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Mainly because I'm fed up with sites that list dozens of programs
for every imaginable category, when all I want is to find the best one,
I decided to create this page. Your opinion is welcome :-).
Ideally this page is the only one you visit when looking for the best
piece of free software, no need to browse for hours and try lots of stuff,
just get the program that's listed here.
Yes, there are no links, to find a piece of software type its name in Google.
Some of this software is only available for Linux and Mac OS X, a lot of it also
for Windows.
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InternetBest web browser: Firefox (but check out the very fast Chrome)Best bittorrent client: Azureus Best chat client: CenterIM (Pidgin has become bloatware) (for Mac: Adium, and Growl plugin) Best usenet news reader: Pan Best web server: Apache Best online store: Opencart Operating SystemBest operating system (linux distro): CentOS (dropped Fedora after 10+ years, because of #@#! gnome 3)Best small operating system: Slax (fits on USB key) Best virtual machine software: VirtualBox MultimediaaudioBest sound editor: Audacity Best music player: Xmms Best commandline audio processing: sox (general processing) normalize (volume normalization) id3tag (edit MP3 tags) Best CD burning frontend: K3B Best PVR/Media system: MythTV Best CD "ripper": cdparanoia Best MP3 encoder: lame (best front-end for these last two: grip ) images Best image viewer: Xnview (compact: Qiv) Best photo editor: Gimp Best photo organizer: KPhotoAlbum (Picasa is better except for its tagging options) Best image converter: ImageMagick Best image metadata editor: Exiftool Best paint program for children: Tuxpaint Best vector drawing program: Inkscape video Best video editor: OpenShot Best video tool: Avidemux Best video player: Mplayer Best video converter: Mencoder (and Transcode, really) Best CD/DVD burn quality tester: qpxtool Best screensaver: electropaint (on the SGI) User InterfaceBest window manager: EnlightenmentBest joystick to keyboard/mouse mapper: QJoyPad |
Office/ProductivityBest calendar program: IcalBest word processor: Abiword Best spreadsheet program: Gnumeric Best CHM file viewer: Gnochm Best RSI break reminder: Xwrits (for Windows: prevrsi, for Mac: Coffee break) ProgrammingBest general editor: Emacs (as "IDE", try ECB, for a coding color scheme, try zenburn)Best code formatter: astyle Best scripting language: Perl Best database software: MySQL Best programming system (IDE): Bluefish Best debugger: DDD ( Totalview !, not free unfortunately) Best memory checker: Valgrind ScientificBest graph plotting program: Gnuplot (online: Jpgraph )Best scientific word processor LaTeX System/general toolsBest keyboard tester: XKeyCapsBest text file comparer: xxdiff Best MBR/boot sector analyzer: BootMaster Best disk fragmentation visualizer: Davl Best Data recovery program: Testdisk Best partition table editor/resizer: parted (best front-end: qtparted) Network toolsBest network mapper/port scanner: Nmap (best front-end: Umit)Best traffic monitor: iptraf Best packet analyzer: wireshark Best wireless network detector/sniffer: kismet Best wireless signal strength monitor: kwifimanager 3D GraphicsBest 3D modeller: BlenderBest ray tracer: Povray MappingBest GPS transfer/converter: Gpsbabel |