For those with lots o' screens

Pogosuzy said:
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/ for Adio Editing.
I'll have to do some more searching for Video editing though.
As for CAD SW and games, you are probably right.

There is quite a lot of really good quality, free, open source software alternatives out there. Problem is the reverse is also true, there is alot of worthless stuff too. You have to pick and choose I guess :p
That's a MIDI sequencer. Not terribly useful unless you're into electronica now a days.

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is probably the best of the freeware audio software out there and it still doesn't hold a candle to Sound Forge, Protools, Cakewalk, etc.

GIMP is good, but its no Photoshop.

I'm still waiting for a freeware desktop OS that's as good as WinXP or OSX.

This isn't a complete dog on freeware. There are good things out there. But to say "no one should ever have to pay for software" is about the most ignorant thing I've ever read and I'm sure just about anyone who writes code for a living would appriciate you devaluing their career to be worthless.
 
theacoustician said:
That's a MIDI sequencer. Not terribly useful unless you're into electronica now a days.

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is probably the best of the freeware audio software out there and it still doesn't hold a candle to Sound Forge, Protools, Cakewalk, etc.

GIMP is good, but its no Photoshop. (Give GIMP Shop -http://plasticbugs.com/index.php?p=241- a try! ;) )

I'm still waiting for a freeware desktop OS that's as good as WinXP or OSX.

This isn't a complete dog on freeware. There are good things out there. But to say "no one should ever have to pay for software" is about the most ignorant thing I've ever read and I'm sure just about anyone who writes code for a living would appriciate you devaluing their career to be worthless.

As a professional software engineer working in industry, I definately agree with that point of view. Profesionally developed software that costs money is more often than not of better quality. The problem is that alot of the time it costs too much for any one outside of an office/work environment. For people who want to learn a new technology, or pick up a hobby, open source software is good to have.

Most of the really good open source software out there is backed by a larger company with money and pro developers, Apache/Eclipse/Novell/RedHat/OpenOffice.org/etc...

As for a new XP/OSX replacement, I think Symphony OS ( http://www.symphonyos.com/ )shows quite a bit of promise, especially from a usability / productivity / user friendly front! :)
 
Pogosuzy said:
As a professional software engineer working in industry, I definately agree with that point of view. Profesionally developed software that costs money is more often than not of better quality. The problem is that alot of the time it costs too much for any one outside of an office/work environment. For people who want to learn a new technology, or pick up a hobby, open source software is good to have.

Most of the really good open source software out there is backed by a larger company with money and pro developers, Apache/Eclipse/Novell/RedHat/OpenOffice.org/etc...

As for a new XP/OSX replacement, I think Symphony OS ( http://www.symphonyos.com/ )shows quite a bit of promise, especially from a usability / productivity / user friendly front! :)
BeOS was supposed to be the one. :( RIP Be Inc.