Free Software, Free Society - the Free Software Thread

The Free Software Foundation defines "free software" in the following way:

Free Software Definition


The following are some programmes that you might like to try out that meet (or almost
meet) the free software definition.   All are licensed under either the GNU General Public
License (GPL), the Lesser GNU General Public License (LGPL) or the Mozilla Public License
(MPL).

Most of these programmes are "cross platform", with versions available for Windows, MacOSX,
GNU/Linux and sometimes versions of Unix and other operating systems.


Web Browsers:

Firefox
Flock
K-Meleon (Windows only)
Sea Monkey

E-Mail and Calendaring

Thunderbird

Web Page Creation

Kompozer
(Composer feature in Sea Monkey)

Office Suite (Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Databases)

OpenOffice

Word Processing

Abiword

Spreadsheets

Gnumeric   (primarily for GNU/Linux, the Windows version is a bit unstable)

Desktop Publishing

Scribus

Vector Graphics

Inkscape

Photo/Image Editing

The Gimp

FTP

Filezilla

Podcast Receiver

Juice

Media Players

VLC Media Player
Miro
Real Alternative (Windows only)
Quicktime Alternative (Windows only)

"Stand Alone" RSS Feed Agregator

RSS Owl

Instant Messaging

Pidgin

Audio Editing

Audacity

Video Editing (simple)

Avidemux

3D Modelling and Animation

Blender

CD/DVD Burning

Infrarecorder  (Windows only)

Streaming Audio Capture

Streamripper


Hopefully this is enough to get you started, so that you can begin to free your computer from the shackles of proprietary software.

Experiment and have fun trying out some new stuff!

Any free (and fun!) games that don't take a long time to download? I'm stuck in a hospital residence until next Monday, with lousy internet access.

Thanks Michelle, I'll have a look!

If you are going to go with free software, why not go the whole way and download an open source operating system. There are hundreds of various Linux distributions out there for the downloading. Most are highly configurable and in spite of some of the stories of past problems configuring, most are a piece of cake to install. I am not a big fan of the KDE desktop so have settled on Ubuntu with the Gnome interface. For my purposes, its quicker, safer and a breath of fresh air after a career using Windows. Virus control at this point is something other people worry about. Paying for software that doesn't live up to expectations is not an issue and software piracy is something Linux users don't need to do to cut costs.

deleted double post. 

For free games:

The Battle for Wesnoth is a free, turn-based tactical strategy game with a high fantasy theme, featuring both single-player, and online/hotseat multiplayer combat. Fight a desperate battle to reclaim the throne of Wesnoth, or take hand in any number of other adventures... more »

Download Wesnoth 1.6.5 (stable):

• Source (219.6MB)
• Linux
• Windows (207.2MB)
• MacOSX (222.6MB)
• and more.

Download Wesnoth 1.7.6 (development):

• Source (256.7MB)
• Linux
• Windows (239.9MB)
• MacOSX (260.7MB)
• and more.
• ...................................
• Online
• Grand Strategy Grand Strategy was inspired by the board game Risk. It is a multiplayer game of strategy where the object is simple: eliminate your opponents and achieve global domination!

   

  
  
  Play Grand Strategy

I quite agree...but if users "get used" to running free software applications on their proprietary operating systems then it's very easy to make the switch over to a GNU/Linux operating system.

I kind of like the KDE desktop...but I'm running a Gnome desktop version of Linux Mint 7 on this notebook.   I run Ubuntu Studio edition on my main desktop right now...and have been running versions of Linux with the "lighter weight" XFCE desktop on some older machines...of PII and PIII vintage.

Google Picasa is freeware but it is proprietary software.   The license does not give you the "four freedoms" of free software as defined in the "free software definition".

In related news, Dell Computers has been obliged to

REFUND A PC USER FOR REJECTING WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM.

Dell refunds user for rejecting Windows.

HOO RAH!!!!

It's possible, with some difficulty to get a refund on the Windows license.   I've seen a few stories on the net over the years where folks have gone to small claims court to get a refund.

On the bright side, Dell does offer a limited number of computers for sale with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.   You have to dig through their website to get one though...they don't actively promote them.

For DVD or Video CD authoring you might want to try:

DeVeDe

The Windows version is available here

Windows users might also want to try DVD Flick

Done. So my new notebook is dual boot. Thanks for the reminder, rr.

I'm having a little trouble getting the Linux OS to connect to the wireless network in the house, however. Helpful advice cheerfully accepted. Heh.

