Applications

Open Source applications cover nearly all kinds of use. There is a little tendency toward communications, probably while they are the hearth of the community.

Network applications

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  Apache webserver.
  

  
  The most used webserver in the world. Quite simply without it the web would be a much smaller place. Cross-platform.
  
  
  

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  BIND DNS server.
  

  
  The programme that turns www.bbc.co.uk into a numerical pointer that computers can understand, allowing you to find the webserver on which websites are hosted. Cross-platform(?).
  
  
  

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  Mozilla Internet Suite.
  

  
  Most standards compliant (usable) web browser, far in advance of the industry leading Internet Explorer, a very competant emailer (with various ahead-of-the-game features), a standards based web authoring programme, an IRC client and even advanced tools (such as a javascript debugged) for web programming. Cross-platform.
  
  
  

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  Mozilla Firefox.
  

  
  Arguably the best next-generation stand-alone browser, fast, efficient, extensible and standards compliant. Cross-platform
  
  
  

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  Samba
  

  
  The best remote acess network filing system. not to be confused with a peer to peer file sharing system.
  
  
  

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  Sendmail or Exim
  

  
  The two best email transfer programs, although the question of best depends on what for. exim is the easiest to configure, while sendmail is the most powerfull.
  
  
  

Do not underestimate the power of an Open Source Office Application.

Office Applications

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  Evolution Emailer and PIM.
  

  
  Highly efficient email client and personal information management tools, with loads of advanced features such as Virtual Folders. (Linux, Unix, MacOS X (?)).
  
  
  

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  Emacs editor.
  

  
  Far more than just an editor, you can do just about anything in the universe with this tool. It is a word processor (using LaTeX and generating pdfs). It is a text editor (html, XML, CSS etc), as a Wiki and blogging tool, calendar, diary, reminder handler etc.
  
  You either love it or you hate it. (Linux, Unix (?)).
  
  
  

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  Openoffice.org Office Suite.
  

  
  Arguably better than leading competitor Microsoft Office, there are many features that MS Office lacks that makes this suite a winner, though some other possibly useful functions are missing. Cross-platform.
  
  
  

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  MySQL
  

  
  A relational database which is magnificently scaleable.
  
  
  

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  Gaim Instant Messaging Application
  

  
  Gaim is open source and is available for both Linux and Windows. Its major advantage is that supports almost all IM protocols, including MSN, ICQ, AOL and Yahoo (Currently on version 0.70 where above 1.0 is concidered stable and released to the public. . .)
  
  
  

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  Jabber/XMPP
  

  
  Instant messaging protocol - due to its flexible, distributed, extensible architecture, and its server-side solution to connecting to other protocols (via "gateways"/"transports").
  
  
  

Hollywood has been framed by Open Source animations

Multimedia Applications

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  Cinepaint
  

  
  A program which used to be known as film gimp due to being an offshoot from the standard graphics program "The Gimp" The 'Gnu Image Manipulation Program' was used for films like scooby-doo, stuart little, sixth day, Dr dolittle 2, the fast and the furious 2 and stuart little 2.
  
  
  
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  Well, these are not really applications
  

  
  Ogg Vorbis music format.
  

  
  Open source, patent-unemcumbered music file-format. A sort of advanced MP3 equivilent, free to use, create, and incorporate into other things, and sounds great even with low file sizes. Cross-platform.
  
  
  

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  FLAC audio format.
  

  
  Free Lossless Audio Codec, for compressing audio without losing any information. Cross-platform.