100 Open Source Downloads- Part 1

No, it’s not the “Top 100,” nor does this list contain the “only” 100 open source downloads you should consider – there’s a big ocean out there, so please keep swimming. But this list does reflect the growing vitality of the open source ecosystem. It just keeps growing…and growing…

Feel free to browse the list – heck, the whole darn thing spans just a handful of pages, so take a moment, would you? I mean, what are you, busy?

3D Animation Editor

1. White_Dune

This 3D modeler and animation tool allows users to read, display, and perform low-level editing tasks on VRML97 files. VRML97, which stands for “Virtual Reality Modeling Language,” is the current industry standard for displaying 3D animations on the Web. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X.

Address Book

2. Rubrica

Written using GNOME and GTK+, Rubrica stores contact information as XML data. It can import/export from a variety of formats, including GnomeCard, KAddressbook, Evolution, and csv file format. Operating system: Linux/Unix.

Audio Tools

3. Audacity

Audacity allows users to record live audio, convert tapes and records to digital formats, or mix pre-existing digital audio tracks. Supported formats include Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X, Classic Mac.

4. AC3Filter

This audio decoder and processor filter allows media players to play AC3 and DTS audio tracks from movies. It also allows you to mix audio tracks and adjust sound quality. Operating system: Windows.

5. MP3Gain

Tired of constantly adjusting the volume on your MP3 player? MP3Gain uses statistical analysis to gauge how loud songs sound in the human ear, and then modifies the volume appropriately without degrading the quality of playback. Operating system: OS Independent.

6. CDex

This CD ripper supports a number of different audio encoders, as well as audio tag formats. CDex also allows direct recording of multiple tracks and provides advanced jitter correction. Operating system: Windows.

7. StreamRipper

StreamRipper allows you to record and save Shoutcast streams and other Internet audio. Its key feature is the ability to find silences and mark them as possible points of track separation. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix.

8. LAME

Although LAME stands for “Lame Ain’t No MP3 Encoder,” the first line on the its Web site states, “LAME is an MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder.” It was intended as an educational tool for those interested in improving the speed and quality of MP3 files. Operating system: OS Portable.

9. Cdrtools

Formerly named “Cdrecord,” Cdrtools includes a complete set of applications for recording/burning CDs, DVDs, and BluRay disks. Ports are available for nearly every imaginable operating system, and it supports a wide range of hardware options. Operating system: OS Portable.

10. EasyTAG

EasyTAG allows users to view and edit the tag fields on MP3, MP2, MP4/AAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MusePack, Monkey’s Audio, and WavPack files. It includes a tree-based browser and CDDB support for manual and automatic searches. Operating system: Windows, Linux.

11. Moosic

The key feature of this music player is its playlist management/queuing abilities. By default, Moosic supports MP3, Ogg, MIDI, MOD, and WAV files, but it can be configured to support other file formats as well. Operating system: Unix.

12. MOC

Simply select a directory, and the MOC (Music On Console) audio player will play all files in that directory. Supported file formats include MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Musepack, Speex, WAVE, AIFF, and AU. Operating system: Linux/Unix.

13. Amarok

This audio’s player’s claim to fame is its easy-to-use, attractive interface. Amarok’s browser-like feel also makes it easy to use playlists. Operating system: Linux/Unix.

Bulletin Board

14. phpBB

The world’s most widely used forum creation software, phpBB, lets you set up an online community in just minutes. The latest release, tagged “Olympus,” includes the ability to send attachments, create unlimited sub-forums, add custom BBCodes, and many other new features. Operating system: OS independent.

Compression Utility

15. zlib

The zlib developers describe it as “a massively spiffy yet delicately unobtrusive compression library (also free, not to mention unencumbered by patents).” This lossless data compression and decompression utility works with nearly any type of file, any type of hardware, and any OS. Operating system: OS Portable.

