internet

• Firefox - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Arguably, the best overall cross-platform browser with unparalleled customization and extensibility options.

• KompoZer - http://www.kompozer.net/

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.

• FileZilla - http://filezilla-project.org/

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

Audio

• Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

An easy to use audio editor for recording and editing sounds.

• Ardour - http://ardour.org/

Ardour is a digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. You can produce your own CDs, mix video soundtracks, or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound.

Video

• Kino - http://www.kinodv.org/

Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera.

• Cinepaint - http://www.cinepaint.org/

CinePaint is a deep paint image retouching tool that supports higher color fidelity than ordinary painting tools. It is ideal for film, and is widely used in Hollywood.

• VLC Media Player - http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

VLC media player 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.

• REPLAY (from ETH Zurich) - http://www.replay.ethz.ch

REPLAY is an open source solution developed in java to manage the workflow of audiovisual lecture recordings from production in the classroom to distribution on various channels in an automated manner. In this, it also provides comprehensive functionalities for existing audiovisual archives, repositories or collections. REPLAY consists of three components: The recording device in the lecture room, the backend, handling all the indexing, archiving, encoding and publishing of the recorded materials and the user interface, providing intelligent access to the audiovisual contents.

• OpenCast - http://opencastproject.org

Opencast is a community project to build and deliver an Open Source enterprise-level, integrated and interoperable framework to produce, process, distribute, and preserve audiovisual objects in research, teaching and learning. In addition, Opencast supports and develops audio and video tools expanding the functionalities of the core framework.

2D Graphics

• Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/

A powerful bitmap image editing and creation tool, comparable to Adobe Photoshop.

• Inkscape - http://www.inkscape.org/

A vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

3D Graphics

• Blender - http://www.blender.org/

Blender is a 3D content creation suite for 3D modeling, animation, and video compositing. Find out more about Blender.

• Wings 3D - http://www.wings3d.com/

Wings 3D is a subdivision modeler inspired by Nendo and Mirai from Izware.

• Wonderland - https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/

Project Wonderland is a 100% Java and open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and documents and conduct real business. Wonderland is completely extensible; developers and graphic artists can extend its functionality to create entire new worlds and new features in existing worlds.

Mathematics

• Octave - http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/:

GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It provides a convenient command line interface for solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically, and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly compatible with Matlab. It may also be used as a batch-oriented language.

Octave has extensive tools for solving common numerical linear algebra problems, finding the roots of nonlinear equations, integrating ordinary functions, manipulating polynomials, and integrating ordinary differential and differential-algebraic equations.

• SAGE - http://www.sagemath.org/

SAGE is a viable open source alternative to Magma, Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB. SAGE includes many high-quality open source math packages.

• WolframAlpha - http://iae-pedia.org/Open_Source_Software_Packages:

WolframAlpha is a knowledge engine based on Mathematica. It is a Web-based system that can solve a very wide range of quantitative problems.

Miscellaneous Other

• pbwiki - http://pbwiki.com/

pbwiki comes in a commercial version and a free version. The free version provided a limited amount of storage space and is a good tool for getting students started in developing their own wiki. The software is more user friendly that the MediaWiki.

• Multi-platform Photo Collage - http://www.shapecollage.com/

Shape Collage is a free automatic photo collage maker.

• Celtx - http://celtx.com/

Celtx is an all-in-one media pre-production system designed to help writers and designers plan and produce a variety of media, including: film, video, documentary, theatre, machinima, comics, advertising, video games, music video, radio, podcasts, videocasts, or virtually any type of conceivable script.

FOSS: Free Open Source Software

There is a lot more free open source software than just the "packages" listed and discussed above.

FOSS (Free Open /source Software) is a Wiki that:

… provides information about software that is licensed to be free to use, modify, and distribute, commonly called Free Software, Free Open Source Software (FOSS), and Free / Libre Open Source Software (F/LOSS). In return for this value, some but not all FOSS licenses require any modification to the software that is distributed in computer code be made freely available in human modifiable source code under the same license, thereby continually growing the software capability.

FOSS is supported by globally distributed groups of developers, associations of companies, non-profit foundations, businesses that sell added value support and services, user groups, and academic and research institutions. It is increasingly becoming the global software standard and default choice for operating systems to applications, helping individuals and organizations reduce their software costs, enhance security, increase open standards compliance, avoid vendor lock-in, and build long-term investment protection.

References

AlphaGAlileo 5/19/09). In 2010 Asia and Latin America will be leading the use of free software, according to a report carried out by researchers from Seville. retrieved 5/20/09: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=57862&CultureCode=en. Quoting from the article:

Researchers from Seville -María Dolores Gallego, Salvador Bueno (of Pablo de Olavide University) and Paula Luna (University of Seville)- carried out a report, published in the magazine Technological Forecasting & Social Change, stating that the use of free software in South America and Asia will be around 70% in 2010, with a special relevance in the education sector.

This work, whose aim was to measure the increasing interest in free software, compiles the opinions of 18 experts, both from the academic as well as the professional fields, using the Delphi method. With this process, designed for reliable consensus-building among a panel of experts, experts had to answer two rounds of questions so as to define the future scenario for the implementation and spreading of free software until 2010.

One of the most significant data from this report is that related to the implementation of free software from a geographic point of view. Indeed it shows a higher spreading and implementation in developing continents, with South America and Asia (69.5%) leading the rank, followed by Oceania (61%), Europe (59.5%), North America (49.83%) and finally Africa (34.5%).

FSF (n.d.). Free Software Foundation. Quoting from the Website:

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to distribute and modify computer software without restriction.

Here is a little more information about the Free Software Foundation:

• FSF remains the primary sponsor of the Operating System Project. In addition to the services provided by Savannah for GNU projects, FSF provides development systems for GNU software maintainers, including full email and shell services. We are committed to furthering the development of the GNU Operating System and enabling volunteers to easily contribute to that work.

• The Free Software Directory was started in September 1999 to catalog all useful free software that runs under free operating systems. The Directory contains over 4,000 entries.

Markoff, John (8/13/08). Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software. The New York Times. Retrieved 8/17/08: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/technology/14commons.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Quoting from the website:

In a ruling Wednesday, the federal appeals court in Washington said that just because a software programmer gave his work away did not mean it could not be protected.

The decision legitimizes the use of commercial contracts for the distribution of computer software and digital artistic works for the public good. The court ruling also bolsters the open-source movement by easing the concerns of large organizations about relying on free software from hobbyists and hackers who have freely contributed time and energy without pay.

OpenScience Project (n.d.). The OpenScience project. Retrieved 12/13/07: http://www.openscience.org/blog/?page_id=44. Quoting from the Website:

The OpenScience project is dedicated to writing and releasing free and Open Source scientific software. We are a group of scientists, mathematicians and engineers who want to encourage a collaborative environment in which science can be pursued by anyone who is inspired to discover something new about the natural world.

Much of the work of science depends on having appropriate tools available to analyze experimental data and to interact with theoretical models. Powerful computers are now cheap enough so that significant processing power is within reach of many people. The missing piece of the puzzle is software that lets the scientist choose between models and make sense of his or her observations. That is where the OpenScience project can help.

Python. http://python.org/ Quoting from the Website:

Python is a dynamic object-oriented programming language that can be used for many kinds of software development. It offers strong support for integration with other languages and tools, comes with extensive standard libraries, and can be learned in a few days. Many Python programmers report substantial productivity gains and feel the language encourages the development of higher quality, more maintainable code.

Python runs on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, OS/2, Amiga, Palm Handhelds, and Nokia mobile phones. Python has also been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines.

Python is distributed under an OSI-approved open source license that makes it free to use, even for commercial products.

SourceForge. Open Source Software. http://sourceforge.net/?abmode=1.

Wikipedia (n.d.). List of open source software packages. Retrieved 11/3/08: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_software_packages

Author

The original version of this page was created by Ken Loge.