Open source software offers seamless features and functionality compared to proprietary software. It cost less and offers great flexibility to users. Web developers and designers always need new tools to develop amazing looking websites and web Applications. Here we list some of the important and widely used open-source software for web developers and designers.
Text Editors
1. Aptana Studio
Aptana Studio is a professional, open-source IDE for web developers to build powerful web applications quickly and easily. Aptana Studio harnesses the flexibility of Eclipse and focuses it into a powerful web development engine. Develop and test your entire web application using a single environment it support for the latest browser technology specs such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Ruby, Rails, PHP and Python.
Link: http://www.aptana.com/
2. Notepad ++
Notepad++is a free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment. Based on the powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size.
3. 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.
Link: http://kompozer.net/
4. Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. Some of the features include.
Link: http://getfirebug.com/
5. Quanta Plus
Quanta Plus is a highly stable and feature rich web development environment. Quanta is based on KDE, It can use FTP and also other KDE KIO slaves from file dialogs or in project settings.
6. jEdit
jEdit is a text editor for developers. The jEdit core, together with a large collection of plugins is maintained by a world-wide developer team. jEdit is written in Java and runs on Mac OS X, OS/2, Unix, VMS and Windows. jEdit is highly configurable and customizable.
Link: http://www.jedit.org/
7. Bluefish Editor
Bluefish is a free and open source advanced text editor with a variety of tools for programming in general and the development of dynamic websites.
8. NetBeans
The NetBeans IDE is an open-source Integrated Development Environment that offers powerful and easy way to develop Java desktop, mobile, and web applications.
Link: https://netbeans.org/
9. Eclipse
Eclipse is a multi-language integrated development environment (IDE) used to develop many Java based applications.
Link: http://www.eclipse.org/
Graphics Applications
10. GIMP
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program it is a multiplatform photo manipulation tool. It is an open-source tool and an excellent alternative to much used photoshop.
Link: http://www.gimp.org/
11. Krita
Krita is a Free and Open Source Digital painting application designed for use by professional artists. Is a great alternative for expensive photoshop software.
Link: http://krita.org/
12. Inkscape
Inkscape is a Open Source vector graphics editor and supports many advanced SVG features. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more.
Link: http://inkscape.org/
FTP
13. FileZilla
FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.
14. Cyberduck
Cyberduck is an open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Rackspace Cloud Files & Amazon S3 browser for Mac and Windows.
Link: http://cyberduck.ch/
15. WinSCP
WinSCP is a free and open-source SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Microsoft Windows. Its main function is to secure file transfer between local and remote computer.
