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Free Software article discussion

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  • Airwolf1
    Airwolf1 Posts: 1,266 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I would recommend taking a look at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ There is free software given away each day, some you may useful, some you may not, but hey, if its free, and you could do with it, then its worth checking. This can also be added to igoogle.
    My suggestion and/or advice is my own and it is up to you if you follow it, please check the advice given before acting on it.
  • Shytalker
    Shytalker Posts: 32 Forumite
    My home computer has a lot of XP freeware installed. My selection is Open Office, Google Earth, CCleaner, Defraggler, Spybot (anti-spyware), Free AVG (antivirus), ZoneAlarm (firewall), Opera (web browser), 7-zip (like winzip but also does RARs) and XnView (photo organiser).

    I particularly recommend 'XnView' for basic photo editing and file organising. You can crop pictures, lossless jpg rotate (a great feature!) and convert them to different formats. You can also use it as a file or video viewer - great for viewing all sorts of video formats, including most Youtube flvs, mobile phone video clips, etc. http://www.xnview.com/

    I also use a simple freeware desktop calendar to remind me of birthdays, etc.:
    http://www.gregorybraun.com/Calendar.html

    For nerdlike fun, I play around with different versions of Linux operating system. Favourites are OpenSuse and Mandriva (a commercial version but was free on a mag cover disc).
  • No1Joker
    No1Joker Posts: 197 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    You guys really know how to find some good stuff, thanks.

    Can anyone direct me to a good DVD creator program? Something that i can put multiple Mpegs, some picture galleries change the buttons, background, background music etc. don't need blu-ray compatible. I've tried PD7, Nero and Windows MM but i can't get the finish i am after.
    NO RAIN - NO RAINBOWS

    When did i stop being able to fit Hoola-Hoops over my fingers? :huh::think:
  • Airwolf1
    Airwolf1 Posts: 1,266 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Keep an eye out on Giveawayoftheday, mentioned in my other link.. You don't know what software they give away until that day, but I'm sure something will crop up for you.
    My suggestion and/or advice is my own and it is up to you if you follow it, please check the advice given before acting on it.
  • A great website listing Open-source software for Mac users is http://www.opensourcemac.org/

    Also, http://osx.iusethis.com lists popular freeware and shareware Mac software.
  • I use Macupdate.com alot - and it's great because they have a menubar button (mumenu) that will show you the new software available right in your menu bar. You can filter your searches to only show freeware. :D
  • Bob63
    Bob63 Posts: 1,320 Forumite
    Shytalker wrote: »
    For nerdlike fun, I play around with different versions of Linux operating system. Favourites are OpenSuse and Mandriva (a commercial version but was free on a mag cover disc).
    VirtualBox is a free-for-personal-use virtualisation package that allows you to run Linux (and other operating systems) at the same time as Windows, as a virtual machine within your existing OS. Very neat.
  • If you have young children they will love these free educational software titles:

    TuxPaint - Free drawing programme for kids in KS1&2 (5-11)
    Info: - http://www.tuxpaint.org/
    Download: - http://www.tuxpaint.org/download/windows/
    Screenshots: http://www.tuxpaint.org/screenshots/

    TuxMath - Numeracy game for children aged 4 - 10
    Info: http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxmath/
    Download: http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/download/
    Screenshots: http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/tuxmath.php

    TuxType - Typing game for children 5 - 11
    Info: http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/
    Download: http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/download/
    Screenshots: http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/screens/

    Older Children may like Scratch - A programme in which you can create your own games -
    http://scratch.mit.edu/

    Other free games/educational titles can be found at:
    http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/educational

    Make sure you choose the Windows version if asked, or Linux/MAC OS if you are running that!
  • lean&mean
    lean&mean Posts: 77 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts
    The main article for free software recommends NVU if you've got a Mac (I can't remember seeing anything for PC users), but NVU hasn't been updated for ages.
    If you haven't already got an HTML design prog on your Mac or PC or Linux based machine these two might be worth a look, as they are multi-platform. Both have their own FTP or publishing features and allow you to edit HTML or just edit the page as if it was a Word document. They allow for WYSIWIG website design or to tinker with underlying HTML if you want to, and they're free!

    Seamonkey Composer, an open source prog made by the people who made Netscape then Mozilla Composer. The web editing section is part of a browser suite. http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/ It works pretty well when I looked at the PC version but you'll need a separate FTP programme if you want to create or edit a whole website as it only works on one page at a time, so you'll still need an FTP programme, like the excellent free Filezilla http://filezilla-project.org which is also multiplatform.

    Kompozer, a more updated version of the open source NVU, which also came out of Netscape Composer. It has a downloading/publishing engine which allows you to work on a whole site at a time, though it's a bit buggy and comes up with error messages quite often, but it still works. However, there still doesn't seem to be a way to upload files other than webpages. Although Komposer is meant to be a live project, there's only one guy working on it and the latest update is running late (this is meant to bring a new publishing engine). http://www.kompozer.net/download.php

    Of the two, some say Kompozer offers more, but I'd say it was fairly balanced if you have an FTP programme, and Seamonkey seems to have better support.

    Hope this helps.
  • itsj2
    itsj2 Posts: 94 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Can anyone recommend a standalone freeware spreadsheet program for Windows XP that is compatible with Microsoft Excel, please? (I know that the Open Office one is good, but unfortuantely you have to download their entire office suite which I don't want to do).
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