OStatic

I've written before about PortableApps and MacLibre, which offer free, single downloads that deliver bushels of top-notch open source applications to Windows and Mac users, respectively. With them, you can almost instantly populate a computer or even a USB thumb drive with useful applications ranging from AbiWord (word processor), to Blender (animation and graphics), to GIMP (graphics), to Adium (instant messaging), to Cyberduck (FTP client), to Firefox (browser). As DownloadSquad notes, Windows users have a similar free option in Smart Installer Pack. ?Here's what you get for free with it.

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.