15 Open-Source Applications You Need To Know

Open source programs are not only free to use, but most of the times are more efficient in terms of resources they require. They are much lighter than proprietary software that use high resources. Source code are available with open source software so that you can customize them according to your own needs and requirements if you know how to program. Almost every software has it’s open source alternative present. But due to unawareness most of us just don’t know those alternatives that are not only free but also much better in performance, like Open source Mozilla Firefox over Microsoft Internet Explorer.

So here are 15 FREE open-source alternatives of most common applications we use in daily PC usage, you might didn’t know.

1. Mozilla Thunderbird

Powerful Email client with spam filtering, solid interface, built in RSS Reader, all-in-one inbox for all of your email addresses.Sets up email addresses automatically without any manual settings.

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2. K-Meleon

K-Meleon is an extremely fast, customizable, lightweight web browser based on the Gecko layout engine developed by Mozilla which is also used by Firefox. K-Meleon is free, open source software released under the GNU General Public License and is designed specifically for Microsoft Windows (Win32) operating systems.

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3. Pidgin

Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time.
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4. Blender

Powerful 3D Modeling software. Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems.
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5. Miro

It can play almost any video file and offers over 6,000 free internet TV shows and video podcasts. Plays any video type (much more than windows media player). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
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6. VLC

Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
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7. Eraser

Eraser is an advanced security tool for Windows which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.
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8. MP3 Book Helper

This program provides rapid Mp3 (ID3v1, ID3v2) and Ogg/Speex/Flac Vorbis tags editing and file renaming functions. Mass Tag editing is done using special variables and Regular Expressions.
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9. 7-Zip

Powerful File compressor and archiver. You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don’t need to register or pay for 7-Zip.
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10. KompoZer

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.

KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

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11. Handbrake

DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.
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12. Notepad ++

Open Source programmers notepad for Windows. Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.
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13. Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
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14. Audacity

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems
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15. Filezilla

Excellent and complete FTP program. FileZilla is open source software distributed free of charge.
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If you know other open source program(s) that you’d like add here in the list, please leave the name(s) in comments.