Sharky's Notebook

This is a list of some very useful applications that can help you in your day to day working. Many of this applications are multiplatform in other words they work in win, linux or mac. I hope that this list helps you in saving a few bucks by replacing a needed nonfree application with a free one.

* This list will continue to change over time, that means that it will be updated regularly with new free to use  recommendations.

Antivirus & Anti-Spyware

1. Ad-Aware 2007 Free - Ad-Aware is no ordinary anti-spyware, it is the original anti-spyware product, offered to consumers worldwide to protect their personal and home computers from malware attacks. And today, with over a quarter of a billion downloads, computer users put their trust in Ad-Aware more than any other anti-spyware software program. Windows only.
   
2. avast! 4 Home Edition -  avast! 4 Home Edition is a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users and non-commercial use. Runs on Win and Linux. * Needs registration to activate the free edition.
3. Avira Antivir - Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus is a reliable free antivirus solution, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs (such as viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc.), monitoring every action executed by the user or by the operating system and being able to react promptly when a malicious program is detected. Works on Win and Linux.
   
4. AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition - AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition is a popular free antispyware solution available at no cost to home users and provides a high level of detection capability.
5. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - AVG Free is the most popular free solution available at no cost to home users and provides the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Anti-Virus Free is only available for single computer use for home and non commercial use. Works on Windows only.
6. ClamWin - ClamWin is a Free Antivirus program for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 and Vista.
7. Windows Defender - This is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected and minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive. Now with 2 free support incidents for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Windows only.
   

Development

1. Eclipse - This is an open-source Integrated development environment written primarily in Java. The initial codebase originated from VisualAge. In its default form it is meant for Java developers, consisting of the Java Development Tools (JDT). Users can extend its capabilities by installing plug-ins written for the Eclipse software framework, such as development toolkits for other programming languages, and can write and contribute their own plug-in modules.
2. Netbeans IDE - The NetBeans IDE is a free, open-source Integrated Development Environment for software developers. You get all the tools you need to create professional desktop, enterprise, web and mobile applications, in Java, C/C++ and even Ruby. The IDE runs on many platforms including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris; it is easy to install and use straight out of the box.
3. Notepad++ - full-featured text editor with syntax highlighting. Windows only.
   
4. KompoZer - KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
5. XAMPP - Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, etc in one package. Works on Win, Linux and Mac

Firewalls

1. Comodo Firewall Pro -  This protective dragon for XP and Vista keeps hackers out of your system, controls which programs can access the Net (its whitelist of about one million means you get fewer pop-ups), and blocks tricky "leak test" techniques. It's both tough and good-looking.
2. ShieldsUP! - Be sure your fire-walls are keeping your always-on Internet connection hidden from attackers. Shields-UP! provides a quick confirmation.
3. SmoothWall Express/IPCop - Got a spare PC running a Pentium 200 MHz or higher with 128MB of RAM? Turn it into a dedicated network firewall with this open-source download.
4. ZoneAlarm Free - The free edition remains a useful protector against hack attacks and against programs that abuse your Internet connection.

Graphics and Pictures

1. JAlbum - Jalbum consists of free album software, free hosting and a creative community. With Jalbum it's easy to create your own photo album site. Just the way you want it. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
2. Paint.NET - Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
3. Picasa - Google's photo manager makes it easy to get pictures off a digital camera, organize them, and even edit and share them. Works on Win and Linux.
   
4. The Gimp - GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. This free Photoshop like application is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
5. Windows Live Photo Gallery - Windows Live Photo Gallery gives Picasa (above) a run for its money, with many of the same photo-enhancing and sharing features—red-eye reduction, exposure adjustment, cropping, color, sharpen, and auto-adjust. What's more, Microsoft serves up histogram adjustment, panorama creation, and photo-CD burning. For Windows only.
   