Is sea monkey just the old netscape suite updated? So it is a bit more than a web browser. (I only use it for composing webpages and it does it well enough for me.   And I have always found the learning curve for blender to be like a thousand meter cliff. Its start page is horrific and has been since the dawn of time.

I use art of illusion which has an easy learning curve.  Art of illusion is free but it has copywrite.

Perhaps you should include some screen capture programs too?

I now have a good linux screencapture program (with audio capture). Only problem is that it saves in ogg video format and my video editing program does not read ogg.

Brian

I'm also a Linux Mint fan...current version is Linux Mint 7.  They usually build around the Gnome desktop first...but also have an XFCE desktop version for older machines with a little less computer horsepower and a KDE version for KDE fans.

I'm not the biggest Gnome fan in the world...always kind of preferred KDE but I really like what the Linux Mint folks have done with their Gnome desktop.

Many GNU/Linux developers don't include proprietary audio and video codecs, add-ons etc. in some distributions for a combination of political and legal reasons.

They require you to install proprietary stuff yourself outside of the "default out of the box" installation.   That way if for example you live in the U.S. where they have the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), you take whatever legal risks there are installing proprietary stuff instead of the developer.

In the case of Linux Mint, the main developer is based in Ireland and his attitude is "screw the U.S." and he includes this stuff in the "out of the box" install.   But he also makes a version of Linux Mint available that doesn't include patented audio/video codecs for folks in the U.S.

In the case of Debian (the distro that Ubuntu and others are based on), they don't even include Firefox but instead distribute a modified version of Firefox called "Ice Weasel".   The Debian developers play very close to the "free software definition" and consider certain "branding" rules on the distribution of Firefox by the Mozilla Foundation to be too restrictive.

So, they stripped out all Mozilla Foundation "branding" and distribute Ice Weasel instead.

Edited to add....

Hmmm...hard to keep up-to-date with this stuff.   Apparently "Ice Weasel" is now called "GNU Ice Cat"

Question - if you already have a bunch of programs installed on a Windows computer and then you decide to do a dual boot install of Linux, do you have to reinstall all the programs you've already installed in Windows?

Also, would you have to format your hard drive in order to install Linux with your Windows program?

I'd like to move to Linux entirely since pretty most of the programs I use now are free software, but there is one game that my son LOVES and that he plays with his friends that he can't live without - and wouldn't you know it, the people who make the game don't do one that's compatible with Linux.

So a dual boot is probably the best route for me.  I just wonder how much of a pain in the ass it would be to do it, that's all.

Laptop.  Reliable backup.  Lots and lots of disk space.

How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

Maybe RadioRahim, F.M., My Cat Knows Better or someone could look at this tutorial and approve of or disapprove since they seem to be the Linux gurus around here. It's for XP, and I don't know if or what the diffs would be with installing on a partition alongside Vista or Win7.

Wifi cards built with the "Atheros" chipset should pretty much work right out of the box as they have free software drivers.   So, if you have to install an "add-on" wifi card and either currently use or plan to use GNU/Linux look for cards based on this chipset...they're "free software-friendly".

If it's an Atheros card, it shouldn't be a problem with the driver.

I guess my question would be simply...what happens when you try to connect to your wifi router?

Then it won't be a problem. Most modern Linux distributions can resize your Windows partition to allow installation and dual-booting.

I've sent you a PM, rr. When I try to connect using Network Manager, the choices available to me are nothing like the choices that are described in the help files. It's as if my Ubuntu 8.10 is some different version from the ones they are describing.

When I click on Network Manager there is no "list" that comes up. Nada.

and before i forget,

i understand that peoples have migrated. 

for example, while there have been tribes in the region of Ukraine traced back to prehistory, [another contradictory word], um, ok, say, accessible only through archaeological evidence,

these tribes over the centuries welcomed or otherwise integrated with tribes from other regions.  i understand there were people from Iran which crossed the Caucasus mountains and became integral to Ukrainian culture.  And where did those peoples come from ?  India? Africa originally? 

then there is the question of genes.  genes carry over from when who-flung-the-chunk. amoeba-like.  so we can't deny our animal roots.  try doing that on babble and see where it gets you.

and the question of water.  of ions.  of negative and positive charges.  of energy.

so i understand completely the compulsion of people to jump in the pool,and the reality of it.

but at the same time there are threads of continuity, of tendencies, of time and space and necessity, of limits and boundaries.

of conundrums.

and we all find life where we find it.

[i'm waiting for the rain to stop ...looking out the window]

talk later.

hope the three-fifty goes well.

Check your PM's! ...hope it helps.

Thanks, rr. Problem solved.

Sea Monkey "Web Suite" Version 2.0 has just been released.

