And sometimes there are software you find irksome and think things could have been better. In any case, I always like to try out a few alternative software choices before I settle with any particular application mainly for two reasons: One, you would never know how good or bad the one you are using is until you try some alternatives and two: a bit of choice and competition can only be for the good of us users! Your motivation might be different: perhaps you want to find a free software that does the same task as the paid software you are using or maybe your favorite Windows application is not available on Mac or Linux.

Whatever maybe the reason, here are some sites that you can use to find alternative software and suggested applications.

LinuxAppFinder

Missing your favorite Windows or Mac application on Linux? Try LinuxAppFinder. It provides a listing of popular Linux applications. Apart from that, it also lists popular Windows and Mac software and the Linux applications that can be used for similar purposes. Clicking on an alternative software listing will show you its description, rating and other related software. LinuxAppfinder is a great way to discover Linux software if you are new to Linux.

AlternativeTo

AlternativeTo lists a large number of Windows, Mac, Linux software. Click on the ones you use or need to find alternative software for, and you will be presented with a list of software with similar functionality. Likes ala Diggs are presented alongside each listed software, that lets you gauge the popularity of the software. Additionally, you can filter the mentioned alternative by platform, likes or recent popularity as well. AlternativeTo also lists webapps like Dropbox and Evernote, just in case you are looking to shift to the web!

Osalt

Osalt is yet another popular site that offers similar functionality. It lists Open Source applications as alternative to popular software that you might be paying lots of money for. Many of the open source software have come a long way in functionality and usability and they cover almost every purpose you can use your computer for. Mostly open source software are also free, so you should definitely check out osalt and see if you can find some good open source software that can replace the ones you are already using.

Wakoopa

Wakoopa takes a somewhat different approach. Wakoopa is a community where people share their favorite software. You can view most popular apps that other people are using on the Wakoopa home page. For personalized suggestions, you would have to signup and create a software profile listing the software you are presently using. In addition, you can also track how much time you are spending using each application.

MakeUseOf

Actually, this one goes far beyond suggesting alternative software! However, we also do our part when it comes to reviewing interesting or new applications. You should always check out the MakeUseOf directory that lists hundreds of useful web and mobile applications that you can use for a variety of purposes.

Do you have any applications you wish to switch over from? Sound off in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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But that’s not all – no sir re bob! QMMAnder is not a one hit wonder! You can also have two separate listing types going on at the same time. Qmmander is written in C++ and uses Qt, a cross-platform application and GUI framework from Nokia. The Google Code page says that the application is buggy but I have not run into any issues yet.

You can have one window preview showing a detail listing so you can sort by file size, while in the right pane you have big icons so you can easily recognize the file icons you are looking for. The software is also portable and can (should) be run from a USB or thumb drive.

A person’s Explorer tells a lot about them. If you are using the built in Windows Explorer it shows that you do not like to tweak but if you are using something like this – it shows you think outside the box. That’s not just because I am a geek right?

Let’s see what QMMAnder can do! When you first launch the application you will be seeing double – the same thing on both sides, as you can see below:

Let’s fix that and make them two different drives You can see this view below:

Yeah yeah, we all know you can sort by each column by simply clicking on the headers but let’s check out the program’s other options. As we said before, you can change each view. Here is an example:

You change the view on each item by selecting a pane and then clicking on one of these buttons in your toolbar:

The buttons are as follows: details, list, little symbols, big symbols, directory tree or split horizontally instead of vertically (respectively). You can also change these from the options menu as you can see below:

You can also swap the left side with the right or vice versa as well as refresh or switch which side is active. Let’s check out how the horizontal split looks. This seems like it would be a better view for me:

And that is my view! Wow I love it – the detailed listing on top and the tree view on the bottom. This Windows explorer alternative is very versatile and uses very little memory.

What do you guys use for a file browser? I know that Make Use of readers aren’t using Explorer – are you? We would love to hear about what you are using in the comments – so leave us a comment!

Oh and if you do hit any bugs leave them in the comments as well so we can all bombard the author with them! Karl Gechlik over and out.

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Things have changed a lot over the past few years and there is plenty of eye candy available on the Linux desktop. Today however we are going to look at the gaming side of the spectrum and particularly at applications and resources you can use to find and install Linux games on your box.

Synaptic(or any other) Package Manager

A package manager lists various software that you can install on your computer. As an example the package manager in Ubuntu is called the synaptic package manager and it lists tons of applications you can choose to install from.

You can find it under System > Administration. In the sidebar you will find a special section dedicated to Linux games and amusement. Choose from official, multiverse and universe and you will see the games that are available via the repositories. You might have to enable universe and multiverse repositories from within System > Administration > Software Sources if you don’t see them listed by default.

Playdeb (for Debian/Ubuntu based distros)

Playdeb is a gaming repository. They mention Ubuntu specifically but you should be able to use playdeb with other Debian/Ubuntu derivatives just fine.

To use Playdeb you have to install the playdeb package (technically you should be able to install Linux games without the package, but it is a recommended installation to avoid further complications). You can download the package’s deb file or configure the repository. The details are available here.

Once you have installed the required software you are good to go. Browse for games that are available on the playdeb website. There are plenty of them out there. You can browse your favorite genre from amongst fps, education, dungeon, simulation, mmorpg, music, space, action, strategy and more.

Each Linux game listing consists of the necessary details along with a link to a Youtube video.  You can have a look at it to see if you would really like to install the game. If you like a game, installation is super easy and just a click away. Click on the big “Install this now” button and set the ball rolling. Soon the game along with all the dependencies will be downloaded, installed and ready for use.

djl

Inspired by Valve’s steam distribution setup, djl is a game manager for the Linux world. djl is not available in repositories so you would have to take the longer route for installation. Download the tarball from here. Extract the contents, and then run the included djl script. In case you are wondering here is what I mean:

1. tar -xvf <djl tar.gz file name>
2. cd djl
3. sh djl.sh

You would have to specify certain configuration settings the first time you run djl and then you will be able to view the djl game manager. With that out of the way you can browse the repository of about 120 or so games, read about them, view screenshots and install them at the click of a few buttons. You can view recently added and recently updated Linux games from the news tab, join the chat at the djl IRC channel and install plugins to extend djl’s functionality.

You can find hundreds of games that you can install on your Linux machine using the applications mentioned above. If you are a gaming enthusiast chances are you will find one matching your taste.

Have you tried games that are available for Linux, besides the obvious solitaire games? Which ones are your favorite? Let us know in the comments.

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Most people in the corporate world use the industry standard (and expensive) Microsoft Visio. So what do you do if you are in need of Visio but you can’t afford it or don’t want to use another Micro$oft product? Are there any free Visio alternatives?

Well I think we have a solution! I was almost shocked to find such an awesome application for the low low price of FREE! Open source is a wonderful thing and I would like to thank all the users that helped created this package – you rock!

Now let us check out DIA-  it is a 16.5 MB download from Sourceforge over here. It is also available for Linux and can probably be run on a Mac as well. If you have experience with DIA on either operating system we would love to hear from you in the comments! We will be working with the Windows version in this article.

After installing the application I launched it and was shown this screen:

At first glance it looks just like Visio with a different logo! Let’s see how it works…

You will see flowcharting as the default purpose of the application but with the click of a drop down menu and choosing Network we can do what I do in Visio… Chart networks.

That changes our tools to be computer network related like servers and firewalls. You can see the items shown below:

Just like Visio all you need to do is drag and drop icons onto your graph paper like so…

Icons are easy to resize and re-orientate by simply clicking on and manipulating the icon. You can make it point in a different direction or whatever you need. Icons snap together if you wish intuitively.

You can add text labels by simply hitting tools – text like so:

Then click where you want to add text either inside an icon or outside like so:

Really anything you can do in Visio you can do in DIA. Why would I want to use Visio over this, seeing as it also opens all file formats that Visio does? The community goes on to say this about the product:

Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program ‘Visio’, though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

It can load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (gzipped by default, to save space), can export diagrams to a number of formats, including EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF and PNG, and can print diagrams (including ones that span multiple pages).

For me this free Visio alternative is wonderful! What do you use? Questions comments, death threats ? Leave them in the comments!

DIA – http://dia-installer.de/index_en.html.

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First of all, it’s very important to know a little about AGPL:

The GNU Affero General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works, specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community in the case of network server software.[…] By contrast, our General Public Licenses are intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program–to make sure it remains free software for all its users. –Free Software Foundation

The AGPL license gives you the freedom to download a copy of EyeOS, install it on your own server, modify the code to suit your needs or add new features – contribute back to the community – and use the software at no cost.

Developing applications is another advantage of EyeOS. You can use a standard WAMP/LAMP server, and code applications in PHP. There are many developers with knowledge of PHP, and PHP is a fairly potent programming language, which could mean that more applications will be available for the EyeOS platform in the long run.

The idea behind eyeOS is not to have an Operating System inside an Operating System, or a browser inside a browser. Instead, eyeOS is another step in the digital life era.

Let’s take a look at the feature set and interface:

EyeOS has a very interesting interface – combining metaphors from Linux, Mac and Windows GUIs: taskbar, applications in a dock but on the top, simple clean lines, transparency and a sort of elegance specific to Apple products. The interface was snappy – moving and switching apps, flawless. You can easily upload and download files.

You can view a complete list of available applications on the EyeOS Wiki.

The most important advantage that a platform like this offers to end-users is portability: take with you documents, applications – no need to think about compatibility between different programs and formats – no need to think about the actual computer you’re using. Your office computer, your home computer, your laptop, there would be no difference between them, no need to transfer files or maintain program versions throughout the environment.

The second most important aspect of EyeOS is the fact that you can own and manage your own server. This means you can set up a VPN connection between you and your server and enjoy complete privacy; prices for private virtual servers are low enough to be feasible even for home users. This solution finally eliminates the privacy stigma that cloud applications suffer from.

Imagine running something similar to MinWin or DamnSmallLinux – providing just the base to run Mozilla’s engine for emulating desktop apps, Prism, and inside EyeOS. That’s what the developers behind EyeOS hope will happen to personal computing: the comeback of thin clients.

The environment is clearly more advanced than Cloudo for example, with a fully featured word processor, presentation creator, calendar – everything you need to be productive. Of course there’s room for improvement, but what I saw impressed me; If only I could use Lightroom and Live Writer, I would buy a server immediately.

