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The last couple of months have been productive for open source developers, particularly in the desktop arena. Here's a look at a few of the recent releases that bode well for Linux on the desktop.

One of the traditional characteristics of open source software is its constantly evolving nature. So much so that most of the popular software in the Linux world has never actually reached version 1.0.

Happily, that stage of open source appears to be coming to an end, and in the last month alone many applications have made it into full release. Choosing the best of these releases is not an easy task, but there are a few that stand out as being the best contenders for the Linux desktop.

Give it a try

 

Even if you're currently using Windows, it's worth giving Mozilla a try to see just how far open source development can go.

For a start, the release of version 1 of Open Office is perhaps one of the best releases. Open Office has been around for quite a while, starting its early life as parts of Star Office, but the suite of productivity tools has never quite managed to capture as much of the Linux imagination as the Star Office suite. With this release, the application could quite well start making inroads into the desktop suite market, particularly considering the recent changes at Sun which will see Star Office being "bundled" from now on: a euphemism for "Star Office will now cost you money".

Also, with Star Office being available for Windows, Solaris and Linux so far, it makes for a compelling cross-platform option for businesses considering a partial switch to Linux. And by all accounts Open Office is pretty good. Getting your hands on it is not that easy at the moment considering just about everyone in the open source world is busy downloading it.

Cosmetic changes

Not being a particular fan of "suites", I have always favoured AbiWord, a neat little Word look-alike that does most of the word processing jobs you can throw at it. So I was particularly pleased to see that version 1.0.0 of the application was released a couple of weeks ago.

There are a few cosmetic changes to this release and some of the previous bugs have been ironed out, making for a neat alternative to many of the other processing options available. The inevitable question with a word processor, however, is whether it can handle Microsoft Word documents. AbiWord is pretty good at this job and appears to be getting better as it develops.

The biggest release is that of the release candidate one for Mozilla 1.0. Mozilla, the open source browser, has been in the pipeline for about four years and until recently showed some signs of floundering. Pre-0.9.7 versions of Mozilla were dodgy to say the least. But the last few releases have been excellent. And now with version 1.0, the browser wars could heat up significantly. Because Mozilla is cross-platform, chances are it could make for a nice enticement for users to start experimenting with open source software. Even if you're currently using Windows, it's worth giving Mozilla a try to see just how far open source development can go. In fact, while you're at it, give AbiWord a spin as well. It is also available in a Windows version, just like Open Office.

There are far too many excellent open source applications becoming available to do justice to them all, but these three - AbiWord, Open Office and Mozilla - are an excellent collection of essential tools that show that even if open source doesn't dominate the operating system world, it still has an excellent chance of wrapping up a significant portion of the application software world.