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Geek Culture / 50 apps with their open-source alternative

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Phaelax
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Posted: 31st Aug 2011 01:24
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It's a few years old, but still a nice list containing a few apps I haven't heard of before.

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

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Plystire
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Posted: 31st Aug 2011 03:08
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Nice list! I'll keep that page bookmarked for future reference.


~Plystire

A rose is only a rose until it is held and cherished -- then it becomes a treasure.
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Benjamin
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Posted: 31st Aug 2011 03:28
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Must be pretty old, it recommends Firefox and not Chrome.



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DJ Almix
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Posted: 31st Aug 2011 03:34
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Quote: "Must be pretty old, it recommends Firefox and not Chrome."


+1

I was about to say the same thing

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Plystire
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Posted: 31st Aug 2011 10:01
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Wasn't Chrome based on FireFox, though?


~Plystire

A rose is only a rose until it is held and cherished -- then it becomes a treasure.
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That Guy John
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Posted: 1st Sep 2011 04:19
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Plystire, not entirely accurate.
They are both based off of "WebKit" standards. If my memory serves me right....

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 1st Sep 2011 05:05
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I switched to Chrome because it loads faster, loads and runs pages quicker. Scrolls smoother, especially when there are transparent PNG's or flash being rendered on pages. It doesn't have a huge orange button. It's also by default a smaller screen footprint.

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JoelJ
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Posted: 1st Sep 2011 09:42
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Quote: "They are both based off of "WebKit" standards. If my memory serves me right....
"

Nope, Firefox uses its own rendering engine (Gecko). Safari and Chrome use Webkit.

That's a nice list, although, I really wish there was something better out there than Open/Libre Office. Just can't stand it. The first thing I do on my new Ubunto install: install Chrome and uninstall LibreOffice. I just use Google Docs, but there are some features still missing.

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Van B
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Posted: 1st Sep 2011 13:28
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I hate these lists, they paint such a glowing picture of, lets be honest here, mostly shoddy imitations.

I mean, replacing Photoshop with Gimp is a rediculous notion, I might as well replace my kneecaps with bottlecaps. The differences in all those suggestions are clear within seconds of actually using the products.
Another particularly annoying one is replace MS Access with Keki - anyone making that comparison has no idea what Access is actually used for... like here's a database system, it's like Access but with 98% of the useful stuff removed.

Gah, people need to spend money to get the best software *most* of the time, its as simple as that. You can't go into serious computing with no budget, you can't replace an industry standard piece of software with an open source abomination, no matter how good it feels on the wallet.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 1st Sep 2011 13:56
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Quote: "I hate these lists, they paint such a glowing picture of, lets be honest here, mostly shoddy imitations"
Yep. Although to be fair they normally cover the vast majority of what tasks that most people require of them.

Cheers

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bitJericho
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Posted: 1st Sep 2011 15:05 Edited at: 1st Sep 2011 15:06
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I like photoshop, but at the price, gimp does everything I need, which is usually web and game graphics and it does it fairly well.

I may have to check out inkscape though. I've heard about it but never looked into it.


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Agent Dink
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Posted: 2nd Sep 2011 01:48 Edited at: 2nd Sep 2011 01:48
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I personally prefer the simplicity of InkScape over Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is overly complicated. From what I've used of it, you can't even put a gradient on an outline. It also looks like an absolute trainwreck.

(above comments are regarding CS3, haven't tried any other versions)

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Libervurto
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Posted: 3rd Sep 2011 14:51
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Quote: "I may have to check out inkscape though. I've heard about it but never looked into it."

I love inkscape! It's great being able to move anything around and tweak it easily. Vectors FTW!

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Teh Stone
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Posted: 3rd Sep 2011 17:21
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I thought Inkscape was good, then i used Illustrator...
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Plystire
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 06:43
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Was reading the list again, and noticed the promote OpenLaszlo as a substitute for Flash. Really? I thought OpenLaszlo was heirarchical in design, utilizing XML parsing to craft the applet which would be vastly different from Flash.


~Plystire

A rose is only a rose until it is held and cherished -- then it becomes a treasure.
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crispex
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 07:58
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Meh, I still like Photoshop and Office. GIMP never cut it for me, and Open Office felt strange to me.


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Quik
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 08:52
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Quote: "I mean, replacing Photoshop with Gimp is a rediculous notion, I might as well replace my kneecaps with bottlecaps. The differences in all those suggestions are clear within seconds of actually using the products.
Another particularly annoying one is replace MS Access with Keki - anyone making that comparison has no idea what Access is actually used for... like here's a database system, it's like Access but with 98% of the useful stuff removed."


as far as i can tell the list tells you that if you cannot afford to use PS, then you should try out GIMP, not that if you can afford PS you should still use GIMP..

and for the record, I am a man.

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ionstream
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 12:33
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Quote: "I hate these lists, they paint such a glowing picture of, lets be honest here, mostly shoddy imitations."


I am so glad somebody said this. This is how I feel about 95% of open source software. The annoying one for me is that they have the replacement for Adobe Premiere as "Avidemux." Holy crap, Avidemux isn't even a good replacement for Windows Movie Maker, let alone Premiere.

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crispex
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 18:03
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Well, the people who make these lists are obviously satisfied. If you've never used the proprietary programs, you'll never really know what you're truly missing.


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CoffeeGrunt
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 18:12
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Open Office is pitiful compared to Word, sorry. In value-for-money, obviously it wins because its free. As a product, its massively inferior.

Although I just use GDocs for simplicity now.

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Quik
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 18:16
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Quote: "Open Office is pitiful compared to Word, sorry. In value-for-money, obviously it wins because its free. As a product, its massively inferior."


take away the price tag and i would use word, with the pricetag i wouldnt use word even if i could afford it

and for the record, I am a man.

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CoffeeGrunt
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 18:42
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Got it free with my PC, but not my Netbook.

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Plystire
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Posted: 4th Sep 2011 21:48
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I use WordPad... cuz I'm simple like that, and I don't often find myself in need of composing heavily formatted documents.


~Plystire

A rose is only a rose until it is held and cherished -- then it becomes a treasure.
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Van B
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Posted: 5th Sep 2011 16:44
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WordPad is actually a fairly competent little word processor. Word processing isn't the chief tool in MS Office though, Excel is - there are so many alternatives for straightforward word processing, but only a few worthy replacements for Excel. MS Access is even more important than Word in some places - a lot of companies have several bespoke database systems, and Access is one product that can help keep maintenance costs down.

Typically, there are no free alternatives for professional software, you are better off looking at cheaper alternatives - software is often worth exactly what you pay for it. I mean, if you can't afford Photoshop, see if you can get Jasc PaintShopPro 9 - it's the only package I've used that can stand beside Photoshop, IMO anyway. I actually prefer PSP9 to Photoshop, PSP9 is especially good for pixel work. I think most of Photoshops benefit is in how good it works with tablets... PSP9 is kinda clunky when it comes to gfx tablets. I've been thinking about getting Photoshop for mac and hooking my tablet upto that instead.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 5th Sep 2011 17:10
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Quote: "you are better off looking at cheaper alternatives"
I was just about to say that! And PSP9 was my example. Strange. I've used Photoshop and to be honest I also prefer PSP9 most of the time. It's the last PSP that didn't bloatware itself to death and is simple enough to use without getting a loan (PS) or a complicated degree (Gimp) to use it. Plus there are great deals. I got mine years ago from Ebuyer for £10.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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