Get to get great software for free
Amateur programmers are now giving away some of the world's best software. Rhodri Marsden tests the essential 'open-source' downloads - you'll never pay for the big brands again
OPENOFFICE.ORG
WHAT DOES IT DO?
As the name suggests, it's a suite of office software that includes a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation software (Impress) and a database program (Base), along with other tools.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
One of its aims was to reduce the market share of Microsoft Office; Microsoft still has 95 per cent of the market, but OpenOffice.org reports over 60 million downloads to date. Microsoft Office Professional costs around £370, while the Appleworks suite currently sells for £65.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Ooo experience is so similar to using Word and Excel that you'll make the switch seamlessly and barely notice the difference - and you can open all your old documents. It's also currently free of the viruses that blighted previous versions of Microsoft Office.
DRAWBACKS
It feels slightly slow and sluggish compared to its paid-for equivalents. There's currently no grammar checker. The Macintosh version also requires you to install an additional software package, X11, to get it up and running.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Can be downloaded from download.openoffice.org. Available in various languages and for various platforms, including Windows 2000, NT & XP and Linux. A new version for Mac, neooffice (neooffice.org), has recently been added. Updates and bug-fixes are released every three months.
GIMP
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It originally stood for Graphics Image Manipulation Program, which describes what it does fairly accurately. Photos and other image files can be edited using the industry-standard methods of working on images in different layers. It can also save files into different formats - good for turning, say a large ".tif" image into a compressed ".jpg" file.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
Adobe Photoshop, which costs around £480, is undoubtedly the market leader. A slew of cheap shareware tools can also perform image-editing - rotating, resizing and so on - to varying degrees.
HIGHLIGHTS
It's a sophisticated and powerful tool that would be impressive even with a price tag; once you've got the hang of it, it's capable of sophisticated graphics work, and particularly adept at handling animations.
DRAWBACKS
The interface isn't particularly intuitive, which doesn't help the learning curve, and most people's editing needs will be taken care of by more user-friendly software. Those used to Adobe software will miss the absence of Photoshop plug-ins and various colour-correction tools.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Can be downloaded at gimp.org/downloads. Versions are available for Windows 98 and later, and for Mac OS X and Linux. It started life as an undergraduate term project at the University of California in the mid-1990s.
AVG
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It comprises two programs - Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware - which help protect against attacks from viruses and other "malware" on the internet. As per most anti-virus software, it can scan your system periodically, check incoming and outgoing e-mail for viruses and repair certain damaged files.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
AVG also makes pay-for software, so in effect it is undercutting itself with AVG Free. Still, this version has spearheaded the success of the company - there are reportedly over 40 million users of the AVG suite. McAfee (£32) and Norton (£45) are the other major players in the sector, but neither of these offers a free option.
HIGHLIGHTS
In a recent issue of Computer Shopper, AVG Free was rated higher than either of the McAfee or Norton products - indeed, it was described as "roundly thrashing" them. It's particularly adept at detecting spyware, and is compatible with the new Windows Vista operating system.
DRAWBACKS
Technical support isn't offered unless you fork out for the paid-for versions. AVG encourages you to upgrade to its commercial versions for high-speed updates and real-time monitoring of your system. But many see the free version as rock-solid and dependable enough for their needs.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available to download from free.grisoft.com for users of Windows or Linux systems. It's the only non open-source selection in this round-up; commerical use is banned by the terms and conditions, so it's for personal use only.
VIDEOLAN
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It's a media player that can deal with virtually all audio and video file formats that you could throw at it - and can apply filters so you can create your own special effects.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
WinAmp, RealPlayer and QuickTime all offer free versions, but you have to fork out between £10 and £20 for the professional versions with extra features. And even if you own these programs, you often have to turn to VLC to play certain awkward file formats.
HIGHLIGHTS
When people stream video they use all kinds of compression tools, and VLC supports a huge number of these. It's a relief to know that there's something out there that will play everything, and can even deal with damaged files that others give up on.
DRAWBACKS
It's not the tidiest of programs, and it lacks the ability to reliably save and export files in different formats, but as a viewing tool it's great.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available at www.videolan.org for every operating system. Created by students in Paris, it has been developed under open source since 2001.
