Fifty ways to leave your vendor

[mdlbear]

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives | WHDb

The following fifty proprietary programs are listed in no particular order within broad categories along with their open source alternatives. In some cases you could probably write your own book on frustrations with the proprietary programs shown here. In other cases, you’ll discover that the open source alternative isn’t quite up to snuff yet. And, in other cases still, you’ll learn that some proprietary programs are real gems, but that the open source advocate can replace those gems with equally shiny objects from the open source repertoire.

I don't necessarily agree with everything in this list, but it's a good place to start if you're wondering whether your critical needs will be covered if you switch to Linux, or if you just want to try something different on Windows. Many of my favorites are on the list.

(From InfoWorld.)

Comments

[andpuff.livejournal.com]

Most of your computer posts go right over my head -- I use one, I don't understand it -- but this one... well, I'm actually using Open Office on the lap top and loving it. Later, I expect I'll dl GIMP.

::feels smarter than usual::

[mdlbear]

Yay!

Lots of good software on that list. And the price is certainly right.

[aerowolf.livejournal.com]

authorize.net is a payment gateway, openssl is a TLS implementation that doesn't provide a payment gateway. What the [bleep] are they comparing grapes to oranges for?

Yes, I know you said you don't necessarily agree with everything in the list, but this is a fairly glaring mistake. at least in my eyes. :/

[mdlbear]

Was mentioned in some of the comments, too. Kind of baffling. Doesn't invalidate the ones that are directly comparable, though.