Free Software

[filkertom]

I haven't mentioned Giveaway of the Day here, because it's kinda hit and miss. Way too many screen savers, way too many "commercial" programs which can be easily beaten by their free counterparts. Today's, however, is kinda good: the full version of PageFour, a decently powerful word processor not keyed to the business market. Lots of useful features, friendly interface, only 5 MB download. If you don't need all the stuff in Word and Open Office, if you're tired of the minimal features of WordPad, this may be what you need.

Any decent alternative options you know of, especially on non-PC systems? :) Any other free software you've seen lately we should know about?

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I do most of my html work in vi still, but every now and then, especially when working with someone *else's* html, I find it useful to have an HTML editor.

For multiplatform freeware, its hard to be Nvu, which comes in flavours for Windows, OSX, and Linux.

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

YAY! I'm not the only one who still uses a text editor for HTML! :)

-=ShoEbOX=-

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

Heck. I still use vi for email.

[cheshyre]

Me too. NoteTab Light.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

No, my friend, you are not by a damn sight the only one. Notepad and TextEdit (WinBlows and Mac OS X, respectively) are still my HTML creators/debuggers of choice, if only because even Dreamweaver still puts in lots of extraneous crap that often causes problems or just takes up space in some cases and must be weeded out. And don't even get me started on M$ FrontPage...!

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I still like Dreamweaver -- it's got a lot less garbage than FrontPage, which is just beyond abysmal -- but I do still hand-tweak in NotePad.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

But, sadly, not for Intel-based OSX as yet, only for the old PowerPC-based OSX. And they seem to be waiting for someone else to port it to a Universal Binary version. One of many PPC apps that supposedly can be run on an Intel Mac under Rosetta but just sits there like a lump of coal on mine for some reason.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, it's Open Source, which means the reason there's an OSX version at all is that someone wanted it enough to figure out the code changes required, make them, and then offer them for free to the rest of the community.

I'm sure it'll eventually get done.

[crushdmb.livejournal.com]

http://www.lifehacker.com features a lot of free, open source, and other-than-windows software :)

[killernurd.livejournal.com]

For light-weight word processing, I use AbiWord, which is cross-platform, portable, and open source.

Writing code... depends. I use Emacs for X/HTML work, and for PHP/Perl/Sh/Ruby as well, but for the compiled languages I use Eclipse.

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

I do sysadmin work, and use a trillion billion passwords*: I use KeePass (http://keepass.info/) to keep them encrypted and secure from prying coworkers, and safe from me needing to remember them all. Free as in beer and speech. Also handy to keep track of web site logins and passwords, banking info, and anything else you'd like close but safe.


*

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

For Windows, I tend to look at Tiny Apps (http://www.tinyapps.org/) first. Less code means less places for bugs to hide in it.

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

I watch a lot of stuff on my machine that's in .avi. As a Windows user I despaired of ever having all the right codecs and as a Linux user, I always fear something NOT working.

I swear by VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/). This cross-platform, tiny footprint wonder plays media files of almost any description (I can't do .wmv's on Linux but so far that's my only complaint). The bestest thing? You never have to figure out what codecs you're missing.

Highly recommended!

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

Really? As I recall, the Mac version of VLC plays both .wma and .wmv files, and I'm surprised that the Linux version doesn't play them.

Odd...

Raven

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Flip4Mac is way better for playing .WMA and .WMV files on your Mac, as it lets you play them right inside your regular QuickTime Player. And it's free.

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

I correct myself - I just tested VLC on my Mac, and it won't play a given .wma, while the combination of Flip4Mac/QuickTime played the same file.

Unfortunately, while I was trying to get things to co-operate about a week ago, I ended up upgrading Flip4Mac to the "Pro" level (not the "Studio" version), so I may have wasted about $30.

Raven

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I managed to nuke WMP somehow and was getting tired of it anyhow, so I was looking for another media player. Since I'm on a mission to use as much free/open source/shareware software on my laptop as I can, this is great. I use OpenOffice, which I love, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gadwin PrintScreen (http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/), which is a screen capture utility -- the release I'm currently using (3.1) doesn't resize images well, unlike SnagIt, but it also doesn't cost $30, either.

Mac applications

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

As far as Mac applications are concerned, Apple's web site is actually the first place I go hunting if I want something. They have quite a repository of freeware and shareware applications available, including a ton of widgets available (generally free) for the Dashboard - that's how I play Sudoku on my Mac.

Of course, the usual options (Tucows, etc.) have Mac sections, too, though those are primarily Windows sites.

Raven

Re: Mac applications

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

MacUpdate and VersionTracker do have some good free/dirt-cheap shareware for Macs. Also, OpenSourceMac.com has lots of exactly what its name implies, and FreeMacWare.com highlights at least one new open-source or free bit of Mac goodness each day. Softpedia is also good for finding Mac shareware goodies the Big Two listed above don't get copies of.

Re: Mac applications

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

I'll make a note of those locations - the staff at the local Apple Store mentioned VersionTracker to me. Since my lone Mac is my music recording system, I don't want to litter it up with stuff not related to that job, but once I can get another one for general use and can get rid of my Linux and Windows machines, I'll probably have more use for these sites.

Thanks.

Raven

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU!!!!!!! I might actually try writing some fan fiction again with this.