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50 Proprietary Programs We All Hate--and the OS Alternatives

whdb.com — It's not the price of the software that makes the real difference (although it's a reason to migrate from one software to another for many people); it's the idea that proprietary software comes with boundaries that keep the user experience confined to... well, being the user. Here are 50 commonly used programs that have open source alternatives.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 8, 2008

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  • doshindude, on 02/08/2008, -48/+226www.thepiratebay.org
    all your software needs. proprietary or not.
  • betterth, on 02/08/2008, -17/+137I'll use Open Office when it stops looking and running like Word 97. :(
  • l0k0, on 02/08/2008, -3/+75I agree with some of these but I'm sorry, Gimp is no Photoshop.
  • zeptobyte, on 02/08/2008, -3/+71I like how they have OpenOffice, OpenOffice Writer, and OpenOffice Calc all on their list as separate programs. -_-
  • typicalusername, on 02/08/2008, -7/+63WTF? Notepad/Wordpad? Why the hell did someone take the time to put that in there... I don't hate Notepad, plus...it comes free with my OS.
    Secondly, couldn't you just summarize this list by saying.
    MS products, use OpenOffice or Mozilla as an alternative. That's almost the entire damn list!
  • buildbyflying, on 02/08/2008, -0/+54avidemux is not comparable to Premiere. It's not even comparable to Imovie... but why didn't they mention cinelerra? Kino?
  • ultimatetec, on 02/08/2008, -2/+53Don't forget about VLC from www.videolan.org Open Source FTW!
  • scallon, on 02/08/2008, -2/+50I dont think i have ever met a person who really liked aim. There are so many clutter free alternatives.
  • philthetechie, on 02/08/2008, -11/+53I think you meant "gems" not "jems"... Epic fail considering you're the first post.
  • fac3less, on 02/08/2008, -6/+41Skip the blog post & just go straight to osalt: http://www.osalt.com/
    It's a whole lot more thorough and offers thousands of alternatives.

    Open Source for the win :)
  • fate3, on 02/08/2008, -2/+37because people stopped using it in 1998
  • inactive, on 02/08/2008, -7/+37GIMP is NOT an alternative to Photoshop. GIMP is outright the thirds layer of hell.
  • booticon, on 02/08/2008, -2/+31I don't know, I'm sure GIMP has all the same functionality, but when I've used it in the past it feels like I'm instead trying to manipulate the retarded step-brother of Photoshop. That also happens to be a burn victim.
  • plainOldFool, on 02/08/2008, -1/+30I agree withTippis. I have yet to hear complaints regarding PS's 'bloat'. I've used PS from 4.0 up to CS2. I've not used CS3, so I cannot comment on it efficiency though. However the article is correct when it comments on how PS is cost preventative. $150 per update is crazy. That's why I am usually an 'everyother version' updater for my personal licence. GIMP's best feature is that it is free. However, I hear more complaints regarding its usability than Photoshop. I've really tried hard to like GIMP. I think it's okay and I recommend it constantly to people with no photoshop experience. However, if you've used PS with success, GIMP will be annoying. I am interested in GIMPShop and Pixle, though. Anyone use these? I don't believe either are 100% free, but they do look like pretty good and low cost PS replacements.
  • gharding, on 02/08/2008, -0/+28What the *****? Authorize.net to OpenSSL? Setting up a self-signed SSL cert on my box still doesn't give me a payment gateway.
  • Error601, on 02/08/2008, -6/+32A lot of the alleged alternatives could only be considered an effective alternative if you never used either for any real work.
  • yohan, on 02/08/2008, -5/+30aMSN is NOT better than MSN Messenger. Not on this Earth.
  • MrTonic, on 02/08/2008, -9/+34Good list that everyone should check out. Those might not be better that their proprietary counter parts, but if one can do 95% of the stuff wants to do with these programs, is the full price of the proprietary software worth of that 5%? Other times, Open Source can be so much better than anything in the markets, like Firefox.
  • Tippis, on 02/08/2008, -9/+33They do? Never heard that one, actually...
  • missingnoh4x, on 02/08/2008, -2/+26Did they just call it "Ubuntu OS"?
  • inactive, on 02/08/2008, -2/+25As soon as I found out about syntax highlighting in my younger days, I hated Notepad. Although, if the guy was going to suggest a Windows-only text editor, I think Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm ) is a much better choice, especially if he wanted to stick to open source applications. From the ConTEXT FAQ:

    Can I get ConTEXT source files?
    This is a freeware project, not OpenSource.
  • redwallhp, on 02/08/2008, -4/+26I will never use any "alternative" to Photoshop.
  • plainOldFool, on 02/08/2008, -9/+30My wife's new laptop came with Vista and I was getting ready to roll it back to XP. But I have to be 100% honest with you. I really isn't that bad. I'd never install it on my laptop though.
  • aflusche, on 02/08/2008, -25/+46This is a great article! Good comparison of open source alternatives to their expensive counterparts.
  • InuX, on 02/08/2008, -1/+22I don't hate software. I just choose not to use it.
  • warispeace21, on 02/08/2008, -4/+24QuickTime Alternative anyone? I hate using QuickTime.
    http://www.codecguide.com/about_qt.htm
  • joelav22, on 02/08/2008, -4/+24Pidgin is pretty badass. They forgot imgburn and daemon tools
  • zplot, on 02/08/2008, -3/+23"Hate" might be exaggerated for some of these apps, but it's good to know about all the open-source alternatives out there. Too many common applications are priced beyond a reasonable range for personal use. And even those who know how to pirate software and don't have ethical issues with piracy should be a bit reluctant at times when commercial software gets bloated.

