Foo - The Top 50 Proprietary Programs and their Open Source Alternatives

Got this from an email. A nice list to keep handy. :beer:

http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/

^^How many of them are macbook friendly?

^^How many of them are macbook friendly?

Not sure...but I know a decent number are.

Thanks, I'm going to be migrating my desktop away from windows entirely soon, so That';s going to be a big help :D The spouses last excuses to keep winblows seem to be going out the window ;)

Neo Office is and it AUTOSAVES ;):p


^^How many of them are macbook friendly?

Ooooh, that's a good list. :D

I can't ditch Vista though... I play too many games for that. :lol:

Neo Office is and it AUTOSAVES ;):p

OpenOffice is Mac compatible too (at least their website says so).

Ooooh, that's a good list. :D

I can't ditch Vista though... I play too many games for that. :lol:

At least upgrade from Vista to XP. haha. For real though, I work in IT at a University, and none of the IT guys here foresee switching to Vista any time soon. Its honestly really bad. XP service pack 3 is where its at!

You're the shizzle!

Linux rules ! ( but communist sympathizers suck fat ones).

^^How many of them are macbook friendly?meh (http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/prefix/bootstrap-macos.xml)

Not sure...but I know a decent number are.

Most are likely to be-- most open source stuff is Linux/Unix based, and OS X is BSD Unix based. The OS X directory structure is different from standard unix/linux installs, but there are a couple of groups (Fink and MacPorts (formerly DarwinPorts)) that tweak things to work with OS X and provide package managers.

Thanks for posting this KT, it is a great list. I will say however that DIA is not a good complete replacement for MS Visio.

Thanks for posting this KT, it is a great list. I will say however that DIA is not a good complete replacement for MS Visio.

Just passing along what I saw.

Glad you mentioned that.....That was one of the programs I'd never heard of that really caught my eye. Right now I use something called "Visual Thought" (freeware) as sort of a Visio type program.

Funny how it mentioned FreeMind too. I just discovered and started using that last week.

Just passing along what I saw.

Glad you mentioned that.....That was one of the programs I'd never heard of that really caught my eye. Right now I use something called "Visual Thought" (freeware) as sort of a Visio type program.

Funny how it mentioned FreeMind too. I just discovered and started using that last week.

Well DIA might work for some, I rely heavily on stencils in Visio and I haven't seen them in DIA or a way to import my stencils from Visio into DIA.

But it is a good list, I'm going to try out some of WYSIWYG html editors, along with free Ghost program.

long with free Ghost program.yeah....that one caught my eye too. :)

Just passing along what I saw.

Glad you mentioned that.....That was one of the programs I'd never heard of that really caught my eye. Right now I use something called "Visual Thought" (freeware) as sort of a Visio type program.

Funny how it mentioned FreeMind too. I just discovered and started using that last week.

I've come across freemind and kdiss for linux. You find them helpful?

I've come across freemind and kdiss for linux. You find them helpful?

Still working on it. I know co-workers who swear by MindManager (commercial version of similar tool) as a brain storming tool.

So far, I was able to put ideas into it, but just ones I already had. I need more time with it before giving an opinion.

I'm going to fiddle around with it tonight. Seems like something I'd like.

This needs a bump. KT, I <3 you!

That PDF Creator from SourceForge is great. :D Came in handy for me today.

It's debate time!!!

Windows Vista (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/default.mspx) OS to Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) OS: Depends on what you need. For most practical applications, Windows > Ubuntu. Office Suites


Microsoft Office (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx) to OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/): Office 2007 >>>> OpenOffice.
Mactopia (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.mspx) to NeoOffice (http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php): WTF is Mactopia? Office Tools


MathWorks MATLAB (http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab/) to Scilab (http://www.scilab.org/): GNU Octave > both.
Microsoft Word (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word) to OpenOffice Writer (http://www.openoffice.org/product/writer.html): Why did they need to repeat apps?
Microsoft Visio (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/default.aspx) to Dia (http://live.gnome.org/Dia): I gave Dia TWO good hard tries. NOT user friendly by any means...and exporting diagrams is a PITA. Visio > Dia Productivity


Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com/us/index.Bb) to Moodle (http://moodle.org/): No it hasn't. Graphic Programs


Adobe PhotoShop (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html) to GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/): Photoshop >> GIMP.
AutoCAD (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=2704278) to Archimedes (http://archimedes.incubadora.fapesp.br/portal): Anything that's NOT AutoCAD probably sucks.
Microsoft PowerPoint (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/default.aspx) to OpenOffice Impress (http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html): Again, why are they repeating apps? Plus, Impress sucks hard compared to Powerpoint.
Microsoft Paint (http://www.fayette.k12.il.us/99/paint/paint.htm) to Tux Paint (http://www.tuxpaint.org/): This is stupid. Web Editors

Publishing


Adobe Acrobat (http://createpdf.adobe.com/) to PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/): FoxIT works really well too. Communications


AIM (http://dashboard.aim.com/aim) to Pidgin (http://pidgin.im/): One that they got right.
Microsoft Outlook (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/default.aspx) to Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/): If you use Exchange, then there's no comparison. For everything else, Thunderbird's good enough. Media


iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) to Songbird (http://www.songbirdnest.com/): Last time I tried Songbird, it was somewhat bug ridden...
Nero Burning Rom (http://www.nero.com/enu/nero8-introduction.html?NeroSID=374bb15824578fc5aeae6061f59aba58) to K3b (http://www.k3b.org/): Another one that they got right... Utilities

Security


Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal (http://www.kaspersky.com/personal) to Winpooch (http://winpooch.free.fr/page/home.php?lang=en&page=home): AVG-Free.

