Aaron Toponce

First off, PortableApps Suite.

When I stumbled upon this, I was ecstatic! A complete suite of Open Source Software tools for Windows users. Even better- they run right off of your portable USB drive!

While the list of tools in the suite is young, and not extensive, it's enough to get a serious Windows user freed from the bounds of proprietary software. In the suite, you have:

• ClamWin
• Firefox
• Gaim
• OpenOffice.org**
• Sudoku
• Sunbird
• Thunderbird
• AbiWord**

That's pretty impressive. Office software, Internet apps, both browser and email, a game, anti-virus software and productivity all in one package that can run comfortably and easily on 512MB of storage space. ** Use AbiWord instead of OpenOffice.org and fit the suite on 256MB!

Get PortableApps Suite for Windows here, or check out other PortableApps here.

Next on the list, The OpenCD

Coming from Canonical, the parent company of Ubuntu, this is a GREAT collection of software. Differing slightly from PortableApps, it features a great list of Free and Open Source Software for Windows users.

This list is a little more extensive. Covering productivity, design, multimedia, Internet/networking, utilities and a couple of games. It features most of the apps from PortableApps, but adds a few:

• MoinMoin
• PDFCreator
• Blender
• Audacity
• Celestia
• 7-Zip
• Notepad2
• Sokoban
• The Battle for Wesnoth

All bundled software is found on a single CD, and needs to be installed onto your system. You can download the CD either directly, or through Bittorrent, the preferred method.

And last, but definitely not least, Software For Starving Students

What list would be complete without recognizing local talent? Software for Starving Students (SSS) comes straight out of Utah with the talent of the students from BYU. SSS aims at not only freeing the Windows bound, but the Macintosh bound as well. The latest release is 2006.01 with 2007.01 just weeks away.

SSS has even a more extensive list than The OpenCD or PortableApps. Such extra software includes, but not limited to (but in alphabetical order):

• Ant Renamer
• Azureus
• BZFlag
• DeepBurner Free
• Dia
• Eraser
• FileZilla
• GNU Chess
• Inkscape
• Paint.NET
• PuTTY
• Tux Paint
• Tux Racer
• Wink
• WinSCP

Of course, there is much more software available, both for Windows and for Macintosh. Here is a full list of 2006.01 applications. All of which fit on a single CD.

You can find the download here, both for Windows and Mac, Bittorrent and direct.

It's important to mention that these projects are the results of volunteers. I am sure your donation to the project would be appreciated. Even more so, I am sure that they are eager for volunteers willing to make each project the best it can be.