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Sure, you can shell out a ton of money for the newest copy of Microsoft Office, but did you know you can get a compatible, if not, better office suite for free? What about all of those IM services you use. Can't stand having three different instant-messaging apps open at the same time? There's something for that, too. Here's a small, but detailed list of free alternative applications. NOTE: Some of these are copied from my startup open-source blog openthesource.wordpress.com

Fir st a small intro about open-source applications:

"Wikipedia: Open source is a set of principles and practices that promote access to the design and production of goods and knowledge. The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is available to the general public with relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions. This allows users to create software content through incremental individual effort or through collaboration."

Basically put, an open-source application is one that is modifiable without limit from the original creator, in the sense that the original code that it was built upon is available to the general public to edit freely. Isn't that great? Most companies, like Microsoft and Apple, don't want you messing around with their programs, so they develop closed-source applications (ie MS-Office / iTunes), which are essentially the opposite of open-source ones.

If you're not very tech-savy, or just don't spend enough time in the Command Prompt / Terminal, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Why in the hell would I need the code to the thing that's already running the way I want it to?" (or something similar in that sense). And my answer is this: You may be fine with the way the app is running, but guaranteed, someone, somewhere wants to improve upon it. And maybe, just maybe, that improvement will make your life easier.

I will mark open-source apps with "(O.S.)

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#1: Pidgin [Instant Messaging] (O.S.)

What is Pidgin, you ask? Pidgin (pronounced "Pigeon", like the bird) is a full featured, open-source instant messenger. Instead of focusing on one service (ie AIM), it supports a whopping 15 services! So if you're the type of person who multi-tasks a lot, and hates having 2 or more chat clients open, this could be the answer to all of your prayers!

Basic Info:

- Runs on Windows, Fedora Core, CentOS / RHEL, OS X [uses Adium] and other Unix- like OSes

- Supports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP,

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