goran
24-08-2009, 01:06 PM
Nowadays, one can do soooooooooo much with OpenSource and frequently it is better than with Win-based appz, which are frequently seriously overpriced, to boot!!!
I use Firefox, FileZilla Client, 7zip, K-lite audio-visual suite 5.00 full and so on. No impediments there!!! Quite the opposite! Better than Win-based ****e!!!
So, here are the utils etc. that can be of help in our hobby, too...
http://www.theopendisc.com/Notice the 2 versions, one of them being Education geared/based!!!
Everything here is Open Source = free/gratis/freeware!!!!:respect-040:
Here is the FAQ:
OpenEducationDisc FAQ
Is everything really free?
Yes, all the programs are made by groups of people who don’t believe that you should have to pay for computer programs. You can use the disk as many times as you want.
My school doesn’t have software as good as this, what can I do.
Start by making a copy of this CD and handing it to your teacher with the introduction pack, you could even do some really good homework and explain how you made it.
I’ve installed the software but it doesn’t work, what should I do?
First, check that you have got the required software that is says on the install page of this CD. If you have done that and it still doesn’t work, check the website of the program to see if other people are having the same problem.
What are the requirements to run program XYZ?
You need to check the website of the program where it will give you exact specifications. Most of the programs on this disk need Windows XP or above and a computer bought within the last few years.
If I have a problem can I get in touch with you?
We’re afraid that we don’t have the resources to help you out with problems about individual programs, you need to check their websites and online forums. We may be able to help you out with any problems with the disc though.
I can’t find a program that does the same as commercial program XYZ, can you help?
Take a look into Open Source alternatives to common commercial software at: www.osalt.com (http://www.osalt.com/). If the program you find really helps you, it may help other people as well so please send us an email so we can add it to the CD.
I have a fantastic idea for the next version of the CD
Please get in touch, we are always willing to accept offers of help and hear your suggestions. Visit our forums (http://www.theopendisc.com/forum/) for more information.
:bowing-036:
And here are some of the utils on the Disk:
Utilities
7-Zip is a program for creating or unpacking archived and compressed files in an enormous variety of formats.
7-Zip can both create or unpack the following formats: 7zip, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB files. For the standard ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2 – 10 % better than that provided by PKZip or WinZip, and the native 7zip format can provide a 45% reduction in file size from the common zip format. The program is highly configurable, allowing the user to balance the level of compression and speed. The interface is designed to mimic the standard Windows shell, Explorer, and is localized to 40 languages.
Abakt is a flexible backup tool for Windows that protects your valuable data. Using a combination of advanced filters you can select files, directories or whole drives to compress, copy or move. You can even automate the process for future backups.
Clamwin is a powerful anti-virus program with features high detection rates for viruses and spyware, a scanning scheduler, and automatic downloads of the regularly updated virus database.
Note: ClamWin does not include an on-access real-time scanner. You need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware. This means that it will not protect you from, for example, viruses you receive in compressed folders unless you make sure to scan the files inside before opening them. For the best security, you need to keep informed and be wary of installing programs from unknown sources, or use a Linux-based operating system which has a superior security record.
Clamwin is still an excellent way to keep your computer safe or disinfect your computer, and new features are being added to the software all the time.
GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. Offering a complete set of widgets, GTK+ is suitable for projects ranging from small one-off projects to complete application suites.
The GTK+ library is responsible for drawing the windows, dialogue boxes and buttons in the GIMP, Pidgin and hundreds of other programs.
HealthMonitor is a powerful and feature filled monitoring tool. It works in the background as a Windows Service, monitoring system performance (CPU load average, free memory, disk space, etc). It can log results into a database or send a notification by e-mail, ***, or a popup notification. HealthMonitor keeps a close eye on the functioning of your Windows computer, and reports to you if anything goes wrong.
TrueCrypt is powerful encryption software for your personal data. It works by creating creating a virtual hard drive within a file and mounts it, so your computer treats it as a real hard drive. You can choose to encrypt an entire hard drive, certain folders, or removable media such as a USB flash drive.
Encryption is automatic, real-time and transparent, so all the hard work is handled for you. It also provides two levels of plausible deniability, and supports various encryption algorithms depending on your needs, including AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish.
Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts the total time you work to a daily limit, and is fully customisable to each user’s need. When it’s time for a break, Workrave presents animations of the kind of exercises that will keep you limber and healthy. It will help you work more effectively and improve your general level of comfort while working.
Workrave is a must if you spend most of your day in front of the computer.
Productivity
GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, which allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses.
Features include double-entry accounting; stock/bond/mutual fund accounts; customers, vendors, jobs, invoices, A/P, A/R; QIF/OFX/HBCI import; transaction matching; reports and graphs; scheduled and financial calculations.
MoinMoin. A wiki is a tool that allows many users to collaborate on generating and organising content. A wiki is usually hosted on the web so that different people can connect through their web browsers to collaborate. However you can also use a wiki locally on your own computer to help you stay organised, structuring your information with categories, sub-pages and hyper-links, just like on the web. You can even create attachments to your pages, like pictures or word processing do***ents you are working on for a specific project.
A powerful feature of wikis is page versioning, which lets you store each page in multiple successive versions and track the changes between them. This is of course especially useful when multiple people are editing the same page. The Desktop Edition provided here has been especially provided for desktop use – all your edits are saved onto your hard drive.
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/notepad2.png (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) Notepad2 is intended to be a replacement for the Notepad program that is included as part of Windows. Like Notepad, Notepad2 is small, fast, and has few frills. It does, however, add some functionality such as colour syntax highlighting that many people will find useful, especially those that have to edit the odd HTML page or script. You can select the level of zoom and select the editing font. Notepad2 supports Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files. http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/openoffice.png (http://www.openoffice.org/) OpenOffice.org is a full-featured productivity suite including a word processor, spreadsheet, web page editor and presentation program. Do***ents are stored in a compressed, open-standard XML format to ensure future availability of your data and to reduce file sizes. You can read and write do***ents in a wide range of formats including Microsoft Office. The word processor component, Writer, is suitable for the production of professional do***ents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. A powerful spreadsheet module called Calc contains sophisticated tools for calculation, data analysis and visualisation, its built-in charting tools are able to generate customisable 2D and 3D charts. The presentation utility, Impress, uses effects, animation and drawing tools to help you create effective multimedia slide shows to present your the way you want to. Use the Draw component to produce either simple diagrams or complex 3D illustrations and special effects for use in do***ents and presentations. The database tool, Base, give you all the tools you need for day to day database work in a simple spreadsheet-like form.
Due to the high cost of commercial office suites, deciding to use OpenOffice.org will typically represent the single largest source of savings on software for organisations or individuals. OpenOffice.org is increasingly becoming an office suite of choice in education, government, and business. The OpenOffice.org website contains tutorials, manuals and many other tools to help you create professional do***ents.
Multimedia
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/audacity.png (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
Audacity is a sound editing program which can record, playback, and mix sounds or apply effects using a variety of filters.
Audacity lets you edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo) and mix multiple tracks together. Save your files in a number of formats, including WAV, Ogg Vorbis and AIFF, or use Audacity’s native project format for high performance editing. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customisable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Bass Boost, Wahwah, and Noise Removal.
Use Audacity to record your own podcasts, mix music, or just be creative!
Celestia is a simulation of the entire universe, based on currently known astronomical information. It includes beautifully rendered planets, moons, and some smaller orbital bodies such as Mir and the International Space Station. Celestia is not limited to our solar system; you can visit other stars, or even travel outside the galaxy. You will find models of extra-solar planets in orbit around those stars for which we have evidence of planetary bodies. You have complete control over time and space, so you can view the stars from your chosen location and epoch. In addition, it is possible to create scripted presentations for complex demonstrations.
To get a good idea of Celestia’s full capabilities, start the program and press D for Demo.
The Really Slick Screensavers are a collection of impressive savers to prevent permanent monitor burn-in on your computer screen. Each saver is highly customisable to cater not only for personal taste but also to make the most of your particular computer.
Stellarium is a planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Just set your local co-ordinates (or choose to look at the sky from any other place or time on Earth!) and you’re treated to a natural and accurate view of the night’s sky.
Sumatra PDF is a flexible and lightweight PDF reader, with a minimalistic design that allows fast browsing and even faster loading times. It also remembers the last page of every PDF you read, so you can resume reading at any time in the future.
The VLC media player supports numerous audio and video file-types out of the box, so you don’t have to download individual software to play most media files. You can also encode media to a variety of formats, and streaming support for audio and video over the internet/networks is also available.
