92 Open Source Apps That Replace Everyday Software: Page 4

Games

45. 0 A.D. Replaces: Microsoft Age of Empires

Now in its eighth alpha release, 0 A.D. is a real-time civilization-building strategy game that plays a lot like Age of Empires. It offers excellent graphics, six different civilizations to play, and several multiplayer modes. Operating System: Linux, Windows, OS X

46. Alien Arena Replaces: Quake, Unreal Tournament

This self-described "furious frag fest" is a first-person shooter in the style of Quake III and Unreal Tournament. Boasting "one of the most active, loyal and committed communities of any free game in existence," Alien Arena has a large user base that makes it easy to find online competitors any time of day. Operating System: Linux, Windows, OS X

47. FlightGear Replaces: Microsoft Flight Simulator X

FlightGear describes itself as "sophisticated, professional, open source." It includes realistic graphics for more than 20,000 real world airports, 3 DVDs worth of accurate world scenery, several aircraft options and the ability to model your own aircraft. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, others

48. FreeCiv Replaces: Civilization

Like many games in this genre, FreeCiv challenges players to manage a civilization from the Stone Age through the Space Age. The graphics and game play are fairly similar to Civilization I and II, but not as advanced as the more recent Civilization games. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

49. Frets on Fire Replaces: Guitar Hero

Very similar to Guitar Hero, Frets on Fire lets you use your keyboard or a guitar controller to play along with tracks. This project has a huge community of users who have composed songs for the game, or you can import Guitar Hero tracks or your own songs. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

50. Secret Maryo Chronicles Replaces: Mario Bros. Games

If you remember the old 2D Mario Bros. games fondly, you'll probably enjoy Secret Maryo Chronicles. It offers great old-school jump and run gameplay with plenty of levels. Operating System: Windows, Linux

51. StepMania Replaces: Dance Dance Revolution

This fun rhythm game works with your keyboards or dance pads (if you have them). You'll need to download songs separately from the game, but the site offers plenty of free songs. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

Gateway Security Appliances

52. Endian Firewall Community Replaces: Check Point Security Gateways, McAfee Total Protection, SonicWall Appliances, others

With the Endian Community version, you can create your own network security appliance using an older PC. It offers firewall, antivirus, spam blocking, content filtering, a VPN and other security capabilities in a single package. Pre-configured hardware appliances and commercially supported software appliances are also available at the site. Operating System: Linux

53. Untangle Replaces: Check Point Security Gateways, McAfee Total Protection, SonicWall Appliances, others

Much like Endian, Untangle offers an integrated security appliance that you can deploy on your own hardware, or you can purchase a pre-configured hardware appliance from the company. Untangle also has a network of third-party partners who offer Untangle-based products and services. Operating System: Windows, Linux

Graphics/Drawing

54. Dia Replaces: Visio

"Roughly inspired by Visio," Dia is perfect for creating org charts, network diagrams, flowcharts, and other simple diagrams. It saves XML files, or it can export to EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF and PNG formats. Operating System: Windows, Linux/Unix

55. Gimp Replaces: Photoshop

There's no need to spend hundreds of dollars on Photoshop when Gimp offers the same features for free. It includes a full range of features, from photo re-touching capabilities for amateur photographers to advanced layers and photo manipulation tools for professional graphic designers. For the Windows version, see Gimp-win. Operating System: Windows, Linux

56. Inkscape Replaces: Illustrator, CorelDraw

Much like Illustrator and CorelDraw, Inkscape allows you to create, edit and save vector graphics. It provides a whole host of advanced features in a streamlined, intuitive interface. The website also offers lots of support and documentation, as well as a library of free clip art you can use in your creations. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

Instant Messaging

57. Adium Replaces:AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger

Very similar to Pidgin (see below), this Mac-only software allows users to connect to multiple networks at once, including AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and others. It offers a tabbed interface, and it integrates with your Address Book. Operating System: OS X

58. aMSN Replaces:Windows Live Messenger

Designed to replace MSN Messenger (now known as Windows Live Messenger), aMSN is a skinnable client that works with Microsoft's IM network only. Noteworthy features include offline messaging, voice clips, custom emoticons, group support, multi-language support, webcam support, tabbed windows, display pictures and more. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

59. Pidgin Replaces:AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger

This very popular open source IM clients connects with up to 16 different chat networks simultaneously. It supports file transfers, away messages, buddy icons, custom emoticons and typing notifications, and it has a large library of plug-ins that extend its capabilities further. Operating System: Windows, Linux/Unix

Office Productivity

60. AbiWord Replaces: Microsoft Word

Similar to older versions of Word, AbiWord reads and writes most word processing document formats, including OpenOffice and Word formats. The latest version adds a lot of collaboration capabilities, and it integrates tightly with the free AbiCollab.net service which allows users to store and edit documents in the cloud. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, others

61. FreeMind Replaces: MindJet

This open source mind mapper makes it easy to display the links between ideas. It's great for making outlines, brainstorming, making notes and more. Operating System: OS Independent

62. Gnumeric Replaces: Microsoft Excel

Gnumeric describes itself as "free, fast and accurate," and an outside reviewer has praised it as more accurate than its commercial competitors. It opens files from most other popular spreadsheet programs (including Excel and Lotus), and it offers 583 different functions, including 194 you can only find in Gnumeric. Operating System: Windows, Linux

63. KOffice Replaces: Microsoft Office

KDE's office productivity suite includes the KWord word processor, KCells spreadsheet, Showcase presentations, Kivio diagrams and flowcharts, and the Artwork vector drawing program. The interfaces are intuitive but significantly different than Microsoft Office, so they take a little getting used to. Operating System: Windows, Linux

64. LibreOffice Replaces: Microsoft Office

When Oracle took over OpenOffice.org (see below), a group started this fork to continue community development. It offers all the same great features and capabilities of OpenOffice.org, plus a few improvements all its own. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X

65. NeoOffice Replaces: Microsoft Office

Also very similar to OpenOffice.org (see below), NeoOffice offers an interface and features tailored for Mac users. The latest update supports Mac's versions, full-screen mode and resume features. Operating System: OS X

66. OpenOffice.org Replaces: Microsoft Office

Now an Apache project, OpenOffice.org includes Microsoft-compatible word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and database software. At twenty years old, it's a mature project with all of the advanced capabilities and stability that home or business users need. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X, others