View source for Essential Free and Open Source Software

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==Meaning of Free and Open Source==
[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html Free Software] and [http://opensource.org/osd Open Source] are principles that encourage creators to make creative works available to all people, regardless of income, political affiliation, location, etc.. 

Free Software and Open Source Software allow us the ''freedoms'' to 
* '''access''' the tools for any reason (commercial, political, creative, etc.)
* '''share''' the tools with a wider community,
* '''modify''' the tools to meet our specific needs, and 
* '''study''' or view the sourcecode to learn how the tools work. 

These are essential ''freedoms''; not simply in terms of cost, but '''liberty'''.

Please review [http://freedomdefined.org/Definition Freedom Defined] for more information.

==Animation and Simulation==
* [http://blender.org Blender 3D] - Game design, physics simulation, animation, 3D modeling, architecture, video editing, compositing, etc..

==Creative Coding==
* [http://openframeworks.cc openFrameworks] - C++ toolkit for creative coding.
* [http://processing.org Processing] - create images, animations, and interactions.

==Design==
* [http://gimp.org GIMP] - image manipulation, design, web development, and layered graphics.
* [http://inkscape.org Inkscape] - vector illustration, design, layout, web development. Using the SVG standard.
* [http://scribus.net Scribus] - page layout, design, publishing.

==Geospatial==
* [http://grass.osgeo.org GRASS GIS] - data management, analysis, image processing, modeling.
* [http://qgis.org Quantum GIS] - integrated toolkit for geospatial analysis, data management, etc.
* [http://saga-gis.org SAGA GIS] - collection of geospatial tools featuring a simple UI.
* [http://sextantegis.com SEXTANTE GIS] - GIS graphical modeling tool and collection of geospatial libraries.

'''NOTE:''' Quantum GIS has plugins to integrate GRASS, SAGA, and SEXTANTE into a unified interface!

==Mathematics==
* [http://sagemath.org Python SAGE] - [http://sagenb.org Sage Notebook] is a math worksheet, graphing, and publishing tool.

==Statistics and Data Visualization==
* [http://gephi.org Gephi] Graph visualization, analysis, manipulation.
* [http://orange.biolab.si Orange] - Open source data visualization and analysis for novice and experts. Data mining through visual programming or Python scripting. Components for machine learning. Add-ons for bioinformatics and text mining. Packed with features for data analytics. 
* [http://rstudio.com R Studio] - development environment for the [http://r-project.org R Language for stistical computing].

==Video==
* [http://www.videolan.org/ VideoLAN Client] - video playback, streaming, download, and conversion tool. Swiss-army knife for video processing.

[[Category:Free and Open Source]]
[[Category:Design]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:GIS]]
[[Category:Geospatial]]
[[Category:Animation]]
[[Category:3D Modeling]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Machine Learning]]
[[Category:Python]]
[[Category:Data Visualization]]