Internet
Azureus is a powerful BitTorrent protocol client. It comes bundled with many invaluable features for both beginners and advanced users, such as multiple torrent support, speed limiting, fast resuming and more.
The BitTorrent protocol is a “peer-to-peer” way to distribute files on the internet. It was designed to move large amounts of data to many users without the costly server space and bandwidth that a distributor would usually have to pay for. Users who download a file then become a new source for transmitting that data. You can read more about BitTorrent at Wikipedia.
In order for this software to work you must have the proprietary Java environment installed on your computer. If you do not have Java on your computer already, the Azureus installation will not be able to complete. You can download Java free of charge from here.
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/filezilla.png (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/)
FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Features include upload/download resume, site manager, keep-alive system, SSL and SFTP support, and a flexible file queuing system.
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/firefox.png (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/)
The Firefox web browser empowers you to browse web pages faster, more safely, and more efficiently. Key features include pop-up blocking to stop those annoying ads, tabbed browsing to let you view multiple web pages in a single window, and opening links in the background so that they’re ready for viewing when you’re ready to read them. The toolbars are fully customizable. Don’t like the default order of the buttons? Right click, select “customize” and drag that button where you want it.
You can expand Firefox’s functionality using a wide variety of extensions. These offer you the ability to customize your web experience through automatic form completion, flash blocking, in-browser games, or development tools to help you study how web pages are made. There is also a range of themes available to let you alter the look of the browser. The easy transition system imports all of your settings, including favourites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers, so you can start surfing right away.
Possibly the best reason to start using Firefox is its enhanced security. Built with your security in mind from the start, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by preventing harmful ActiveX controls, and offers a comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity private. In this age of rampant virus, trojan and phishing attacks, Firefox provides a secure alternative.
HTTrack is an easy-to-use offline web browser utility. It allows you to download a web site from the Internet to a local directory on your computer, building a perfect mirror for your personal use. Simply open a page of the website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads.
Pigdin is an Internet Messenging (chat) client that enables you to chat with others in real time using any supported network, including *** Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, *****!, IRC and Jabber. Pigdin can be simultaneously connected to several networks, so if you have contacts on different networks you can talk to them all at the same time, from one easy to use program.
Pidgin uses the GTK+ library which is also available on OpenDisc. Because It won’t work without it, ensure you install GTK+ first.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) gives users the power to collect and organize Web-based news and information in a very efficient way. RSSOwl lets you gather, organize, update, and store information from any website that has an “RSS feed” in a simple, easy to use interface.
Once you’ve added all your favourite blogs and news websites, you’ll have a one-stop program to keep you up to date with every site you normally visit, and all at a glance.
SeaMonkey is an all-in-one internet suite which uses the same engine as Firefox and Thunderbird, and also includes a newsgroup client, an internet relay chat (or IRC) client, and a flexible HTML editor.
Like Firefox, the best reason to start using SeaMonkey is its enhanced security. Built with your security in mind from the start, SeaMonkey keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls, and a comprehensive set of privacy tools to keep your online activity private and your computer safe.
Thunderbird is a modern email client with features such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in spell checker, a range of themes and customisable layout. Thunderbird provides IMAP/POP support, HTML e-mail composing, quick search, address book, advanced message filtering, address completion, import tools, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts. You can add a wide variety of extensions to Thunderbird to add additional features or tweak its behavior to suit your own preferences.
As with Mozilla Firefox, security is a central theme. Thunderbird provides enterprise and government grade security features such as S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, support for certificates and security devices. The intelligent Thunderbird spam filter analyzes your e-mails to identify those that are most likely to be junk. These can be automatically deleted or diverted to a separate folder. The spam filter is adaptive and also learns from your address book and usage to improve its accuracy.
TightVNC is a remote control software that lets you see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer. Ideal for remote administration, remote customer support, education, and for many other purposes, and because it works across different operating systems you can use almost any computer, from any computer.
The TightVNC package includes a server (which allows users on other computers connect to yours) and a client (for you to log in to others’ computers).
WinSCP is a fully featured SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) client.
Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. It fully supports Secure Shell (SSH) and in addition to SFTP, the legacy SCP protocol. :respect-023:
There are always OTHER OPTIONS in life, never just one or two... And if there isn't - we can create new ones!!!
