I'm Chris Walden, managing editor of Open Source on developerWorks. This group was initially started as an experiment with the developerWorks community tools, but I'd like to change that. I'd like to see it become a real reflection of the community who are using open-source projects every day to get real work done.

I became a full-time Linux user many years ago. I started by playing with Slackware, then Red Hat. I've used Suse (both before and after Novell). Right now I'm working with Ubuntu. That shift to using Linux on my desktop forced me to deal with all of the tools that I needed to get work done. Suddenly, I could no longer put off finding open-source alternatives, I had to make it work.

In reality, the situation was not much different than what I had dealt with on my other operating system. I bounced around to other software from time to time when someone pointed out something new. I quickly found tools to fill my basic needs of email, web browsing and document-creation. (I was an early user of Star Office, which evolved into OpenOffice.org and now LibreOffice.) Over the years, what was once a rather primitive landscape of applications has evolved into some pretty nice stuff, nicer than software that I've paid good money for.

On a daily basis I'll use the following projects:

• Ubuntu Linux - with all of the Gnu tools that would imply
• LibreOffice - office suite that evolved from OpenOffice.org after Oracle bought Sun
• Thunderbird - I have a fairly complex email situation in my personal world. This also interacts with my Google Calendars.
• Firefox - just moved to v. 4
• Truecrypt (to keep an encrypted section on my hard drive for more sensitive information
• Pidgin - mutliple instant messaging identities on multiple protocols, all together in one tool

Others I use often:

• audacity - an amazing audio editor that reminds me of the Cool Edit of yore... I use this now for podcast editing
• GIMP - a pretty sophisticated photo-editing software that I think rivals Adobe Photoshop, if not beating it all to pieces
• inkscape - this does vector-based drawings, similar to Adobe Illustrator... I use it to create a lot of things like signs and logos
• openssh - most people would not think of this as a project, since it's "just there" when you load Linux, but I wanted to give it special attention because it has sure made a difference to me on some remote things that I do

IBM provides Linux versions of some of the commercial tools that I need to use internally, like Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime. Other tools pop in and out, as needed and I'm always discovering more.

In personal web sites that I have, and help manage for others (don't all of us end up helping out with things like that because we're techies?) I use open-source projects:

• joomla - a solid content-management solution that transformed how I think about web sites
• wordpress - another content management solution that I tend to use for sites that are more blog-oriented
• limesurvey - one of my favorite discoveries... a robust, adaptive survey engine

This group is to ask questions, post answers and help show people that Open Source is doing real work right now. I've left the Wiki and the Blog open so that all members can post information. I'd like to see this become a truly interactive platform that provides answers to people seeking to take control of their IT on small and large scales.

So, what is your story? What are you using, or what do you want to use? Share it here and you can get help, or help others.

Tags:  applications linux