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In articles past, we've examined the up-and-coming open source projects to watch, open source applications you simply cannot live without, and other aspects of open source.

With this missive, I'm hoping to put ten open source applications into a new context in an effort to help you enhance your daily workflow. Because once you open up your workflow with open source software, a whole new world of possibilities blossoms right before your eyes.

1. Achat

LAN communication these days is key, but opening up your network to closed source options often means wasted time while employees are talking with friends over the typical instant messenger client.

Offering full unicode support, Achat is one of the best open source LAN instant messengers I have come across to date, when considering text-based communication as the primary goal while eliminating the ability to use to chat on MSN, Yahoo, and AOL.

2. Open Office

This is the cross platform office suite that likely shows up in every top ten list out there, and Open Office remains unstoppable for most office related tasks.

It's got a healthy menu of options: word processing, spreadsheet work, presentation solutions, and a budding alternative for database management. Today's Open Office is more than enough for most students and small businesses. In some instances, its been said that it even is worthwhile for even the most entrenched Microsoft users in the enterprise.

3. Ekiga

In Windows, you may remember something called Netmeeting. Well, Ekiga is similair, but it offers a whole lot more than that dated application. At its core, Ekiga is an SIP, H.323 compatible VoIP, IP telephony, and video conferencing application. You can use it in your office to talk to and video conference with whomever is using a compatible application. In short, anyone using this app or something using SIP or H.323 technology.

Ekiga does offer support for NAT, if needed and Rendez-Vous support for other users within your local LAN. Rendez-Vous is exciting, because other Ekiga users will simply appear as available without needing to add each person -- this is helpful in larger offices.

4. eGroupware

They say that advanced collaboration comes at a price, but when considering eGroupware, it seems that there may be an exception to this rule. A platform-independent groupware appliance server, eGroupware provides tools ranging from common apps like calendering and email all the way down to more specialized abilities such as file and project management.

Perhaps to be considered more of a suite of applications than merely a single application itself, eGroupware is definitely the way to go if your company is looking for something powerful and highly customizable.

5. RT -- Request Tracker

Having access to a strong, reliable, customizable ticketing system is becoming increasingly important in today's business world. And RT is just such a solution. It provides your enterprise environment with just the kind of strong customer support tools they need to get the job done.

Advanced features include critical system metadata tracking, time spent per action, due dates, and estimated time to completion. Providing any sort of issue tracking without a reliable ticketing system is problematic at best.

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