Testing is an important function of the software development process, no matter how big or small the development project. But not every company or developer has access to professional testing tools, which can run into hundreds and even thousands of dollars. The good news is that they don't need them, thanks to the tons of freely available open source software testing tools.

"Good tools are a developer's dream. I've been hearing the lament for better open source tools for open technology stacks ever since I started working with Mozilla. Today ActiveState is announcing the Open Komodo Project, bringing new open source tools for web developers into the Mozilla world..."

"Open Komodo Project from ActiveState to create Firefox-integrated web developer tools based on the award-winning Komodo IDE [...] The Open Komodo development environment will be entirely open source and licensed under the same terms as Firefox: Mozilla Public License (MPL), GNU General Public License (GPL), and GNU Lesser Public License (LGPL).

Open source tools are viable alternatives to popular closed-source applications and some open source tools offers features or performance benefits that surpass their commercial counterparts.

Using open source tools for developing grid applications opens up a wealth of possibilities. The first is a very rapid development process, especially if you take advantage of script languages like Perl or Python and deployment environments like Apache. There is also a wealth of examples available that can help you.

Over the last decade, free software developers have been repeatedly tempted by development tools that offer the ability to build free software more efficiently or powerfully.

Motorola will preview native Linux and Webkit widget development tools for mobile phones this quarter, it said. Additionally, at JavaOne this week, the handset vendor launched updated Java ME (Micro Edition) tools, and announced a beta release of Symbian UIQ development tools.

System Administrators (SAs) need a set of tools with which to manage their often unmanageable systems and environments*. These ten essential Linux administration tools provide excellent support for the weary SA.

Just about every Linux distro comes with a variety of programming tools. Some automatically get installed when you install Linux, and others are available in the distro's package repositories. But, what if the development tools that come with your distro don't do the job for you?