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Free stuff for computers

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Here is a long list of a lot of free programs for computers [meaning all architectures and formats].

 

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Audacity-a music editor,haven't used this one myself,but it is a very popular program,looks very similar to Soundforge.It's available multi format-windows,mac,GNU/linux operating systems..

 

http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/

-It's nearest Windows equivilent is Cubase [a professional program used in studios],it's a music production program,but it hasn't been coded for windows as yet,so will only run on the Linux platform and needs to be compiled from source.

 

http://blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html

Blender-a professional standard animation program,that film designers have even used [spiderman 2 is one result of Blender],but is still accessible to the beginner if they bother to mess about with it and learn how it works.

It's multi format [windows,linux etc] I have it on my SuSE pro partition with 1024mb of ram and it runs stable with no lag,not sure what the windows version is like.

It does need a fairly decent computer to run it without lag though,especially with memory.

 

Zone Alarm site

Firewall program for Windows.

 

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Scroll down to the 'AVG Free for Windows installation files' table,dump the lag inducing Norton for this.

 

http://www.fs-security.com

Firestarter-a firewall for Linux based operating systems,this can be more lazily aquired by apt getting it in a terminal anyway.

 

http://www.openoffice.org

Open Office is a multi platform Office suite of software [eg,for windows,linux,osx etc] worth getting,one of the

best free programs around.

 

http://www.gnome-look.org

Lots of art,themes,icons and graphics to use with the GNOME desktop environment on linux,i've got my Ubuntu/GNOME looking like Mac OSX with customisations from there.

It's also got a lot of wallpapers,not all of them Linux or UNIX based.

 

http://www.deviantart.com

A major art community,with lots of different types of art/graphics for personal use unless stated otherwise.

For example,SONY psp wallpapers-wallpapers that have been specifically designed to fit the psp screen size,

i've got a few from DA on mine.

 

http://www.xmms.org/

A decent linux music player.

 

http://www.winamp.com/

-A decent windows music player,although I haven't used any of the newer editions so don't know how dependable they are.

 

http://www.inkscape.org/

Inkscape is a graphics program available multiformat [windows,linux etc] I can't remember whether I have ever tried this one or not.

 

http://www.gimp.org/

GNU Image Manipulation Program [GIMP for short] A multiformat graphics program,compareable with Adobes industry standard-Photoshop.

http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/ -GIMP for Mac OSX

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ -GIMP for Windows

http://www.gimp.org/unix/ -GIMP for UNIX and Linux operating systems

 

http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

Artrage is a small download [unless it's completely changed since I got it 1/2 years ago],and offers very realistic painting,as if painting it on paper,it doesn't look digital like others do,plus it's easy enough for people of any age to use.

 

http://www.americasarmy.com/

It's what the American Army use/d to train on,it's a first person shooter,Medal Of Honour style.

If I remember correctly,the download will be over 800mb and,it will not work on onboard graphics [eg,intel extreme,intel 82810..],it's a very graphics intensive game and at the least needs a dedicated AGP graphics card,it has an age rating of 13+.

 

http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_l...php?form_cat=80

Many pages of downloadable opensource games,various formats including windows.

 

 

Internet Browsers [other than mozilla,firefox,IE etc]

---------------------------

http://www20.pos.to/~sleipnir/software/sleipnir/index.html

Sleipnir is a windows based Japanese browser.

Scroll down to Sleipnir version 1.66 and click on it,I had this one running on my old computer.

 

http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/

K Meleon,windows based,no lag.

 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/kidzbrowser

Have added this one as there are a lot of parents with younger kids here,it's an internet browser for children which has parental control,the parent adds the sites the child can look at individually and the child is unable to view anything else,plus it logs everything the child does,not sure whether it means a keystroke logger logging every key typed regardless of using the browser or not but it sounds good.

And it's windows based.

 

 

Operating systems

----------------------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

-Wikipedia description and history of Linux.

 

http://www.ubuntu.com / https://shipit.ubuntu.com

Ubuntu is based on the Linux kernel and uses the less graphics intensive GNOME desktop environment by default.The shipit page will send out any amount of Ubuntu copies for free [free postage,free copies] I've got the last two versions this way,the next version-dapper drake is out in April but is available to download now as a beta.Ubuntu can be downloaded by self,using a ISO compatible cd burning program like Nero.

Ubuntu can be installed alongside Windows to go between the two,I use XP just for gaming and my digital camera and psp,whilst my linux OS' are for everything else.

 

http://www.freebsd.org

FreeBSD is based on a version of UNIX,it's a lot closer to UNIX than Linux is,some prefer FreeBSD for this reason.

 

http://www.linuxiso.org

Find every popular linux/free UNIX operating system here,including links to their sites and links to download the operating systems' ISO images [for burning to dvd/cdr].

Again,a ISO compatible cd burning program will be needed to make the cd bootable.

 

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

http://featherlinux.berlios.de/

http://vectorlinux.com/

^All three are small Linux operating systems and can be booted from a USB memory stick [no need for installing].

 

 

That's all I can think of up to now,everything I have linked to is completely free [not trials],not just in cost but in freedom of code also.

 

Anyone else know of decent,fully free [not trials] software that has not been listed and isn't too obvious.

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Thanks for those, there are so really good things.kids love the paint programme

:D I agree,there is no need for commercial/closed source/costing programs when the open source/free software market has so much to offer.

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I agree,there is no need for commercial/closed source/costing programs when the open source/free software market has so much to offer.

 

I remember the bad old days of the early 1990s when PCs ran DOS and application software cost several hundreds of pounds a piece. There was shareware and freeware but much of it wasn't particularly usable and you never (well hardly ever) got the source code for it. A rather obnoxious organisation called FAST towered over the nation threatening anybody who used an unlicenced software package with a 6 month prison sentence.

 

It's amazing how much open source software has emerged in the last 10 or so years that rivals commercial software. The trick was to make the source code available so that users can improve and extend packages. Contrary to popular belief it wasn't the result of Linux although Linux and open source go hand in hand. The Free Software Foundation was established in the late 1980s.

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