Instant Messaging

1. aMSN - aMSN is a Microsoft Messenger clone. It allows you to keep in touch with your friends and exchange instant messages and files. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
2. Google Talk - Chat with all of your Google Talk and Gmail contacts in real time, Free PC-to-PC voice calls, Send and receive voicemails, Unlimited file transfers and receive Gmail notifications on your desktop.
3. Mercury Messenger - This is another MSN Messenger clone with a lot of features. Similar to the ones that the Plus! package gives to MSN. It has a fully customizable interface, multi-tab chatting, webcam support, among many other things. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
4. Miranda IM - Miranda IM is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Windows. Very light on system resources and extremely fast, Miranda IM requires no installation and can be made to fit on a single floppy disk or USB drive.
5. Pidgin - This is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once. It supports MSN, ICQ, GTalk, Yahoo, AIM, MySpaceIM, IRC and many others. Works on Win and Linux.
6. Trillian - Access all your IM accounts (AIM, ICQ, Windows Messenger, Yahoo!, and more) from a single interface that also logs all your conversations, if you desire.

Internet

1. Evolution - Evolution is an incredibly versatile email/calendar/PIM that took the Linux world by storm a few years ago. It has been called as an 'Outlook replacement'. Runs on Win and Linux.
2. FeedReader - Feedreader is the most robust, highly-functional personal aggregation solution on the market today. It dynamically reads, collects, and organizes syndicated Web content, and seamlessly delivers it directly to user desktops. With Feedreader, you have instant, convenient access to the up-to-the-minute news you need, without information overload. Feedreader automatically downloads updates from your favorite Web sites. So, it eliminates the need for you to constantly monitor multiple Web pages, while allowing you to immediately identify and retrieve new articles – no matter how long you’ve been away from your desk. Works on Win only.
3. Filezilla - FileZilla Client is a free, open source FTP client for Windows. It supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS). The client is available under many platforms. FileZilla Server is an FTP server supported by the same project. It supports FTP and FTP over SSL/TLS. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
4. GMail - What to do with nearly limitless e-mail storage space—that's the enviable quandary of Gmail users, who can store up to 5.5GB worth of e-mail and chats. And the amount is constantly growing. Other perks include advanced search options, real-time updates, and "conversations," in which e-mail chains are stored in one continuous thread for easy perusal.
5. GoogleCalendar - Featuring seamless integration with other Google products, sharing capabilities, and SMS reminders, this Web app does for calendars what Google did for search.
6. Google Reader - Google Reader is arguably the best RSS/newsfeed reader on the Internet. Read feeds while off-line or on your mobile phone.
7. Mozilla Firefox - Alternative Web Browser with a broad support of Web Standards, great speed, highly customizable and works on many platforms like Win, Linux and Mac.
   
8. Mozilla Thunderbird - Take control of your email account with just one application.Support many email protocols like SMTP, IMAP, Pop3, etc. Many more features not found on Outlook Express. Highly customizable. Works on many platforms like Win, Linux and Mac
   
9. Netvibes - This is a handsome combination of online RSS reader and podcast aggregator, with some widget apps thrown in.
10. ooVoo - ooVoo video chat is more P2P than Skype (no supernodes!), with a better picture. It supports up to six co-videoconferencers, file transfers, and group text chat. Works on Win and Mac.
    
11. Opera - Possibly the nimblest and most usable of all the browsers available, Opera did tabs first and still does them best. Added usability features like Speed Dial and Tab Preview keep popping up in new versions. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
    
12. Putty - PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. Works on Win and Linux (wine).
    
13. Seamonkey - The SeaMonkey project (previously known as Mozilla) is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite (see below). Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users. Multiplatform suppot Win, Linux and Mac.
14. Windows Live Mail - Live Mail not only reads your Hotmail, but also can check POP, IMAP, or HTTP mail accounts. It works as an RSS feed reader and a newsreader.
15. Windows Live Writer - Live Writer is not a word processor, but a universal, WYSIWYG blog-posting tool more powerful than most blog services' own tools.
16. WinSCP - WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Legacy SCP protocol is also supported. Its main function is safe copying of files between a local and a remote computer. Works on Windows.
    

