Public Software alternatives to Proprietary Software
|
Application area
|
Proprietary
|
Free software*
|
Download
|
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows | Ubuntu GNU-Linux | http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download |
| Word Processor | Microsoft Office - Word | OpenOffice.org - Writer | http://download.openoffice.org/index.html |
| Spread Sheet | Microsoft Office – Excel | OpenOffice.org - Calc | http://download.openoffice.org/index.html |
| Presentation | Microsoft Office – Powerpoint | OpenOffice.org - Impress | http://download.openoffice.org/index.html |
| Email client | Microsoft Outlook | Mozilla Thunderbird | http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ |
| Internet Browser | Microsoft Internet Explorer | Mozilla Firefox | http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ |
| Archiving | Win-zip | 7-zip, Peapod | http://www.7-zip.org/download.html |
| Media | Windows Media Player | VLC Player, MPlayer | http://www.videolan.org/ |
| Graphics | Adobe Photoshop | GIMP | http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ |
| Adobe Acrobat | PDF-edit | http://pdfedit.petricek.net/en/download.html |
Public Software- Educational Tools
Public Software- Tools for Higher Education
* There are alternatives as well to the products suggested here. for e.g. there are other GNU/Linux distributions as well - Debian, Fedora, Mandrake etc
Multinational vendors often suggest that private software is of 'good quality' and has 'support' and training facilities, whereas free software is of poor quality, is unreliable and has no training or support facilities. However this generalisation is unfounded and simply based on the fact that most people have not used or been exposed to available alternatives. The majority of software purchased in India (and elsewhere) is the operating system of the computer coupled with an office automation package. In this respect, free software is as good as proprietary software. The Governments of many countries have taken specific policy decision to go for Open Office and GNU/Linux. In India, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and many other states have taken clear policy decision to opt for free softwares like Open Office and GNU/Linux. The table above gives some of these options