DanHolmes.com

Archive for February, 2008

We all love Microsoft Office, right? Ok, maybe we don’t. Much of the world may run on it, but, let’s face it – it’s bloated and expensive. That’s just one example of mainstream, over-the-counter software that manhandle our lives. Many people think that if they want to write a document, create a presentation, or have their kids draw a cool picture, they have to pony up for it. Not true. On the internet, there is such a thing as a free lunch.

Here are five programs you can download today FREE. All five can do the same stuff as their pricey counterparts.

RSS Bandit
RSS Bandit is a RSS and Atom reader that allows you to keep track of all of your news feeds in one location via a very intuitive and feature-filled interface.

Miro
Tired of Windows Media Player or Real Player? Miro is a full-featured, free, open-source media controller. Videos can come in from lots of places– a web browser, email, a p2p application, or Miro. Miro can watch any folder on your computer and include those videos in your collection. So when you save something to your desktop, for instance, it will show up in Miro without needing to be added manually.

Running out of space? Miro can move your video collection to any location on your system, such as an external hard drive. When you install Miro, you can search you computer to find all your video files and list them in your Miro Library.

FileZilla
FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Among others, the features of FileZilla include:

Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, OSX and more
Available in many languages
Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
Powerful Site Manager and transfer queue
Drag & drop support
Configurable Speed limits
Filename filters
Network configuration wizard

GIMP
GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package with lots of cool features. It’s amazing that this program is FREE! Numerous digital photo imperfections can be easily compensated for using GIMP: Fix perspective distortion caused by lens tilt simply choosing the corrective mode in the transform tools. Eliminate lens’ barrel distortion and vignetting with a powerful filter but a simple interface. Add edges, bevels, or perspective skews and drop-shadows very easily. There’s not enough space to list all the things GIMP can do.

Tux Paint
Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (for example, preschool and K-6 in the US, key stages 1 & 2 in the UK). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program. Kids are presented with a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative.

The drawing canvas is a fixed size, so the user doesn’t need to worry about “pixels??? or “inches??? when making a new picture. The entire program fits on a screen as small as 640×480, and can be displayed full-screen, to hide the computer’s underlying “desktop??? interface. (It defaults to 800×600 mode, but can run at larger sizes and in portrait or landscape mode, as well.) Loading and saving of images is done using thumbnails, so no knowledge of the underlying operating system’s filesystem structure is needed. Even filenames are unnecessary. Fun sound effects are played when tools are selected and used. A cartoon version of Tux, the Linux penguin, appears at the bottom to give tips, hints and information.