AUDACITY
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It's a digital audio editor. On the simplest level it allows you to edit out unwanted sections of audio files and resave them into new formats such as mp3, but it's also capable of "denoising" (i.e. taking out the hiss), adding effects and recording and playing several tracks at once.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
Its nearest competitor for Windows used to be the popular Cool Edit; this was bought by Adobe in 2004, and now, under the name Audition, retails for a cool £260. Sony's Soundforge occupies a similar place in the market, and its "light" version (Sound Forge Audio Studio) sells for about £35.
HIGHLIGHTS
With an add-on module called VST Enabler - also free - Audacity can use hundreds of plug-ins in Steinberg's VST format, which allow you to apply various effects to the audio files.
DRAWBACKS
It doesn't allow you to record and playback Midi tracks as you would with programs such as the Cubase or Logic software families, so its usefulness as a multitrack music-making tool is slightly limited - but it is, neverthless, a handy musical notepad.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available from sourceforge.net/ projects/audacity/ for many different operating systems. This one was created by Dominic Mazzoni, who now works with Google.
INKSCAPE
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It's a vector graphics editor. Whereas bitmap graphic editors such as Photoshop are primarily used for image processing and retouching, vector graphics editors are more suited to graphic design, creating logos, images, diagrams and illustrations.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
The two main players are currently Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw, and neither is particularly cheap. Illustrator is the industry standard at £430, CorelDraw slightly less at £290. Both have steeper learning curves and larger feature sets than Inkscape.
HIGHLIGHTS
One priority of the Inkscape project has been developing an intuitive interface that's easily learnable and consistent across the program. Newcomers to vector graphics may find Inkscape a good introduction to the world of bezier curves and gaussian blurs.
DRAWBACKS
The basic software package doesn't include support for some industry standard file formats such as Adobe Illustrator and PDF; however, add-on extensions have been developed to allow this.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available from www.inkscape.org for Mac, Windows and Linux.
continued in next post....
Amateur programmers are now giving away some of the world's best software. Rhodri Marsden tests the essential 'open-source' downloads - you'll never pay for the big brands again
OPENOFFICE.ORG
WHAT DOES IT DO?
As the name suggests, it's a suite of office software that includes a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation software (Impress) and a database program (Base), along with other tools.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
One of its aims was to reduce the market share of Microsoft Office; Microsoft still has 95 per cent of the market, but OpenOffice.org reports over 60 million downloads to date. Microsoft Office Professional costs around £370, while the Appleworks suite currently sells for £65.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Ooo experience is so similar to using Word and Excel that you'll make the switch seamlessly and barely notice the difference - and you can open all your old documents. It's also currently free of the viruses that blighted previous versions of Microsoft Office.
DRAWBACKS
It feels slightly slow and sluggish compared to its paid-for equivalents. There's currently no grammar checker. The Macintosh version also requires you to install an additional software package, X11, to get it up and running.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Can be downloaded from download.openoffice.org. Available in various languages and for various platforms, including Windows 2000, NT & XP and Linux. A new version for Mac, neooffice (neooffice.org), has recently been added. Updates and bug-fixes are released every three months.
GIMP
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It originally stood for Graphics Image Manipulation Program, which describes what it does fairly accurately. Photos and other image files can be edited using the industry-standard methods of working on images in different layers. It can also save files into different formats - good for turning, say a large ".tif" image into a compressed ".jpg" file.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
Adobe Photoshop, which costs around £480, is undoubtedly the market leader. A slew of cheap shareware tools can also perform image-editing - rotating, resizing and so on - to varying degrees.
HIGHLIGHTS
It's a sophisticated and powerful tool that would be impressive even with a price tag; once you've got the hang of it, it's capable of sophisticated graphics work, and particularly adept at handling animations.
DRAWBACKS
The interface isn't particularly intuitive, which doesn't help the learning curve, and most people's editing needs will be taken care of by more user-friendly software. Those used to Adobe software will miss the absence of Photoshop plug-ins and various colour-correction tools.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Can be downloaded at gimp.org/downloads. Versions are available for Windows 98 and later, and for Mac OS X and Linux. It started life as an undergraduate term project at the University of California in the mid-1990s.
