Commercial, Freeware, Open Source - what software keeps you productive? This book has one page per software category.
Contributors: Unlike blog posts, anyone can edit the pages of this book and add comments. Please add a new page only for a new category of software. Be sure and include a link to the software's website.
Bill Hutchison wrote ...
It should no longer be considered an option to not have anti-virus software loaded onto any computers. There are a few good free anti-virus software packages available. Avast 4 Home is free for non-commercial purposes, which fits who we are as YWAM. They also provide free virus definition updates pretty much every day.
Here is a link to their web-site:
http://www.avast.com/The software is free to use after you register it for free on their web-site.
We used to use program by Grisoft called AVG, but they have recently changed their conditions for free use to exclude any computer attached to a network, which means in many circumstances within YWAM we would not be allowed to use it for free.
For use on servers it is also strongly recommended to purchase a server grade anti-virus software package. At the moment I am not aware of free server grade anti-virus software.
Avast has updated their terms and conditions for Avast 4 Home and it works out that the program is no longer available for free to YWAM staff. It is available to students for free as long as it is their own computer and they are students, but it is not valid for any YWAM staff any more. At Reef to Outback we are using eTrust AntiVirus on all of our servers and workstations. It has versions for Windows, Mac and Linux and has a central server that can monitor and administer all of the servers and workstations on the network, which should work our really well once I figure out how to load it onto the Macs so that they authenticate with the server...
Core FTP Lite (which I found at SnapFiles) is a feature-rich, freeware FTP program, which allows resumed sessions, site-to-site transfers & many very useful ftp functions available at the click of a mouse.
Freemind freemind.sourceforge.net
Freemind is a fast reliable way of recording thoughts and relationships between ideas. I use it a lot.
Recommended By: Robert
Other Contributors: Please edit this page and add your comments and other recommendations.
I've been using n-Track since 1998 & love it! It's totally a shareware title worth the purchase. Back then I used it on a 686-233Mhz machine with 96mb RAM running Win 98, & it worked great. It's even better now on my Win XP Pro P4-2Ghz, 512 MB RAM machine today. It allows unlimited audio tracks; only limited by the power of your pc. You can run real-time effects, which can be either VST or DirectX. If you pay a little more, than you can make use of your 24-bit, 96 Khz sampling audio card for pro-studio quality recording.
Standard registration (16-bit, 48 Khz quality) runs at $49 USD. For the 24-bit, 96Khz sampling support, it costs $75 USD. It's totally worth it!
Another great product which is free is Reaper. It has many of the same features as n-Track, but there are some limitations.
A friend of mine has been testing both. He said for mixing & mastering, n-Track is a better way to go, but for performance in recording, Reaper is better. You choose.
Two great multi-protocol IM's exist that can help in IM communications. These are small programs that require little resources, unlike the proprietary IM programs (i.e. Yahoo, MSN, etc.), so it's possible to get excellent performance on slower machines. It's also nice to use a multiple IM because you don't have to try to convince your friends to switch to another protocol. Instead, you can accomodate them. Some things are limited, like file transferring, video or audio. I use Skype for those things.
For Windows & Linux: GAIM
For Mac Os X: Fire
Both can handle simultaneous connections with MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ , Jabber & IRC. GAIM will also handle Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr. Fire will also handle Rendevous.
Here's a link to a list of online image-editors: Online Image Editors Compared
And here's a link to one they missed: fauxto.com
CutePDF is a useful and free PDF Creator. Use it to create PDFs from any windows application.
Microsoft has announced the following:
We are announcing a pricing promotion for Visual Studio Express – for the first year after the products launch on November 7th, 2005, customers will be able to visit MSDN to download their copy of Visual Studio Express for free!**
Our customers are very excited about the release of these products, so this limited-time download is our gift to the hobbyist, student, and novice community – we’re excited to see the amazing applications they’ll build!
Note that SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is also a free download. The free pricing for SQL Server Express is not limited to the same one-year promotional period as Visual Studio Express.
They go on to say that the following products are included within the promotion:
Visual Basic 2005 Express
Visual C++ 2005 Express
Visual C# 2005 Express
Visual J# 2005 Express
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express
And finally have this to say about the 'free' part with the ** above:
** You said “free for one year†— what does that mean, exactly? Will you be charging for this later?
We originally announced pricing of Visual Studio Express at US$49. We are now offering Visual Studio Express for free, as a limited-in-time promotional offer, until November 6, 2006. Note that we are also offering SQL Server 2005 Express Edition as a free download, and that this offer is not limited to the same promotional pricing period as Visual Studio Express.
Click here to go to Microsoft or here to view the small print on the pricing.
Chin chin
Mark
SnapFiles is one of the best searchable sites of freeware & shareware software for Windows. It has an easy interface & good search engine which allows searching just through freeware.
DENIM - Early Stage Web Site and UI Design
This software is a free download & is a stand-alone java application for RAD (Rapid Application Development) of early web site & user-interface design. It's called DENIM.
You simply draw out your site map like you would on paper, & then zoom into each page & do basic layout. Zoom in even further to design each page in detail. All of your work gets converted into a full html website with links between pages & basic graphics based on your own on-screen hand drawings.
A category for web-based job request, help desk, support request ticket systems.
I developed a PHP-based AJAX-enabled job request and support ticket system I call BlueNotes.
In our communications department we needed a way for people to submit job requests. The maintenance department here at Heidebeek works with "blue notes" that you fill out and put in their mailbox. I decided to take this concept a step further (like a good IT geek) and make an online version.
Here it is submitted for your approval: BlueNotes v.0.1