Freebies on my computer

Here is a list of all the freeware/ open source software running on my computer:


SECURITY:

Ad-Aware

AVG Anti-Virus

ZoneAlarm


ENTERTAINMENT:

Google Earth

ITunes

Real Player


BROWSER:

Firefox


GRAPHICS AND PHOTO EDITING:

IrfanView

GIMP


INSTANT MESSENGERS & VOIP

Google Talk

Skype

VOIP Stunt

Yahoo! Messenger


OTHER USEFUL TOOLS:

Filezilla - FTP solution

Foxit - free PDF document viewer and printer

IDrive - Online storage

Kompozer - WYSIWYG HTML and CSS editor

ZipGenius - Compression utility

Firefox Download Day

Dear readers, just to remind you - Firefox 3 will be launched officially on June 17, 2008. That is next Tuesday. Let's help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours.

Create huge panoramas with Hugin

As an amateur photographer, I absolutely love this program.

I am sure you have come across the situation whereby you wanted to take the picture of a beautiful landscape or building but it just didn't fit in. Well just take loads of pictures and use "hugin" - the Free downloadable Panorama photo sticker to join up all your photographs into one whole complete panorama.

The latest version is version 0.7 beta 4 and is available for Linux, OS X and Windows.

Download Hugin here.



Here is a screenshot of the software in action from the Hugin site.

KompoZer a great open source WYSIWYG HTML editor

My favourite open source WYSIWYG HTML editor has always been Nvu. However, it had several bugs and often crashed in the middle of a web desiging job.

I was really happy to learn that there's a community-driven project called KompoZer. It maintains Nvu's codebase and fixes several bugs.

You don't need to have any knowledge of either HTML or CSS to use the software though it would be better.

Infra Recorder for buring CD and DVDs

I haven't been neglecting this blog for quite sometime now. Will be updating it regularly it from now on.

Anyway, I was looking for a DVD burner and came across Infra Recorder, an open source CD/DVD burning software for Microsoft Windows. The latest version is 0.44.1 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista (2.65 MiB).



It is totally free and released under the GPL version 2.

Go to their website to download InfraRecorder or for information: http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

Open source video platform - Miro

There is a new video platform in town and it's open source. This means that Miro is totally free of charge. It is distributed by the Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF), a non-profit organization. They are based in Worcester, Massachusetts but their staff is spread around the World.

Just take a look at the amazing features:

• You can play almost every type of video format.
• You can also subscribe to over 1500 free Internet TV channels
• Download clips from YouTube, Google video and other video sites.
• Download and watch BitTorrent files.

The latest version is 0.9.9.1 but they are working towards Miro 1.0.

They have currently set a goal of raising $50,000. If you think this is a good idea - make a donation to Miro.

Miro supports Mac OS X (OS X 10.3+ and QuickTime 7), Windows (Windows Vista, XP, or 2000), Linux, Fedora and Ubuntu.

Free iPhone SIM unlock software

I am amazed that a lot of people outside the US have already bought the iPhone without being able to use it. It's crazy. Guess they can use it as a media player, which simply defeatts the purpose of having the phone in the first place.

Anyway, I have some good news that should cheer them up. HaRRo Inc has come out with an open source iPhone SIM unlock software. According to the guys at Engadget, the software works. This means that people should be able to use the iPhone anywhere in the world. However, a few features might not be support but who cares. You finally have a iPhone that you can use as a phone and not just for viewing videos.

Gimpshop free alternative to photoshop

My favourite photo editing software happen to be open source. I use the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) for photo retouching most of the time, though it can used for image composition and image authoring. However, after having been using Photoshop for a long time, it took me quite sometime to used to it.

Today I learnt about another open source photoeditor called Gimpshop (8154KB). This powerful tool looks a lot like Photoshop with several effects and filters. As the name suggest, it is based on GIMP, but has more features plus that Photoshop feel. Don't forget its' totally free.

Free web templates

As I have always said, some of the best things in the World are indeed free. While others are paying hundreds of dollars for a website template, we have Open Web Design, a community of designers sharing their web design templates as well as web design information for free.

There are so many great designs on the site, most of them are web standards compliant. Choose any template you like and download to your computer.

Firefox 2.0.0.4 released

The latest version of Firefox was released yesterday. It now has more enhancements and fixes for Windows Vista. Some security issues have also been fixed.

Read 10 reasons why Firefox is the best browser.