EyeOS was mentioned in Jeffry’s article, Five Webtop Alternatives For Cloud Computing.  That too is well worth a read.

You can try EyeOS yourself at eyeos.org, then don’t forget to share your experiences in the comments.

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For those of you who don’t know what Delicious is, it is simply a one stop shop, for storing your bookmarks in one quick and easy location.

Of course with success comes competition, with sites such as Diigy or Simpy and you could possibly even consider Digg or Reddit as well. However sometimes you find your own opinion matters the most, and you’d like to create your own Del.icio.us-like private bookmarking service for your family, friends or maybe even your workplace. That’s where with some prerequisites from your web host, and a little MYSQL knowledge, you can create your own social bookmarking site, with Scuttle.

Scuttle is simply defined as a “Web-based social bookmarking system. It allows multiple users to store, share and tag their favorite links online.” It is an open-source del.icio.us alternative that requires only PHP and a MYSQL database from your web host. After installation, you’ll have a very similar look to what Delicious offers.

Similar to Delicious, the Scuttle system offers tagging with keyword relations, a tag cloud and advanced searching for your own bookmarks, or the entire site.

Just like Delicious, you also have advanced security for protection on your bookmarks. You have the ability to make certain marks publicly available, or just private. There is also RSS options, MP3 playback and for Firefox users, even the ability to add marks via a very similar Delicious like Firefox extension.

Being open source, Scuttle’s options are endless. You can customize the product at will and possibly even bring yet another competitor to the strong social bookmarking arena. It’s hard not to like what you get with Scuttle’s options, and the price. I haven’t played with it enough to find any flaws or bugs, but with a little basic knowledge of setting up a MYSQL database, PHP hosting and lots of web surfing to add a plethora of bookmarks, you may be able to come up with some. Whatever the case, you should find your expectations extremely fulfilled with Scuttle.

What are your thoughts? How would you utilize something like Scuttle? What advantages do you see over many of the other bookmarking sites? Do you know of any similar products?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Especially in such a society, it’s nice to see something ‘unconditional’ from time to time.

“Let’s make something, and not only give it away for free, but also show the world exactly how we pulled it off. Let’s allow them a look behind the scenes and allow them to work further on those principles”. Open source is what it’s called and it’s a wonderful idea. It’s the ’spread the love’ of the modern age.

Yo Frankie! Game

‘Codename Apricot’ – Yo Frankie! for the friends – is an open source 3D platformer game, produced by the Blender Foundation. This is a non-profit organisation, that occupies itself with the development of Blender, an open source 3D modelling application.

The Blender Foundation is showing the world that open source can replace those extremely pricy, high-end applications. Starting with the production of Pixar-quality animation shorts, like Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny (both released for free in High-Definition), Blender revealed to the world that Open Source is capable of reaching the high industry standards of the current day.

FLTR: Elephants Dream, Big Buck Bunny

Then the Apricot project came along. With a budget of a mere 50,000 Euros (which sounds more than it is), a small team started working on Yo Frankie! – not a 3D movie this time, but a 3D game.

The main character, Frankie, was already featured as the antagonist in Big Buck Bunny (it’s the scared squirrel from above), but also the levels feel very familiar.

The Game

Yo Frankie! is an open source action platformer game.

You play with Frankie, an angry looking squirrel, and have a pretty rough time in the wonderful surroundings. All the animals attack you, and hot pools of magma aren’t very unusual. You can defend yourself by using your tail, or by throwing nuts (though the latter one will prove harder than expected).

Expect an addicting platformer, of unseen quality for its league. There are still several inperfections, but it’s a really fun game, and even more amazing than that, it’s 100 percent free.

The game is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can download it from the official site here, or order the DVD online.

The game is drop-n-play and doesn’t need to be installed.  Just decompress the archives to a folder of your liking.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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If you’re tired of having your notes and thoughts relentlessly scattered all around your desktop while the thought of having to manually organize these things has your mind cluttered up, then WikiPad is the ideal candidate that will bring forth a solution to the change you’ve subconsciously been searching for.

I stumbled upon WikiPad while doing a search with the set of words “notepad” and “organized” in it. To be honest I’m actually quite surprised at the fact that I was able to come across this application, because it seems as if it were nested deep within the internet’s layer after layer of endless information. Until a couple of days ago, I had never even heard of the word Wiki and Pad in the same sentence, let alone as one word. However, as this application has allowed for the simple, quick, and effective organization of what was once my self-indulged mess of papers and thoughts, I am glad I stumbled upon it at this precise time!

You can use this application to keep track of projects, personal contacts, general information, to-do lists, storage of HTML files, and more, later allowing you to place them on a website, CD, or any other HTML based application.

A warning: once you begin to use WikiPad you’ll probably conform to an incredible amount of usage! This application is original and lets you keep track of information, search detailed specific data, and use it in any way you’d like as it is an Open Source application!

Features

Here’s a list of WikiPad’s solid features:

• On the fly WikiWord linking, as you type
• WikiWord auto-completion
• Easy WikiWord navigation
• Wiki text styling
• WikiWord History
• Wiki document attributes
• Dynamic views
• Tree/Outline view with over 100 icons
• To-do lists
• Incremental search
• Search and Replace
• Autosave
• Export to HTML
• All your data is stored in plain text
• URL and file linking
• Intuitive keybindings
• Help Wiki included

WikiPad’s Uniqueness & Origin

The difference between WikiPad and other notepad-like applications is the simplicity and facility it offers when cross-linking your information. You’re able to create links by typing in WikiWords. It’s no shocker to me that this application exhibits the word Wiki in its name, since wiki means quick, and these application-based names are known for the quick and easy combination of useful information (i.e. WikiPedia).

Verdict

WikiPad is a useful Open Source application that delivers the astounding organizational skills that sometimes we professionals and computer savvy people alike seem to lack. With this being said, I enjoyed and will continue to enjoy using WikiPad.  However, one major implication (in my book) that I didn’t like about this application was its GUI (graphical user interface). I think it should be a bit “easier” on the eyes and it should be somewhat more inviting instead of simple and basic. As well as the format in which you can view the way it categorizes your notes.

Plug and Play

You’ve read how great WikiPad is, and also how it can be configured to be made a little better. However, now you’re ready to install. Here is a quick review on how to install and setup your WikiPad to get it up and running in no time!

First thing you have to do is visit the WikiPad site and download the latest version of Wikipad (1.8) by scrolling all the way to the bottom and clicking on the link shown below:

(The Wikipad wiki software available for Windows, Linux and Mac PCs. So it covers pretty much everyone here.)

After you’ve clicked on the above outlined link you will be directed to a page with the following link in it:

Click on this link as it will open up the download zip file as seen below:

Once you’ve clicked OK, your copy of WikiPad will start downloading instantly. If your Internet connection ranges from DSL to a T1 then it should take a matter of minutes or even seconds.

Now lets open up your newly installed WikiPad. Arrive at your start menu, click on programs and scroll down to view the WikiPad folder and open it up.

Once you open it up you’ll arrive at a help Wiki page, read the page, get familiar with the software, and once you’ve done this you can access WikiPad’s menu and create your new Wiki by clicking on where it says “Wiki” on the top bar:

Give your new Wiki a name and that’s it! You can now begin to write countless amounts of information cross linked between different Wiki’s!

WikiPad Bonus

Well, you didn’t think I was going to leave you empty handed now did you? Sending off our readers without useful tips and thoughts isn’t what we’re accustomed to here at MakeUseOf, thus I’ve compiled a list of useful shortcuts for your WikiPad, enjoy!

Ctrl + J: Wikize
Ctrl + L: Goto Link
ALT + left/right: Move Across (History)
(I defined: ALT + W/D instead)
Ctrl + up/down: Move Across (Parent/Child)

Ctrl + O: Open Wiki
Ctrl + Alt + F: Search (globally)
Ctrl + F: Search in page
F3 / Shift F3: Incremental Search

Ctrl + Q: Home
Ctrl + T: Hide Tree
Ctrl + space: Auto-complete
Ctrl + Tab: Tab Browsing (previous)
Ctrl + Shift + P: Referrers to Page (Ctrl + UP)

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In case you are searching for a good video editor for linux, here are some of the good options that you can use in your Linux machine. Some of them are available for Windows and Mac as well. Do check them out even if you are not using Linux.

1. Avidemux

Avidemux is a free video editor used mainly for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It is often dubbed as the VirtualDub for Linux as it can do many things that VirtualDub can do. It supports many files types, including avi, DVD compatible mpeg files, mp4, asf and even the not-so-common ogm and matroska format.

Some of the useful features of Avidemux include a simple WYSIWYG interface, easy conversion from one format to another, plenty of filtering effects and a built-in subtitles processing capabilities.

2. Cinelerra

Cinelerra is a powerhouse video editing software used by many professionals for high quality video production. Cinelerra does mainly three things: capturing, compositing, and editing. It has a great support for very high-fidelity audio. In addition, it is resolution and frame rate-independent.

What this means is that it can handle all sorts of video resolution, regardless of whether it is standard or high definition (HD), without any issue.

If you are using a high-end graphics card, Cinelerra allows you to preview your edited video in real time without any rendering required. This makes your video editing much more faster, easier and intuitive.

Cinelerra is not updated very frequently. If you are looking for an updated version with more features, you should install the Cinelerra-CV community version instead.

3. FFmpeg

Unknown to many, FFmpeg is the most widely used application in Linux. FFmped is a command line tool that is composed of a collection of open-source libraries. With these sets of libraries, one can easily record, convert and stream digital audio/video in numerous formats. It does not come with a GUI, but it is used by many video players/converters as the backend application.

4. Jashaka

Jahshaka is a software that has not been updated since November 2006. Nevertheless, it is still a powerful video editing application that can turn you into a professional. There are plenty of useful features in Jahshaka. Functions include adding effects in real time, adding animations with unlimited features, paint and design on moving video and working in any video format at any resolution makes it a very versatile and sturdy video editor.

Jahshaka makes use of the OpenLibraries as its backend support. The Openlibraries are a powerful set of C++ libraries that provides its users tools to edit, compose, play media, encode and image process.

Jahshaka is cross platform and available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

5. Kino

Kino is a video editing software mainly for Digital Video (DV). If you take a lot of video shots with your video cam, then Kino is the application that can make life very easy for you.

Kino is a non-linear DV editor for Linux. It is a simple software with some useful functions. You can edit, split, trim, add filters and even publish your video to blip.tv. It supports Firewire and IEEE-1394 and is able to capture video from a Firewire connected DV device.

