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LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
OTHER COMPUTER STUFF!
RADIO STUFF
STREAMING MEDIA STUFF
OTHER STUFF!
| Intro to Linux |
Getting Started |
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Linux Software |
But I'm afraid to change from Windows!
Not to worry! There's lots of free and open source software available that'll run on your Window$ computer (and often on your Mac too!) that will save you a bundle over running proprietary software.
More important than that, it'll give you a bit of freedom from your proprietary operating system!
"Open
Office.org" is an absolutely
terrific free and open source office suite that should suit most folks
needs. In fact I'm quite comfortable saying that 90% of
home users can dump MS Office in favour of Open Office.org!
And, if you're a business user and aren't using the collaboration tools
contained in MS Outlook, and aren't exchanging overly complex documents
with external users, you can dump MS Office as well.
As of this writing its currently on version 2.3.x with version 3.0 scheduled to be released in the fall of 2008. There are versions for Windows, Mac OSX along with Linux/Unix.
As of this writing its currently on version 2.3.x with version 3.0 scheduled to be released in the fall of 2008. There are versions for Windows, Mac OSX along with Linux/Unix.
With
"OO.o" you can do
word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations along with many
other things. You can also export files into the "portable
document format" or "pdf". You can export your presentations
into "Flash" format (.swf) for use on a website. It's also
available in dozens of languages and you don't have to pay for upgrades!
It can
also save files in
MS Word (.doc), MS Excel (.xls) and MS Powerpoint (.ppt) formats so
that you can exchange documents with your Microsoft Office-using
friends. Natively however it saves documents in the
"OASIS open document format" which any software vendor is allowed to
use (which Microsoft has been dragged kicking and screaming into
supporting). The open document format was certified as
an ISO standard for the exchange of
electronic documents in July, 2006.
Microsoft's reluctant
support of "ODF" is not a reason
to stick with MS Office. It's a reason to dump MS Office!
If
Microsoft is creating obstacles with inter-operability, I think it
makes much more sense to go with folks that "play nice" with others.
You can get ODF plug-ins for Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint here. However these plugins are only available for MS Office 2007, 2003 and XP.
You can get ODF plug-ins for Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint here. However these plugins are only available for MS Office 2007, 2003 and XP.
Abiword
is a free and open source
word processing programme for
Windows, MacOSX, Linux and various versions of Unix. It's
very "lightweight" and doesn't require much in the way of computer
speed and RAM. It'll run on an old 486DX computer with as little
as 16 MB of RAM. On Windows it even works with Windows 95(b
version only).One nice thing about it is that unlike Open Office, it will read "Wordperfect" documents as well as Word, RTF, html and many other formats.
I've successfully run Abiword on an old first generation 120 MHz. Pentium with only 32 MB of RAM.
Mozilla
Firefox is
a wonderful web browser from the "Mozilla Foundation" that's available
for Windows, Mac and Unix/Linux. Firefox makes it simple to
import all of your bookmarks and settings from Microsoft Internet
Explorer when you first set it up.
I've found that there really isn't much reason to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer any more, because Firefox is just soooooo good! It's worth it for the "tabbed browsing" alone...something that "IE" didn't introduce until Version 7. And of course now that they've introduced it, they're acting like they invented it...when every other web browser has had it for years! IE7 only works on Windows XP and the newly released Windows Vista. If you're using an older version of Windows, your stuck with IE 6.0 (the "Swiss Cheese" of web browsers from a security perspective).
You can search from within the browser using many different search engines. You can also easily "add" additional search engines.
The other "neat" thing about Firefox is all of the "extensions" available for it that allow you to extend your browser's functionality. There are extensions that give you additional abilities to block unwanted ads, download flash videos from sites like Youtube.com and many other cool things.
I've found that there really isn't much reason to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer any more, because Firefox is just soooooo good! It's worth it for the "tabbed browsing" alone...something that "IE" didn't introduce until Version 7. And of course now that they've introduced it, they're acting like they invented it...when every other web browser has had it for years! IE7 only works on Windows XP and the newly released Windows Vista. If you're using an older version of Windows, your stuck with IE 6.0 (the "Swiss Cheese" of web browsers from a security perspective).
You can search from within the browser using many different search engines. You can also easily "add" additional search engines.
The other "neat" thing about Firefox is all of the "extensions" available for it that allow you to extend your browser's functionality. There are extensions that give you additional abilities to block unwanted ads, download flash videos from sites like Youtube.com and many other cool things.
Sea
Monkey is a a free and open source "all-in-one" internet
application. It's the successor to the "Mozilla Web Suite",
which was the open
source "successor" to "Netscape". Sea Monkey is a web browser,
e-mail programme, internet relay chat programme (Chatzilla) and basic
web page creation programme (Composer). Since Mozilla
became SeaMonkey it's considerably faster at loading web pages.There are some "extensions" available for Sea Monkey, but not as many as are available for Firefox.
Flock
- Is a new web browser based on the Mozilla engine that has some
special features for bloggers and sharing photos.
It's currently in a "beta" version.
K-Meleon
- A
new "lightweight" free and open source web browser also based on the
Mozilla
engine for Windows users. Because it's very small and
lightweight, it fetches web pages very fast. Like all
non-Microsoft web browsers, it has tabbed browsing...but calls them
"layers" instead. As of this writing K-Meleon is on Version
1.02HTTrack - HTTrack is a free and open source programme that allows you to download the complete contents of a website for offline viewing. This programme is especially helpful for those times when someone else's website project has been handed over to you without you having the files on your local computer.