I tried Ubuntu. I like it, but it does not support DMRaid out of the box (yet). When it can recognize and install itself to a DMRaid/NVRaid, I'll be happier...

I still don't understand the hate behind Vista...It's a resource hog, but otherwise perfectly fine...

Security


Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal (http://www.kaspersky.com/personal) to Winpooch (http://winpooch.free.fr/page/home.php?lang=en&page=home): AVG-Free.

I would agree with most of your general assessments, its more or less where I stand as an Enterprise admin. I have honestly tried most of those apps on end users and with almost no success. Open office was hit or miss but its lack of integration into an exchange/sharepoint enviro makes it great for home use only.

The one I left quoted was simply to ensure you know Avg isn't free anymore :) While you can still find the free version eventually it stop being supported. :)



I still don't understand the hate behind Vista...It's a resource hog, but otherwise perfectly fine...


I don't hate it but I am not moving my any live environments to it. It is noticably slower unless the hardware is beyond spec. The interface is annoying, and the tight security breaks a lot of 3rd party programs.

Windows could learn one thing from *nix's ui. Configurability. I can make my os gui on linux anyway I want. Windows always locks you into a couple of generic looks/interactions (excluding fonts etc) I love how configurable *nix is in this regards.

I wish...REALLY...wish I could upgrade everyone to Office 2007. Once you get used to the new layouts and referencing it is an excellent product. To bad it also breaks a lot of software (one piece of our key sales software requires merging to be unsecure, office 2007 can't be made 100% unsecured)

It's debate time!!!


AutoCAD (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=2704278) to Archimedes (http://archimedes.incubadora.fapesp.br/portal): Anything that's NOT AutoCAD probably sucks.


I dunno, I have used both, but I think I prefer MicroStation, by Bentley, or whoever owns it now...

Nero Burning Rom (http://www.nero.com/enu/nero8-introduction.html?NeroSID=374bb15824578fc5aeae6061f59aba58) to K3b (http://www.k3b.org/): Another one that they got right...
K3B=WIN!!!!!

Pretty good list.. but...

48. Authorize.net to OpenSSL

Huh??? Since when will the OpenSSL group act as a payment gateway, and clear credit card transactions to your merchant account? OpenSSL is a secure socket protocol, not a payment gateway. Seems to me that comparing Authorize.net to OpenSSL is like comparing a banking institution to a padlock.

At least downgrade from Vista to XP. haha.
Fixed that for ya - although considering the horror stories I've heard about Vista - some of which I fixed for my in-laws - that could be considered an upgrade....



For real though, I work in IT at a University, and none of the IT guys here foresee switching to Vista any time soon. Its honestly really bad. XP service pack 3 is where its at!
Running XP with SP3 on all my systems, no plans to upgrade to Vista. The MS Vista upgrade advisor program tells me that this laptop can run Vista, but the manufacturer (HP) says it's not supported because of hardware issues.

Windows Vista to Ubuntu -- can work for most people, but I personally would recommend a more mature distribution, such as SUSE, RedHat, Fedora, or Slackware.

MS Office to OpenOffice -- Office 2007 with its database for works cited stuff has saved me hours and grade points ensuring that everything I turn in is in the correct MLA style (which a lot of profs value more than content or paper sentence mechanics.) I think I would say to go with Office 2007, although OpenOffice is pretty good.

Blackboard to Moodle -- Moodle can't be used for physical lock mechanisms. I know schools who have buildings coded with Blackboard card readers left and right for building and classroom access.

Adobe Photoshop to GIMP -- If you need Photoshop's stuff, its different, but I've found I can use the GIMP for almost any of my picture needs.

AIM to Pidgin -- I vote the third choice -- Trillian.

iTunes to Songbird -- Has Songbird even been updated since the beginning of last year? I use WMP myself, but almost any music managing utility is good enough for me.

AutoCAD -- its the industry standard. Doesn't mean it is great, but its the standard, and people either use DXF files AutoDesk's way, or they don't do CAD.

Acrobat -- see AutoCAD, especially for high end printing/prepress stuff.

Exchange -- see AutoCAD and Acrobat. For business, its really the only game in town, except for perhaps Lotus Notes.