One of its best features is that it supports a wide variety of video formats (DV over IEEE 1394, Raw DV, DV AVI, still frames, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4) and you can export your work to any of your preferred formats.

6. LiVES Video Editor

LiVES started off as a Linux Video Editing System, but it is now supported in the various OS’s.

The power of LiVES lies in its ability to mix realtime video performances and non-linear editing in one application. It supports multitrack timelines and enables you to import, edit and mix several video tracks at the same time.

There is a VJ mode that allows VJ to set multiple real time effects during playback. There are also plenty of effects that one can add to your videos.

Overall, LiVES is a simple to use, yet powerful and flexible video editing tool with plenty of customization options.

7) KDEnlive

KDEnlive stands for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor. Started as part of the KDE project, it is also available for various desktop managers in Linux.

At first use, I found KDEnlive surprisingly fast and easy to use. It integrates well with the desktop manager and has an simple interface. Most of the stuff (such as adding effects, adding clips) can be easily done by drag-and-drop action, which makes it very user-friendly.

It supports a wide variety of file formats, as well as a wide range of camcorders and cameras. Like LiVES, it allows multitrack editing of unlimited video and audio tracks. There are some nice effects with KDEnlive such as sepia, grayscale, gamma, inverse color and speed changes. One thing that I like is that the effect is rendered on the fly and you can immediately see the preview to checkout the video effect. This is surely one of the great pieces of software that I would recommend.

In conclusion, there are plenty of video editors out there and all have their own pros and cons. Choosing the best one for you depend on what features you need and the level of your technical skills. Some are good for expert users (Cinelerra) while some are designed for beginners (Kino, KDEnlive). Take your time to review each and every one of them and you will be able to find the best one for you.

Have I missed out any other video editors for Linux?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Mozilla opened its doors to the World Wide Web through its open source ‘Mozilla Community Store’. An open source T-shirt designing e-store which lets you – design it…create it…own it. As the site mentions, it is the community powered sidekick to the earlier launched Mozilla store which sells a richness of fan merchandise.

The community store hosts a wide variety of T-Shirt designs (last count was 145), all user generated through public participation. Mozilla’s store uses the Zazzle online storefront and its acknowledged real-view technology which allows the designers to view realistic images of their creations instantly. Technology aside, the process is very simple and there are well laid out guidelines and supporting information to help you get started.

Design It…

Choose from the designs available or choose to do one of your own. Just let your creativity follow the design guidelines laid down. Your designs can be accomplished using any raster or vector drawing tools available. Submit your high resolution artwork (150dpi or more) in JPG or PNG with your own name for the credit line. The guidelines do not curb your creative instincts but ask you to imply something about Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Camino, Bugzilla, Sunbird or Lightning in your designs.

Create It…

The available designs can be further customized to your individual liking using Zazzle.com’s customization interface. Add text, orient your graphic or just pick the style, color and size. Zazzle has plenty of customization options.

Own It…

Finished! Order your creation through the shopping cart. Zazzle.com covers about 84 countries, so the shipping should drop it off at your door. The location and pricing information is available on their website.

What do we get out it?

We can let out that designer lurking inside you. Run riot with Zazzle’s cool customization options. The design is not limited to T-shirts alone but also to other Mozilla products. Furthermore, we can use the designs on nearly 400 of Zazzle’s merchandise.

We can gift a self created one-of-a-kind T-shirt to someone we love. Zazzle also has a 20% discount going till December 26th.

We can get a high by seeing our ‘signature’ against our creation. If someone uses our design, we do get to share our idea with the world.

And finally for those of us who are a bit of an open source rooter, it could just be a self serving proclamation.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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For me personally it’s Songbird. Over the last year I’ve been taking a real interest in watching the progress of the open source media player. I’ll admit I have not been using it as my main music management software recently ever since I bought a Zune, however I’ve still been testing and playing around with it as each new version is released.

Songbird launches today as a non-beta, version 1.0 release following 2 years of development. The significance of this launch should become apparent with time, but I think it’s safe to say this is an important milestone in the development and innovation of desktop media players and hopefully Songbird will gain the same community support Firefox did.

The Vision for Songbird

Rob mentioned the vision for Songbird briefly in his interview with us a few months back; “what happens when a desktop media player is connected to the Web is an unexplored and intriguing opportunity. Songbird re-architects the traditional desktop media player to go there. Songbird is an open, customizable desktop media player that is built to play the Web.”

Given that Songbird is open source, available across all three operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux) and has been translated into over 60 languages this vision looks more like a reality every day.

However, visions and arguments for openness and ubiquity have rarely made much difference to what users actually use so the real test of Songbird will be what mainstream users think of the software and if they adopt it which only time can tell.

Performance

Performance and stability has been an issue for Songbird throughout much of the development – however it’s also to be expected considering it was being released as alpha software. The last few releases however have seen dramatic improvements in both areas – so much so that the experience of testing Songbird 1.0 feels almost like a new media player entirely.

Songbird has always been lightweight but for the first time however it actually feels lightweight. If you’ve come from using Media Player or iTunes especially than the experience will be a huge improvement. If you’ve been a longtime Songbird user than you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Customizability and Features

What I love most about Songbird is the ability to only include functionality that you actually need. Software development often follows a cycle in which a new development will quickly gain popularity for being lightweight and innovative. Users like it, but than demand all kinds of new features. This ‘feature creep’ eventually results in a product much like the software it was designed to replace – slower, bloated and loaded with features many users don’t need.

This is what I feel is happening to Firefox – the point of Firefox was always in creating an open, extendable platform which could be extended by developers, however now Mozilla seems to be also caught up in a features race with Microsoft and Google and what was once Firefox’s greatest strength – stability and performance – is failing behind. Since Firefox 3 I’ve got sick of the browser’s memory usage, random freezes and frequent freezes.

Songbird will hopefully avoid that and this can be seen by the difference in how features are introduced. The Songbird team develops extensions alongside the main Songbird client and these are what introduces new features to the media player. If you don’t want them you don’t install them – simple as that.

Some examples include support for various file types, media players, the popular MashTape extension, LastFm scrobbling and media views are developed by the Songbird team and made available from the addons website.

Incidentally the way the Mashtape extension aggregates data from various different sources really is fantastic, check it out in the screenshot below:

Add-Ons

Since extensions are such a huge part of Songbird you would hope this launch includes a number of addons to choose from.

There are over 70 community provided addons for everything from skins to media views to browser extensions. It’s not a huge number but it’s a significant start to what will hopefully grow into a strong community. Songbird is built upon the Mozilla codebase which it shares with Firefox so for many Firefox developers conversion of extensions should not be too difficult a process and may perhaps encourage them to do so.

To conclude – this is a great release and I would very much recommend it to anyone to use as their main media player. To be honest, I can’t think of the last time I reviewed a major product and really felt like the developers had totally nailed everything they needed to.

• Performance: fixed
• Stability: fixed
• features: provided by the community
• minor UI issues: fixed
• web integration: great.

I actually like to provide balanced reviews – point out the negatives and compromises however this time I really can’t. That alone is probably the best thing I can say about this product.

Download it now.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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You might have also used Limewire or its cousin Frostwire, both of which are excellent. So now how about the proposition of being able to achieve p2p file sharing from the browser? Developed by the co-creator of Limewire, LittleShoot allows you to do just that – search, publish and download files via p2p networks from within your browser.

You first have to download and install a browser plugin. Hence forward, whenever you feel a tickle to hop on a p2p network, just point your browser to Littleshoot.org. Once there you can search and download, or share one of the files on your computer with the rest of the world.

Littleshoot allows you to search for videos, audio, images, apps and documents across the Littleshoot network, Limewire network, Flickr, Youtube and Yahoo. So you can expect some pretty good results. It provides a safe search option and other options including source and category.  It can also be tweaked to get to what you are really looking for.

Once the hunt is over and you find what you were looking for, just click to download and save the file to your computer. By default, LittleShoot uses the

• OS X: /Users/your_user_name/shared/downloads
• Windows: c:/Users/your_user_name/shared/downloads or C:/Document and Settings/Username/shared/downloads.
• Linux: ~/shared/downloads

directories to store the files.

Littleshoot optimally chooses the sources which are nearer to you or perhaps even on the ISP to give some additional boost in download speeds.

You can also publish (or share) files with the world from within your browser. You do not need to upload the file anywhere. Hit the browse button and browse to the file you want to share. That’s it. It would start appearing in people’s searches soon, from where they can start downloading the file directly from your computer. As more and more people get the copy of the file you are sharing, your bandwidth is also preserved and their downloads will be faster.

Littleshoot gives you total control over published files.  You can edit, open or remove them any time by moving over to the publish tab and choosing the appropriate action.

Although LittleShoot is web based, if you check out the processes tab in the task manager you will see a “LittleShoot.exe”.  This is the process that manages the connection and bandwidth. Although not so lean on resource utilization, it’s still better than running a fully fledged client solely for this purpose.

If you’re interested to know more about the technology behind Littleshoot, there is lots of information on the LittleShoot website (once there, click on ‘Technology’ in the ‘About’ tab). LittleShoot claims to be Open Platform, Open Source and Open Data. You can access the source code, learn about the protocols employed and much more.

So how do you like the concept of Littleshoot? Prefer something else for P2P file sharing?  Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Not only does the eclipse finder allow you to find solar and lunar eclipses on Earth, but you can seek eclipses on other planets as well. I found out something really cool when checking out eclipses on Jupiter – because Jupiter is very large and has many moons, solar eclipses are very common.

There are even days when multiple solar eclipses take place on the same day on Jupiter. I found an article about a triple lunar eclipse on Jupiter that Hubble captured back in 2004. I used the eclipse finder to find the day it happened (March 28, 2004) and was able to simulate it.

WIth Celestia you can view celestial events that have taken place in the past or will take place in the future. Events can be viewed as they would have occurred in real-time, or time can be sped up. You can also run slower than real-time, but I don’t find that feature all that useful since most celestial events take place over several hours or years.

There are numerous add-ons and textures available at the Celestia Motherlode. The add-ons provide additional celestial bodies and spacecraft not included by default. The textures provide more detail for planet surfaces, stars, and star systems as well.

If you are viewing the earth, you can enter specific coordinates you want to visit and use the surface view (CTRL-G in windows) to see the night sky as you would from your backyard.