You can download the latest version from here

The release notes listing the new features and issues involved in migrating from the old 1.1x versions to 2.0 are here

The internal "guts" of Sea Monkey are now the same as Firefox version 3.5.4

Sea Monkey 2.0 will not work with older versions of Windows like 95,98,ME and NT4.   Also no longer works with old versions of MacOSX (10.3 Panther and 10.2 Jaguar) and if you're on GNU/Linux or Unix you need to have GTK 2.10 or higher installed.

Sea Monkey 2.0 has an "add-on Manager" similar to Firefox so that you can add all kinds of cool "extras".

Anyone want to give xml editor info?  I think xml replaced html a few years ago and I was not paying attention.  There are a few gpl and some commercial xml editors but I have no clue.

Brian

Not sure about this Brian, but just from looking through the sites of a few programmes this one... XML Copy Editor appears to be one that's been worked on most recently.    The latest version 1.2.0.4 came out in April this year...so fairly recent.    Some of the others I looked at hadn't been worked on for a few years.

It's available for Windows and Linux.   They seem to have binaries for a number of Linux distros...so possibly available in the distro repositories through the package manager software.

I have a sourceforge account (not that I ever did anything there). their project of the month in october is Sweet Home 3D which allows you to arange a house and look at the result in 3d. http://sourceforge.net/community/potm-200910/

7zip always gets a mention (a zipping program for everything). the reports from sorceforge come out once a month with their 25 leading projects mentioned

Brian

For anyone needing to create a .pdf file on Windows there's:

PDFCreator

You can also use it to create .png's, .jpg's, .bmp's etc.

Here's an interesting article from Free Software Magazine that's in response to this article here.

I think the author does an excellent job explaining the merits of using free software both from a technical and political point of view.  He also explains the difference between the "free software" movement vs. the "open source" software movement.

That is awesome. Thank you. I have to try it. I have  corrupted pics from a card and maybe video too of a brave lady recovering from a cancer operation in hospital.  I always wanted to show her but they corrupted when I transfered them to the computer.

I have kept them a few years in the hope that something could fix them.

Thanks

If the hard drive is physically damaged (i.e. it isn't just a software issue) here's a trick that sometimes works.

It's the "freezer trick".   You stick your hard drive in the freezer!

But first...you have to prepare your hard drive for freezing.   Put it in a sealed plastic bag and make sure that you squeeze all of the air out of it before freezing.   This prevents condensation building up on the drive.

Then freeze it for 10-12 hours.

Remove it and then either install it as a "slave" drive or put it in an external USB drive caddy and connect it up to the computer.   If it works...it'll only work for maybe 10-20 minutes until the drive heats up.   In that short space of time, you'll want to pull off as much important data as you can till the drive fails again.

Once it fails again, freeze it again and repeat until you've got whatever data you need off the drive.

This doesn't always work and if it further damages your drive, I'm not responsible ;)

If you really, really need something off the drive and have alot of money to spend, your best bet is to take it to a drive recovery service where they've got the necessary lab equipment to recover your data.

But most of us, don't have anything important enough on our drives that it's worth a thousand bucks to recover...so this is a "last ditch" possible fix before you toss it in the garbage.

That's very useful to know.  Computers are destroyed a lot  from universitys and colleges because they are security risks.   When they could maybe be DBAN ed and then shipped off to poor countries or given to poor seniors.  I never had a new computer except my netbook and they all lasted at least 3 years. So presumably a lot of scrapped computers could be saved for a few years with DBAN.  I know Comosin College in Victoria  scrapped lots of decent slower computers last year because they were security risks and a little too slow for whatever they were doing.

 My girlfriends mum still uses win 98  on the net so there is a need among seniors. (She will not let me put linux on it) because of one stupid windows game that she might lose). (Edited to add) It uses directx.  It is the only thing she is allowed to use internet explorer for on that computer.. (I do not want to keep posting and wasting your thread)

Although Ubuntu is a very popular GNU/Linux distro, there have been a couple of other major GNU/Linux distros that have released new versions over the last couple of weeks.

Mandriva 2010

Open Suse 11.2

Linux Mint 8 codenamed "Helena" was just released this week.

You can download the .iso image file (688 MB) from here.

Mint 8 is based on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)...alot of folks consider Linux Mint "the better Ubuntu".   Mint 8 is only available in the "Gnome desktop" version now, but give it a month or two and you'll probably see the KDE and XFCE desktop versions out.   Right now the KDE and XFCE versions are still at Version 7.

Today's release of yet another iTurd (all hail radiorahim for that one!) is a demonstration of efforts by Apple to make the technology ever more proprietary. Read the article by the Financial Times on that issue.