Outlook to Thunderbird -- I switched back to Outlook from Thunderbird when I found that Thunderbird is pretty much on maintainence mode due to funding reasons, as in they will fix security issues, but there won't be any new features added.

As for antivirus, I personally would recommend the registered version of ThreatFire. It does both malware and keyloggers, as well as viruses, and is very lightweight. Norton 360 or Symantec Endpoint Protection are really good too, and cover pretty much everything.

For antivirus, I love using "Avast Antivirus" If I do a full scan of everything, it takes time to check everything, unline Norton Antivirus, which seems to skim things and misses alot of things. It auto updates the virus database, and tells you using one of those computerized woman voices. It also does a bomb siren like sound when it finds or detects a virus. The interface isnt especially easy to use but you get used to it.

Blackboard to Moodle -- Moodle can't be used for physical lock mechanisms. I know schools who have buildings coded with Blackboard card readers left and right for building and classroom access.

From the stuff I heard about Blackboard when I was in school, the idea of using it not merely to keep data organized and secure, but to keep buildings secure is a shocking prospect. Monolithic codebases often aren't a good thing.

I can't let you do that Dave.


Adobe Photoshop to GIMP -- If you need Photoshop's stuff, its different, but I've found I can use the GIMP for almost any of my picture needs.

Agreed. I've been using GIMP for several years, and generally, if there's something I can't do on it, it's because I don't know how to use it right.


AIM to Pidgin -- I vote the third choice -- Trillian.

I might have to try Trillian soon. I've avoided switching from GAIM to Pidgin because some of the changes concern me, and they have a definite problem with creating fluffy new features instead of fixing bugs with the old releases. For example, AIM file transfers haven't worked ever.


iTunes to Songbird -- Has Songbird even been updated since the beginning of last year? I use WMP myself, but almost any music managing utility is good enough for me.

Jump back half a decade or so. Winamp is still unbeaten in my opinion. Although technically I don't think it's open source.


Acrobat -- see AutoCAD, especially for high end printing/prepress stuff.

Ok, I admit I don't create fancy .pdf's, but Acrobat reader has become so hideously bloated and annoying that any excuse to use a different reader is a good one.

Oh and I never liked Filezilla, but WinSCP rocks.

And unless you're not running Windows, why even bother replacing Notepad? It does exactly what you need it to, is incredibly compact, and is probably the most stable Windows program in existance.

Did anyone notice that they all say "this to that", not "this = that"? All of the graphics prog subs are a joke, with the possible exception of powerpoint to OO, which I say only because I've used neither. I have to goals in life: never play Freebird at a gig, and never make a powerpoint presentaton.

My experience is that finding subs for anything means replacing this set of dislikes with that, and lots of extra learning curve just to evaluate the self-proclaimed "wunder-prog". Give me something that works, please, I have work to do.

Running XP with SP3 on all my systems, no plans to upgrade to Vista. The MS Vista upgrade advisor program tells me that this laptop can run Vista, but the manufacturer (HP) says it's not supported because of hardware issues.[/QUOTE]

Ironically I can't even run sp3. Too much 3rd party software relies on standard controllable security. With sp3 some of those options are taken away.

My disgust with vista is actually pretty unique. Most *nixers complain about windows being insecure out of the box. *nix is built secure out of the box. Vista is now built secure out of the box. What I hate about vista is some things you can't dial back (office 2007 too) No software company should be able to rule your security roost. Vista tries to do that. Thanks to many many lazy admins doing crappy jobs, and many many linux users claiming up and down about an insecure windows, microsoft took security into their own hands.

Microsoft should take note, ok make it with all those dumbass UAC controls, make it so you can't have 3rd party software editing certain directories and files, but make it easier to dial it back to an admin friendly os. My network environment is secure. The os just needs to do what it was built for, carry 3rd party software into the hands of my users. Thanks!

Warning:
I just took a look at the url given in the first post, or rather I didn't, as my browser gave a warning about it. safebrowsing.clients.google.com warned:
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Safe Browsing

Diagnostic page for whdb.com

What is the current listing status for whdb.com?

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this website may harm your computer.
Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 4 time(s) over the past 90 days.
What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 20 pages that we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 13 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time that Google visited this site was on 2010-09-06, and the last time that suspicious content was found on this site was on 2010-08-29.Malicious software includes 2 trojan(s), 2 exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 1 new process(es) on the target machine.
Malicious software is hosted on 3 domain(s), including crocro.biz/ (http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-GB&site=crocro.biz/), 79.135.152.0/ (http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-GB&site=79.135.152.0/), marjoriereed.info/ (http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-GB&site=marjoriereed.info/).
2 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including marjoriereed.info/ (http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-GB&site=marjoriereed.info/), marjoriereedpaintings.net/ (http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-GB&site=marjoriereedpaintings.net/).
This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS31815 (MEDIATEMPLE) (http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-GB&site=AS:31815).
Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, whdb.com appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 1 site(s) including stumbleupon.com/ (http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-GB&site=stumbleupon.com/).
Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

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