Free Software
As many know, I am a strong advocate for Open Source software and applications that I personally use for my desktop and laptop computers and my iPhone and iPad. I must confess that this is in no small part due to my being cheap. Open Source software is free, as in free beer. It is also open and free as in open access to the code. This means that anyone with requisite programing skills can add to and improve the code. However, I have also convinced myself that a lot of the Open Source software I use is every bit as good and often even better than the commercial, proprietary counterparts.
The applications identified in the following paragraphs are collectively called Open Source; that is they are freely available to download and use. I have been using Open Source software for over a decade and find that with a little sifting, sorting and experience, there is little that cannot be done with a very professional look. Downloading and installing OS software applications is generally trouble free. However, technical support is uneven and may require a bit of searching on the Internet. Open Source software is incredibly mature and rivals the leading proprietary applications. YouTube makes learning, even with a steep learning curve, much more manageable than relying solely on manuals or books.
Open Office (an alternative, Libre Office, is also excellent.) Both Open Office and Libre Office constitute a full suite of productivity applications including: Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, Database, Formula editing and more.
My browser is the free Mozilla application, FireFox. I also use Chrome on occasion where it is helpful to use the suite of free applications provided by Google. Google itself is Open Source as is its embedded video server YouTube. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are amazingly easy to use and everything you do is stored online. When you store documents as web sources, it is rather easy to embed them into existing web pages. This provides almost immediate updates ( 5 minutes) to the website whenever you make changes to the Google documents.
For eMail I use Thunderbird, also from Mozilla, as my eMail client and currently use it to support three eMail addresses. Thunderbird is an alternative to the MS eMail client.
For video editing my current preference is OpenShot, an incredibly versatile program. For audio editing I use the powerful Audacity.
Two applications are used for screen capture and recording; CAM Studio and Open Broadcast Studio. OBS facilitates streaming to YouTube and Facebook.
For drawing I use the Inkscape which competes favorably with the Adobe application Illustrator. Photo editing is done with GIMP — GNU Image Manipulation Program. GIMP is very powerful and is highly competitive with Photoshop.
Blender is an amazing 3D Animation application that will accomplish 3D drawing that is equal to software costing upward of $700 per year. The learning curve for Blender is very steep so plan to haul out your climbing gear. However, video tutorials from both Blender and YouTube will get you started and take you to whatever level you want to achieve. You, of course, need to supply time and creative aspiration.
For management of PDF documents I use Mendeley but have recently been considering Zotero. Both are properly known as reference management software. I am finding that the Zotero application is a bit easier to use with my Open Office writer. Mendeley is very compatible with MS Word. Mendeley has the advantage of maintaining an internal database of your PDF documents, while with Zotero the documents are maintained in your computer’s file system. The advantages and disadvantages of the two systems is, in my view, a tossup.
A simple Google search on any of the applications highlighted above will take you to a trove of excellent information. I usually begin research with a Wikipedia article and then look for details on the application’s website.
My Operating System is Windows 10. Most of these open source applications will also run on Mac and Linux Operating Systems.
Although these applications are free, I highly recommend that you consider making a regular contribution to the organizations that support development.