Find an Open Source alternative for every application

I discovered that finding the best open source alternative is not easy. There are so many alternatives, which one is the best one for my application? So I decided to make a selection from all available open source alternatives. My main goal is to select only one alternative for every application.

Every open source alternative I have selected is:

  • My best pick. The best open source alternative for that certain commercial product I could find.
  • Able to run on a Windows platform.
Category Subcategory Most common commercial product Open Source alternative Recommended extensions
Internet Browsing Internet Explorer Firefox

Xmarks to sync your bookmarks between several PC's.
Siphon to sync your add-ons between several PC's.
Cool Previews, preview links and images without leaving your current page or tab.
Quick Translation, simply select any word with your mouse and a translation box will pop-up.
Better Gmail, for some great enhancements to the gmail interface.

  Email Microsoft Outlook Thunderbird Lightning extension for calendar functions
  RSS   Thunderbird  
  Chat MSN aMSN  
  FTP   Filezilla  
  Download   Shareaza  
Office / business Word processing Microsoft Office Word OpenOffice.org Writer  
  Spreadsheets Microsoft Office Excel OpenOffice.org Calc  
  Presentation Microsoft Office Powerpoint OpenOffice.org Impress  
  Database Microsoft Office Access OpenOffice.org Base  
  Pdf writer Adobe Writer PDFCreator  
  Draw Microsoft Visio Dia  
  Project Management Microsoft Project Open Project  
  Accounting   osFinancial$  
  ERP   SQL Ledger  
  Document management   OpenIMS  
Server Internet server   WampServer  
  Mail server Windows exchange server Zarafa  
  FTP server   Filezilla  
  VPN server   OpenVPN OpenVPN GUI
  Virtualization VMWare Xen  
Graphical Image editing Adobe Photoshop Gimp  
  Illustration Adobe Illustrator Inkscape  
Multimedia Media Center Windows Media Center MediaPortal  
  Sound editing Cool Edit Audacity  
  Music collection   Songbird  
  MP3 Tagging   Picard  
  Video collection   Miro  
  Audio and Video Player Microsoft Media Player VLC  
Development Wysiqyg Macromedia Dreamweaver Kompozer  
  Html editor   tsWebEditor  
  Code editor   Notepad++  
  Database MS SQL MySQL with PHP MySQLDumper for backing up your databases.
  Content Management   Joomla Extplorer for online file management, remository for file upload and download.
  Issue tracking   Mantis  
  Version control   SVN  
Utilities Zip Winzip, Winrar 7-zip  
  CD/DVD burner Nero InfraRecorder  
  Sync   Fullsync  
  Program launch   Launchy  
  Password manager   KeePass