This is a great way to learn where the constellations are and which ones you can see during what time of the year. Celestia is like having a planeterium right on your desktop!

Which apps do you use for astronomy and space simulation?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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While there are plenty of scripts (both free and paid) that you can use to run your own social network, there are only a few that are stable, good and easy to use.

Here we have handpicked 5 of the best open-source social networking software for you to choose from.

1. Elgg

Elgg has just won the best open source social networking platform for the year 2008, so there is no doubt about the usability of this software. Overall, Elgg is a powerful software that offers blog, networking, community, collection of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features. In fact, it is one of the most versatile pieces of software that offers almost everything you need to start a social networking site.

Elgg operates on a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql and Php) environment and it is easy to install and configure. With a little php knowledge, you can get your social networking site up and running in no time.

Before you install Elgg, try out its demo site.

2. Mahara

Unlike the rest of the social networking software that is meant for general use, Mahara is designed as a platform to allow its users to demonstrate their life-long learning, skills and development to selected audiences. With Mahara, you can create an e-Portfolio platform and set up an online learner community. Features in the software include blogs, a resume builder, a file manager, institutions detail and the social networking aspect where you can add and maintain your list of friends.

Mahara runs on LAMP, although Postgres is preferred over MySql.

Check out the demo site

3. Lovd by Less

Lovd by Less is among the first and only few open-source social networking platforms built on Ruby on Rails. Some features of Lovd by Less include blogs, photo gallery with captions, site search for friends, activity update and user-to-user messaging. Other things that are built into the software include Flickr and YouTube integration.

One thing good about Lovd by Less is that it is easy to use and contains most of the applications that you need. For those who prefer Ruby on Rail rather than php, this would be a good alternative.

Try out the demo site.

4. Xoops with Yogurt extension

XOOPS is an extensible CMS that allows you to build sites based on your needs. You can first start off as a personal blog and expand later to include social networking, forum and much more via the use of appropriate modules.

Yogurt is the particular module that allows you to build a social networking site with XOOPS. You can setup your personal album of pictures, videos from YouTube, mp3 files, add your list of friends, a public wall for messages (scraps), to create communities (tribes) and many more useful features.

XOOPS and Yogurt are based on php and work well in the LAMP environment.

5. AROUNDMe

AROUNDMe is slightly different from the others. Instead of building a social networking site, it allows you to create your own collaboration server which enables your users to setup their own social networking site, community or webspace (like Ning, Google Groups, Snappville, CollectiveX).

With AROUNDMe, your users can have access to a guestbook (a wall), a group blog, a forum and a wiki which they can drop into web pages. Every single group is fully customizable using xHTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP and the user can decide if the group is private or public.

Other Candidates

Here are some of the candidates that didn’t make it to the top 5:

Phpizabi – works fine for a small network, but could become buggy as your network get bigger.
Dolphin – while it is free to download, you will have to pay to get the ad module removed.
Insoshi – a new social network software built on Ruby on Rails released only early April this year. It could have be better if some of its features are more polished.

Have you built your own social networking site before? Which software did you use? Which one would you recommend?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Well maybe video games aren’t so important, but I hear a lot of kids really enjoy those newfangled thingymagigs. So below you will find a list of ten family-friendly Linux games that are perfect for those lazy afternoons. Every one of these games has Windows and Mac versions too, so kids who have uncool, non-penguin parents can join in on the fun.

Ri-Li

If you’re familiar with the Snake variety of games then you already have a good idea of what Ri-Li is like. It’s a very simple game concept that has been cloned many times, but I wouldn’t bore you with such blatant rip-offs. No, Ri-Li makes this list because it expands on the core idea and wraps it all up in an experience that is great for all ages, but particularly pleasing for children.

The graphics and sound, as well as the wooden trains theme, gives the game a very cute feel that some kids just love (that I love actually). I’m sure its fifty levels and three difficulties are enough to occupy any kid who gets interested enough.

Recommended Age: 6 and up. It’s a simple concept but the action may be a bit too fast and frenzied for kids who are not accustomed to video games. I recommend you start a younger player on “Easy” mode and then watch how far they can get.

TeeWorlds

What if you took the gameplay style of Quake or Unreal Tournament and mixed them with the unrivaled cuteness of Kirby? I don’t know for sure, but TeeWorlds is probably the closest thing to an answer that this world will ever know. This multiplayer-only platform shooter drops you in a small arena with a bunch of other cute creampuffs and lots of big guns, then lets the shooting begin. Everything about this game shouts “Play me” to me, and if the number of players who have flocked to it is any indication, I am definitely not alone.

Recommended Age: You decide. Video game violence is somewhat of a hot-button issue, and there are many widely varied opinions on the matter. Personally, I figure any kid old enough to watch an old Warner Brothers cartoon is old enough to experience the mild cartoon violence found in TeeWorlds. But I also respect parents’ right to determine what their kids play.

Tux Paint

Tux Paint is not really a game but a drawing program specifically aimed at children. It makes this list though, because in a way it is a game; the most wonderful kind of game in which a child is given a few simple tools and set to the task of recreating the fantastic creatures and worlds of his/her dreams. Oh, and it has stamps too! Tux Paint separates itself from other drawing programs with its simplicity and its unapologetic design stance that it is first and foremost for kids. Its more pointless tools may have adults scratching their heads, but kids will have a wonderful opportunity to be creative.

Recommended Age: 3 and up. Since Tux Paint is a drawing program you really get out of it what you put into it. The only real requirements are basic motor skills and a primitive understanding of a computer. So parents eager to introduce their children to computers at an early age may want to check out Tux Paint. Older kids will find some enjoyment in it as well, and you could always introduce them to more advanced drawing programs if they show enough interest.

Armagetron Advanced

Chances are your child has never heard of the 1982 science fiction movie from Disney on which this game -and several others- are based. Luckily, they need not subject themselves to such tortures to enjoy Armagetron. If lightcycles and crashing into things and retro-awesome 3D graphics sounds good to you, then you and your kids are likely to enjoy Armagetron. Similar to Ri-Li, Armagetron takes a simple, oft-cloned concept and expands on it. The online multiplayer, various skins and game modes, and the aforementioned 3D graphics make Armagetron nearly unrecognizable compared to the original Midway arcade game. (Note – There’s also GLTron, which is very similar, but lacks many of Armagetron’s features.)

Recommended Age: 7 and up. Single player against the AI can be tough, but playing against the experienced players online can be downright painful. Furthermore, while the core gameplay is simple enough, the action can easily become too fast and confusing for younger players. Also be wary of online games where a few swear words and, uh, adult situations are likely to slip out.

Barbie Seahorse Adventures

It’s hard enough to find good open source games period, but finding ones aimed specifically at girls is nearly impossible. BSA, if you couldn’t guess from the title, is one of the few exceptions. It does not involve Mattel’s anatomically-incorrect doll as you might expect, but instead follows the adventures of a seahorse (presumably named “Barbie”) through a fun, Mario-like platform game.

This revelation may lead to disappointment for some girls, but I think the game’s charming visuals and catchy music will more than make up for it. Adults and boys are likely to enjoy this game too, assuming they can swallow their pride and get past the name. I did and it’s quietly snuck in to become one of my favorite Linux games.

Recommended Age: 5 and up. The game isn’t particularly difficult and you can always create new, easier levels if the included levels prove to be too difficult for your kids.

Frets on Fire

A “Guitar Hero” clone for the PC….really? Yes really, and it actually works considerably better than you might first expect. Hold the keyboard like a guitar and use the F1-F5 keys as the frets, then proceed to rock out. Once you’re done playing the three included songs you can download more from the internet or Guitar Hero game discs, or make your own with the built-in editor. Most people agree that Frets on Fire is not as good as the real deal, but you certainly can’t beat the price.

Recommended Age: 6 and up. If the YouTube videos are any indication, plenty of kids enjoy Guitar Hero and some even excel at it. Since “Frets on Fire” is a fairly faithful recreation, I would logically assume they will take to it easily.

You can also check out this review of Frets On Fire by Kyle which was published on Make Use Of back in August.

SuperTux

Who says a penguin can’t jump? Not the creators of SuperTux, since they’ve gone about creating an open source clone of one of the best games of all time, Super Mario Bros. Although, SuperTux never really reaches the lofty heights of Mario, and instead is a pretty standard platform game – get to the end of the level while bonking enemies and avoiding bottomless pits. Still, it’s fun and it’s cute.

Plus like most open source software it is in a constant state of development. So while you’re enjoying SuperTux the developers are hard at work at what has been dubbed SuperTux 2 by some, though it’s really more of an expansion – with new levels, enemies, features, etc. Though it’s still being actively developed and is a bit buggy, it’s still worth a download.

Recommended Age: 7 and up. SuperTux is definitely more difficult than Barbie Seahorse Adventures, but it’s pretty easy as far as platform games go. In fact, the original Super Mario Bros. is in order of magnitude more difficult.

SuperTuxKart

Mario Kart: another one of those Nintendo games that is often imitated but never surpassed. Naturally, SuperTuxKart doesn’t come close, but then what other go-kart racing game has managed to capture the magic of Mario Kart? While you’re pondering that question, I’ll be playing STK. Sure the graphics are dated and there’s no online multiplayer, but it does have cute characters and colorful tracks galore.

Recommended Age: 6 and up. Younger kids are bound to run into the wall (a lot) and will likely finish in last place most of the time. But hey, most kids aren’t particularly competitive and are often content with just exploring the track and learning more about the game.

Frozen-Bubble

A game that is as cute as it is addictive, Frozen-Bubble has quite a reputation for eating up time. Shoot colored bubbles at the approaching mass which in turn causes some of the bubbles to disappear if you line up the colors right. That’s it. I don’t like to admit it, but I’m hooked on this game and hopefully your kids will be too.

Recommended Age: 5 and up. Younger kids could probably manage as well, but there’s no reason to get them addicted too early is there?

Monsterz

Ever heard of Bejeweled? You know, the hit casual game that managed to find its way onto virtually every computer and cellphone? Well, naturally there are a number of open source clones and Monsterz is one of them. Each one offers the same addictive, yet extremely simple gameplay that attracted so many people in the first place. The only reason I chose Monsterz over the others is because it seems targeted at kids.

Recommended Age: 5 and up. Just about anyone can play this game, so it simply becomes a matter of whether they enjoy it enough to want to.