Now, that's the spirit, the best of Humanity!!!:party:
Enjoy!:respect-051:
I use Firefox, FileZilla Client, 7zip, K-lite audio-visual suite 5.00 full and so on. No impediments there!!! Quite the opposite! Better than Win-based ****e!!!
So, here are the utils etc. that can be of help in our hobby, too...
http://www.theopendisc.com/Notice the 2 versions, one of them being Education geared/based!!!
Everything here is Open Source = free/gratis/freeware!!!!:respect-040:
Here is the FAQ:
OpenEducationDisc FAQ
Is everything really free?
Yes, all the programs are made by groups of people who don’t believe that you should have to pay for computer programs. You can use the disk as many times as you want.
My school doesn’t have software as good as this, what can I do.
Start by making a copy of this CD and handing it to your teacher with the introduction pack, you could even do some really good homework and explain how you made it.
I’ve installed the software but it doesn’t work, what should I do?
First, check that you have got the required software that is says on the install page of this CD. If you have done that and it still doesn’t work, check the website of the program to see if other people are having the same problem.
What are the requirements to run program XYZ?
You need to check the website of the program where it will give you exact specifications. Most of the programs on this disk need Windows XP or above and a computer bought within the last few years.
If I have a problem can I get in touch with you?
We’re afraid that we don’t have the resources to help you out with problems about individual programs, you need to check their websites and online forums. We may be able to help you out with any problems with the disc though.
I can’t find a program that does the same as commercial program XYZ, can you help?
Take a look into Open Source alternatives to common commercial software at: www.osalt.com (http://www.osalt.com/). If the program you find really helps you, it may help other people as well so please send us an email so we can add it to the CD.
I have a fantastic idea for the next version of the CD
Please get in touch, we are always willing to accept offers of help and hear your suggestions. Visit our forums (http://www.theopendisc.com/forum/) for more information.
:bowing-036:
And here are some of the utils on the Disk:
Utilities
7-Zip is a program for creating or unpacking archived and compressed files in an enormous variety of formats.
7-Zip can both create or unpack the following formats: 7zip, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB files. For the standard ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2 – 10 % better than that provided by PKZip or WinZip, and the native 7zip format can provide a 45% reduction in file size from the common zip format. The program is highly configurable, allowing the user to balance the level of compression and speed. The interface is designed to mimic the standard Windows shell, Explorer, and is localized to 40 languages.
Abakt is a flexible backup tool for Windows that protects your valuable data. Using a combination of advanced filters you can select files, directories or whole drives to compress, copy or move. You can even automate the process for future backups.
Clamwin is a powerful anti-virus program with features high detection rates for viruses and spyware, a scanning scheduler, and automatic downloads of the regularly updated virus database.
Note: ClamWin does not include an on-access real-time scanner. You need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware. This means that it will not protect you from, for example, viruses you receive in compressed folders unless you make sure to scan the files inside before opening them. For the best security, you need to keep informed and be wary of installing programs from unknown sources, or use a Linux-based operating system which has a superior security record.
Clamwin is still an excellent way to keep your computer safe or disinfect your computer, and new features are being added to the software all the time.
GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. Offering a complete set of widgets, GTK+ is suitable for projects ranging from small one-off projects to complete application suites.
The GTK+ library is responsible for drawing the windows, dialogue boxes and buttons in the GIMP, Pidgin and hundreds of other programs.
HealthMonitor is a powerful and feature filled monitoring tool. It works in the background as a Windows Service, monitoring system performance (CPU load average, free memory, disk space, etc). It can log results into a database or send a notification by e-mail, ***, or a popup notification. HealthMonitor keeps a close eye on the functioning of your Windows computer, and reports to you if anything goes wrong.
TrueCrypt is powerful encryption software for your personal data. It works by creating creating a virtual hard drive within a file and mounts it, so your computer treats it as a real hard drive. You can choose to encrypt an entire hard drive, certain folders, or removable media such as a USB flash drive.
Encryption is automatic, real-time and transparent, so all the hard work is handled for you. It also provides two levels of plausible deniability, and supports various encryption algorithms depending on your needs, including AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish.
Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts the total time you work to a daily limit, and is fully customisable to each user’s need. When it’s time for a break, Workrave presents animations of the kind of exercises that will keep you limber and healthy. It will help you work more effectively and improve your general level of comfort while working.