Content Managers

16. XOOPS

Written in PHP, the XOOPS content management system makes it easy to create a Web site with dynamic content. The name is short for eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System, and it relies on a MySQL database to organize content. Operating system: OS Independent.

17. PHP-Nuke

This content management tool boasts a large, active user community and numerous add-ons. It provides a complete solution for developing a highly interactive Internet or intranet site. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X.

18. WebGUI

Described as “modular, powerful, secure, and user-friendly,” WebGUI makes it easy for small organizations to run very complex Web and intranet sites. It’s currently used by more than 10,000 site owners. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X.

Databases

19. Firebird

Firebird is a full-featured, SQL-based relational database. It can scale to serve the needs of a large enterprise, and it’s easy to configure and maintain. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X, Solaris.

20. PostgreSQL

This object relational database management system bills itself as “the world’s most advanced open source database.” PostgreSQL was derived from the Berkeley Postgre DMS, but it replaces the PostQuel query language with a type of SQL. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X, Solaris.

Developer Tools

21. phpMyAdmin

Written in PHP, this utility handles the administration of MySQL over the Web. phpMyAdmin performs many database administration tasks like running SQL statements, adding and dropping databases, and adding, editing or deleting tables or fields. Operating system: OS Independent.

22. Dev-C++

Dev-C++ allows developers to edit, debug, and compile C++ code from a user-friendly GUI. It utilizes Mingw libraries by default but can also be used with other GCC-based compilers. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix.

23. XAMPP

The XAMPP developers created this software to make it easier to install Apache Web Server. As a bonus, it also includes MySQL, PHP & PEAR, Perl, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, and a number of other programs that vary depending on which OS version you download. Operating system: Windows, Linux, OS/X, Solaris.

24. MinGW

“MinGW” stands for “Minimalist GNU for Windows.” It makes it possible to use Unix-based GNU programming tools in Windows. Operating system: Windows.

25. TortoiseSVN

TortoiseSVN provides a Windows interface for the Subversion revision control software. It works directly from Windows Explorer and you can use it with virtually any development tools. Operating system: Windows.

26. EasyPHP

As you’d expect, this package of developer tools includes an easy-to-use PHP execution, and it also comes with an Apache server, a MySQL database, and several other tools. The Web site is written primarily in French, but English documentation is also available. Operating system: Windows.

27. Notepad++

Written in C++ and based on Scintilla, the Notepad++ source code editor supports many coding languages, including C++, Java, XML, SQL, Perl, and more. It offers several enhancements over Notepad, including syntax highlighting and folding, auto-completion, multi-document editing, bookmarks, and many other others. Operating system: Windows.

28. AppServ

AppServ is an Apache/PHP/MySQL distribution designed to be completely installed and configured in less than one minute. While it works on Windows, the developers recommend Linux for Web or database servers that will be used heavily. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix.

29. jEdit

Written in Java, jEdit is a cross-platform developer’s text editor. It supports auto indent and syntax highlighting for 130 different coding languages, as well as dozens of independently developed plug-ins and macros that make programming easier. Operating system: OS Independent.

30. wxWidgets

This cross-platform development toolkit enables programmers to write applications in C++, Python, Perl, and C#/.NET that work on several different operating systems. In addition to an easy-to-use GUI, wxWidgets offers online help, streams, clipboard and drag and drop, multithreading, database support, HTML viewing and printing, and many other features. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X, Classic Mac.

31. DotNetNuke

Built on a Microsoft ASP.NET (VB.NET) platform, DotNetNuke provides a framework for developing enterprise Web applications. It’s designed to be user-friendly, extensible and scalable, and fully customizable. Operating system: Windows.

32. SharpDevelop

This IDE for Microsoft’s .NET platform supports C#, VB.NET, and Boo. It includes a forms designer, code completer, an integrated debugger, and many other features. Operating system: Windows.