And the Rest

The games on this list should be enough to keep any kid occupied for a little while, but there’s plenty more where they came from. Firstly, I recommend you check out KDE Games and Gnome Games – two sizable collections of simple games included with the KDE and Gnome desktops respectively. The card games and a few of the board games may bore most kids, but there’s bound to be at least one worthwhile game in the pack.

Secondly, you could try some of the websites devoted to Linux games (most of the games they mention are open source and run on Windows and Mac too). The Linux Game Tome, Ubuntu Gamers Arena, and Linuxgames are all good places to start.

And lastly, you can keep an eye on the comments section below for other people’s suggestions.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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I know there are dozens if not more Youtube downloaders out there but this one is really different. Let’s quickly go over some of its features.

1. Cross Platform

The program is available for Windows (both XP and Vista), Mac and Linux PCs. So it can be installed pretty much everywhere.

2. Download more than one video at a time

As you would expect from any other download manager it can download several files simultaneously. In the screenshot below you can see that I was downloading 4 videos at the same time.

3. Built-in video converter

xVideoServiceThief comes with integrated video converter which can convert downloaded videos to AVI (Windows), WMV, MPEG 1/2, MP4 (Apple iPod), 3GP (mobile phone) and MP3 formats. For more advanced users there are optional settings to control the output video resolution, audio sampling and video frame rates.

The really cool thing about it is that it can be fully automated. You simpy enter the URL of the video you want to download and xVideoServiceThief will then download, automatically convert it to the selected video format and store it in the specified folder. Sweet.

4. Supports 50+ Video Websites

xVideoServiceThief can handle videos from 50+ video sharing sites. I have successfully tested it with videos from Youtube, Dailymotion, Google Video and some other popular video sharing sites. Other than a couple of errors with Metacafe videos there were no problems whatsoever.

The full list of sites xVideoServiceThief can download videos from:

* 123video
* 5min
* aBum
* Aniboom
* Bebo
* Blip
* Boingboing TV
* Break
* Broadcaster
* Caught On Video
* Ceknito
* CinemaVIP
* Clip4e
* ClipFish
* Dailymotion
* Dumpalink
* GameSpot
* GameTrailers
* Glumbert
* Google Video
* GodTube
* LiveVideo
* Lulu TV
* Metacafe
* MySpaceTv
* MySpass
* MyVideo
* Sclipo
* Spike
* Stage6
* Tu.tv
* Tudou
* Video.ca
* VideoLeak
* Yahoo Video
* Yikers
* YourFileHost
* YouTube
* YouTubeIslam
* Zaable
* ZanyVideos
* ZappInternet
* Zedge
* ZippyVideos
* Zuuble

Other Cool Features

* Pause/resume downloads (though the pause/resume feature doesn’t work for all websites)
* Session Manager: Save/Restore your download lists
* Keeps a list of all downloaded videos (Date + Title + URL)
* Control which websites are allowed and which websites must be blocked.

Download xVideoServiceThief.

Do you ever download online videos? What software or websites do you use? Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Since then I’ve been following the development of Songbird with a great deal of interest and was excited when Songbird 0.7 was released a few weeks ago.

This release introduced a great new UI, more features and significant performance improvements, all very welcome additions.

With Songbird on track and cranking up the pace for a version 1 release by December I decided to contact the Songbird team for an interview about their project. Rob Lord is the founder and CEO of Songbird and took the time to answer these questions about Songbird:

Perhaps you’d like to describe the team behind Songbird. I believe a number of you have been involved in previous media projects?

Hi Laurence, thanks for the interview. Yes, our Pioneers of the Inevitable team includes key developers from media players including Winamp and the Yahoo! Music Jukebox.

What do you think about development in other media players? With 4 main choices for consumers (iTunes, WMP, Media Monkey and Winamp) and each with a pretty unique market, things seem to have slowed down in the last couple of years. Apple only releases a new version of iTunes when they have a new product to peddle and Microsoft with their newest OS.

Our perspective is that the traditional desktop media player feature list is complete, thus there has been little innovation in desktop media players for years. However, what happens when a desktop media player is connected to the Web is an unexplored and intriguing opportunity. Songbird re-architects the traditional desktop media player to go there. Songbird is an open, customizable desktop media player that is built to play the Web.

Songbird has an incredible amount of potential. Have you been getting much interest or support from significant online companies such as Amazon? Without an iTunes/iPod lock yet still supporting them I would assume companies would be jumping on an opportunity like Songbird =)

Songbird has attracted a lot of attention from consumer electronics companies, especially handset makers, and media retailers/service providers. We’ll be making announcements as the partnerships are ready to launch.

We hear everyday from device makers that they want to focus on their devices. We hear everyday from digital media retailers, subscription, radio, video, recommendation, locker and other service providers that they want to focus on their services. Yet everybody – users, developers, device makers and service providers – wants those devices and services to work together with software. But only Apple offers a credible integrated service + software + device experience. Songbird is the solution for all those who benefit from open, customizable media player software. Songbird is the open solution for service + software + device integration.

That said, Songbird isn’t yet ready for everyone. If a user needs full feature parity with traditional desktop media players or has never installed a Firefox add-on, Songbird isn’t ready for them yet.

Songbird is based on Mozilla and not Firefox itself as I initially assumed. Can you explain what this means? Do improvements in Firefox, such as FF3 and 3.1 become part of Songbird? Does the Songbird team work with the Firefox team?

Songbird, like Firefox, is built from the Mozilla platform. So, yes, new Firefox features and enhancements are inherited by Songbird. Also our team provides testing, fixes and patches back to Mozilla.

What’s the best song you’ve ever discovered through Songbird?

So much to choose from! A Ratatat remix from the Gorilla vs. Bear music blog comes to mind.

What feature do you miss the most personally when using Songbird? CD ripping and burning?

CD Rip/Burn isn’t an issue for me because I ripped my CD collection years ago. I’m 99% pure digital now. Key for me is support for my iPhone 3G so I can leave my older iPod behind. FYI, CD Rip/Burn is on our roadmap.

What Media Software did you use before Songbird?

Winamp was for many including me the seminal MP3 player. Winamp was first to go big in the 90s with skins, plug-ins, EQ, visualizations, etc. and its community responded with thousands of extensions – the kind of vital community we see supporting Firefox today. In the last five years, I found myself recommending iTunes to others for its relative simplicity — and found myself using it for the solid service + software + device integration.

The approach for Songbird is almost a ‘make-your-own’ media player, even more so than Firefox is as a browser. By that I mean the Songbird Media player includes only the most basic functions and almost all new features, device support and codecs are all added via extensions. It’s a great idea as users can avoid having any features they’ll never use (such as iPod support when they don’t have an iPod), however will the most popular extensions eventually become part of Songbird, or are you keeping the system like it is?

You nailed our thinking. Like Firefox, Songbird will offer a baseline of what ever media player user needs and then offer customization via add-ons to your specific media player preferences. We’re experimenting with including highly requested add-ons, such as Last.FM integration, in the first-run bundle.

Does using Songbird make you more attractive to the opposite sex?

Works for me and my lady. Try playing the Groove Salad channel via SHOUTcast for best results. YMMV. ; )

Tell us your five favourite extensions.

Hard to pick as there are over 250 Songbird add-ons currently – and they are all specialized features. We’re very grateful to all the individual Songbird add-on developers that have embraced Songbird and the Songbird community.

Rather than pick favorites, here are the add-ons with the widest appeal based on downloads:

Wikipedia – artist biography of the currently playing artist.
Mashtape – a mash-up of Flickr photo, YouTube vdeos, Last.FM bios of the currently playing artist.
MediaFlow – Like iTunes Coverflow, view you music library by flipping through album art.
Last.FM Cover Fetcher – retrieve album art from Last.FM for your music library.
Last.FM Recommendations – artist recommendations from Last.FM based on currently playing artist.

Songbird have also been cool enough to provide us with a Songbird T-shirt to give away! To win this just comment below and tell us the craziest place you’re going to wear it (When you get the shirt we expect a photo proving it – and we’ll publish it! So no bare bottoms please!)

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR : MUO employees are not eligible to enter! This one’s for the readers!

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I can however introduce you to a few programs that may ease your burden and make those hours of studying a little easier. First on the agenda is a nifty little Linux note-taking program for KDE called BasKet Note Pads.

As you probably expect from a note-taking application, BasKet’s main purpose is to arrange all of your thoughts and information in an organized and easily retrievable way. To accomplish this BasKet, not surprisingly, centers around baskets – blank documents that you add notes, pictures and links to. You do that by clicking on any part of the basket, which in turn causes a blue rectangle to pop up.

You can organize your notes into columns (up to twenty on each basket) or just choose the freeform option. If your current basket becomes too large and unwieldy you can always start another one. This results in a hierarchical system of files and folders not unlike the one found in nearly every operating system’s graphical user interface. In this way Basket manages to offer a lot more flexibility than say, a word processor, but still keeps a certain amount of structure that helps you keep your information organized. This makes BasKet a good choice for a wide variety of tasks, but I think you’ll find it particularly useful during large research projects.

You can apply pre-made tags to your various notes so you can tell at a glance if something is “Important,” or “Funny,” etc and you can always create your own tags should the default choices prove too restrictive. This concept is a small part of what seems to be BasKet’s major design philosophy : customize everything. Just about any part of the program you can think of – like the toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, the aforementioned tags and more – can be easily customized.

Customization is never really a bad thing, but I found some of the features and customizations BasKet offers were a bit superfluous. For example, the ability to change the text color and add your own background image may be perfect for Grandma’s stationary program, but it seems silly and useless to me. Especially in a note-taking program, which by its very nature should prize usefulness over looks.

Thankfully, the pointless features do not at all detract from the overall practicality of the program. The filter tool, for example, is basically a search function that makes finding a specific note simple. And the program automatically saves so you don’t have to worry about losing hours worth of research when you’re in a hurry. BasKet also plays nice with other programs. It integrates into Kontact, KDE’s “personal information manager,” and you can integrate links to other programs (like a word processor) into your baskets. And, should you ever choose to include sensitive information in your notes you can protect it with BasKet’s password features.

There is certainly no shortage of note taking programs for Linux. A program called Tomboy leads the pack of programs that are generally very easy to use but also light on features. BasKet, on the other hand, sports considerably more features and an attractive look. Your first look at its busy interface may be a bit bewildering and overwhelming, and the relatively large list of frivolous features and options doesn’t help matters. Still, I am confident that most will find BasKet to be a helpful and worthwhile research tool.

