Two Instant Ways for Windows Users to Make Broader Use of Open Source Apps

by Sam Dean - Apr. 06, 2009Comments (1)

There are a lot of Windows users out there who use high-profile open source applications such as Mozilla's Firefox browser, but fewer of them tend to reach for the many free, open source applications that they could easily be benefitting from. Especially among users with less familiarity with what to use, I think there is a perception that jumping into open source is difficult, or overly technical. In this post, I'll discuss two instant ways that Windows users at any level of experience can get and begin using very useful open source platforms and applications.

 

Lifehacker has a good item up about Portable Ubuntu for Windows. I keep this on a USB thumb drive that I carry with me which is a perfect way to use Ubuntu and take advantage of lots of useful Linux applications, even if Linux has never been a primary operating system for you. You can run Portable Ubuntu directly from your USB thumb drive, and run its GNOME-based desktop directly inside Windows if you want a quick, easy solution for having access to many good applications.

You can download Portable Ubuntu here. For running applications, and for adding and removing them, you simply take advantage of menus available to you from your Windows desktop--easy.

I've written before about the PortableApps suite of open source applications which delivers you a bushel of open source applications in one download. The applications are also customized so that you can easily carry and run them from a USB thumb drive, available to you anywhere. Among many other titles, you get ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Mozilla Sunbird - Portable Edition (calendar/task manager) and Mozilla Thunderbird - Portable Edition (email client). All of the applications are selected for their quality, and you can choose whichever ones make sense for you. PortableApps is also out in an upgraded new version.

We've covered lots of other solutions for Windows users who want to extend much deeper into open source applications, but the choices found in this post are particularly simple ways to get going quickly. 


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1 Comments
 

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Ann


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