50 Open Source Resources for Writers
Why pay for Word processors, image editing software and other tools when there are solid open source alternatives around? The guys from Job Profiles just compiled in fact a big list with 50 open source resources for writers. Below you will find my favorite ones:
- Open Office (office suite; forget Microsoft)
- NotePad++ (best notepad around, especially for editing HTML and other codes)
- AbiWord (very light word processor)
- JaLingo (desktop dictionary)
- Ever Note (organize your chapters and essays)
- Sonar (track your publishing contacts)
- PDF Creator (word as good as the Adobe software)
- Prompt (change your prompt to get inspired)
- GIMP (alternative to Photoshop)
- WordPress (if you need a website, go with WordPress)
Daniel Scocco on April 30, 2008 
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My husband is a huge fan of web-based computer applications, and is a devoted user of mind-mapping software. He uses it to outline speeches, and always for his research and writing projects.
Thank you for such an amazing resource. Were it not for blogs like this, I wouldn’t be aware that such things exist.
As for a Photoshop alternative, there’s also Paint.Net.
Share and share alike.
I like the yWriter software very much. http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter4.html
I am using it to write my first book.
For quick word look-ups, I would recommend Dictionary Yahoo widget (http://widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/dictionary); you would need to install the Yahoo Widget Engine, though. 1-Click Answers (http://www.answers.com/main/download_answers_win.jsp) is a very handy dictionary/thesaurus/translator and more. For spell-checking, one option could be Enso Words (http://humanized.com/enso/words/), although it’s a bit resource-intensive and may take getting used to.
Discovering open source software was a revelation for me. You can find something OS for almost any program, even things like PHPList for doing free mailing lists, Coppermine Gallery for a free gallery. Wow! Just added a few more based on your list.
Worth to consider (source available under MIT License): Paint.Net (http://www.getpaint.net). Last time I saw it was still free and seemed to keep going that way. Only Windows, though.