Music & Video

1. Audacity - Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.
2. Cinelerra - This is a highly advanced and professional video editing, but still remains open source. Cinelerra solves three main tasks: capturing, editing and compositing. There is virtually no limit to the video resolution so whether its standard or high definition (hd) doesn't really matter in Cinelerra. And when it comes to exporting it supports H.264, which most likely is going to be the predominant format for hd video. By utilizing OpenGL and compatible graphic cards Cinelerra is able to preview your edited video in real-time - no rendering required. This makes editing a much more simple and intuitive task - giving you full creativity. Video effects can also be added and Cinelerra comes with all of the standard effect plus a few extras - this includes both audio and video effects. And finally when you have to render your final movie - you can setup a renderfarm of cheap workstations to do the job for you. A renderfarm is a low cost way to get a whole lot of cpu power to quickly solve you problems and finish your jobs. For Linux only.
3. DVD Flick - DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation. For windows only.
4. Free DVD Creator - Free DVD Creator provides you a handy tool to convert and burn DVD movies from video files. It can create DVD from all video formats such as AVI to DVD, DivX to DVD, Xvid to DVD, MPEG to DVD, WMV to DVD, MP4 to DVD, MOV to DVD, RM to DVD...Then you can play the DVDs on portable or home DVD player. With Free DVD Creator, you can create DVD movies with NTSC or PAL video standard, 4:3 or 16:9 video aspect, 720x480/720x576 or 352x240/352x288 video resolution. Create DVD menus with built-in DVD menu maker. And burn DVD movie disc or just create DVD files (.ifo, .vob) on your hard drive. With Free DVD Creator, you can easily turn the vacation, wedding and family movies into DVDs that you can burn and share with your friends and family. For windows only.
5. Mplayer - MPlayer is a movie player which runs on many systems. It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5 and even WMV movies. Multiplatform works on Win, Linux and Mac.
6. MythTV- Windows Media Center Alternative for Linux. Use your Linux box as a homespun digital video recorder (DVR).
7. Subsonic - Subsonic is a free, web-based media streamer, providing access to your entire music collection wherever you are. Use it to share your music with friends, or to listen to your own music while at work. You can stream to multiple players simultaneously, for instance to one player in your kitchen and another in your living room. Subsonic is designed to handle very large music collections (many thousand albums). It uses a combination of directory structure and tag parsing to organize the music. Although optimized for MP3 streaming, it works for any audio or video format that can stream over HTTP (for instance AAC and OGG). By using transcoder plug-ins, Subsonic supports on-the-fly conversion and streaming of virtually any audio format, including WMA, FLAC, APE, Musepack, WavPack, Shorten and OptimFROG.
8. VirtualDub - VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).  It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video.  It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters.  VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.
9. VLC Media Player - VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, WMV, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
10. Winamp - Winamp is more than just a player. It's your window to the multimedia world. From MP3s to streaming video, Winamp is the one place you go to feed your audio/video habit. For Windows only.

Office

1. AbiWord - AbiWord Portable is a free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word. It is suitable for a variety of word processing activities and has the ability to read and write a number of document types including Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, Open Document (pre-installed), RTF, HTML, Palm and more. It includes both grammar and spelling checkers as well as an array of other handy features including mail merge capabilities. It also has a plugin system allowing you to add features with available add-on plugins. Works on Win. Linux and Mac.
2. BackPack - Backpack is more than a to-do list site. Your five easy-to-update pages send reminders via e-mail or SMS and include a whiteboard for online collaboration.
3. EssentialPIM Free - Imagine taking the e-mail out of Microsoft Outlook to get a killer personal information manager (PIM). That's what EssentialPIM is all about.
4. GnuCash - GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.
5. GoogleDocs - Google's slickly designed office suite offers online shared word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations-and best of all, finally a solid alternative in the office-suite space to the totally dominating Microsoft. Upload or e-mail your current documents for storage and editing.
6. NeoOffice - This version of OpenOffice.org has the same great tools and price (free), but with an interface designed specifically for the Mac OS.
7. OpenOffice - OpenOffice.org is a full-featured office suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office, Word Perfect, Lotus and other office applications. It's easy-to-use and feature-rich, performing nearly all of the functions you'd expect in an office suite, but at no cost. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.

