Open source applications are making their way into the Enterprise and main stream of thins. Lots of these applications
are used to cut down spending and speeding things up in different areas of endeavors. From Web development to
browsers, chat applications, Vector graphics and Animations to Programming and so on. If you are considering using
Linux here are some great apps you will enjoy using;

1. Mozilla Firefox
A Popular and fast web browser powered by Mozilla Community on the GTK framework. It is free and readily available
on Linux (default browser), Windows and Mac OS X. Latest version is 37.1

2. Thunderbird
A very useful e-mail client which can synchronize all your e-mail accounts on your desktop without cost. It is very
useful for setting incoming and outgoing mail servers and readily available on Linux, Windows and Macs.

3. VLC Media Player
By far the easiest Media Player out there. Supports a whole lot of codecs and media files. It can also stream plus it
runs smoothly and consumes less memory compared to other media players. Developed by Videolan team and relies on
donations for support. Readily available on Linux repositories, Windows and Macs.

4. Filezilla
Powerful and user friendly ftp client tool. There is also a server version. If you wish to upload files online to your
host or any only directory or download files either, this baby does a great job. It is open source and available on
Windows, Linux and Macs. Latest version is 3.10.3

5. Inkscape
A lovely Vector Graphic application which relies on donations and is very much alike to Corel Draw. It is lighter, faster
and easy to use. This application is too good to be free but yet it is and very much available on Linux repos, Windows and
Mac operating systems. the Latest version is 0.91 and very stable too.

6. Blender
A wonderful 3D animation tool that offers so much flexibility. This program is driven in python programming language and
has lots of video tutorials for newbies. Blender does animations in 3D, text and so much more plus the rendering engine is
one that gives joy to any developer using an average PC. Available on both Linux, Windows and Macs. Blender 2.7x is about the
latest offering right now.

7. Ardour
An audio recording and mastering application that does a very interesting job for studio engineers. It is free and very powerful
plus is runs on Linux, Windows or Mac. You can also do some sound editing and it supports mp3, flaac and a host of other file systems

8. Chromium/Google Chrome
Chromium is the developers version or open source version of Google Chrome web browser. It is available in every Linux repo and
under constant development. Google Chrome is the supported version of the web browser and we all know is readily available on
Windows but also available on Linux.

9. LibreOffice
Libre Office was forked out of Open Office after Oracle bought over Sun Java. To keep this open source and under rapid development, this
great Office Suite was born. It will amaze you how easy to use the set of Office suite is and it supports native Microsoft extensions like
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and so on. Download the Windows version as it is also available on Linux and Macs.

10. Gimp
Gimp is a perfect photo editing tool for graphic guys and provides a free yet open source alternative to proprietary software like Photoshop.
Plugins can be installed to enhance functionality but then again, GIMP is a powerful app is you know your way around photo editing. It is a
Liux native application but also available on Windows and Macs.

by Emeka Bethel
For http://gtbensmag.com