Cinelerra | Open Source Video Editing

"Cinelerra is a professional video editing and compositing software. It is designed for the GNU/Linux operating system. It is produced by Heroine Virtual, and is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License. Cinelerra also includes a video compositing engine, allowing the user to perform advanced compositing operations such as keying and mattes."

http://cinelerra.org/

Calibre | ebook management software

calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features divided into the following main categories:

• Library Management E-book conversion 
• Syncing to e-book reader devices 
• Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form 
• Comprehensive e-book viewer 
• Content server for online access to your book collection

(Link)

Mahara | ePortfolios

Mahara is an open source ePortfolio and social networking web application originally created by the government of New Zealand. It provides users with tools to create and maintain a digital portfolio of their learning, and social networking features to allow users to interact with each other. Mahara content management system provides users with blogs, a resume builder, a file manager and a view creator - a tool to help users create arrangements of their content in a particular way for others to see.

The eportfolio site http://myportfolio.school.nz, provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, free-of-charge for all New Zealand schools, is powered by Mahara

VLC | Media Player

This is the Swiss Army Knife of video players. It will play just about anything you can throw at it:

"Simple, fast and powerful media player:

• Plays everything: Files, Discs, Webcams, Devices and Streams. 
• Plays most codecs with no codec packs needed:
• MPEG-2, DivX, H.264, MKV, WebM, WMV, MP3... 
• Runs on all platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix... 
• Completely Free, 0 spyware, 0 ads and no user tracking. 
• Can do media conversion and streaming."

(Link)

Koha | Open source library management system

"Koha is the first free software library automation package. In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of users collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base.

In use worldwide in libraries of all sizes, Koha is a true enterprise-class ILS with comprehensive functionality including basic or advanced options. Koha includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more."

(Link)

Scribus | Desktop Publishing

Easy-to-use, powerful desktop publishing that allows people to produce professional-quality brochures, magazine layouts, newspapers, advertisements etc. easily from just about any computer.

"Scribus is an Open Source program that brings professional page layout and desktop publishing to Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design.

Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation." (Link)

Libre Office | Free Productivity / Office Suite

"LibreOffice is a comprehensive, professional-quality productivity suite that you can download and install for free, with no fear of copyright infringement. There is a large base of satisfied LibreOffice users worldwide, and it is available in more than 30 languages and for all major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux.

What's outstanding about LibreOffice?

• LibreOffice is a feature-packed and mature desktop productivity package with some really great advantages:
• It's free – no worry about license costs or annual fees.
• No language barriers – it's available in a large number of languages, with more being added continually.
• Supports large number of file formats, including Microsoft Office, OOXML, and RTF – both loading and saving."

Use the forks Luke!

Luke Skywalker: These chopsticks are driving me nuts!
Darth Vader: Use the forks Luke, use the forks.

A few big forks in the open source world: OpenOffice.org has become LibreOffice and Open Solaris has become Open Indiana. I've installed Libreoffice and have been quite impressed with it. For one thing, mail merges work perfectly (something I've always struggled with in Open Office) as well as a few other nice touches.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about these forks is that their presence reminds us that no large company can ever control an open source project. As soon as Oracle began putting noses out of joint over their handling of Sun's open source assets, the community just up and left, taking its goodwill with it. A cautionary tale for quite a few companies I would have thought.