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The other day I decided to merge some of the “avi” video files into one big “avi” file so they can be played continuously. Video file merging can be done easily and quickly with a piece of free open source software called VirtualDub.

VirtualDub is the video equivalent of Audacity. You can use it to edit your video files any way you want them – you can merge the video files, split them, save the source audio, capture screenshots, fix the colouring in the video footage and much more.

It’s worth taking some time to explore VirtualDub in depth if you’re serious about video footage editing. I use VirtualDub, for example, to edit my videos after filming on my video camera. Today I am going to show you how to merge two or more video files together. Next time I will show you how to split video files (also see how to split regular files to pieces) into separate files which is also an extremely handy skill to practice.

Please note that the video files in question HAVE to be “avi” files.

When you have opened VirtualDub, go to File–>Open Video File.

Now upload the first “avi” file you want to have in your new video file.

Next, go to File–>Append AVI segment :

Now upload the second “avi” file you want to have in your new video file.

If you have more than 2 files, continue to return to File–>Append AVI segment and attach as many files as you want. Watch the size of the new file though! Don’t let it get too big!

When you have attached all the files together into one big new file,the next step is to go to Video–>Direct Stream Copy. If you don’t choose this option and go for the default “Full Processing Mode”, you’ll be waiting for ever for your new file to be made. A DSC on the other hand will be made for you in less than 60 seconds (often a lot less) :

Finally, go to File–>Save Segmented AVI to save your work to your computer :

Put in a new name for your new combined file and then VirtualDub will get to work, merging all the files into one big one for you.

Once it’s finished, test it and you’ll see that the merging was so good, you don’t even see any disturbance in the picture where one file ended and another began! There will be the odd occasion though when the sound may get out of sync a little but some advanced users may be able to quickly fix that problem. I am not knowledgable enough to be able to fix sound synchronisation problems.

VirtualDub is an amazing piece of free software. Along with Audacity, you have all you need to edit and put together video and audio on your computer – without any of it costing you a single penny. I highly recommend you download this app to your computer and take the time to go through it.

What other pieces of video editing software do you like to use? Anything that gives VirtualDub a run for its money?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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But then let’s face it, Twitter’s not the only micro-blogging platform out there, and it’s definitely not the only program that lets you have status updates. That’s why having a Twitter-only client doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. I was using Twitux before, but since then I joined a fully open-source micro-blogging platform called Identi.ca. Probably by virtue of being open-source software, it has a large Linux-user population, so I had to join. And Twitux doesn’t work with it. Enter Gwibber.

Gwibber is a status-update client for a lot of services. I’m just using it for Twitter and Identi.ca, but it also works for Digg, Jaiku, Facebook, Pownce, and Flickr. It’s actively developed, and the developer (Ryan Paul of ArsTechnica) seems to be listening to user input, so that’s definitely a plus.

Right now, though, I just really like its flexibility. It uses WebKit for rendering, so it can get pretty fancy. Take a look at the screenshot below. I configured it to use dark blue for Identi.ca updates and light blue for Twitter updates, so they match each site’s theme. You can pick whatever color you want for each, but I thought it was easier to remember this way.

You can also see that where someone replied to me the message is outlined in red. That’s pretty useful. New messages are outlined in light blue to highlight them.

Perhaps my favourite feature is the duplicate detection. See that plus sign on my message? Here’s what happens when you click it:

It detected that I tweeted and dented the same thing and displayed the status update only once. This happens when I post from within Gwibber or when one of my friends that uses both does so. It just helps tidy up the interface a bit, I think. And then of course there’s the requisite “Reply” button in the bottom right corner of whichever notice has focus.

If you’d like to try it out:

• Fedora: in 8 & 9’s testing repositories
• OpenSuSE: It’s in 1-click
• Ubuntu: Directions on wiki to add repositories

Please note, though, that Gwibber is still in Alpha. I haven’t noticed any issues with it, but being alpha software does mean there are big changes happening fairly often. I think duplicate detection was added last week. I’m with everyone that’s requesting a “Replies” tab. Ryan says he’ll make it a priority.

Windows and Mac users? You’re out of luck. This application is only supported for Linux, but if you get it to compile and run on other Unix-based OSes, let me know.

[rating=4]

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In the process I managed to find four open source programs that all call themselves “collection managers.” That is, they all claim to make it easy to catalog and keep track of your collections of things like books, movies, and CDs.

So without further comment let’s see how well they all meet those claims. While most of them are for Linux users, some also available for Windows.

Alexandria

Alexandria (Linux) is a Gnome application specifically aimed at cataloging books. It has a simple, clean interface and it’s certainly easy to use, but it lacks many of the little frills and features of the other programs on this list. You can add books by either entering the ISBN, the author, or the title. Alexandria then searches a number of book-related websites to retrieve additional information. You will inevitably run into a book that the software can’t find, but Alexandria remedies this by allowing you to add a book’s information manually. You can also organize your books into categories, and keep track of loaned materials.

When you’re done entering your books you can then export to a handful of formats, including Tellico’s native format (which is examined in greater detail below). Overall, Alexandria may be the right choice for the beginner computer user who just wants a bare bones way to organize their personal libraries. But the existence of these other collection managers with a broader range of features and scope make it basically obsolete for the rest of us.

Griffith

Griffith (Windows, Linux) is fairly similar to Alexandria, although it’s designed specifically for movies and has a bit more of a complicated interface. All the standard features of a collection manager are on display but not much else. It does have built in support for a wide number of languages, which is great for international users, and it downloads quite a bit of information about each item – at least more than I expect from this kind of program. But its overall look just seems a bit too cluttered to me, especially given the fact that it’s a Gnome application.

Tellico

Tellico (Linux) is a program that has garnered a fair amount of attention and has the distinction of being the only app on this list specifically designed for KDE. The first thing you’ll probably notice about Tellico – and which really sets it apart from Griffith and Alexandria – is how flexible it is. It comes packaged with support for books, comic books, videos, music, coins, stamps, cards, wines, video games, and board games. Should you have slightly more obscure collecting interests, Tellico allows you to make a custom collection type. It’s not as automated as feature full as the premade collection types (which is to be expected), but it’s certainly a better option than learning to program to write your own database software.

What strikes me most about Tellico is how much deeper it is compared to the previous two programs. It can import and export a wide variety of formats, and I feel as if there’s a lot more to fiddle with. In fact, the developers seem to openly encourage any kind of tinkering, from changing basic configuration settings, to creating custom themes, to editing the script itself. Tellico’s online manual has a great deal of information – just about everything you would ever want to know about this program – so I suggest you check it out.

GCStar

GCStar (Linux) is the last program in our little list and possibly the best. As you can probably see, it integrates all the features that by now I have come to expect as standard in collection manager software. But it wraps these features in a very shiny package, rivaled only by Tellico in this area. It originated as GCfilms, a program specifically designed to catalog movie collections, but it has since expanded to cover a variety of other collection types. GCStar also boasts customization options similar to Tellico’s, which make it a great choice for experienced collectors.

Conclusion

So there you have four easy to use and helpful collection managers that I hope will make your collecting career a little easier. If not, there are plenty of other options out there. During my searching I was surprised, to say the least, at the number of programs that all do the same basic thing in basically the same way. Choosing your favorite then becomes an almost arbitrary matter, usually yielding to personal taste and comparisons of their minute differences. I chose these four programs only because they are easy to find, set up, and use. Nevertheless, there may be a better program for your personal needs and/or preferences, so please don’t hesitate to mention it in the comments below.

(By) Abraham Kurp was introduced to open source software a few years ago and it was love at first site. When not preaching the virtues of open source he enjoys reading classic science fiction, playing obscure video games, dabbling in programming, and of course writing.

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Plus if you’re willing to donate a minimum of $1 to the developer, he’ll throw in the enhanced version of the software which will give you the ability to encrypt your files as well.

But for most people, including me, the basic free version will suffice. Let’s take a look at it and see how easy it is to split and merge your PDF documents. Let’s start with merging a file.

After installing the software, open it up and click on “merge / extract” on the left hand side. Then on the right hand side, click on “add”. This will allow you to add the PDF files you want to merge, to the program.

If there is a password for the PDF file, add it in the “password” column. If you only want certain pages from the file to be merged, put the page numbers in the “page selection” column (such as 1-5, 12, 14).

The next step is to complete this part :

As you can see, if the PDF file has forms, tick the box. Then indicate the folder where you want the newly merged file to go on your computer in the “destination output file” box. Then click the “run” button. Your merged file should then be made for you in less than a minute or so depending on the size of the files.

Now, to extract pages from a PDF file is also dead simple. Just go through the previous process again but this time, choose only one PDF file. Then in the page selection column, choose the pages you want to extract. Then press the “run” button. Your pages will be extracted as a single PDF file in literally seconds.

The third option is to take a PDF file and split it all the pages up :

You can also choose to give each new PDF file a prefix such as the name of the original file so you can keep track of which pages belong to which file.

All in all, this is a pretty powerful free tool and it gives you one more reason not to shell out the money for Adobe Acrobat. This is definately going in my “keeper” folder and I am contemplating giving a donation to the developer to try out the encryption feature.

[Rating=5]

(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger, professional freelance writer and the editor of Make Use Of. Check out his personal blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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Gameplay

As mentioned above, the gameplay is almost identical to that of Guitar Hero or Rock Band. You have five different colored markers that come towards you on the screen. You must match your button mashes to the incoming markers in order to score points.

Frets on Fire uses the familiar formula of “strumming” the guitar while pressing the proper “fret.” “Strumming” or “picking” can be done by hitting the Enter or Shift key, and the frets are F1 through F5 keys. The ‘Frets on Fire’ mascot at the beginning of the post shows the proper stance and position of the keyboard to give you the best opportunity to rock. However, I’m on a laptop, so I’m not quite sure how to hold it.

The screenshot above shows you really how close to other music games this is, and I must say that it performs just as well.

Controllers

It is possible to also use a joystick with Frets on Fire. I’m sure some of you just said, “Why would we want to do that?” That is a valid question, but the ability to use a joystick translates into the ability to use an Xbox 360 guitar. It isn’t quite as easy as just plugging it into your USB port, but there are several guides up on fan sites and forums that discuss how to get that USB Xbox 360 controller to work with Frets on Fire.

