Adobe Acrobat is the companion product to Adobe Acrobat Reader, an application that is able to open, read, create, modify and annotate files in the Portable Document Format (PDF). PDF files are used to publish and exchange electronic documents among knowledge workers world wide and Adobe Acrobat adds a additional collaboration features that support the edit-review-publish cycle.
Some applications like OpenOffice.org, Apple Pages and Apple Keynote provide a partly alternative to Adobe Acrobat, because they have built-in PDF creation capabilities.
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics application that is used for professional design, especially in the print sector. Adobe Illustrator is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
Adobe Photoshop is a raster-based image editing application that is used widely in design and art. Adobe Photoshop is able to open, modify and save image file and supports a large number of complex image operations.
Abobe Photoshop is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
For some use cases and user groups, The GIMP might be an open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
Apple iCal is a desktop calendaring software that comes bundled with Mac OS X. Apple iCal was one of the first programs that integrated collaborative calendaring software using the iCalendar standard.
Apple iCal is available only for Mac OS X.
Apple iCal integrates with the Mindquarry Collaboration server by allowing users to subscribe to task lists in iCalendar format, allowing them to see their tasks on their desktop computer.
Apple Keynote is a slide show authoring and presentation program for Mac OS X.
Apple Pages is a word processing application for Mac OS X that is part of the iWork package.
Apple Safari is the most popular web browser for Mac OS X. It is available for Mac OS X and Windows and is the web browser of the iPhone. Most important advantages of Apple Safari are operating system integration, good standards support and speed.
AutoCAD is a collection of programs for two- and three-dimensional design of physical objects. It is the most widely used computer aided design software in egineering.
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Freemind is an open source mind mapping application available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
Inkscape is an open source vector graphics application that uses the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. It is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
Inkscape Alternatives
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Microsoft Internet Explorer is the most popular web browser among users of the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. The current version of Microsoft Internet Explorer is Internet Explorer 7, which has good support for most current websites.
Microsoft Internet Explorer is available for Microsoft Windows.
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Microsoft Excel is a spread sheet calculator software that is used to manage lists (as an alternative to todo lists and issue tracking systems), as a calculator, as a lightweight database and as a runtime for small business applications. Next to PDF files, word documents and powerpoint slides, Excel spreadsheets are the documents most often shared in teams.
Microsoft Excel is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
Related Programs to Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Outlook is a Personal Information Manager (PIM) for Windows that combies e-mail, address books, todo list and shared calendars.
Mindquarry integrates with Microsoft Outlook 2007 through Outlook's capability to subscribe to shared calendars (web calendars), a format Mindquarry uses to publish task lists.
Microsoft Powerpoint is the most popular application for creating slideshow presentations. In fact it has become so popular that the medium slideshow is about to take over documents like letters and reports. Microsoft Powerpoint is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
Microsoft Visio is an vector drawing and flow-charting application that is used to create business flowcharts, software models, user interface mockups, mind maps and other kinds of diagrams. It is even possible to create gantt charts with Visio.
Microsoft Visio is available for Microsoft Windows.
Originally designed as a word processing application, Microsoft Word has emerged as one of the most versatile tools among knowledge workers that is used (and mis-used) for every imaginable purpose. Microsoft Word is used for creating documents, publishing documents (serving as an alternative to Adobe Acrobat), keeping notes (serving as an alternative to Notepad or Wikis), authoring e-mails and many more.
Microsoft Word is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
Mindjet MindManager is a mind mapping software for Microsoft Windows. It is the most popular commercial mind mapping software.
Mozilla Firefox is an open source web browser that features speed, stability and performance. Mozilla Firefox can be extended through an extension framework and is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Mozilla Thunderbird is an open source mail client developed by the Mozilla foundation that can can be extended to include an address book, a calendar that allows accessing shared calendars from the web, a feed reader that can subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds and a news reader that makes it possible to follow news group discussions.
Mozilla Thunderbird is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Notepad is a text editor application that comes with Windows. Operating Systems like Linux or Mac OS X have similar applications like Kate, GEdit or TextEdit. These programs are frequently used to keep notes and create small text files.
The most important advantage of tools like Notepad over word processing applications like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org Writer or Apple Pages is speed and simplicity.
OpenOffice.org is an open source office suite that contains following application parts:
OpenOffice.org is available for Windows and Linux, with NeoOffice being an OpenOffice.org-based alternative for Mac OS X.
The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a powerful raster-based image editor for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X that is used in web design and software development as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. The GIMP has a competely different user interface approach then Adobe Photoshop, making it hard for most users to switch between the two programs due to the learning overhead.