"Open" for Business

I have a slight personality disorder when it comes to technology.  I love and advocate open-source tools and have donated money and code back to a number of projects, but at the same time I use a lot of Microsoft products and actually evangelize Microsoft much more frequently than any other open-source advocates I know of.   I guess I am a personal believer in the right tool for the right job rather than a one-size-fits all approach to IT (although easier stated than implemented)  But I have decided that the case for open-source software is better suited in our current economic climate.  So below is my list of tools that I or people I have worked with have used that are free or almost free alternatives to common business applications:

• Server Operating System Winner: Debian Linux (http://www.debian.org/) : Although I currently operate a Windows network I prefer my production systems to run on Linux.  My flavor of the day is Ubuntu Enterprise Edition or Debian.  Windows has made great strides with security over the last few years, but Windows requires too much over-head, rebooting, patch management, virus protection, etc that increase indirect IT costs.
• Desktop Operating System Winner: Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntu.com/) : This is very popular right now and has great support for drivers, WiFi, Bluetooth, DVD burning, etc.  It can also be customized to feel very Windows-like for converting end-users.
• Anti-Virus Winner : AVG (http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage) : Although Linux and apple do not really require AV software, if you choose to use windows anyway, this is great free anti-virus application.
• Anti-Spyware Winner : Spyware Doctor (http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/) : Again this is for those of you on windows machines.  It is a little resource intensive at times, but still better than SpyBot and Ad-Aware if you ask me.
• Photo Management Winner : Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/) : This is another Google application which you'll see a lot of on my list, but it truly does do a good job of picture management, red-eye reduction, etc. 
• Identity Management Winner: OpenLDAP (http://www.openldap.org/) : Although I've used ActiveDirectory heavily as of late and eDirectory before that, most open-source tools will have a LDAP compliant connector that will allow you to have a single-sign-on process within your organization.  Although not extremely easy to configure in a secure manner, OpenLDAP is very easy to get installed and running.
• Collaboration Suite Winner : Zimbra (http://www.zimbra.com/) : I happen to believe that Exchange server is still the best and most widely adopted email and collaboration suite on the market, Zimbra is about as close as anyone else I have seen to an Exchange-Killer.  It has all of the basic features 90% of all companies out there will need and has a fairly impressive web-interface for end-users.
• Collaboration Suite Runner-up : Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps/) : If you are not too paranoid about having your data housed a large conglomerate company, the Google Apps (Email, Calendaring, Contacts, Documents) is probably what I would recommend to companies with no IT staff.  Although you can purchase hosted solutions of Zimbra, Google is FAR easier to setup, maintain, and use for that matter.  The professional edition of Google Apps does cost money, but by purchasing it you can use LDAP authentication and maintain your single-sing-on initiative.
• CRM Winner : SugarCRM (http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/) : Salesforce.com is the 800 pound gorilla in this market and they have a great solution, but it is very expensive in my view.  SugarCRM has a large sub-set of the features and was even modeled after Salesfore.  But having the source code allows for even more configuration and customization to meet your specific needs.  I love this tool - it's well built and architected with some great web-based customization requiring no code changes at all.
• Office Productivity Winner : OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/) : I think that MS Office is stable in the business world, so I am surprised by the lack of competition in the office productivity arena, but OpenOffice does everything Office can but does not require cutting a large licensing check to Microsoft every year.  Again Google Docs is probably what I would recommend, but there are still too many end-users out there that are not going to be able to use a web-site to create a complex Spreadsheet.
• Phone System Winner : Asterisk (http://www.asterisk.org/) : Although I have not as of yet implemented this myself, I have seen tons of demonstration with it being used and I have had large telcom companies tell me this is what they do and they recommend.  Some hardware is obviously required, but I could make a decent case for dropping the expense of desktop phones and using SIP compliant SoftPhones with Bluetooth headsets and be just as or even more effective.
• Conference Bridge Winner : FreeConferenceCall.com (http://freeconferencecall.com/) : They do not issue you a toll-free number like many bridges do, but this is great service for just holding standard calls with a lot of people present.
• Web Conference Solution Winner : Yumga Skype Edition (https://www.yugma.com/) : I love GoToMeeting and other tools like that to do product demos and sales presentations, but this one is decent considering the free price tag.  It also alows Mac and Linux users that not all of the big boys support yet.  So it's a great tool and couple with Skype for the voice component, your phone calls are also free (so long as they install skype as well - calling land lines does cost money)
• Project Management Winner : NOBODY  : Needless to say I am throughly dissatisfied with this market.  I have used DotProject, Basecamp, @Task, MS Project, ZoHo, Trac, etc. and I don't really love any of them.  Plus there are no good opensource ones that I have found.  If anyone knows of one - let me know!
• Programming Language Winner : PHP (http://php.net/) : This is the programming language that I would recommend to small companies on a budget.  There is a lot of documentation on the language, it's free to use, it's well-supported, well developed, and there are plenty of resources to hire from.  C# is a great language and has a very "enterprise" brand around it, but it's expensive to use and limits your infrastructure to a great degree.  Java is also very popular and can keep costs low, but I have found it is a "heavy" language that reduces a company's ability to be as nimble as some other "lighter" languages.  .  Ruby is also very popular and has it's place, but be careful about a long-term strategy with Ruby on Rails.
