I might be a Linux user, but that doesn't mean that I don't keep stuff on hand for Windows. Since I love not having to pay for the software I use, it's pretty obvious that I would come up with a collection of free software. As a matter of fact, I maintain a software catalog for my own personal use. As with any site that supports the open source community, I am somewhat obligated to give a list of must have applications for Windows. Let's get the ball rolling.

First off, I'll cover standard desktop applications. Everybody knows that OpenOffice.org is a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office except for the fact that it's standards compliant. But what about Quicken users? Grisbi is available as an open source and free alternative to using Quicken. A feature rich application with the capability to import and export Quicken files with similar functionality sounds like a viable alternative to me. It's a rather stable and functional financial tracking program. Why not give it a try even if you're not already a Quicken user? Of course, also in the desktop applications, I have to include the open source 7-Zip. It handles nearly every type of archive from .7z to .zip, even .tar.gz/.tar.bz, .rar, and .iso files. It has pretty much all of the features that WinZip pro has, such as split archives and password protection, except it has much more to offer and is free.

For graphics, there's always the trusty Gimp. The GNU Image Manipulation Program. Sometimes called "the poor man's Photoshop", The Gimp is one of the more popular open source applications available that has been ported to Windows, although the Gimp project itself does not support the Windows port. There is also Cornice, a photo manager, much like Microsoft Office Photo Manager or Picasa (another really great photo manager)

Now for everybody's favorite section... the Internet applications. So if a Windows user has found Firefox and Thunderbird for their web browsing and email client, what about Pidgin, the successor to the GAIM all-in-one instant messenger? Personally, I have seen way too many computers with several messenger programs installed... AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, IRC, etc. Why not consolidate all of these IM clients into one? Speaking of IRC, there's also XChat2, which has been compiled by a third part for Windows. XChat2 is somewhat the standard IRC client for Linux users. Providing several features, even some that are not included in commercial programs like mIRC, XChat2 is my top choice for IRC chat.

For multimedia buffs, there's a section in my toolbox for you too. MusikCube is a music library with similar functionality to iTunes, Amarok, Exaile, Banshee, and even Winamp. On top of good functionality, it's also light weight. Weighing in at about 2.5MB, it's quite possibly the smallest music library program out there, which using SQLite helps keep your library database in order. If you want something that might be a little easier on the eyes or familiar, perhaps Winamp is for you, which might not be open source, but it is free. It also supports video files and internet video streams. Want to play nearly every media format known to man? Try VLC. This open source video program, which also supports pretty much all sound formats as well, has been leading the race for a while now with the possible exception of Mplayer for Linux, which both offer similar functionality. Then there's the open source sound recorder and editor, Audacity. A rather light weight program for simple edits to sound files or sample looping, Audacity gets installed on nearly every computer I have. Also on this list, although I don't really use it much myself, is Media Player Classic. This is an implementation of excellent file format support for multimedia purposes, all put into a graphical interface that is in the style of the earlier Windows Media Player 6. This might be a choice for people that like the simple interface with excellent file support.

Now, for the end of this issue, are the utilities and other applications. Starting this section out is the collection of some really slick screensavers called... well... Really Slick Screensavers. The screensavers in this pack are OpenGL based and very pleasing to look at. My personal favorite from the pack is Euphoria. For CD and DVD creation, there's always InfraRecord. It does not support the creation of video DVDs, but for pretty much any other burning need, it has you covered. If you've ever made something in your office program or found something on the web that you wanted to create a PDF file from, PDFCreator is the program for the job. It acts as a printer driver that is added to your printer list, which lets you save anything printable as a PDF quickly and easily with practically no pain involved. It also has a lot of options that you can tweak to get different results from your PDF print. Considering I'm talking about Windows here, I have to include the security applications I have on hand. To start this one off, I make sure to have the ClamWin anti-virus available. It can take a little more time than some other anti-virus applications, but it definitely does the job. There is also a portable version from portableapps.com that can be installed to a USB flash drive, memory card, external hard drive, or even a CD, but I wouldn't recommend using a CD because the virus definition list still needs to be updated. Two programs that are not open source, but are free, the AVG free anti-virus is among my favorites because it's faster than most, uses less resources, and is free. I won't say that it's the best virus protection out there, but it's definitely in the top 5. AVG Free and ClamWin do not, however, take care of adware, spyware, or malware. For that, we have Spybot: Search and Destroy. With on demand scanning and real-time monitoring, this can be one of the most valuable tools for a Windows computer. It also has a rather small resource footprint, leaving more of your processor and RAM available so you can play the open source games I posted about in the last issue.

So, if you have read my article about who should use Linux, and found that Windows is right for you, or you just keep it for compatibility purposes, or if you just want to have software available to give to other people, start downloading these applications and have your own open source application catalog. I maintain mine on a USB flash drive, which is very handy to keep on hand. A lot of these are also available from the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society's Open Source Software for Windows CD, which is an amazing collection of open source software and tools in itself, but I don't have much need for all of the applications on that CD, so I selectively keep updated versions of the programs I do want and use.

This wasn't a complete list of every application that I keep on hand, but these are the most generalized and more popular applications. The biggest part of my catalog is for video processing, which most people don't do that as much as I do, so I left those out. But my most frequently used programs in that area are Gordian Knot, Auto Gordian Knot (AutoGK), and Avidemux.

LINKS:
OpenOffice.org: http://www.openoffice.org/
Grisbi: http://www.grisbi.org/
7-Zip: http://www.7-zip.org/
Gimp: http://gimp-win.sf.net/
Cornice: http://wxglade.sourceforge.net/extra/cornice.html/
Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/
Firefox and Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.com/
Pidgin: http://www.pidgin.im/
XChat2: http://www.silverex.org/
MusikCube: http://www.musikcube.com/
Winamp: http://www.winamp.com/
VLC: http://www.videolan.org/
MPlayer: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/
Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Media Player Classic: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
Really Slick Screensavers: http://www.reallyslick.com/
InfraRecorder: http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
PDFCreator: http://www.pdfforge.org/
ClamWin Anti-virus: http://www.clamwin.com/
Portable Apps: http://portableapps.com/
AVG Free: http://free.avg.com/
Spybot: Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/
Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society's OSSWIN CD: http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/
Gordian Knot: http://gordianknot.sourceforge.net/
AutoGK: http://www.autogk.me.uk/
Avidemux: http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/