[lotuseclat79]

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives.

Note: Read the comments for more info.

-- Tom

[Blackmirror]

Thank you a handy link there

[middigit]

nice link cheers

[caraewilton]

Interesting options, although some of them are not pure open source applications. Some of the suggestions are also for the more advanced user as they don't all come with easy to install options.

[middigit]

There is a debate about how certain companies use the "open source" tag - open source usually mean free to public use and open to development in my opinion, a few of those options listed are examples of where the company is selling the product yes. They should make a decision as to whether it's open source or commercial software and market it as such not mislead potential users.

[RootbeaR]

Originally Posted by middigit

There is a debate about how certain companies use the "open source" tag - open source usually mean free to public use and open to development in my opinion, a few of those options listed are examples of where the company is selling the product yes. They should make a decision as to whether it's open source or commercial software and market it as such not mislead potential users.

Maybe they/you should read the definition. It doesn't leave much room for debate.
"Open source is a set of principles and practices on how to write software, the most important of which is that the source code is openly available."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
Where does it say anything about free? Opinions on definitions don't count. May as well do away with the dictionary. We'll just go by opinions on what it means and hopefully your opinion is the same as mine, so we understand one another.

"Some of the suggestions are also for the more advanced user as they don't all come with easy to install options. "

From article linked already in this thread:
"Why deal with it when Ubuntu has become so easy to use that even the most computer illiterate can jump into this operating system with very little time spent on a learning curve?"

PCLinuxOS is even easier, in my opinion, than Ubuntu. (I tried Ubuntu first)

Open package manager, enter root password, search "program name", mark for installation, mark all dependencies, apply. My software is installed.

How do you install programs? Your first step is to find it isn't it? Where is it?
Or do you mean it is hard to install things in MS?

Just another reason to switch.

Some one posts a useful link to save people some money, or to show that it really is easy to replace MS with Linux, MSers' feel threatened. The more you pay for it, the more loyal you will be. (To a point)

Linux is free, so it must be worthless
The great Canadian who invented insulin sold the rights for a dollar(or a penny and the light bulb was a dollar), insulin must be useless. Light bulbs too!

You provide excellent links Tom, please keep it up.

[Stoner]

Until a decent voice recognition program runs on Linux, Linux is not useful to me
If you know of one, RootbeaR, please point it out.

[RootbeaR]

Originally Posted by Stoner

Until a decent voice recognition program runs on Linux, Linux is not useful to me
If you know of one, RootbeaR, please point it out.

Linux can be very useful to you.
Just do what thousands of others do.
Dual boot.
Or do what thousands of others do.
LiveCD for internet.

This makes MS very useful because you can use it "unplugged." No need to update, scan, or diddlysquat. My XP runs flawlessly this way. Can't remember the last time I updated and yet I am very safe online. I didn't purchase acronis, nor another harddrive, and I have much more time now.

Then use Linux for the internet. Then for more and more as you come to realize just how well it handles things, such as capturing video.

Couple of pics to show you how easy everything is.

Edit: The liveCd can be used to fix your mbr as well, after clicking it, it will ask you which drive/partition you wish to restore the mbr from.

[Stoner]

Originally Posted by RootbeaR

Linux can be very useful to you.
Just do what thousands of others do.
Dual boot.
Or do what thousands of others do.
LiveCD for internet.

This makes MS very useful because you can use it "unplugged." No need to update, scan, or diddlysquat. My XP runs flawlessly this way. Can't remember the last time I updated and yet I am very safe online. I didn't purchase acronis, nor another harddrive, and I have much more time now.

Then use Linux for the internet. Then for more and more as you come to realize just how well it handles things, such as capturing video.

Couple of pics to show you how easy everything is.

Edit: The liveCd can be used to fix your mbr as well, after clicking it, it will ask you which drive/partition you wish to restore the mbr from.

Linux can be very useful to you.
Just do what thousands of others do.
Dual boot.

That would be too inconvenient, having to boot to Windows to write a lengthy reply then passed under Linux which would have to be rebooted..
I know of no other person using voice recognition doing that.

Or do what thousands of others do.
LiveCD for internet.

Same issue concerning voice recognition.
I do follow Slax, though, out of curiosity.
It was useful several times in the distant past when I had hardware and software conflicts back in my 98se days and needed to go online to find a solution.
Good for emergencies.
Slax 6 is supposed to be out soon.

This makes MS very useful because you can use it "unplugged." No need to update, scan, or diddlysquat. My XP runs flawlessly this way. Can't remember the last time I updated and yet I am very safe online. I didn't purchase acronis, nor another harddrive, and I have much more time now.

That's nice for you, but really doesn't address my situation with voice recognition.
The last ( and only, as I remember) vr that ran on Linux was Via Voice 8. A port from Windows........and it didn't run well under Windows. It was commercial, got bad reviews in the Linux version so I never tried it.

I didn't purchase acronis, nor another harddrive, and I have much more time now.

BTW....there is a free version of Acronis that comes with DiskWizard for Maxtor/Seagate hard drive owners.

Edit: The liveCd can be used to fix your mbr as well, after clicking it, it will ask you which drive/partition you wish to restore the mbr from.

Because I don't dual boot my XP or win2k machines, I don't need to repair a mbr that I might screw up.
Yes, I have dual booted in the distant past with 98se and Mandrake and Redhat......
fdisk /mbr was my friend


Seriously, if you see a decent vr for Linux, please drop me a line on it.
I would give it a try.


Jack

[RootbeaR]

Where there is a will there is a way. VMWare or whatever they call it.
I have never tried it, nor want to.

Edit: I remember a year ago everyone scrambling for 98 boot discs to boot Vista, not from people dual booting either.
The command line in Vista wasn't working.

[JohnWill]

If you don't want to buy VMWARE, try http://www.virtualbox.org/

Works with Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac. etc.

[Stoner]

Originally Posted by RootbeaR

..............


Edit: I remember a year ago everyone scrambling for 98 boot discs to boot Vista, not from people dual booting either.
The command line in Vista wasn't working.

I didn't know a 9x boot disk could read a NTFS file system.

[Stoner]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

If you don't want to buy VMWARE, try http://www.virtualbox.org/

Works with Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac. etc.

Too complicated for me ............................
I just want to use my computer

XP........it just works ..................

[ferrija1]

I personally don't care what I'm using and whether it's open source or not, I just want to get something done, but that said, it's looks better than the usual "Top" applications list.

[buf]

Yes Tom, a great listing. Thanks for passing it on for everyone to make use of according to their needs/desires.