D
Dr. Jai Maharaj
Forwarded message
Free Sources of Software Superior to Microsoft, etc.
Posted on 7/18/2006 by dangus
Free Software? Perhaps you've heard of the Open-Source
software movement, but thought maybe they were cheap,
college-student-written, "Brand X" knock-offs. Maybe you
presumed the only people who could use such programs wore
pocket protectors and broken bifocals. Or maybe you had
recent experience and found the installation too
confusing, with "targzs," incomprehensible "readme
files," etc.
The open-source movement has come of age, armed with
self-extracting files, crossplaform capabilities, and
extensive documentation. (That means you simply download
the program, and it installs itself; it works on any
operating system including, yes, Windows -- not just
UNIX -- and it teaches you how to use itself.)
The software is in many cases superior to the expensive
commercial versions:
Programs use up far less memory, drive space, and
processing power.
There are more features.
Documentation is simpler.
Error messages are meaningful.
They are less likely to cause problems interacting with
other products.
Here are some of the best:
OFFICE SOFTWARE: OPEN OFFICE
REPLACES MICROSOFT OFFICE, including WORD, EXCEL, ACCESS,
POWERPOINT and PUBLISHER.
Hands down, a superior product to Office. Take for
instance image editing in Writer, the equivalence to
Word: Simply click on the image, and you can set
contrast, brightness, gamma effects (washout vs.
overstain), tint/hue, etc.
The elements of OpenOffice work seemlessly together, and
have many more features. MS Office allows conversion of
its programs to HTML pages, but OpenOffice includes all
sorts of HTML features, such as dialog boxes, drop-down
boxes, etc. Because the programs are so much lighter,
they initialize much faster than MS Office, take less
drive space, and consume less memory and processor time;
and you switch from one component to the other nearly
instantly.
Truthfully, MS Office has loads of features many people
don't know about, because it doesn't present them to the
user. There are some weaknesses: the icons for the
various components look too similar, so they aren't great
for the Windows taskbar. The database program is fine for
most Access users, but lacks Access' ability to create
fully functioning executables.
Most impressively, you don't need to know how to learn
OpenOffice from scratch. Its menus, dropdown boxes, and
methods are the same as MS Office... except it has more
features. (Hey, don't feel bad for Microsoft; they ripped
off Lotus, Novell and Corel.) You can output to .doc,
xls, and .ppt formats, but also to additional formats,
such as .pdf.
GRAPHIC DESIGN: GIMP
REPLACES: PAINT SHOT, PHOTO SHOP, DRAW, etc.
Quite simply the best. Better than Draw. Better than any
of the Microsoft products. Better than PaintShop Pro.
I've been totally frustrated by having to switch graphics
design projects between programs, because each excels at
a given task. At each task, however, GIMP is as good or
better than any commercial program.
BROWSER: FIREFOX
REPLACES: INTERNET EXPLORER
The most famous freeware program of them all, Firefox is
literally the heir to the Mozilla program, which once
made Netscape dominant. Whereas Netscape has disappeared,
Firefox is rapidly gaining market share against Internet
Explorer. The only knock is that it has to be
initialized, taking a few seconds; Microsoft initializes
Explorer on startup, while you don't know why you're
waiting. Internet Explorer 7 is desperately trying to
catch up with Firefox, but it's clear who's leading the
way.
E-MAIL MANAGEMENT: THUNDERBIRD
REPLACES: OUTLOOK
Thunderbird simply does what you tell it. Tell it to shut
down, and it does, unlike Outlook which remains active,
so trojan viruses can continue using your computer as a
launchpad, infecting all your friends' computers, or
simply 1000s of random strangers'. Plus, Outlook is
simply a much larger target for virus developers
(although Thunderbird is so similar, it doesn't make as
huge as a difference as it might.) Junk mail processing
is simpler, as is accessing files from outside of
Thunderbird or Outlook. Apart from these issues, the
Outlook and Thunderbird are remarkable similar.
WEB DEVELOPMENT: NVU
REPLACES: DREAMWEAVER, FRONT PAGE
Dreamweaver is still the best. NVU falls short of
Dreamweaver 3.0, and the combined Adobe-Dreamweaver
merger may present awesome synergy, if done correctly.
But NVU is a professional Web-Development package which
is easy enough for beginners. Like Dreamweaver, it allows
for Templates, dynamic web sites, multiple graphic
packages, code snippets, extended internet languages
(i.e., XML, JavaScript), tabbing between coding and
WYSIWIG (graphic interface) design, and style sheets.
This IS the real deal.
As for Front Page, NVU is infinitely easier to use.
VIRUS PROTECTION: CLAMWIN
REPLACES: McAFFEE
The first to market seems quite satisfactory. Lacks
certain features, like anti-spam, but I hated the way
anti-spam add-ons work; I much prefer to let my e-mail
manager do the spam scan. There are certain other
products which are free for personal use, such as AVG,
and many ISPs offer built-in firewalls. (AVG is not free
for commercial use.
MEDIA PLAYER: AUDACITY
REPLACES: REALPLAYER, WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER
Realplayer is the world's most successful spyware/trojan
virus, infecting tens of millions of users, who haven't
realized its a highly trusted program which is grinding
their operating system to a halt. Many might be horrified
to learn what RealNetworks is learning about them.
Windows Media Player simply is very limited in use.
Neither allow for recording, like Audacity, which is a
full-bodied sound-editing system that is as light as the
useless MediaPlayer.
