15 Lesser Known Open Source Applications

Sure, some open source projects get all the glory, like, say, Audacity or Gallery. Everyone knows about them and they’ve been downloaded 17 gazillion times. But what about the unsung heroes? Here are 15 who deserve a bit more attention. Give ‘em some love, huh?

1) SeaMonkey
Remember the old 'Mozilla Suite'? Many people who remember this browser suite have since lost track of it, once it went the way of the stand alone browser sensation. But today, the original suite remains alive and well, yet with a new name, SeaMonkey. Like the original suite, the application set provides a browser based on Firefox technology, a Thunderbird-like email client, IRC and HTML editing options. If you already use two or more of these functions, this may be a switch worth making.

2) Pentaho BI Suite
Business intelligence is not a minor issue for most companies – having a solid open source application that can legitimately compete with the big boys is nothing to sneeze at. Pentaho Open BI Suite provides businesses with enterprise class tools to help in this critical data gathering. Reporting, analysis, dashboards and process management: the Pentaho suite does it all.

3) jGnash
There are a number of solid accounting programs in the open source universe, yet many users have likely not heard of the cross platform program called jGnash. As you might expect, the UI is fairly intuitive for an accounting program, even with its Java core. So long as you have a fairly recent machine, the performance should be about where you need it to be. Some of the features include auto-completion, reports in PDF format, file encryption, investment and account tracking.

4) KWord
If you haven’t taken a look, a program worth exploring is Kword, the KDE word processor application. Boasting nearly everything you might see in Open Office or Microsoft Word, KWord offers a solid option for those who are running Linux and are looking for a lighter-weight word processor.

5) KSpread
Not to be confused with some sort of strange new butter spread for toast, this is the KDE desktop answer to your spreadsheet needs on the Linux platform. It’s not a fluid transition from MS Excel by any stretch of the imagination, however, I’ve found that KSpread will help users tackle their most common spreadsheet needs, once they get the hang of the new user interface. Designed to make short work of formulas, tabbed based inventories and other mathematical events, this is a fantastic companion to the KWord application mentioned in the previous entry above.

6) KPresenter
Yet another KDE application worth exploring, KPresenter is comparable to Open Office Impress or Microsoft's Powerpoint. It provides you with everything you need to assemble a powerful, compelling presentation for the members of the board, or just for fun. KPresenter also enables advanced functionality such as video embedding, and allows the addition of a wide variety of platform-independent clip art.

7) Krita
Despite being someone who uses GIMP almost exclusively for image editing, one program I consider to be a close second in most areas (and perhaps a strong first in others such as how it deals with image colors) is Krita. The overall colorspaces covered by Krita – rgb, grayscale, cmyk, lab, ycbcr and lms – are arguably better than what you might find with comparable paint programs from the closed source world.

8) OpenLaszlo
You may have even used one of the products created by this open source tool and not even realized it. OpenLaszlo, a utility that allows for the creation of Web-based applications, seems so localized that you’ll swear it’s actually running off your hard drive. Despite its localized feel, don’t kid yourself – this is a tool for Web-based development, and is equipped as such.