Open Source

Five open source tools for knocking out business tasks

By // July 16, 2012, 11:00 PM PST // jlwallen

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  • Introduction

    NOTE: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.

    What do we need to produce our work? Although it has changed over the years, certain constants remain. We must produce documents, we must create/manipulate images, we must manage money, and we must communicate and schedule. The open source community has done a great job of creating tools perfectly suited to help you get this work done.

    Let's take a look at five open source productivity tools. (We'll leave out the browser, since we all know Firefox is the flagship open source browser.)

     

    Photo: iStockphoto.com/aaron007

  • LibreOffice

    LibreOffice is the open source equivalent of Microsoft Office. It includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database tools.

  • LibreOffice

    All the tools are compatible with their Microsoft Office counterparts and strictly follow open standards. LibreOffice is free of charge and is available across all platforms.

  • Evolution

    Evolution is to open source what Microsoft Outlook is to proprietary software. A groupware client with email, calendar, tasks, contacts, and notes, Evolution will help keep you connected and organized.

  • Evolution

    Evolution is available only for the Linux platform. There have been some efforts to bring it to Windows, but most all failed or died out when Novell bought Evolution. But if you need to connect Evolution to Exchange, there are tools available to allow that to happen.

  • GIMP

    GIMP is one of the most powerful image editing/creating tools on the open source market, offering similar user-friendliness to Photoshop.

  • GIMP

     Some of the tasks you do with GIMP might take a few more steps than Photoshop requires. But in the end, the job gets done. I've been using GIMP for my book cover design business and it does quite well.

  • Scribus

    Scribus is the easiest and most powerful way to create PDF documents in Linux. And this open source tool isn't just available for the Linux world. You can also enjoy the freedom of creating PDF (and editable PDF) documents on Mac and Windows.

  • Scribus

    With a simple interface and all the features you'd expect in a PDF creation tool, Scribus will help you to get the job done quickly and easily.

  • GnuCash

    GnuCash is the flagship personal and small business accounting software. Although it's only a single-user tool, it can easily handle the management of small business finances.

  • GnuCash

    GnuCash is a double-entry accounting tool, with checking, savings, stocks, assets, expenses, and more. GnuCash offers scheduled transactions, transaction matching, financial calculations, and importing, among other things.

Related Topics:

Open Source Software Security Developer Enterprise Software Innovation

Introduction

NOTE: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.

What do we need to produce our work? Although it has changed over the years, certain constants remain. We must produce documents, we must create/manipulate images, we must manage money, and we must communicate and schedule. The open source community has done a great job of creating tools perfectly suited to help you get this work done.

Let's take a look at five open source productivity tools. (We'll leave out the browser, since we all know Firefox is the flagship open source browser.)

 

Photo: iStockphoto.com/aaron007

About Jack Wallen

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic and Linux.com. He’s an avid promoter of open source and the voice of The Android Expert. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.

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