A while back I posted an entry about Simple Center, a media freeware that lets you share and sync your files between your devices, one of them being Xbox 360.
Now, I’ve got two great open source media centers: one lets you hook up your machines to your 360, just like Windows Media Center itself and the other just acts as a full media center.

Don’t know what a Media Center is? See Media Center Wikipedia.

XBMC aka XBMC Media Center – for Xbox 360

Attention! XBMC requires a modded Xbox or else won’t work.

XBMC can be installed on a flash drive and run from Windows, Linux and Mac.
It is available in 20 language and plays almost any video and audio format available today, while MS Media center has a limitation.
For a complete feature list, go to XMBC-Features.

From the page:

Currently XBMC can be used to play/view most common video/audio/picture formats such as MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF plus many more less known formats directly from a CD/DVD in Xbox DVD-ROM drive or of Xbox hard-drive, XBMC can also stream files from a PC over a local network and even stream media streams directly from the Internet.

Because I haven’t got a modded 360 and I don’t intend to mod mine any time soon,I can’t vouch for it so  I am hoping that XBMC runs without problems and any major bugs.
There is a forum that you can turn to in case you get stuck or have problems.

The installation procedure and any other information have been documented on XBMC Online Manual.

If you’ve got any experience with this software, or any thoughts whatsoever, please share with it with us.

Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac.

MediaPortal II aka MediaPortal Infinity

Media Portal will transform your computer into an advanced media center.
From the page:

MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more

According to the FAQ’s, Media Portal II doesn’t support Xbox 360 or Playstation consoles, but I am sure they will soon make this happen.
I’ve installed Media Portal last year and I was quite happy with it.
It is very rich in features; some of those features cannot be found in any other media center I know.

For more documentation and download, go to the Media Portal web site. 
Platform: Windows XP and Vista

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WordWeb- This thesaurus/dictionary can be used to look up words from almost any program.
In addition to displaying sense definitions and synonyms, ….

Windows 98/2000/Me/XP/Vista

PasswordSafe 3.09- Password Safe is an Open Source (free) tool that allows you to have a different
password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without
actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords.

Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP

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Adobe Digital Editions - Read and manage your eBooks and other digital publications.

Fresh Feed Reader - Ajax rss reader running on Adobe AIR. There are lots of other .air apps on the Fresh reader download page.

Vispa - Tweak your Windows Vista for better privacy, security and performance.

Spybot Search and Destroy 1.5 beta- keep the spyware and adware off your system.

iQ-Notes - Sticky notes app for Windows XP and Vista

Vocabula - Improve your vocabulary skills .

A bit help for this software. After installing it, choose a user name to enter,then visit the web site to download the Definition files. Save the file to your disk. Open Vocabula and from File choose Import, and install your definition file.

You’re done!

Final Burner free - Burning software for Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

KompZer - A modified version of NVU html editor.Working on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X

EssentialPIM Free 1.95 - Keep all your data in one place and stay organized. There is also a portable version of EssentialPim free to download.

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