8. PDFTK Builder - Split, Collate, Stamp, Rotate and Password Protect all your PDFs. Windows only.

9. PrimoPDF - PrimoPDF is a free tool for high-quality PDF creation, comprising a user-friendly interface that enables printing to PDF from virtually any Windows application. Additionally, PrimoPDF provides the ability to optimize PDF output for screen, print, ebook, and prepress, secure PDF files with 128-bit encryption, and add document information (e.g. title, author, subject, keywords) to converted PDF files. Full support for 64-bit machines, double byte character and non-TrueType font support, enhanced support for Microsoft Windows 98, NT, Me, 2000, XP and Vista and improved PDF output also now available.
10. Scribus -  This open-source page layout tool has features comparable to big names like PAgemaker, plus support for PDFs and scalable vector graphics (SVG).
11. Sumatra PDF - Sumatra PDF is a slim, free, open-source PDF viewer for Windows. Sumatra has a minimalistic design. Simplicity has a higher priority than a lot of features. It's small and starts up very fast. Windows only.
12. Task Coach - Task Coach is a free/open source to-do manager with a friendly interface making it very easy to create, organize, and manage all of your tasks. Task Coach features various handy options such as setting start and completion dates for task, creating a budget for a task, adding attachments, reminders and more. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.

Operating Systems

1. ajaxWindows - A virtual operating system (aka Web OS), it uses Asynchronous Java-Script and XML (AJAX) programming to mimic the look and feel of a Windows desktop in Firefox or IE. It stores files (using Gmail) and runs its own applications, plus Web apps like Meebo and Google Maps. If you can launch a Web browser, you can get work done through ajaxWindows.
2. eyeOS - This Web OS has ultra-simplified applications, including an RSS reader, satellite maps, a word processor, even a browser—yes, for browsing the Web while on the Web.
3. Fedora - Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join.
4. Freespire - This community-driven OS is based on Linspire (formerly Lindows)—a Linux distro that looks like Windows, with an emphasis on compatibility with other platforms.
5. Kubuntu - Kubuntu is a user friendly operating system based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment. With a predictable 6 month release cycle and part of the Ubuntu project, Kubuntu is the GNU/Linux distribution for everyone.
6. OpenSuse - This is a community project, sponsored by Novell and AMD, to develop and maintain a general purpose Linux distribution. Like most distributions it includes both a default graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface option; it allows the user (during installation) to select which GUI they are comfortable with (either KDE or GNOME), and supports thousands of software packages across the full range of open source development.
7. Ubuntu - Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.

Peer to Peer

1. Ares - This is a free open source file sharing program that enables users to share any digital file including images, audio, video, software, documents, etc. You may now easily publish your files through the Ares decentralized network. As a member of the virtual community, you can search and download just about any file shared by other users. Latest versions support BitTorrent protocol and Shoutcast radio stations. With Ares you can also join chat rooms or host your channel and meet new friends. Works on Win only.
   
2. Azureus - It implements the BitTorrent protocol using java language and comes bundled with many invaluable features for both beginners and advanced users. It has access to the Vuze network in where you can have a big collection of HD content like movie previews, music videos, tv shows, etc. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
3. Frostwire - FrostWire is a Peer to Peer (P2P) information sharing client for the Gnutella network. This project is not affiliated with LimeWire LLC. FrostWires' source code is Licensed under the GNU GPL Open Source license. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
4. Hamachi - Hamachi is a VPN service that easily sets up in 10 minutes, and enables secure remote access to your business network, anywhere there's an Internet connection. It works with your existing firewall, and requires no additional configuration. Hamachi is the first networking application to deliver an unprecedented level of direct peer-to-peer connectivity. It is simple, secure, and cost-effective.
5. µTorrent - The tiniest BitTorrent client around (only 214K) comes with all the torrent download features you crave. Works on Win and Linux (Wine).
   