Posted on 7/18/2006 by dangus
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
End of forwarded message
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
Free Sources of Software Superior to Microsoft, etc.
Posted on 7/18/2006 by dangus
Free Software? Perhaps you've heard of the Open-Source
software movement, but thought maybe they were cheap,
college-student-written, "Brand X" knock-offs. Maybe you
presumed the only people who could use such programs wore
pocket protectors and broken bifocals. Or maybe you had
recent experience and found the installation too
confusing, with "targzs," incomprehensible "readme
files," etc.
The open-source movement has come of age, armed with
self-extracting files, crossplaform capabilities, and
extensive documentation. (That means you simply download
the program, and it installs itself; it works on any
operating system including, yes, Windows -- not just
UNIX -- and it teaches you how to use itself.)
The software is in many cases superior to the expensive
commercial versions:
Programs use up far less memory, drive space, and
processing power.
There are more features.
Documentation is simpler.
Error messages are meaningful.
They are less likely to cause problems interacting with
other products.
Here are some of the best:
OFFICE SOFTWARE: OPEN OFFICE
REPLACES MICROSOFT OFFICE, including WORD, EXCEL, ACCESS,
POWERPOINT and PUBLISHER.
Hands down, a superior product to Office. Take for
instance image editing in Writer, the equivalence to
Word: Simply click on the image, and you can set
contrast, brightness, gamma effects (washout vs.
overstain), tint/hue, etc.
The elements of OpenOffice work seemlessly together, and
have many more features. MS Office allows conversion of
its programs to HTML pages, but OpenOffice includes all
sorts of HTML features, such as dialog boxes, drop-down
boxes, etc. Because the programs are so much lighter,
they initialize much faster than MS Office, take less
drive space, and consume less memory and processor time;
and you switch from one component to the other nearly
instantly.
Truthfully, MS Office has loads of features many people
don't know about, because it doesn't present them to the
user. There are some weaknesses: the icons for the
various components look too similar, so they aren't great
for the Windows taskbar. The database program is fine for
most Access users, but lacks Access' ability to create
fully functioning executables.
Most impressively, you don't need to know how to learn
OpenOffice from scratch. Its menus, dropdown boxes, and
methods are the same as MS Office... except it has more
features. (Hey, don't feel bad for Microsoft; they ripped
off Lotus, Novell and Corel.) You can output to .doc,
xls, and .ppt formats, but also to additional formats,
such as .pdf.
GRAPHIC DESIGN: GIMP
REPLACES: PAINT SHOT, PHOTO SHOP, DRAW, etc.
Quite simply the best. Better than Draw. Better than any
of the Microsoft products. Better than PaintShop Pro.
I've been totally frustrated by having to switch graphics
design projects between programs, because each excels at
a given task. At each task, however, GIMP is as good or
better than any commercial program.
BROWSER: FIREFOX
REPLACES: INTERNET EXPLORER
The most famous freeware program of them all, Firefox is
literally the heir to the Mozilla program, which once
made Netscape dominant. Whereas Netscape has disappeared,
Firefox is rapidly gaining market share against Internet
Explorer. The only knock is that it has to be
initialized, taking a few seconds; Microsoft initializes
Explorer on startup, while you don't know why you're
waiting. Internet Explorer 7 is desperately trying to
catch up with Firefox, but it's clear who's leading the
way.
E-MAIL MANAGEMENT: THUNDERBIRD
REPLACES: OUTLOOK
Thunderbird simply does what you tell it. Tell it to shut
down, and it does, unlike Outlook which remains active,
so trojan viruses can continue using your computer as a
launchpad, infecting all your friends' computers, or
simply 1000s of random strangers'. Plus, Outlook is
simply a much larger target for virus developers
(although Thunderbird is so similar, it doesn't make as
huge as a difference as it might.) Junk mail processing
is simpler, as is accessing files from outside of
Thunderbird or Outlook. Apart from these issues, the
Outlook and Thunderbird are remarkable similar.
WEB DEVELOPMENT: NVU
REPLACES: DREAMWEAVER, FRONT PAGE
Dreamweaver is still the best. NVU falls short of
Dreamweaver 3.0, and the combined Adobe-Dreamweaver
merger may present awesome synergy, if done correctly.
But NVU is a professional Web-Development package which
is easy enough for beginners. Like Dreamweaver, it allows
for Templates, dynamic web sites, multiple graphic
packages, code snippets, extended internet languages
(i.e., XML, JavaScript), tabbing between coding and
WYSIWIG (graphic interface) design, and style sheets.
This IS the real deal.
As for Front Page, NVU is infinitely easier to use.
VIRUS PROTECTION: CLAMWIN
REPLACES: McAFFEE
The first to market seems quite satisfactory. Lacks
certain features, like anti-spam, but I hated the way
anti-spam add-ons work; I much prefer to let my e-mail
manager do the spam scan. There are certain other
products which are free for personal use, such as AVG,
and many ISPs offer built-in firewalls. (AVG is not free
for commercial use.
MEDIA PLAYER: AUDACITY
REPLACES: REALPLAYER, WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER
Realplayer is the world's most successful spyware/trojan
virus, infecting tens of millions of users, who haven't
realized its a highly trusted program which is grinding
their operating system to a halt. Many might be horrified
to learn what RealNetworks is learning about them.
Windows Media Player simply is very limited in use.
Neither allow for recording, like Audacity, which is a
full-bodied sound-editing system that is as light as the
useless MediaPlayer.
Posted on 7/18/2006 by dangus
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
End of forwarded message
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.