Mozilla
Thunderbird is a free and open source e-mail programme
that's
also from the good folks at the Mozilla Foundation. Thunderbird
is designed as a replacement for Microsoft's "Outlook Express".It even looks alot like Outlook Express but lucky for you it isn't Outlook Express! When you install Thunderbird it's very easy to import all of your mail account settings, address books, e-mail etc. from Outlook Express to Thunderbird. It just takes a couple of mouse clicks.
Mozilla Thunderbird has some excellent "junk mail filtering" that can help you deal with all of the spam you're getting hit with these days. As you use it, it "learns" what mail is "junk" and what is not. While nothing is perfect, you should be successful in getting rid of 70-80% of the spam.
Thunderbird has something else that Outlook Express doesn't have...namely an "RSS" (Real Simple Syndication) feed reader. Like Mozilla Firefox, there are also quite a number of "extensions" available for Thunderbird that add new functionality to the programme.
Mozilla
Sunbird
- is a free and open source "cross platform" (Windows, MacOSX and
Linux) calendar application to help you manage your schedules and
appointments.
The
Gimp (Gnu Image Manipulation Project) - Photoshop is a
wonderful programme for both photo and image editing. However,
its very expensive! "The Gimp" is a full featured photo and
image editing programme that's almost as good as Photoshop but at a
much better price...it's free! Pay careful attention to the
installation instructions on Windows computers. You'll need to
install the GTK+2 runtime environment on Windows for the Gimp to work.Gimpshop - "The Gimp" is a great programme, but many users (especially those used to Adobe Photoshop) might find the user interface a little weird. "Gimpshop" is a modified version of The Gimp that uses the same user interface and menu system as Adobe Photoshop. Gimpshop is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can find more information about Gimpshop at Gimpshop.net
RSS Owl - Free and
open source programme for reading RSS feeds.
Juice
is a free and open source (and cross-platform for MacOSX, Windows and
Linux) podcast management programme. What's a
"podcast"? Basically it's an internet radio programme (and
sometimes these days a TV programme!). A podcast management
programme manages your "subscriptions" to various internet radio
programmes and also plays them for you. Most podcasts are in
either .mp3 or .ogg (ogg vorbis) audio formats. Some podcasts are put out by traditional "radio stations" (so that you can listen to radio programmes when you want) and others are "internet radio programmes" that are strictly available on the net.
Scribus - Is a free and open source desktop publishing programme for Windows, MacOSX and Linux. With Scribus you can easily create newsletters. There are even a few simple templates you can use to get you started. Pay careful attention to the installation instructions for installation on Windows computers. Scribus only works on Windows computers with either Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows XP. Windows 2000 users will have to install the GDI+ librairies from Microsoft first, and then install Scribus.
Inkscape
- Is a free and open source vector graphics
programme
similar to Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator.
Nvu - Is a free and open source "WYSIWYG" (what you see is what you get) website design tool. It's based on the Mozilla "Composer" tool with many added features.
KompoZer - is a temporary "bug
fix" release of Nvu till the "post 1.0"
version is released.
Filezilla - Is
a free and open source FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programme with lots
of excellent features! Unlike most open source software, this
programme only runs on Windows.
Pidgin (formerly known as "Gaim") is a free and open source instant messaging programme. But, this software is instant messaging on steroids! Most people will use Microsoft's MSN Messenger for MSN Messenger, AOL's programme for AOL IM, Yahoo's programme for Yahoo etc. Pidgin handles all of them! Also, Pidgin handles "Bonjour", "Gadu-Gadu", "Googletalk", "Groupwise", "ICQ", "IRC", "MySpace IM", "QQ", "SILC", "Sametime", "XMPP" and "Zephyr".
Audacity
- Is a really
great free
and open source audio recording and editing programme. If you
plan to convert files to the "mp3" format you'll have to download and
install the "Lame
MP3 Encoder" due to the proprietary nature of the mp3 fileformat.
Streamripper - Allows you to record streaming audio in mp3 format to your hard drive.
"Miro" is put out by the "Participatory Culture Foundation" and was formerly known as the "Democracy Player". Miro is available for Windows, Linux and MacOSX. It's the "Swiss army knife" of internet video software in that it does just about everything. It will allow you to play just about any video codec whether proprietary or free and open source, handles video podcasts, RSS feeds, has a built-in bittorrent client and allows you to grab video from sites like Youtube.com. Just make sure that you've got a fast internet connection and lots of hard drive space for all of the video you'll end up downloading!
Avidemux is a free and open source and cross-platform video editing programme designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.Jahshaka - is a free and open source cross-platform video editing and special effects programme for Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Irix with Solaris in the works.
Blender 3D
- A free and open source programme for 3D modelling and animationClamwin - A free and open source anti-virus programme for Windows. Clamwin does not yet have a "real-time" online anti-virus scanner. You have to scan files manually. However Clamwin is one of the fastest anti-virus programmes around at updating its anti-virus definitions.
The Open CD Project - Is a CD collection of free and open source software that runs on Windows. You'll need to download the "ISO image file" and then burn the image to a CD-R disk.
If you're a Windows user, you're probably not "used" to dealing with ISO images. If you're using Roxio or Nero you'll be burning a "CD Project" to disk. If you simply burn a "data file" to disk you'll end up simply burning the ISO file to disk which won't be of any use to you. The other way to do it is from within Windows Explorer, just click on the file and it should launch either Roxio or Nero (or whatever other CD burning software you're using).
The OSS Win Project - Website with listing of open source software that runs on Windows
Open Source Windows.org - Another listing of open source software that runs on Windows
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