Workrave is a must if you spend most of your day in front of the computer.
Productivity
GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, which allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses.
Features include double-entry accounting; stock/bond/mutual fund accounts; customers, vendors, jobs, invoices, A/P, A/R; QIF/OFX/HBCI import; transaction matching; reports and graphs; scheduled and financial calculations.
MoinMoin. A wiki is a tool that allows many users to collaborate on generating and organising content. A wiki is usually hosted on the web so that different people can connect through their web browsers to collaborate. However you can also use a wiki locally on your own computer to help you stay organised, structuring your information with categories, sub-pages and hyper-links, just like on the web. You can even create attachments to your pages, like pictures or word processing do***ents you are working on for a specific project.
A powerful feature of wikis is page versioning, which lets you store each page in multiple successive versions and track the changes between them. This is of course especially useful when multiple people are editing the same page. The Desktop Edition provided here has been especially provided for desktop use – all your edits are saved onto your hard drive.
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/notepad2.png (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) Notepad2 is intended to be a replacement for the Notepad program that is included as part of Windows. Like Notepad, Notepad2 is small, fast, and has few frills. It does, however, add some functionality such as colour syntax highlighting that many people will find useful, especially those that have to edit the odd HTML page or script. You can select the level of zoom and select the editing font. Notepad2 supports Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files. http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/openoffice.png (http://www.openoffice.org/) OpenOffice.org is a full-featured productivity suite including a word processor, spreadsheet, web page editor and presentation program. Do***ents are stored in a compressed, open-standard XML format to ensure future availability of your data and to reduce file sizes. You can read and write do***ents in a wide range of formats including Microsoft Office. The word processor component, Writer, is suitable for the production of professional do***ents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. A powerful spreadsheet module called Calc contains sophisticated tools for calculation, data analysis and visualisation, its built-in charting tools are able to generate customisable 2D and 3D charts. The presentation utility, Impress, uses effects, animation and drawing tools to help you create effective multimedia slide shows to present your the way you want to. Use the Draw component to produce either simple diagrams or complex 3D illustrations and special effects for use in do***ents and presentations. The database tool, Base, give you all the tools you need for day to day database work in a simple spreadsheet-like form.
Due to the high cost of commercial office suites, deciding to use OpenOffice.org will typically represent the single largest source of savings on software for organisations or individuals. OpenOffice.org is increasingly becoming an office suite of choice in education, government, and business. The OpenOffice.org website contains tutorials, manuals and many other tools to help you create professional do***ents.
Multimedia
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/audacity.png (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
Audacity is a sound editing program which can record, playback, and mix sounds or apply effects using a variety of filters.
Audacity lets you edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo) and mix multiple tracks together. Save your files in a number of formats, including WAV, Ogg Vorbis and AIFF, or use Audacity’s native project format for high performance editing. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customisable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Bass Boost, Wahwah, and Noise Removal.
Use Audacity to record your own podcasts, mix music, or just be creative!
Celestia is a simulation of the entire universe, based on currently known astronomical information. It includes beautifully rendered planets, moons, and some smaller orbital bodies such as Mir and the International Space Station. Celestia is not limited to our solar system; you can visit other stars, or even travel outside the galaxy. You will find models of extra-solar planets in orbit around those stars for which we have evidence of planetary bodies. You have complete control over time and space, so you can view the stars from your chosen location and epoch. In addition, it is possible to create scripted presentations for complex demonstrations.
To get a good idea of Celestia’s full capabilities, start the program and press D for Demo.
The Really Slick Screensavers are a collection of impressive savers to prevent permanent monitor burn-in on your computer screen. Each saver is highly customisable to cater not only for personal taste but also to make the most of your particular computer.
Stellarium is a planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Just set your local co-ordinates (or choose to look at the sky from any other place or time on Earth!) and you’re treated to a natural and accurate view of the night’s sky.
Sumatra PDF is a flexible and lightweight PDF reader, with a minimalistic design that allows fast browsing and even faster loading times. It also remembers the last page of every PDF you read, so you can resume reading at any time in the future.
The VLC media player supports numerous audio and video file-types out of the box, so you don’t have to download individual software to play most media files. You can also encode media to a variety of formats, and streaming support for audio and video over the internet/networks is also available.
