A writer’s open source toolkit: part 1
Introduction
Open source is a boon for the amateur or professional writer. There's no need to lay out hundreds of dollars for an operating system and an office suite, when tools as good as or better than proprietary software can be had for free. If you have a little tech savvy, all the better, as you may be able to modify the software to suit your needs; however, open source tools are often quite usable for the computer novice.
The following is a partial list of open source tools I use for writing, with some alternatives. The bulk of my writing is literary (otherwise known as "unpaid"), so you won't find bookkeeping or invoicing software here.
Operating system
I use Ubuntu Linux as my primary operating system. In the past I've used both Fedora and Mandriva, and may switch again; they are all good operating systems. If you don't have the option of installing a new operating system on your computer, consider running a Linux distribution from a live CD or thumb drive. I've found Puppy Linux to be surprisingly fast, and a good introduction to Linux for hesitant newbies. You can find Linux distributions for thumb drives at USB Pen Drive Linux.
The ideology of open source aside, in my experience the various Linux distributions are more responsive, more usable and more reliable than proprietary operating systems -- and more likely to run on any computer a cheapskate like me is going to buy.
Outlining and planning
For outlining and brainstorming, I often use VYM (View Your Mind), a mind mapping tool. In fact, I used VYM to outline this article. Alternatives include FreeMind and XMind. I confess that I frequently resort to paper and felt-tipped markers, because no software can offer the freedom of working by hand. However, tools like VYM have their own advantages, not least of which is the ability to turn a mind map into a linear outline with a single command. All three applications are available for the major platforms.
For larger projects, I organize my material in a wiki. Since these are not collaborative projects (I'm too much the hermit for that), the file-based, rather minimalistic TiddlyWiki is a good choice for me. It doesn't require an internet connection, and I can carry my project wiki around on a thumb drive. Some web development skill comes in handy with this tool, if you want to customize the template, but isn't necessary. TiddlyWiki is available for all platforms. I've recently been trying out Book on a Stick (based on Wiki on a Stick), and may well switch. One caveat: I have yet to get any of these wikis to work with the Google Chrome Browser -- I can browse, but can't save my changes.
Writing and editing
I prefer to compose my early drafts in a text editor rather than a full-featured word processor. This lets me concentrate on content without getting distracted by presentation. It also forces me to find ways to emphasis points with word choices, rather than highlighted-underlined-italic-bold-red font choices.
Techies start holy wars over the best text editor. Emacs and Vim are both powerful, but have a steep learning curve. If you're the kind of person who would choose Latin to meet your college language requirement, go for it. My preference is for Geany, which I'm using to write this article. Geany's main audience is programmers and web developers, but while it might have tools a poet will never use, it is relatively clean and bloat-free. Features that come in handy include snippets (text shortcuts), projects, and line-based and paragraph-based editing. Geany is available for all major platforms. Other good open source text editors are Notepad++ (Windows only), Gedit and Kate. The latter two especially might be more suitable for users who are not computer geeks.
For writing exercises or NaNoWriMo, FocusWriter has good tools for targeted writing. For some reason the Linux version is unstable on my laptop, but the Windows version works fine.
When it comes time to revise, spell-check, polish and format my work, my choice is OpenOffice. Many users have recently switched to the OpenOffice fork, LibreOffice. Both are feature-rich, but they have a tendency to be memory gluttons and sometimes a little balky. AbiWord is perfectly adequate for most word processing purposes, has a smaller footprint, and in my experience is faster. It's probably only habit that keeps me from switching. All three applications are available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
The next installment in this series will include tools for graphics, publishing and the internet.
