| Category | Open Source Software | Commercial Equivalent |
| Office productivity suite | Open Office | Microsoft Office |
| Image manipulation | GIMP | Adobe Photoshop |
| Vector graphics editor | Inkscape | Adobe Illustrator |
| Audio editor/recorder | Audacity | Apple Garage Band, Acoustica Mixcraft* |
| Desktop publishing | Scribus | Microsoft Publisher |
| Interactive paint program | Tuxpaint | Kidpix |
| WinCamp Tools (Camp) | Inspiration | |
| 3-D content creator | Blender | |
| Drawing | Dia | |
| Web authoring | NVU | Dream Weaver |
| Image view/edit | Picasa | |
| Real time 3-D space simulation | Celestia | |
| Web browser | Mozilla Firefox | Microsoft Internet Explorer |
| Web browser | Google Chrome | |
| Screen Capture | Jing | Camtasia |
| Ed software (age 2-10) | GCompris |