Internet
Azureus is a powerful BitTorrent protocol client. It comes bundled with many invaluable features for both beginners and advanced users, such as multiple torrent support, speed limiting, fast resuming and more.
The BitTorrent protocol is a “peer-to-peer” way to distribute files on the internet. It was designed to move large amounts of data to many users without the costly server space and bandwidth that a distributor would usually have to pay for. Users who download a file then become a new source for transmitting that data. You can read more about BitTorrent at Wikipedia.
In order for this software to work you must have the proprietary Java environment installed on your computer. If you do not have Java on your computer already, the Azureus installation will not be able to complete. You can download Java free of charge from here.
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/filezilla.png (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/)
FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Features include upload/download resume, site manager, keep-alive system, SSL and SFTP support, and a flexible file queuing system.
http://www.theopendisc.com/images/icons/firefox.png (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/)
The Firefox web browser empowers you to browse web pages faster, more safely, and more efficiently. Key features include pop-up blocking to stop those annoying ads, tabbed browsing to let you view multiple web pages in a single window, and opening links in the background so that they’re ready for viewing when you’re ready to read them. The toolbars are fully customizable. Don’t like the default order of the buttons? Right click, select “customize” and drag that button where you want it.
You can expand Firefox’s functionality using a wide variety of extensions. These offer you the ability to customize your web experience through automatic form completion, flash blocking, in-browser games, or development tools to help you study how web pages are made. There is also a range of themes available to let you alter the look of the browser. The easy transition system imports all of your settings, including favourites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers, so you can start surfing right away.
Possibly the best reason to start using Firefox is its enhanced security. Built with your security in mind from the start, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by preventing harmful ActiveX controls, and offers a comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity private. In this age of rampant virus, trojan and phishing attacks, Firefox provides a secure alternative.
HTTrack is an easy-to-use offline web browser utility. It allows you to download a web site from the Internet to a local directory on your computer, building a perfect mirror for your personal use. Simply open a page of the website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads.
Pigdin is an Internet Messenging (chat) client that enables you to chat with others in real time using any supported network, including *** Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, *****!, IRC and Jabber. Pigdin can be simultaneously connected to several networks, so if you have contacts on different networks you can talk to them all at the same time, from one easy to use program.
Pidgin uses the GTK+ library which is also available on OpenDisc. Because It won’t work without it, ensure you install GTK+ first.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) gives users the power to collect and organize Web-based news and information in a very efficient way. RSSOwl lets you gather, organize, update, and store information from any website that has an “RSS feed” in a simple, easy to use interface.
Once you’ve added all your favourite blogs and news websites, you’ll have a one-stop program to keep you up to date with every site you normally visit, and all at a glance.
SeaMonkey is an all-in-one internet suite which uses the same engine as Firefox and Thunderbird, and also includes a newsgroup client, an internet relay chat (or IRC) client, and a flexible HTML editor.
Like Firefox, the best reason to start using SeaMonkey is its enhanced security. Built with your security in mind from the start, SeaMonkey keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls, and a comprehensive set of privacy tools to keep your online activity private and your computer safe.
Thunderbird is a modern email client with features such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in spell checker, a range of themes and customisable layout. Thunderbird provides IMAP/POP support, HTML e-mail composing, quick search, address book, advanced message filtering, address completion, import tools, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts. You can add a wide variety of extensions to Thunderbird to add additional features or tweak its behavior to suit your own preferences.
As with Mozilla Firefox, security is a central theme. Thunderbird provides enterprise and government grade security features such as S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, support for certificates and security devices. The intelligent Thunderbird spam filter analyzes your e-mails to identify those that are most likely to be junk. These can be automatically deleted or diverted to a separate folder. The spam filter is adaptive and also learns from your address book and usage to improve its accuracy.
TightVNC is a remote control software that lets you see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer. Ideal for remote administration, remote customer support, education, and for many other purposes, and because it works across different operating systems you can use almost any computer, from any computer.
The TightVNC package includes a server (which allows users on other computers connect to yours) and a client (for you to log in to others’ computers).
WinSCP is a fully featured SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) client.
Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. It fully supports Secure Shell (SSH) and in addition to SFTP, the legacy SCP protocol. :respect-023:
There are always OTHER OPTIONS in life, never just one or two... And if there isn't - we can create new ones!!!
Now, that's the spirit, the best of Humanity!!!:party:
Enjoy!:respect-051: