Pretty good Open Source alternatives for Proprietary Products

We couldn’t thank the Open Source Community or Apache and Mozilla for their initiatives on Open Source that helped shape the Software World well enough. Adding up to that gratitude or vast collection of Open Source products that are available as alternatives to Proprietary Products. Also, please do not think Open Source means free software. Many People has that misconception by logic. An Open Source can be free to modify but has some fee to use. There are commercial and non-commercial Open Source applications to be precise. Here, I’m listing some of the very good alternatives that helps you to reduce your cost as well as troubles with a proprietary closed source product.

1. Microsoft Visual Studio – SharpDevelop, MonoDevelop
2. Web Development IDEs – Eclipse, Aptana
3. Microsoft .NET Framework – Mono
4. Microsoft SQL Server – MySQL, PostgreSQL, FireBird
5. Microsoft Project – OpenProj, Open Workbench
6. Microsoft Visio – Dia, StarUML
7. Microsoft Publisher – Scribus
8. Microsoft Office – OpenOffice
9. Microsoft Office Outlook/Outlook Express – Evolution / Mozilla Thunderbird
10. Microsoft Exchange Server – Zimbra, OpenXchange
11. Microsoft SharePoint – Alfresco, Deki Wiki, DotNetNuke, PHPNuke
12. Mercury LoadRunner – OpenSTA
13. Adobe Flash – OpenLaszlo
14. Adobe Acrobat – PDFCreator
15. Adobe Photoshop – Paint.NET, CinePaint, GIMP, GIMPShop
16. Adobe Illustrator – Inkspace
17. Adobe Premier/After Effects – Avidemux / Jahshaka
18. BusinessObjects Crystal Reports – JasperReports, DataVision, OpenRPT
19. Microsoft Dynamics – SugarCRM
20. Microsoft Money / Quicken – GNUCash, Grisbi
21. MindManager – FreeMind
22. WinZip – 7zip
23. Beyond Compare (File/Directory) Comparison – WinMerge
24. CodeSmith (Easy Code Generator) – MyGeneration
25. Icon Editor – IcoFX
26. FTP Client – FileZilla

There are much more than this list is available. But this is a start to remove on famous proprietary software from your arsenal.