Free and Open Source Web Design Related Software

Smultron (Mac)

SmultronThis is my favorite text editor. It's very lightweight, and does a pretty good job with syntax colors for what I usually do (css, xhtml, php, rails, etc.). Yes, Textmate and BBEdit are probably better editors, but this is free. Can't beat that! Don't forget to get the much better looking icons. This site was coded in Smultron.

jEdit (Mac, PC, Linux)

jEditI've been using this at work on my PC, and while it's not quite as pretty as Smultron, it definitely does the trick. It has many more features than Smultron and is a much more sophisticated program, but I'm an aqua-nerd, and jEdit just doesn't look that great. Yeah, that's a horrible reason to dislike a text-editor, but if I'm gonna be staring at it all day, it might as well look cool.

Cyberduck FTP (Mac)

CyberduckI've been using a copy of Fetch that I purchased several years ago, but recently switched to Cyberduck FTP, an open source FTP client that offers pretty much the same features for free. Just as a note, I only switched because I am using Cyberduck at work, and it makes for an easier transition to use the same software when I take work home. Either way, it's definitely worth a download.

Filezilla (PC, Mac, Linux)

FilezillaFilezilla is a FTP client that I use frequently on my PC. It is very lightweight, and is the only FTP client that I use on my PC. A lot of people prefer Filezilla to Cyberduck or Fugu (another free ftp client). I don't really have any issues with any of them.

CocoaMySQL (Mac)

CocoaMySQLCocoaMySQL is a great alternative to online graphic MySQL interfaces like PHPMyAdmin. I use it quite frequently when working on web design projects offline at home.

7-zip (PC)

7-ZipI use 7-zip on my PC to archive all my files as I have noticed that OS X's 'Make Archive' feature seems to leave some junk in its zipped folders.

Aptana Radrails (Mac, PC, Linux)

Aptana RadrailsRadrails for Mac is a fairly bloated and unstable beast of a text editor. However, it is really cool for working in a Ruby on Rails enviroment, or in anything else for that matter. If you have a fairly fast CPU and lots of RAM, it's definitely the way to go (especially once it gets out of beta). This program actually gives you a pop-up that shows you which browsers support the currently selected element.

Vim (Mac, PC, Linux)

VimIf you're really serious about coding, this is DEFINITELY the way to go. From what I hear you will save endless hours of typing and can pretty much throw out your mouse altogether. However, the interface is completely different than most any other text editor, and can take hours of practice to get used to. I'm still trying to get through the 500+ page manual. We'll see how that goes...

Firebug (Mac and PC)

I'm assuming at this point that you already have Mozilla Firefox. If not, you need to get it and Firebug, an amazing add-on that allows you to manipulate CSS style live in your browser (yes, even other people's web pages). Annoyed that someone is using an obnoxious animated GIF file as their background tile? Now you can turn it off. Also, by clicking the Inspect Element feature, you can see exactly what styles are applied to each element in your pages while troubleshooting. I use this thing constantly, and highly recommend it!

GIMP (PC, Linux)

GIMPGIMP is a fairly powerful open source image editing program for the PC and Linux (available for Mac under X11, and through a cool program called Seashore). It's definitely not a replacement for Photoshop, as it is missing some very important features (CMYK-support?), but for web design it does everything it needs to do and a bit more. My only issue with GIMP is that its interface is a bit cluttered, but hey, it's free.

Q EMU (Mac, PC, Linux)

QQ Emu is a free emulator that allows you to run foreign OS's on your computer. I was running XP on my Mac at work (Quad-core Xeon) and it ran as fast as it does on my crappy PC laptop. If you do web design on a Mac, you are going to need a PC handy or Q installed with a copy of Windows XP to test your sites with IE6, which unfortunately most of the world is still using. Alternately, you can hack Vista to run IE6.

Multi IE (Windows XP)

Multi IE allows you to run basically every version of Internet Explorer on you PC at the same time. It has a problem with IE conditionals, but apparently that has been fixed. It is the only way you can surf the net 90's style with IE3.