Native Linux programs: Proprietary software

Antidote

Antidote ( « le remède à tous vos mots » ) is the premier grammar corrector for the French language. If all you know for grammar correction is Microsoft Word's built in corrector, then you have no idea of how powerful such a tool is. To get a taste, you could try the free online BonPatron, only Antidote is much more powerful (admittedly, I've only used BonPatron to a limited extent. While not perfect (only an expert human proofreader could be near perfect), Antidote is so good that, as its creators say, you sometimes feel that it actually understands what you are trying to say.

I pass all my completed French work through Antidote, except for some very quick, simple e-mails. One native francophone has said that my Antidote-passed worked is better than the writing of many francophones. That alone should say a lot for the software. It is the only one of the resources on this page that is not free (and it's not cheap), but it is an absolutely indispensable tool for anyone who regularly does any kind of work. One native francophone professional translator told me that she wouldn't even think of submitting any work that she hadn't passed through Antidote. At the very least, it's going to catch some stupid little typos, which could be embarrassing for a professional. However, unlike all the other resources here, Antidote is not for beginners--their documentation is 99% in French (the 1% in English pretty much explains to anglophones that the documentation is 100% in French).

Qoppa PDF Studio

Google Desktop Search (freeware)

Skype (freeware)

Jungle Disk Desktop (freeware, but attached service is not free)