AVG
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It comprises two programs - Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware - which help protect against attacks from viruses and other "malware" on the internet. As per most anti-virus software, it can scan your system periodically, check incoming and outgoing e-mail for viruses and repair certain damaged files.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
AVG also makes pay-for software, so in effect it is undercutting itself with AVG Free. Still, this version has spearheaded the success of the company - there are reportedly over 40 million users of the AVG suite. McAfee (£32) and Norton (£45) are the other major players in the sector, but neither of these offers a free option.
HIGHLIGHTS
In a recent issue of Computer Shopper, AVG Free was rated higher than either of the McAfee or Norton products - indeed, it was described as "roundly thrashing" them. It's particularly adept at detecting spyware, and is compatible with the new Windows Vista operating system.
DRAWBACKS
Technical support isn't offered unless you fork out for the paid-for versions. AVG encourages you to upgrade to its commercial versions for high-speed updates and real-time monitoring of your system. But many see the free version as rock-solid and dependable enough for their needs.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available to download from free.grisoft.com for users of Windows or Linux systems. It's the only non open-source selection in this round-up; commerical use is banned by the terms and conditions, so it's for personal use only.
VIDEOLAN
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It's a media player that can deal with virtually all audio and video file formats that you could throw at it - and can apply filters so you can create your own special effects.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
WinAmp, RealPlayer and QuickTime all offer free versions, but you have to fork out between £10 and £20 for the professional versions with extra features. And even if you own these programs, you often have to turn to VLC to play certain awkward file formats.
HIGHLIGHTS
When people stream video they use all kinds of compression tools, and VLC supports a huge number of these. It's a relief to know that there's something out there that will play everything, and can even deal with damaged files that others give up on.
DRAWBACKS
It's not the tidiest of programs, and it lacks the ability to reliably save and export files in different formats, but as a viewing tool it's great.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available at www.videolan.org for every operating system. Created by students in Paris, it has been developed under open source since 2001.
AUDACITY
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It's a digital audio editor. On the simplest level it allows you to edit out unwanted sections of audio files and resave them into new formats such as mp3, but it's also capable of "denoising" (i.e. taking out the hiss), adding effects and recording and playing several tracks at once.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
Its nearest competitor for Windows used to be the popular Cool Edit; this was bought by Adobe in 2004, and now, under the name Audition, retails for a cool £260. Sony's Soundforge occupies a similar place in the market, and its "light" version (Sound Forge Audio Studio) sells for about £35.
HIGHLIGHTS
With an add-on module called VST Enabler - also free - Audacity can use hundreds of plug-ins in Steinberg's VST format, which allow you to apply various effects to the audio files.
DRAWBACKS
It doesn't allow you to record and playback Midi tracks as you would with programs such as the Cubase or Logic software families, so its usefulness as a multitrack music-making tool is slightly limited - but it is, neverthless, a handy musical notepad.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available from sourceforge.net/ projects/audacity/ for many different operating systems. This one was created by Dominic Mazzoni, who now works with Google.
INKSCAPE
WHAT DOES IT DO?
It's a vector graphics editor. Whereas bitmap graphic editors such as Photoshop are primarily used for image processing and retouching, vector graphics editors are more suited to graphic design, creating logos, images, diagrams and illustrations.
WHAT IS IT UNDERCUTTING?
The two main players are currently Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw, and neither is particularly cheap. Illustrator is the industry standard at £430, CorelDraw slightly less at £290. Both have steeper learning curves and larger feature sets than Inkscape.
HIGHLIGHTS
One priority of the Inkscape project has been developing an intuitive interface that's easily learnable and consistent across the program. Newcomers to vector graphics may find Inkscape a good introduction to the world of bezier curves and gaussian blurs.
DRAWBACKS
The basic software package doesn't include support for some industry standard file formats such as Adobe Illustrator and PDF; however, add-on extensions have been developed to allow this.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Available from www.inkscape.org for Mac, Windows and Linux.
continued in next post....
