Meet the free software gang

There are thousands of pieces of free software, many of which are listed in our directory of free software, but of these projects, a few dozen are extremely common — we call these the free software gang.

Graphics

• Blender — make 3d animations and edit video
• GIMP — touch up and crop photos from your digital camera and the Web
• Inkscape — make flyers, postcards and printed materials

Group chat

• The FSF uses IRC, which remains an enduring way to have a text-based chat in real-time, and as evidenced by Web clients like The Lounge, or desktop clients like Pidgin, it can be as stripped down or feature-rich as you like.
• Mattermost — Mattermost is a flexible, free software messaging platform that enables secure team collaboration.
• Rocket Chat — Rocket.Chat is scalable free software, replace email and improve your digital workflow.
• Wire — Wire’s source code is available on GitHub with a GPLv3 licence. A self-hosted server option is available upon request.

Multimedia

• Amarok — listen to CDs, downloaded music, streaming radio and podcasts
• VLC — watch DVDs, videos from YouTube and other downloads

Office and database

• LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org — word processing, spreadsheets and presentations
• MySQL — a full-fledged database that works with OpenOffice.org

Operating system and friends

• Gecko — the same powerful code that powers Firefox and Icecat, in your own software
• GNOME — the graphical desktop for many of the GNU/Linux systems
• GNU — the fully free operating system
• KDE — another popular graphical desktop, favored by many for its powerful features
• Linux — together with GNU, Linux powers the GNU/Linux operating system
• Nautilus — the GNOME file manager

Programming languages

• Java — used in everything from your cellphone to your bank
• Perl — the system administrator's swiss army knife
• PHP — powers Wikipedia and the White House Web site
• Python — popular with Google and NASA, also runs this Web site!
• Ruby — used by many of the Web 2.0 sites

Web and email

• Drupal — run your Web site in style
• Firefox and GNU IceCat — browse the Web at high-speed and in safety
• Mozilla — the all-in-one browser, email and Web-editing software
• Thunderbird — send email like a pro!