Community

The basic game only comes with three songs, which is disappointing until you realize the amazing community that supports this game. Keyboards on Fire and Frets on Fire Fan Forum are the first two places you should go after you download Frets on Fire. There is a wealth of information on these sites from tutorials and troubleshooting to new songs and downloads. You can also find other fan and support sites from the Frets on Fire homepage.

Songs

The lack of initial songs is made up for by the ability to create your own songs and upload them. If you aren’t amazing at composing, there are several people that are, and many unique and custom songs can be found on the fan sites mentioned above. In addition to original compositions, you can upload just about all of the songs from any Guitar Hero game. You might also want to search around the internet for song packs. I’m sure you will find that lots of your favorite songs have been turned into Frets on Fire tracks.

Competition

A game is not complete without being able to tell everyone on the internet how much better you are than them. World Charts is the place you go to upload all of your high scores. It awards medals for the best shredding on each song, so get out there and start claiming all those medals just like you won the Olympics.

[Rating=4]

(By) Kyle Judkins is a 24 year old marketer and part-time tech blogger. He is the author of LostInTechnology where he talks about technology tips and tricks that everyone can use.

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Workrave is a handy free software application that can be used to prevent those intentional bad habits. The program alerts the user at certain intervals to take momentary pauses, rest breaks and restricts the user to a daily computer usage limit.

The importance of curing or preventing Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) cannot be over stressed (pun unintended). Whether it is our aching eyes or our aching limbs, this software can help us take those much needed breaks in between the keystrokes.

Workrave goes beyond just being a simple timer logging your time spent on the computer. To start off, Workrave has three timers for three durations of rest. Also, Workrave logs the actual time you spend on the computer. The software does not record the actual pauses you take in the midst of your work. As the little screenshot shows, the three timers are -

• The micro-break timer

The default prompt setting is for every three minutes and the break lasts for 30 seconds. A pop-up prompts the user to simply pause typing and look away from the screen. Just for fun, try clicking on the pop-up and it pops away from you, enforcing you to go for the break.

• The rest break timer

This prompt is for a slightly longer period and you maybe can use this time to sneak in a cup of coffee or go and chat with your crush in the next cubicle. But here is a little fun part. Stay in your seat and you could opt to do some exercises with an animated character. ‘Miss Workrave’ would love to take you through some simple exercise routines.

The onscreen display and the lil’ dudette will help you with some routines for the wrist, neck and eyes. You might end up being labeled the office nut but these exercises will surely help if you are working assiduously on the computer throughout the day (and night).

The daily limit timer

This timer monitors the complete amount of time you spend on the computer. The default time is 4 hours. At the end of this time, the software prompts you with a message. You can ignore this and continue working and in a few moments the prompt comes again. The reminders are just a gentle way to say – “hey, there’s a life beyond this digital box you know!”

Getting into the skin…

The timers and the breaks are completely configurable. This is really handy because the default break times given for the three functions seem relatively short. For the three breaks, the user can set :

• The time between breaks
• The break duration
• The length of the postpone time
• The number of prompts you want the application to give you.

When the break time is prompted, you can hit the ‘Skip’ or the ‘Postpone’ function (I have a sneaking hunch most of us will do just that!).

The timer can also be set in a ’suspend’ mode when the computer is inactive.

If you feel that you prefer to hit the gym rather than do the calisthenics in the cubicle, you can also choose to ignore the exercises altogether or just do a pre-determined number of them through the configurable settings.

Another really useful setting is the option to set the software to a ‘block mode’. Using this you have a choice to let the software automatically block any keyboard input when break time hits or to block both the keyboard and blank out the screen. It’s rather like taking a break with a gun on your forehead. Of course, you can just as easily switch it off by using the ‘No Block’ option.

A usage statistic screen comes in handy for the history buffs. The software logs all data related to breaks taken, daily computer usage, prompts given and even the distance traveled by the mouse. Talk about details!

RSI is a reality. Go for the download. At about 6.9MB and free of charge, it’s certainly more worthwhile than a visit to the doctor.

Workrave is open source software and is available for GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows.

Do you have any other pieces of software for helping you to take breaks from the computer or for helping you to manage your time in front of the computer? Let us know in the comments?

(By) Saikat is a techno-adventurer in a writer’s garb. When he is not scouring the net for tech news, you can catch him on his personal blog ruminating about the positives in our world.

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Shiira Mini

Shiira Mini is a slimmed down version of Shiira for the Dashboard which can come in useful if you’re wanting to do a little bit of searching when working on something without having to open an actual browser up.

Shiira Mini Settings

Within settings for the widget you can choose the URL of the homepage you want for Shiira Mini, what bookmarks bar to use (Shiira, Safari) and the color of the widget.

The Interface

Toolbar

On the Toolbar from right to left you have the back button, forward button, reload, stop, address bar, add bookmark, shelf, bookmarks, history, search, new tab/pagedock. Then below the toolbar is where the website will be displayed.

PageDock

Within Shiira you can choose whether to use the PageDock or a tab bar, by default when you first load Shiira up the PageDock the selected option to change this go to Preferences -> PageDock & Tab.

Below the PageDock is the Status Bar. On the Status Bar the first icon is for cookie information on the current website you’re viewing, next to that if the website has an RSS feed then this icon will appear and when you click it the feed will be displayed in the feed reader built within Shiira, when you click the arrow on the far right of the Status Bar it will toggle hiding and showing the PageDock, the four box icon is an Exposé like feature that will layout all the websites you have out so that its easy to browse a lot of websites and see what page you’re on.

Shelf

The shelf in Shiira lets you view and manage all of your Shiira and Safari bookmarks as well as files that you have downloaded. Within the shelf you can also seen your Firefox bookmarks and your history. You can also modify the search engines that can be used in the search bar on the Toolbar. By default there is a few already configured search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Excite, Dictionary.com and more.

Other Features

Full Screen

You can view websites in fullscreen so that the website covers your whole screen. Opera also has this feature.

Appearance

You can change the icons and theme of Shiira, there are only a few themes but at least its somewhat customizable. You can download Shiira themes from here

Page Info

Under page info you can view information on links, DOM, cookies, HTML, CSS, Javascript, the images on the page and other things such as flash files.

Language Support

Shiira Supports the following languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish and Chinese.

Share your thoughts

Tell us what you think about Shiira and how you think it compares to other browsers such as Firefox and Opera.

[rating=3]

(By) Wez is a student studying computers, also does programming and video tutorials and writes about technology, software and websites, check out his blog @ www.TheTutorialBlog.com

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I’d love to hear from you. Send me your MP3 files containing comments about the show, reviews of your favourite websites or just general chitchat. I’ll choose a few to play on the show each week. Send them to podcast [at] makeuseof [dot] com.

If you look underneath the links from the show on this page, you will see a little media player where you can listen to the podcast right here on the site. Or if you prefer, you can right-click on the “audio MP3″ logo and save the MP3 file to your computer for listening on your MP3 player or iPod.

The podcast is available through iTunes so don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast if you have an iPod, or in another podcatcher if you have a different MP3 player.

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With that all being said, what is a “webmaster” to do when content and a clean interface are really what they want? Should they create an HTML page in Dreamweaver and update content directly on the page every time one of their writers submits an article to them? Theoretically they could but that would make their life more difficult than it really has to be. Instead they should turn to a Content Management System, or CMS.

Content Management Systems basically keep the content separate from the interface of the website while maintaining a clean look and endless possibilities. The next question becomes, what are my options and what should I use? In reality, there are very, very many options, but only some of the options really matter for personal users.

When I look for a CMS for a personal blog or website I look at a few key things:

Functionality : What exactly can this CMS do for my website? What will it allow and not allow?

Price : If it’s for my personal website, it’d better be FREE! Also, be wary of how the software is licensed and how you are entitled to use the software.

Security : How fast are security vulnerabilities fixed? How many people contribute to bug fixes, etc.?

Extensibility: This goes along with functionality. Does the CMS offer plug-ins or extensions? That is, can I add functionality and expand my site if I wish to do so in the future?

This article is going to focus on two major Content Management Systems that, in my opinion, are the only two that matter or have something to offer for everyone. You can, of course, dispute this in the comments. Let us know what CMS you use or favor.

Wordpress

The first CMS to highlight is called WordPress (which is what Make Use Of runs on). WordPress was started in 2003 and is released as free, open-source software, meaning it is developed for and by the community. WordPress is a very functional, extensible, and easy to use blogging content management system. With WordPress you can create just about anything from a family photo journal to large scale news site.

At WordPress.org, you can find the open source software that you can run on your webhosting service. It takes a little bit of know how to set up but if you’re lucky, your webhost might have an auto-installer for it. For those of you that don’t have hosting or don’t want to get into the configuration and setup, WordPress.com gives you your own free WordPress blog. It is like a blogging social network of sorts. WordPress is very secure and reliable because of its large user base and development backing. It is extensible through thousands of plug-ins to use on your WordPress site. Your site can grow as you grow.

Drupal

The next CMS is Drupal. Drupal is an open source content management system framework which means you can build anything from a static two page site to a high traffic social network. With this huge pool of flexibility comes a much more advanced set up and configuration. It will take you longer to get your site ready but it may make more sense in the long run.

The latest version of Drupal 6.x, gives a very clean admin panel with status and error logs so you can track most errors and know when your installation is out of date. This applies to all of your modules (referred to as modules in the Drupal community), themes, and core. Drupal, like WordPress, is extremely extensible and secure. It also has a very large user base and developer base. Best of all, Drupal is my favorite price – free!

If you are developing a website or online platform, take into consideration WordPress’ ease of use and Drupal’s framework capacity. Check out their websites and real world examples, be sure they have themes or plug-ins that you do or may need later so you can be future-proof for whatever may happen in your website’s potential future. Good luck and may the best CMS win!

(By) Nick Volpe is a freelance blogger and web guru from techNETWORK.US,a provider of tech news, open source software, web development tools, useful tips, as well as podcasts, tech videos, and much more.

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Sounds like tasks you can or want to do? Go ahead, the Adobe Creative Suite is for you.

Did I hear you asking about the cost? Well it can be a couple of thousand dollars or so depending upon the version you choose.

Fear not because here is a compiled list of software that will not only allow you to do all the above mentioned work but it also costs less. Uhmm….actually it happens that they are all free.