Simple photo editing tool

Sometime you just want to retouch your photos a little bit, maybe crop it or resize it. Buying Photoshop for that, is simply not worth it.

Take a look at Paint.NET 3. This is a free image editing and photo manipulation software. Sorry Mac users, this software is for Windows computers only.

Image from their site. I really liked this software because besides it has some editing tools seen only (till now) in higher-end commercial photo editing software. This includes a Curve tool, Gradient tool, Clone stamp and Magic wand. It also supports layers.

For those who would like to further tweak this tool, they are in luck because is open source.

Tags: freeware open source Paint.NET 3 photo editor

Joomla templates

Joomla is one of the best open source online Content Management Systems (CMS). the latest version is Joomla! 1.0.12 [ Sunfire ], which was released in Dec. last year.

One major criticism is that all Joomla! sites look alike. You can't do much about the "Joomla look" but there are several templates out there on the net, both free and commercial, that you can personalise to your taste.

Found a nice list of different Joomla template sites on the o! Just Me blog.

Tags: Joomla Templates

Free file archiver

If you are still stuck with WinZip you better check out this open source file zipping or file archiver tool. 7-Zip has a really high compression ratio - is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip.

Supported formats:
- Only Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
- Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS

Free WYSIWUG web editor

Nvu (which stands for "new view") is a completely free (100% open source ) WYSIWYG web editor. It is released under the Mozilla Public License (MPL).

Now, you don't need any "technical expertise or knowledge of HTML or money" to create a great looking website.

It can be used by Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users.

Old List

AVG Anti-Virus
Anti-Virus system to reliably protect your computer and data free of charge. This includes resident Protection, email scanner, on-demand scanner, scheduled tests, Virus Database updates, easy-To-Use interface, automatic healing of infected files and a Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files.
It is valid for all single home and non-commercial end users Worldwide.

OpenOffice
A multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites.

Fresh Diagnose
Analyse and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard information, and much more.

PDFCreator
This open source software from Soundforge easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. You can also use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application. Limited to the Windows Operating System: Windows 95/98/ME/2000

ZoneAlarm
Download the the award-winning firewall for your PC. Automatically blocks dangerous threats from known and unknown sources. It is still free for personal and non-profit use.

Arachnophilia
A powerful feature-packed HTML editor available for free. Current Version: 5.3, build 2132 (12/03/2006). Instead of freeware, this software is "careware" - an Interesting concept introduced by Paul Lutus.

So here is my deal: stop whining for an hour, a day, a week, your choice, and you will have earned your copy of Arachnophilia. Say encouraging words to young people, make them feel welcome on the planet Earth (many do not). Show by example that we don't need all we have in order to be happy and productive.

- Paul Lutus

IrfanView
Created by Irfan Skiljan, this is a 32-Bit graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME, WinNT, Win2000 and Windows XP. Loaded with huge features: Thumbnails, Preview, Drag & Drop Support, fast Directory View (fast moving through directory), Print Support, Scan (TWAIN) Support, Slideshow, Batch conversion, change the color depth, audio CD player, Capturing, Cut/Crop, Effects (Blur, Sharpen etc.) and much more. Has several download options.
Free for private, non-commercial use. Also free for educational use (schools and universities) and for use in charity or humanitarian organisations. For business or for commercial purposes, you have to register and purchase it.

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a freely distributed image editing software. Can be used for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems and in several languages.

Skype
This FREE p2p (peer-to-peer) phone program is from the same guys who brought us KaZaA. This simple to use program allows you to make free calls to other Skype users around the world. Reported to have excellent sound quality and highly secure with end-to-end encryption. You also do not need to reconfigure your firewall or router.

Wikipedia

It is a multilingual online open-content (and FREE) encyclopedia, which was started in January 2001. Anyone with an Internet connection and a browser can add and alter the content found on this site.
Some predict that this will be bigger than even Google and may be the best source of the latest news directly from common people all around the World. I admit that I couldn't find a few topics I was searching for but the great part is that you can add your own articles to it until someone else edits it.
NOTE: The disclaimer on the site notes that "Wikipedia CANNOT guarantee, in any way whatsoever, the validity of the information found here".

Firefox
Firefox 2.0 is the latest web browser from the Mozilla corporation. It blocks popups, allows tabbed browsing and also keeps us safe from spyware. Mozilla recorded 1,000,000 downloads on the on First day itself. Its free.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is an e-mail client also from Mozilla. It has a lot of great features including Spam filters, a built-in spell checker and lots more. Its free too.