    Especially for personal use, most people require less than 10% of the features in popular software products like Msft Office. Finding a simpler and cleaner alternative makes one's computer more healthy.
  • 11oops, on 02/08/2008, -2/+22Bingo- Seems like they came up with the magic number of '50' prior to beginning their list, then came up with their own bloat to make it. Microsoft Office IS Excel, Powerpoint, Word, Access, etc. Why list each separately, then repeat as a whole?

    And, for the record, if an open source program doesn't run on Windows, then it isn't a viable alternative, now is it?
  • manicallday, on 02/08/2008, -0/+19No amarok, lyx or abiword?
  • posure, on 02/08/2008, -4/+22Well, to be fair, most of the software on this list isn't comparable - like pretty much all of the office software isn't even close. Plus, where is VLC on this list? I use VLC more than any other open source programs.
  • TheG2, on 02/08/2008, -2/+20Photoshop isn't bloated, if anything it runs faster than previous versions. And there are plenty of new features to make it worthwhile. GIMP isn't a replacement for Photoshop and probably never will be.
  • inactive, on 02/08/2008, -2/+18I don't use MS Office but I don't hate it, it's the best software package that MS has in the market right now.
  • DoubtingThomas, on 02/08/2008, -2/+18I will gladly pay the $650 to avoid some developer's 5th grade science project version of a UI.

    Why the ***** do I have to open the layers palette EVERY time I start GIMP? Layers are fundamental to any good graphics design, it should be there as soon as I start. Don't get me start on the "app with 1,000 windows" crap toss that is GIMP.
  • subliminalurge, on 02/08/2008, -0/+15Why would you run IE for 20 minutes?

    The only acceptable use for IE is downloading Firefox, which takes 2 or 3 minutes, tops.
  • brstilson, on 02/08/2008, -1/+15This list is slightly inflated. They list each component of Microsoft Office and Open Office even though all of it is already covered in the first few entries.
  • sleepwalkers, on 02/08/2008, -0/+14It's an alright list, but it makes me wonder how much time they really spent on the list when they refer to "Office 2008 for Mac" as "Mactopia." Mactopia is what Microsoft calls their Mac part of their website.
  • dcd722, on 02/08/2008, -3/+16Like they say every year in the primaries?
  • crash331, on 02/08/2008, -2/+15Agreed, as a Photographer with a dual boot laptop, I ALWAYS find myself saying "***** it" and going back to windows when I need to do editing, even with Gimpshop installed.

    Photoshop FTW.
  • didiman, on 02/08/2008, -2/+15It was good until I saw Matlab on the list. Yes, it's expensive, but there is no alternative.
  • BigBallistix, on 02/08/2008, -1/+13I'm sorry, but there just isn't a functional alternative to AutoCAD at the moment. I've tried Archimedes and it simply hasn't got as many tools. I've tried others too and they all fail.
  • Haohmaru, on 02/08/2008, -2/+14You hear alot of general whining about the new interface and compatibility with old programs, but remember when OSX came out? It wasn't even compatible with the old hardware, never mind most apps. But of course, even when Apple craps, people view it as gold.
  • roosterjm2k2, on 02/08/2008, -2/+14For the difference between photoshop and GIMP .. yeah, its worth it.
  • chongli, on 02/08/2008, -0/+12Did you RTFA?
    20. TruSpace to Blender: Caligari offers a range of products that enable designers and artists to produce 3D images - at a hefty price. Blender, on the other hand, provides one tool that provides full multiresolution sculpting capabilities with 2D bitmap/3D procedural brushes (Paint, Smooth, Pinch, Inflate, Grab) supporting symmetry. And, that’s just the beginning of Blender’s capabilities. This open source software is free to download and use.
  • inactive, on 02/08/2008, -1/+12even though i use openoffice, its hideously slow. java i guess
  • inactive, on 02/08/2008, -0/+11Thank you for replying on this. After reading that recommendation... I thought to myself... boy... I better go back and check some of his other recommendations. Another area of concern... Dreamweaver to NVU. That's like saying Space Shuttle to Paper Airplane. NVU is no where close to Dreamweaver... although its future could be more promising.
  • Dipster, on 02/08/2008, -0/+11If we were talking about just the individual applications that make up the Microsoft Office suite, I'd be inclined to say, yes, there are a lot of open source alternatives. But if we're talking about the suite as a whole, and how you can get everything to integrate vis a vis Dashboard and such, you can't do it that easily in anything else, because these other "suites" are just a bunch of disparate applications all lumped together to form a single package.
  • harlowsmonkeys, on 02/08/2008, -1/+12"Authorize.net to OpenSSL"???? WTF??? Those are orthogonal.

  • bcextreme, on 02/08/2008, -6/+17I dont know why so many peole hate Vista. In my experience with the exeption of one compiler (Microfocus) every other program has been installed correctly and no problems at all. By the way guys check out the new speech recognition software from vista its very cool! (Obviously not perfect but improving)
  • 11oops, on 02/08/2008, -1/+12True, unfortunately some companies have yet to get the memo.
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