First Ever ‘Donate To FOSS Day’

In case you don’t know what FOSS is, it stands for Free and Open Source Software. And even though you may not know it, chances are you are using it in some form everyday. I don’t think these guys get enough recognition for what they do, and now seems as good of time as any for a ‘change’.

My goal is to have one day out of the year (February 24) where everyone donates something/supports their favorite Free or Open Source project. It doesn’t have to be monetary.

Can you go without your coffee and send $5 their way? That’s always great and sometimes the most convenient way to donate. But remember, a lot of these guys don’t even accept monetary donations (more so the pure Open Source guys). Luckily there are a ton of other ways to help out.

Write an article promoting how you use the software and how it’s made your life easier. Maybe you email the team and ask them if they need help writing documentation. Does the software invite users to voice their opinion? Take a poll or survey they put looking for feature requests. File bug reports when their software crashes. Are you a UI ninja? You could make a huge impact on how the software works/looks/functions. There are a ton of ways to support these guys without having to spend a dime.

But the bottom line is they deserve our support for as much as we rely on their software. To help get you started here’s a list of Open Source and Free software projects that I use everyday.

Be sure to add what you use in the comments section as well as any ideas you can think of to support the community. If you wrote an article, link it up. Found some way to help the team that I didn’t write here? Tell us what you did!

• WordPress – I try to take their polls everytime they release them so they know what I would like to see in the next release.
• Mozilla Firefox – I think Google has donated enough money to these guys, but I still can’t live without them
• Ubuntu – The very Operating System this article was typed on
• Handbrake – DVD ripping/converter
• KeePassX – Password manager (unfortunately not as powerful as KeePass)
• Audacity – Awesome audio recorder
• Paint.net – A pretty good replacement for basic Photoshopping
• Avant Window Navigator – My favorite dock for Linux
• Gnome Do – Similar to Launchy or Quicksilver
• Filezilla – Best FTP client I’ve ever used
• TrueCrypt – Got something to hide?
• 7Zip – Archiving/Unarching tool
• Apache Web Server – Best web server around
• CickHeat – Great heat map software for your website
• IETester – Test your website in different versions of Internet Explorer
• Synergy – Connect two computers with one mouse and keyboard
• Transmission – Mac/Linux Bittorrent downloader
• Cyberduck – FTP client for OSX
• VirtualBox – Run virtual OS’es
• XBMC – Amazing free media center
• Cinelerra – Video editor for Linux
• MozBackup – Backup Firefox and Thunderbird profiles
• CamStudio – An open source screen recorder that I would love to see get even better
• UltraDefrag – Best defrag software I’ve found for Windows
• Quick Media Converter – This thing can convert just about any video file around
• Greenshot – Screenshot software for Windows
• ImgBurn – All around CD/DVD burner
• Unlocker – Force Windows to quit a program

Spread the Word About FOSS Day

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