| Open source gadgets mean any software whose | | | | Paint.NET to work with graphics and Thunderbird to |
| source code is made available for use or modification | | | | read and write emails. |
| for users or developers. | | | | Don't aspect the open source gadgets to have as |
| The advantages of the open source gadgets are | | | | many features as the paid ones, after all you get |
| evident: since everyone can modify the source they | | | | them for free. |
| are improved continually by software communities | | | | Well known are the open source Google Desktop |
| and the vast majority of open source programs are | | | | Gadgets like: Google-battery (Never lose track of |
| free. | | | | your power. Always tell you how much battery |
| Being free is a huge advantage sometimes you, the | | | | power is left) Google-calculator (Calculator gadget for |
| computer owner want to do simple, one job, like | | | | Google Desktop), Google-cricket-news (Displays |
| editing a document or a picture, and you don't want | | | | cricket news headlines and images), |
| to spend a small fortune doing it, so the free open | | | | Google-cricket-videos (the same like the previous |
| source programs are your best friends. | | | | only it displays videos on your desktop), |
| The most of the open source gadgets were initially | | | | Google-desktop-sdk (Complete examples of using the |
| created for Linux owners, but in the last period of | | | | Google Desktop Gadget APIs) Google-digital-clock (is |
| time more and more open source gadgets were | | | | one of my favorite desktop gadgets, it is obviously |
| developed for Windows. And in this article I'm going | | | | what it does: it shows time, but in a beautiful manner |
| to tell you about the best gadgets for Windows | | | | ),Google-flower-pot (It is a Virtual Flower Pot which |
| users. | | | | will grow to full bloom right before your eyes if you |
| The free and open-source software that you should | | | | give the flowers some water using your mouse like |
| use are: web browsing - Mozilla Firefox, video player | | | | the old Tamagoci games), Google-moon-phase |
| and video podcasting: Miro, instant messaging: Pidgin, | | | | (Displays the moon's current phase) and |
| e-mail - Mozilla Thunderbird, RSS: RSSOwl, | | | | Google-timezone (Find what the time is in different |
| peer-to-peer filesharing: Cabos, video player - Media | | | | locations). |
| Player Classic, DVD ripping and video conversion - | | | | For now the most used software's are the paid |
| Media Coder, word processing suites - | | | | ones, but the free open source ones come fast from |
| OpenOffice.org, podcasting: Juice, sound recording: | | | | behind. Each day communities of developers work on |
| Audacity, photo editing Paint.NET, FTP - Filezilla. | | | | them for us to have a better experience and free |
| I'm currently using: OpenOffice.org to write and | | | | programs. |
| manage documents, Filezilla for FTP connections, | | | | |