So here I present the open source alternatives to the popular Creative Suite applications:

Adobe Acrobat Reader ==> Sumatra PDF

Sumatra PDF aims to create a small, simple and fast PDF viewer. Its main features are showing PDFs and starting up really fast – and it does both just perfectly. Sumatra PDF is very portable since it has no external dependencies – it is just one file, so you can easily put on your USB stick and take it with you.
Download here

Adobe Acrobat ==> PDFCreator

No I didn’t write this twice by mistake. Pop Quiz – What’s the difference between Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat? Is there one? Lets see who answers this first!

PDFCreator is an open source printer driver that creates PDF documents. “Printer Driver” means that it allows you to create PDF files from any Windows application. The PDF files can then be viewed with a standard PDF reader. You have options to add security and encryption also.
Download here

Adobe Photoshop ==> Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a bitmap drawing and editing application. It is created in C# and is a .NET application. Paint.NET is a simple and easy to use application with an intuitive user interface which in some cases is better than Photoshop even. In addition, it packs features like any commercial program such as: layers, bezier/spline curve drawing and unlimited undo history. On top of that is has many filters that handles everything from blurring/sharpening to color control. Paint.NET requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (which is free but can never be open source!!).
Download here

Adobe Dreamweaver ==> Kompozer

Kompozer is an open source web development tool built on NVU (another editor but currently not under development). The project strives to fix bugs in the NVU project and add new features to it. Offers WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing mode, a CSS , HTML and all other regular features allowing you full control of layout as you work with your web design.
Download here

Adobe Flash ==> Synfig

Synfig is actually very powerful. You can do much more than you can do with flash. Synfig is an industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing “feature-film quality animation” with fewer people and resources – and its free. So now you can create all those animations that you always wanted to do.
Download Here

Adobe Illustrator ==> Inkscape

Inkscape is an open source 2d vector graphics editor. Supports all of the standard drawing features. Curves (bezier), lines, freehand drawing including calligraphy stroke together with geometric figures can be used to build your drawing. Advanced gradient fill tool, bitmap tracing – and will let you export your drawing as both png and postscript. All normal file handling is performed natively in scalable vector graphics (svg) file format.
Download here

Adobe InDesign ==> Scribus

Scribus is a popular open source desktop publishing tool. As a DTP tool it supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Scribus also has additional features not normally found in a DTP tool such as vector drawing tools with SVG support and it even has support for OpenType Fonts. Scribus is available in more than 25 languages.
Download here

Adobe After Effects ==> Jahshaka (I love the name and the logo)

Jahshaka brings the power of movie editing and effects to the open source environment. Whether is comes to painting video, create and edit effects in real-time or perform advanced composition – Jahshaka lets you do it. You can even handle HD with ease.
Download here

Adobe Premier Pro ==> VirtualDub

VirtualDub is an open source video processor/editor. Its not for non-linear video editing, but it has powerful features for processing your video clips. The features include real-time downsizing, noise reduction, support for AVI2 (OpenDML), de- and re-compression of video and audio and an advanced set of filters. These filters include blurring, rotating, image adjustments and more. VirtualDub is a great video toolbox.
Download here

Adobe Encore DVD ==> DVD Styler

DVDStyler is simple and easy to use – it provides a quick and simple interface for adding DVD menus to your own movies. Adding movie clips is as easy as drag and drop. Menu screens are created by first loading a background – and then adding buttons. Then actions are assigned to the buttons to indicate which movie clips should be played when pressed.
Download Here

Adobe Soundbooth ==> Audacity ?

Now I am no sound expert, I have installed and used both soundbooth and Audacity and for me Audacity is just fine, although I must say that Soundbooth looks way more complicated and (sssshhh.. does that mean it does more work also?), but frankly speaking for the general user’s needs Audacity is more than enough. I can’t say for Sound Experts here. May be you can enlighten us on this one?
Download Here

There you have it. A Creative Suite Replacement. As a signing off note I would also like to mention Ubuntu Studio here. Yes yes, I know its Linux but then it comes with many of the above preinstalled (and others not mentioned here) and you can add even more, plus it has beautiful theming to give the Studio Look. You could perhaps even run it inside Windows (through virtualization).

Do you agree with my choices? Or would you replace them with something else?

(By) – Varun Kashyap – A tech enthusiast, programmer and a blogger, who almost got mad testing all of the above for this post. Visit his Tech Crazy Blog here

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MediaPortal – MediaPortal is an open source alternative to the Windows-based Media Center software.

It is compatible with Windows only and sports a customizable interface that, by default, looks very similar to the Windows Media Center interface.

The main benefit to this program besides being open source is its vast collection of plug-ins.

This makes it very simple to add utilities to the application such as new functionalities, skins, and numerous codecs.

GB-PVR – This open source solution is very similar to MediaPortal.

In contrast, however, GB-PVR requires a more advanced pre-configuration but provides more plugins than MediaPortal out of the box.

This program also seems more to have minor bugs here and there but is a worthy alternative.

MythTV – This solution is a very complex solution but provides probably the most flexibility out of any media center alternative I have seen to date.

The previous mentioned solutions install on top of the Windows operating system. MythTV, however, runs on top of a Linux distribution or Mac OS X on a dedicated machine. This means you have to use the computer for MythTV only and nothing else. For many people this is probably not an ideal solution as it requires knowledge of Linux and hardware that is compatible with Linux.

This solution is for advanced media center users that are looking for a much more advanced solution. Not only does this machine run off of a dedicated box but also has built in gaming, webbrowsing, news, telephony, and DVD ripping. MythTV can be used standalone or in conjunction with multiple MythTV servers to create a “cluster” of media centers that can perform various functions.

TVersity – TVersity is perhaps the best of both worlds in regards to MythTV and the other mentioned solutions. It installs on Windows PC and allows you to create a library with the media on that machine as well as internet content and stream it across your network.

It includes support to stream content to a plethora of devices such as Xbox 360, Wii, iPhone, PSP, PS3, as well as other PCs on your network. With some advanced configuration you can also stream your media across the web, however I find it to be a more worthwhile tool for home network usage.

On the downside, TVersity doesn’t support TV tuner cards which means it cannot be used as a DVR or to watch live TV but the vast list of supported devices should make up for it.

Note :

This is by no means a complete list of media center solutions currently available. Most of these solutions are for more advanced users to configure so please be aware.

Have you any suggestions about these or other Media Center solutions? Let us know in the comments below.

Nick Volpe is a freelance blogger and web guru from techNETWORK.US, a provider of tech news, open source software, web development tools, useful tips, as well as podcasts, tech videos, and much more.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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(2) Another often overlooked aspect is that you can have full access to the source code of the software. This is a great blessing for someone who needs the ultimate customization.

(3) You can actually help in the development by fixing bugs, releasing your changes to the code (in accordance with the license of course).

(4) They may also offer more features then their commercial counterparts.

With that out of the way, lets get to the fun part and lets save some bucks. I will be giving information on my personal favorites (which would generally mean BETTER) open source replacements. There are however other choices as well, so drop a line or two if our choices differ!

Microsoft Office ==> OpenOffice
OpenOffice provides a great alternative to Microsoft Office. The complete suite comes with a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing and graphing tool (Draw), tool for creating equations and formulae (Math) and finally a database tool which also builds reports and forms (Base). All components are multi-platform and multilingual. Its available for Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris.
Download here

Microsoft Outlook Express ==> Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a full-featured open source email client which provides an excellent open source alternative to all commercial email clients. Thunderbird offers a large features set, some of which are: support for POP and IMAP, built-in RSS support and spell checking. Thunderbird also has an integrated usenet news reader. The user-interface is completely customizable. Did I mention the many add-ons you can have?
Download here

Microsoft Internet Explorer ==> Mozilla Firefox (Relax, I know you are using it)
Firefox needs no introduction, still I will try – Firefox is an advanced browser built with its roots in the old Netscape browser. Today Firefox offers tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, many search extensions and many other extensions and toolbars. The support for Firefox by commercial companies is growing – and this is clearly seen by the number of extensions/toolbars they develop. So how did I do?
Download here

Winzip or WinRAR ==> 7-Zip
7-Zip is an excellent file archiver that can easily replace Winzip and WinRAR on your machine. It has a high compression ratio. It supports the following formats for packing/unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR – and the following for unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM and DEB. It integrates well into the Windows shell( right click menu). Also 7-Zip is available in 60 languages.
Download here

Microsoft Visio ==> Dia
Dia can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flow charts, network diagrams, and simple circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape. It can load and save diagrams to a variety of formats
Download here

JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA or Other Commercial IDE’s ==> Eclipse
Java based IDE which aims to be a universal development toolkit. Even though it has it’s roots in Java eclipse’s plug-in base allows it to edit files for almost any environment including but not limited web, c/c++ and of course Java.
Download here

Nero ==> InfraRecorder
InfraRecorder is an easy to use CD and DVD burner application. It supports virtually all different formats including rewritable disc, multi-session disc and dual-layer DVDs. Also audio CDs can be created with just a few simple drag drops in InfraRecorder. Other important features include disc copying, audio CD ripping and ISO generation and burning images. InfraRecorder is available in more than 20 languages.
Download here

VMware or Microsoft Virtual PC ==> VirtualBox
VirtualBox allows you to run a guest operating system on your PC, in this case either Windows or Linux based. The guest operating system support covers most Windows (including Vista) and Linux versions. VirtualBox is a very stable tool. I have run Ubuntu inside Windows without any problems. Networking, Clipboard, Disk Management are all seamless.
Download here

Microsoft Remote Desktop for Windows ==> TightVNC
TightVNC is an open source remote desktop application. It allows you to control a graphical user session on a machine remotely through the network. Both VNC server and client runs on multiple platforms. You just need to run the server on the machine you want to access and use the TightVNC viewer to access the system remotely. Some extra features like send special key strokes, file transfers and fullscreen view are also very handy.
Download here

Microsoft Internet Information Services ==> Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server is the most deployed and used web server on the Internet. It is always up-to-date with the latest HTTP standards – and runs on any modern operating system. Apache is secure. There are plenty of extendable modules available that make it even more lucrative choice to the MS IIS. Not to mention the packages that bundle together Apache, perl, php, Mysql, Filezilla, Mercury mail. Definitely one of my personal favorites.
Download here

Pheew.. that’s some information. But wait I am not finished yet, keep visiting often and check back because soon we will be replacing the complete Adobe Creative Suite with open source software!

(By) Varun Kashyap – “A Tech Enthusiast, Programmer and Blogger”. Check out “Varun Kashyap’s Tech Crazy Blog” here

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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