33. Hibernate

Part of the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite, Hibernate provides object/relational persistence for Java and .NET. It also includes the ability to write queries in SQL or the Hibernate version of SQL (HQL). Operating system: OS Independent.

34. GCC

GCC stands for GNU Compiler Collection, and it provides front-ends and libraries for multiple programming languages, including C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada. GCC also performs error checking, debugging, and code optimization. Operating system: OS Independent.

35. Zile

Short for “Zile is Lossy Emacs,” Zile is a small text editor that looks very similar to the popular Emacs editor. It packs many features into just 100KB, including multi-level undo, multi-window display, killing, yanking, register, and word wrap. Operating system: Linux/Unix.

36. TEA

This GTK+-based text editor supports a number of different coding languages, but it is especially helpful for writing HTML. It’s very small but includes a file manager, spellchecker, search function, and more. Operating system: Linux/Unix, OS X, Solaris.

37. Ultimate++

This C++ application development solution aims to make programming faster and programmers more productive. Its BLITZ-build technology reduces rebuild time by up to 400 percent. Operating system: Windows, Linux.

38. DeskWeb

DeskWeb makes Web applications more user-friendly by making them look exactly like Windows or other desktop operating systems. It’s ideal for corporate intranets and can be used with content management systems, wikis, and more. Operating system: OS Independent.

39. MUSCLE

MUSCLE stands for “Multi-User Server Client Linking Environment.” In a nutshell, it makes it possible for cross-platform applications to communicate with each other over the network. Operating system: Windows, Linux, OS X, BSD.

40. WAMP5

WAMP5 automatically installs Apache, PHP, MySQL, PHPmyadmin and SQLitemanager on any Windows system. It was created in order to make it easy to use the latest version of PHP—PHP5 Operating system: Windows.

Document Publishing

41. MiKTeX

An update of TeX, MiKTeX is a typesetting program with a complete set of fonts, utilities, and macros. According to the original developer, it was “intended for the creation of beautiful books—and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics.” Operating system: Windows, Linux.

42. SiSU

After creating documents in the text editor of your choice, you can use SiSU (Structured information, serialized units) to publish them in the format of your choice and make them searchable. Supported formats include plain-text, HTML, XHTML, XML, ODF, LaTeX, and PDF. Operating system: Linux/Unix.

43. PDFCreator

This tool from PDFForge allows users to create PDF files from any printable Windows document. As an added bonus, it can also create PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, or EPS files. Operating system: Windows.

44. Ghostscript

Written in C, Ghostscript allows users to convert, view, and print PostScript and PDF files. Different versions of the software are available either as open-source or as commercial distributions. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X, Classic Mac.

Education

45. NASA World Wind

World Wind allows users to access satellite imagery to view the entire globe or zoom in on a particular area. It offers a number of different views and gives users the options of superimposing latitude and longitude lines, borders, and place name labels. Operating system: Windows.

46. Stellarium

Why bother with a trip to the planetarium? Stellarium shows you the night skies from the comfort of your PC. In fact, this is the software in use at many planetariums. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X, FreeBSD.

Emulators

47. ZNES

ZNES lets you play your Super Nintendo games on your PC. Some games work better than others, and it’s very much a work in progress. Operating system: Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and DOS.

48. VisualBoy Advance

If you’d like to play Gameboy or GameboyAdvance games on your PC, give VisualBoy Advance a try. In addition to offering most of the functions you would find on a Gameboy system, this app also makes it easy to find and use cheats. Operating system: Windows, Linux/Unix, OS X.

49. DOSBox

Miss the old programs and games from your x86 system? DOSBox allows newer Windows machines and other operating systems to run literally thousands of older games. Operating system: Windows, Linux, OS X.

50. Wine

Its name stands for “Wine is not an emulator.” While that may be technically true, Wine does let you run Windows programs on x86-based Unix systems. It also includes a toolkit for porting Windows code to Unix. Operating system: Linux/Unix, OS X, Solaris, All