Although OpenOffice.org Writer and AbiWord top the list of open source software for those who write for work or fun, they are not the be-all-and-end-all of writing tools. In fact, there are quite a few other nifty applications that can help you to collect ideas, manage notes, edit documents, and even improve your writing.

Although OpenOffice.org Writer and AbiWord top the list of open source software for those who write for work or fun, they are not the be-all-and-end-all of writing tools. In fact, there are quite a few other nifty applications that can help you to collect ideas, manage notes, edit documents, and even improve your writing.

Linux has plenty of flowchart tools to satisfy nearly any need. Once of those tools is Dia. Dia is an open source, GTK+-based diagram creation tool for Linux.

Despite the fact that open source has specialty label-and-business-card programs, most users are going to continue to create their documents in the word processor they feel most comfortable with like OpenOffice.org Writer.

Wikis are a great way to collaborate on text documents, but different wikis sometimes use incompatible wiki markup languages, and few wikis provide simple WYSIWYG editors to shorten the learning curve. Even for those fluent in wiki markup, using a word processor to create wiki content is often more convenient -- especially for publishing existing documents and for creating complex tables.

openSUSE 10.3 contains much more tools to manipulate RPM-based software and wrap it into a numerous ways for delivery, from a simple repository to a complete appliance creation.

"Emacs Muse 3.20 is now available. Emacs Muse is an authoring and publishing environment for Emacs. It simplifies the process of writing documents and publishing them to various output formats. One of the principal aims in the development of Muse is to make it very easy to produce good-looking, standards-compliant documents..."

TeX and LaTeX produce impeccably laid-out documents, and are the only practical way to show some mathematical equations. This GUI tool acts as an "integrated development environment" for the command-line document preparation tools.

"I am pleased to announce the release of Emacs Muse 3.12. Emacs Muse is an authoring and publishing environment for Emacs. It simplifies the process of writing documents and publishing them to various output formats. One of the principal aims in the development of Muse is to make it very easy to produce good-looking, standards-compliant documents..."