• Programming Language Runner-up : Python  (http://www.python.org/) : Python is actually a great language and seems to be the preferred language of a lot of programmers who have used multiple different languages (including Google).  It's efficient and fast but has a much smaller pool of resources to hire from.
• Web Server Winner : Apache 2 (http://httpd.apache.org/) : Having used IIS 5 & 6 for a number of internal projects and Tomcat on some production systems this one was an easy sell for me.  PHP can run great on windows with fast-cgi, but apache just seems to be the default answer on this one.  I typically will also use lighttpd as either a sorry server while apache is down for deployments or for serving up simple images and various media for more complex systems.
• Database Winner : PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org/) : This one is one where I get rather passionate about.  I will advocate this database until the day I die.  It is amazing and a MUST for any company who is frustrated by MySQL (and I know you're out there - whether you want to admit it or not)  If you can't afford Oracle but want the stability and support for triggers, stored procedures, domains, etc. this IS your answer.  We had MySQL crash a few times a month in a distributed SaaS application and after switching to PostgreSQL we went to a zero crash rate.  Our primary instance was alive for well over 18 months before we had to reboot the server for OS maintenance.
• Integrated Development Environment Winner : Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/) : Of all the IDE's on the market, this one is by far gain the most ground from my prospective. Companies like Spring and Zend have dropped their own IDEs in favor of just skinning Eclipse.  I use it for both Java and PHP and love it.
• Text Editor Winner : TextPad (http://www.textpad.com/) : When modifying Unix, ASCII, and SQL type files don't mess around with the default WordPad or NotePad.  TextPad is very configurable and has TONS of loadable dictionaries for great code highlighting in just about any language you want. 
• Version Control Winner : Subversion (http://subversion.tigris.org/) : When it comes to version control, SVN has serious problem with merging and can be a serious risk to a project.  I here GIT is pretty good but never used it myself.  All I know is SVN works great for most implementation and the use of third party tools can overcome a lot of the gaps left in subversion.  But with SVN at the party, no one should be using CVS anymore if you ask me.   If you are on windows, then TortoiseSVN is the best client I have been able to find so far.
• Bug Tracking Winner : Mantis (http://www.mantisbt.org/) : This is the best free one that I have used.  I hated Bugzilla with a passion - I seriously could not stand that thing.  But I actually love Jira and the other Atlassian products, but they are not free as of yet.  Although they recent announced a $10 price tag for a limited license of Jira! 
• Continuous Integration Winner : CruiseControl (http://cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/) : It is fairly simplistic in nature and not extremely feature rich, but does a great job and has plug-ins for a number of other open-source tools.  I used it with both Java and PHP and thought it was great.  We used Hudson as well and I have no complaints with that tool, but again Atlassian (makers of Jira) have one that I think I'd like, but have not had an opportunity to use it yet.
• Web-based Regression Testing Winner : iMacros Firefox Addon (http://www.iopus.com/iMacros/firefox/) : I think for larger scale implementations something like Selenium is probably much more fitting, but it can be time consuming to setup and script.  So for easy simple testing of very basic web applications where teams of QA people are not involved, I found a number of issues with deployments using this simple tool.  Obviously I could not use it with IE as an add-on however.
• Test Case Management Winner : TestLink (http://blog.testlink.org/) : In my search to find a solution I tried a number of different options and of the free ones, this is the one I liked the best. Unimpressed with the user-interface however.  It's a little hard to navigate and not laid out well at all.  You can tell it was designed by the engineers ;)
• Web Browser Winner : Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome) : I am a fan of this browser.  Late to the game, but superior in my humble opinion.  Firefox is a memory hog and when it crashes it tanks everything.  Chrome runs independent processes for each tab.  It's laid out well and beyond anything else, the merging of the address bar and the Google search bar into the same field is by far my favorite feature.
• E-Commerce Shopping Cart Winner : Magento (http://www.magentocommerce.com/) : This is another one that I was so impressed with that I will evangelize it for some time.  It's built on a solid MVC framework, it's easy to install and deploy, and has a TON of features.  This is beyond better than OS Commerce, ZenCart, and others.
• Content Management / Blog Winner : WordPress (http://wordpress.org/) : Although I've been nervous about installing this due to security issues in the past, this is the easiest way to get a simply website up that will allow non-technical people control over the web content.  It has SEO plugins and WYSIWYG editors that make it so simple that even your marketing staff can use it  ;)  I was not all that impressed with Joomla to be honest.
• Document Management Portal Winner : Alfresco (http://www.alfresco.com/) : MS SharePoint is pretty common place in alot of organizations and happens to be a useful application but it is not necessarily cheap nor easy to implement.  Alfresco has half the amount of features and is just as cumberson to use at times, but does provide an open-source alternative to get similar results without the costs.  Be forewarned however, downloading and installing this will put you on their hit list for marketing phone calls and spam.

Hope it helps someone save some money.  Remember to support you open-source community!