This is the list of the best free and open source software of 2008.

Sound Editing
Audacity
Audacity can handle up to 16 channels at once (with the right hardware) and dubs over specific tracks to create multi-track recordings. Basic editing is straightforward, and the usability extends to advanced features, which range from a drawing tool to alter individual sample points to the envelope tool for smoothly fading volume up or down. If you want to do more, Audacity’s effects let you change pitch, remove background noises, and alter frequencies with an equalizer – which is aided by a spectrogram mode for visualizing frequencies.

3D Modeling
Blender
Blender is a consummate example of the influence and opportunity for open source. Backed by a truly global developer and user community, the 3D modeling and rendering suite runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Irix, and FreeBSD – a breadth of platform support unmatched by commercial offerings. It lacks some of the features and polish of commercial counterparts, but its pluggable raytracing engine offers zippy rendering. Microsoft’s Caligari trueSpace – just made freely available (though not open sourced) – is the only worthy rival.

Web Browser
Mozilla Firefox
Easy and extensible, Firefox has set new standards for the Web browser with the recent 3.0 release. The new look is more streamlined, less clunky, and the active elements such as the newly retooled location bar offer a new way to work with the Web. Security is not only far better than any other browser, but also less intrusive than you might expect. And the ease-of-use additions, such as the ability to save a session on exit and the wonderfully implemented full-page zoom, are instant winners.

Image Editing
GIMP
Just as Adobe Photoshop owns the commercial space for graphics creation, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the top choice for photo retouching and image composition on X Windows systems. GIMP gives you a wealth of functions that nearly match high-cost applications. Complex tasks such as correcting perspective and color are effortless. Other advanced functions include clone (to get rid of unneeded details) and touchup using the healing feature. The software supports both common file formats and unusual ones (including multi-resolution Windows icons).

Productivity Suite
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org is the granddaddy of Microsoft Office alternatives. Its open-source roots show in a set of features and functionality that is perfectly at home in the multi-platform, equation-heavy atmosphere of research and academe. For businesses, the only features that seem significantly lacking are those for collaborating with multiple authors. If you’re looking for a single set of productivity apps that can work on a wide variety of operating systems, then OpenOffice.org is a well-supported, mature solution.

PDF Creation
PDFCreator
At last count, we discovered more than 50 open source or free options to create PDF portable documents. Some are available within other products including OpenOffice.org. If you want a Windows standalone application, PDFCreator should handle the job; it creates PDFs from any program that’s able to print. Plus, you can merge multiple files into one PDF, encrypt the resulting file, and adjust other settings, such as disallowing printing. The software also generates images of documents along with native PostScript files. And for large organizations, PDFCreator plays nice on Terminal Servers.

Cinelerra is a highly advanced and professional video editing, but still remains open source. Cinelerra solves three main tasks: capturing, editing and compositing. There is virtually no limit to the video resolution so whether its standard or high definition (hd) doesn’t really matter in Cinelerra. And when it comes to exporting it supports H.264, which most likely is going to be the predominant format for hd video.
By utilizing OpenGL and compatible graphic cards Cinelerra is able to preview your edited video in real-time - no rendering required. This makes editing a much more simple and intuitive task - giving you full creativity. Video effects can also be added and Cinelerra comes with all of the standard effect plus a few extras - this includes both audio and video effects.
And finally when you have to render your final movie - you can setup a renderfarm of cheap workstations to do the job for you. A renderfarm is a low cost way to get a whole lot of cpu power to quickly solve you problems and finish your jobs.
Please not that Cinelerra is currently only offered as source code - so you need a certain degree of Linux experience to get it running. Also note that even though Cinelerra is open source the main site does not offer community based development. However, the creators of Cinelerra recommends that people visit Cinelerra-CV, which is a community of people working together to improve Cinelerra.

The Sunset Movie. 4185 JPG photos were shot over 2 years and combined in Cinelerra to make timelapse movies of sunsets. Histogram and Gamma were used extensively to correct exposure. ReframeRT was used to adjust speed after the initial timelapse combination.

For Youtube, the original 1080p footage was scaled down to 426×240, sharpened, and exported as H.264 + MPEG-4 Audio.

is a professional open source system to create Windows installers. It is designed to be as small and flexible as possible and is therefore very suitable for Internet distribution.

Being a user’s first experience with your product, a stable and reliable installer is an important component of successful software. With NSIS you can create such installers that are capable of doing everything that is needed to setup your software.

NSIS is script-based and allows you to create the logic to handle even the most complex installation tasks. Many plug-ins and scripts are already available: you can create web installers, communicate with Windows and other software components, install or update shared components and more.

Download from here.