Utilities

1. 7-Zip - is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. It supports many popular formats like rar, zip, gz, iso, bin, rpm, etc. Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
   
2. Absolute Uninstaller - Replace the Add/Remove Programs control panel in XP to get batch uninstalls and clear out leftovers that Windows frequently misses when uninstalling.
3. Allway Sync - Sync files between your PC and an external drive, filtering by folder, file name, or file type. The program displays warnings about questionable files before syncing.
4. Axcrypt - AxCrypt encrypts files that are safely and easily sent to other users via e-mail or any other means. Self-decrypting files are also supported, removing the need to install AxCrypt to decrypt. Works on Win and Linux (Wine).
5. CCleaner - The extra C is for crap, and that's what CCleaner gets rid of: all the detritus left behind in the course of using Windows.
6. Eraser - Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows 2003 Server and DOS.
7. GCALDaemon - GCALDaemon is an OS-independent Java program that offers two-way synchronization between Google Calendar and various iCalendar compatible calendar applications. GCALDaemon is primarily designed as a calendar synchronizer but it can also be used as a Gmail notifier, Address Book importer, Gmail terminal and RSS feed converter.
8. InfraRecorder - InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

9. JBidwatcher - A Java-based application allowing you to monitor auctions you're not part of, submit bids, snipe (bid at the last moment), and otherwise track your auction-site experience. It includes adult-auction management, MANY currencies (pound, dollar (US, Canada, Australian, and New Taiwanese) and euro, presently), drag-and-drop of auction URLs, an original, unique and powerful 'multisniping' feature, a relatively nice UI, and is known to work cleanly under Linux, Windows, Solaris, and MacOSX from the same binary.

10. KeePass - KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). Works on Win, Linux and Mac.
    
11. Power Calculator - This XP-only PowerToy replaces the lame Windows calculator with a mathematical powerhouse.
12. SyncToy v2.0 - Make sure folders across your networked computers contain the same files, even on drives that change location and name.
13. Universal Extractor - Universal Extractor is a program do to exactly what it says: extract files from any type of archive, whether it's a simple zip file, an installation program, or even a Windows Installer (.msi) package. IT professional must have tool, it will get that missing library from the setup file without the need of reinstalling anything.
14. WinDirStat - WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows.
15. winMd5Sum - winMd5Sum Portable makes it easy to verify that the files you download are unaltered when on the go. Simply drag and drop a file to the window and it will calculate the Md5 sum in seconds. You can even copy and paste the published md5 sum into the compare box to quickly compare it. PortableApps.com publishes the md5 sums for all its apps, so you can easily ensure that you have the real deal. What's an MD5 Sum? An MD5 sum is a cryptographic hash used to verify the integrity of files. So, when you download a file, you can check what the publisher says the MD5 sum is and compare it to the MD5 sum of the file you have. Windows only.
16. WinMerge - WinMerge is an Open Source visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. It is highly useful for determing what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.

Virtualization

1. Microsoft Virtual PC - Install anything-DOS, OS/2, or any earlier version of Windows-as a virtual machine. It'll run in a separate window on your Vista or XP desktop.
2. VirtualBox - VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction. Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD. Runs runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris.
3. VMware Player - Run virtual machines on your Windows or Linux PC with VMware Player 2.0. This free desktop virtualization software application makes it easy to operate any virtual machine created by VMware Workstation, VMware Server or VMware ESX Server, as well as Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disks. You can also use Player to evaluate one of the many virtual appliances available from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace. Runs in Win and Linux.
4. VMware Server - Begin enjoying the benefits of server virtualization with the free VMware Server. VMware Server installs on any existing server hardware and partitions a physical server into multiple virtual machines by abstracting processor, memory, storage and networking resources, giving you greater hardware utilization and flexibility. Streamline software development and testing and simplify server provisioning as you utilize the ability to "build once, deploy many times." Works in Win and Linux.