The A-Z of free software

A is for Apache

The world's standard webserver, secure, stable, and easy to set-up

B is for Blender

Blender is a 3-D graphics modelling program

"B" is also for BugZilla, the web-based bug-tracking software

C is for Celestia

The solar-system modelling program, letting you take a tour of the planets in all their OpenGL glory.

D is for Doxygen

Automatically generate documentation for your programs

E is for EMACS

Programming environment, calendar, email, games, this text-editor has it all

F is for FreeBSD

when you need an ultra-secure machine for firewalls, routers, and servers

G is for The GIMP

The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a painting, drawing, and photo-editing suite, with all the advanced features you'll ever need

"G" is also for GRASS, the Geographic Information System, and its related free-software mapping tools

H is for HowTo's

and the documentation available when you need help

I is for ImageMagick

Both an easy-to-use command-line tool for working with graphics (thumbnail images etc.)and a library/scripting-language for writing graphics programs

J is for Jakarta

Java solutions for web-servers

K is for everything KDE-related

KDE - The KDE desktop environment itself, both a nice working desktop for your home or office, and a set of libraries to build great applications

KMail - The email client, and its associated calendar, address-book, etc.

Kuickshow - A useful little viewer for images

KOffice - Word-processor, spreadsheet, presentation software

KDevelop - Fully-featured Integrated Development Environment for writing software in

Kontact - Groupware client, for organising your office life

L is for LaTeχ

The easy route to professional-looking technical documents

"L" is also for Lilypond, fine engraving of musical scores

M is for Mozilla

The ultimate web-browser, with tabbed windows, a popup-blocker, and advanced speed, security, and privacy features

N is for NMap

The network-mapping and port-scanning tool. Use nmap to test your computer's security, and use it to identify remote computers by their operating-system and even list the servers being run

O is for OpenOffice.org

The free, powerful, and fully-supported alternative to Microsoft Office. Try-out its drawing program for your diagrams!

P is for Perl

The Perl programming language. "Do what I mean, not what I say"

Q is for QIV

The quick image viewer is a speedy way to view individual images from the command-line

R is for Ruby

Programming language

S is for SubVersion

a CVS-like version control system

"S" is also for SquirrelMail, a web-based email server

"S" is also for School Tool, a timetabling program for schools

T is for TightVNC

Control the desktop of another computer remotely

U is for User-mode Linux

Virtual-machine software that lets you run several simulated computers on just one machine

V is for the Virtual Server project

Scalable, high-availability server cluster based on Linux

W is for wiki wiki wiki

The wiki is a website concept where people can just edit each page from their browser, allowing very rapid development of complex websites, and the ability to correct mistakes or do updates instantly. You can either run a public wiki, or have a few people authorised to make changes

X is for XPlanet

use a real-time view of the earth for your backdrop

Y is for Yellow-dog linux

Of course, Linux runs on the Mac too...

Z is for ZinF

ZinF is not FreeAmp, but it is a nice music player