OStatic

Our sister blog jkOnTheRun has a good story about eeebuntu, a new Ubuntu Linux distribution that is specifically customized for Asus' popular Eee PC laptops. You can go with the snazzy Compiz Fusion enabled GNOME version or go plain-vanilla with the Ubuntu Netbook Remix packages. You can get the distro here, and you can quickly return to the Eee PC's normal Xandros Linux if you want. Quite a bit of open source software comes with eeebuntu, including Working WiFi, OpenOffice, Pidgin, Skype, Firefox 3.0.1, and the VLC media player. Those little Eee PCs are a steal at around $350, by the way. I have one. Check out jkOnTheRun's thoughts, with video.

I use a ton of software applications, but a major portion of the time I spend using a computer goes to writing, and creating documents. There are many good open source tools for everything from word processing, to desktop publishing, to booklet creation, to weaving words and graphics together. In this post, I'll cover six free applications--five of them open source and one freeware app--that can help you create eye-catching documents.