Hi all! I am a fan of open source and here is a short list of few open source applications that I often use and  think are essential.

1.Firefox- The world’s most famous browser which needs no explanation

2.Pidgin: A free chat client which connects easily to MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, AIM and other chat networks all at once.

3.Thunderbird: A powerful e-mail client which is based on mozilla code, has a built in RSS-reader , spam filter and many other features.

4.Songbird: A music player which is totally customizable via plugins, best alternative to Itunes.

5.VLC:  A free and open source cross platform media player which supports almost all media formats.

5.MediaPlayer Classic: A free media player for windows which supports most audio/video formats.

6.OpenOffice.org: A free office-suite which supports almost all other major documents formats .

7.Handbrake: An open source converter , can convert DVD to mp4, mkv files.

8.Gimp: An image manipulation software which can be used to photo retouching, photo editing, etc.

9.Filezilla: A free ftp software that can be used to upload files to ftp servers.

10.7-zip: 7-Zip is a file archiver which supports major compression formats

11.Notepad++: a free source code editor that supports major computer languages.

12.Wireshark: A protocol analyzer(also called packet sniffer) that can be used to monitor network traffic

13.Eclipse: An IDE(Integrated Development Environment) that can be used to build various applications

14.Sumatra pdf reader: A slim, open source pdf viewer for windows, can also run from a thumb drive.

15.X-Chat: An IRC chat-client for windows and linux. Allows to join multiple IRC chat rooms at same time.

You can install most of these applications at once by using the Ninite multiple app installer.

If you know any other open source software , please let us know in the comments

Wordpress has released the new version 2.9 code named “carmen”

This Release include some cool new stuff for the users like

1. Undo/trash feature:  This is some thing like the one u see on the gmail we can undo the stuff or move them to trash

2.Built-in image editor: Oh my god! I always wanted this feature. It is a real good thing if we can edit(crop/resize/flip) pictures in the wordpress itself.

3.Batch plugin update: Wow that means we can update all the plugins at once.

4. Easier video embeds: Now I dont have to change urls into wordpress embedabble code, I just have to enter the video url and it will do the transformation by itself.

Here is a video made by wordpress to summarize few things about carmen.

Here is the link to download wordpress 2.9