Hence the stronger and stronger need for genuine Free Software.

ETA: That article is behind a proprietary firewall. Gah.

  deleted accidental double post

Actually, Microsoft announced some time ago that they'd provide native Open Document support in Service Pack 2 of Office 2007.   Mind you  you other than in workplaces large enough to have IT departments most of the time the MS Office patches and service packs never seem to get installed.    I understand Sun Microsystems has put out some ODF plugins for earlier versions of MS Office.

In any case, standardizing on using ODF instead of .doc does give you the freedom to move away from MS Office if you want to.

My girlfriend has had a super experience on her laptop with ubuntu so far. (She is on 9.something, I think) I should know exactly which  but I left the cd at her place.  It seems quite a bit sweeter and probably faster than the one I have.  And my desktop should be faster than her laptop but it is about the same.

I am on  8.something on my desktop.  I am afraid to upgrade in case of incompatibilities.  BUT I have a partition with debian or knoppix on it, that screwed up in a version upgrade about 3 years ago. Could I put the ubuntu 9 there?  and have the option to go ubuntu 8 or 9 in the startup at grub?

I am just asking because years ago I had mandrake and knoppix on my computer, but mandrake used to take off  the knoppix reference in grub. I guess to only have me using mandrake.  I am just afraid of hardware incompatibilities.  About 2 years back, I went from ubuntu 7 to ubuntu 8 by the upgrade path and for about 3 months, my monitor was set at huge icons and I could not change it. Eventually a software update must have fixed it but I am afraid of something like that happening again.  (Because I have a lot of my stuff on the computer and I do not want to lose track of where I am in my projects).

O yeah, when I am at it,  I probably have several versions of the same photos and videos in files and folders on my computer now. Is there a way to  automatically delete identical versions and just stick in links to one version instead?

Thanks in advance,

Brian

That's great work!

Yes Flash is a problem in that it's a proprietary video format controlled by Adobe.

Ogg Theora would be a much better solution as I understand it's an HTML5 standard and can be freely implemented in web browsers so that you don't need a "plug-in" or "add-on" programme to view video.   With Ogg Theora, video support can be built right into the browser.   I understand that the Mozilla Foundation is lobbying for this standard.

Recently Google purchased "On2", owners of the "VP8" video codec and the Free Software Foundation issued an open letter asking that they a) release it as a free media format and b) implement it on Youtube.

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/google-free-on2-vp8-for-youtube

This might be "freeware", but it is not "free software"...it is non-free proprietary software.   The license does not guarantee the user the "four freedoms".

Just a note that I put the cd of ubuntu 9 in mine, upgraded and they have gone to version 10 now so when asked if I wanted to go to 10 instead,  I decided to go to that.  It was a bit of a pain. Next time I will just download a version 10 CD. Anyway, now I have version 8 and 10 on my puter along with windows and that knoppix that went wrong all those years ago and all are in the grub list.  Thats really nice because there is some software in version 8 that is  worthwhile to keep. GTK record my desktop records your desktop to video in both versions, but it records to .ogv in the new version and .ogg in version 8

This matters because youtube can work super well with .ogg videos but it cannot convert .ogv videos yet.

The cpu is  under pressure in version 10 around 100% usage with just firefox going! but in version 8 it is at about 30%

I do not know what is going on there. I did have firefox, an image viewer, and scribus and gtk record my desktop open when I recorded my last video in version 10 and it seemed to work fine.   It took much longer to process it though and this even after the other programs were closed.

It starts up and shuts down really quickly and that is awesome.  Some of the effects are much sweeter and I am surprised that Kaffene and other programs are working differently.  If you get scribus, get the stable version.  Make sure! The develloper version is not compatible. It is not altogether clear which is which unless you use the synaptic package manager. Files saved in develloper cannot be opened with stable.

I am starting to find out that scribus is a very nice piece of work. Anyone who publishes a newsletter will love it after a bit of practice.

So thats the report.  You CAN have different versions of ubuntu on the one machine and if you can, you probably should have different versions.

If one screws up in an upgrade, you can always fall back on the other one.  (It happened to me with Knoppix or debian).

Brian

Well, it's kind of the same argument as "do your own canning" and "spin your own yarn". All good ideas but not really the road to revolution - despite what the knitting enthusiasts say. 

More democracy in social life IS the road to revolution, Rosa. And I understand that knitting can be lethal; just check out Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. heh.

Building DVD discs with Open Source Bombono for Linux, Ubuntu

Richard Stallman's...er, autobiography?