Open source is not just a term anymore. It’s a movement. It makes computers better & better. It has grown enormously in the recent days and is bound to grow leaps in the days-to-come. It provides free alternatives to proprietary software. It not only gives you the right to use the software legally, but also allows you to change it the way you like it to be. Isn’t that great!

Here, I have tried to compile and present to you, some of the best alternatives that you can get from the open source community.

Remember: Few of them may not be the real best yet, but they are so far very promising and steadily growing. Also, they are for FREE.

• Ubuntu <– Windows/Mac OS X

In the recent days, Ubuntu has been really gaining lot of space and love in the desktops & laptops. Thanks to the great support from its community. With the recent launch of it’s version 8.04 (Hardy Heron), it is seriously being looked as a worthy alternative to Windows & Mac OS.

• OpenOffice <– MS Office

A really sturdy and a good alternative for the MS Office. OpenOffice.org has gained lot of fans and users for itself. With the recent launch of 3.0 beta version, it is well understood, it’s gonna give someone some serious trouble. If your job is just some simple word editing and stuff, it is worth recommending Abiword. A very light-weight word processing software.

• Gimp <– Photoshop

It’s not yet completely ready to replace Photoshop, but it is steadily growing. If you are not looking for a complete professional photo editing software, then Gimp provides you lot more than that. A definite keeper for such.

• Firefox <– Internet Explorer/Safari

I am pretty sure, lot of you would be reading this on Firefox now. If not, fret not! You always have your right to download it and start firing it. Firefox from Mozilla is only poised for still greater heights with the scheduled June launch for its final version, Firefox3. It has gained enormous ground with its v3.0 beta releases and the RC’s. A very very serious threat to MS for its IE and Apple for its Safari browsers.
What makes Firefox the best browser around is it’s enormous add-ons support. Combined together, they make your browsing life a lot better. Very highly recommended.

• Thunderbird <– Outlook Express

Here comes one more thunder product from the labs of Mozilla! Add-ons are it’s high-point. Thunderbird has all that needs to replace MS Outlook Express.

• 7-Zip <– Winzip

A clean, simple and neat compressor/de-compressor which supports lots of formats including tar, bzip2, zip, rar and many more…

• Infra Recorder <– Nero

Why would you pay for Nero when you can get everything related to CD/DVD burning with Infra Recorder for free. Time to say bye-bye to Nero or any other paid (or illegally gotten) software that you might be using.

• UltraVNC <– VNC

An ultimate remote desktop tool. It can display the screen of other computer (via internet or network) on your computer. Ultra VNC is powerful, simple-to-use. It also has add-on support!

• Audacity <– Adobe Audition

Audacity is a clean software for editing and recording sounds. It is already good and still improving.

• VLC <– Media Player

I personally beleive: “If VLC can’t play it properly, then lots of other software won’t even understand it”. Just throw a file at VLC and it plays it for you. It’s a highly portable multimedia player. I have personally used it as a server to stream in multicast in IPv4. It can also do unicast and IPv6!
Also, worth mentioning is about MPlayer. Both of these are higly recommended.

• Pidgin <– Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, etc.

The best place to meet all your friends from Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk or any other messaging client at a single place. Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messaging client that allows you to use all your IM’s at once. Start using Pigdin and you will forget the rest. By-the-way, no more need to tolerate the crapware that yahoo or any of your other provider gives you with their messenger!

• Songbird <– iTunes

Songbird has already gained popularity with its beta versions. It has an in-built browser. It is based on Firefox. It has good add-on support. The iPod add-on has been very popular. It also has an in-built ID3 Tag editor. It just needs to show some love for the Zune to make it the one-stop-music-player for all your devices. (Zune uses a proprietary MTPZ protocol whereas the rest uses the standard MTP protocol)

• foobar2000 <– Winamp

foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. It is what Winamp was once. It can play almost all the audio formats known. A very good audio player and highly recommended.

• Sumatra <– Acrobat Reader

How many times, would you have got impatient by the time, that Acrobat Reader takes to open a simple PDF file. For all those of you, here comes Sumatra. Simple, portable and fast. Gets your job done.

• Miro <– IP TV

What is Miro for? Get it, it’s your free HD TV. It also allows you to download the videos. It even plays your stand-alone media files. Plays all kind of formats including Quicktime, MPEG, AVI, XVID, WMV and many more… Btw, it also has a built-in BitTorrent client. Aren’t these enough reasons to rejoice!

• Gantt Chart <– MS Project

Is it really an alternative to MS Project? Well, I personally haven’t tried it but only heard good about it. Definitely a project to watch out for. And, so is OpenProj.

• Gizmo Project <– Skype

It has been known by many as the “Skype-killer”. It is an open source VoIP solution enabling you for free PC-to-PC calls. It also offers call-in and call-out facility at very good rates. It also has interoperability with other SIP clients like Google Talk and Jabbin. Also, don’t forget the video calling!

If you are using any of the ones listed above, please share your views. Also, feel free to mention any others that you felt worth mentioning.

Edit: foobar2000 and Gizmo are not open source. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks petesalah for pointing this out.