Blender - Open Source 3D Rendering and Wireframe Model Development

Hold on to your hats game devleopers! Blender is an Open Source alternative to Caligari TrueSpace ($80) and AutoDesk Maya ($1,999). From what I have seen, Blender's functionality fits somewhere inbetween TrueSpace and Maya. Blender can be used for game graphics development or rendered video development (think "Toy Story", "Robots", and "The Incredibles"), in addition to developing unique web graphics and logos. Blender offers exceptional raytracing quality for both Windows and Linux. For those seeking to instantiate a 3D graphics shop like that of Pixar, this means that once a graphics video concept is developed in a Windows environment, the real number crunching to produce it can occur on a Linux cluster, enabling it to be produced more rapidly. Gotta love it!

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WinDirStat - An Open Source Application - See the Files that Clog your Hard Drive

So there I was, chugging through one of my computers trying to free up some space. I found an ancient artifact. A zip file at 3GB. It made me wonder if there were others just like it. With MS-Explorer, this is very time consuming. WinDirStat gives you a method to see your files visually, examine your cache's and find things on your drive that you had no idea were there and sitting on valuable hard drive space. WinDirStat is a must!

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Vitrite - Make your Windows Transparent

Before Vista, most Windows users have never experienced the joy of Gnome where windows can be made transparent (as a window should be).   Now that Vista is out there,  there is a large crowd of us who prefer the speed of WinXP over Vista.  Wouldn't it be cool to give yourself a Vista desktop effect on  your WinXP and 2000 OS?  Wouldn't it be nice to have a Linux like feel of your desktop (if you have never used a Linux desktop, here is your chance to simulate).  With Vitrite, you are able to take any desktop window, and make it transparent by 9 degrees of transparency so you can see other windows behind it.  I cannot tell you how many times I have needed to hand type a scanned PDF into Word and have had to flip back and forth between windows.  With Vitrite, you can see right through.




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GIMP for Windows - Open Source Graphics Editor

GIMP is an Open Source alternative to Adobe Photoshop. GIMP is a graphics manipulation tool with many of the filters and capabilities of earlier versions of Adobe Photoshop (presently Adobe Photoshop CS is $599). If you are not a graphics editor, using Photoshop to do basic graphics manipulation is expensive and overkill. GIMP is the alternative. GIMP supports graphic layer composition, has a wide array of graphic filters and other gizmo's. GIMP may not be for everyone, however is likely more than enough for most.

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FreeMind - Open Source Mind Mapping

FreeMind is an Open Source Mind Mapping application built upon Java (requires JRE) that helps one pull all the details that one tends to squirrel around in one's head, map them, organize them, then communicate them. FreeMind has a server Java applet component that supports free exchange of ideas on the internet or local intranets. FreeMind is a free alternative to MindMapper ($245).

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Open Office - Open Source Business Productivity Suite

Unhappy that you now have to pay for another flavor of MS Office Pro? Does this pain in your side hit you every 3-4 years? Now is the time to begin using Open Office. Open Office is a free alternative to MS Office ($349). It is Microsoft file format compatable and contains the Open Office Writer (alternative to MS Word), Open Office Calc (alternative to MS-Excel), Open Office Impress, (alternative to MS-PowerPoint), Open Office Base (alternative to MS-Access), Open Office Draw (alternative to MS-Visio and Open Office Math (an advanced mathematical equation editor that is non-existent in MS-Office). Open Office, unlike Microsoft Office, is free, will contunue to be free, and is updated freely on a more frequent basis. Use it at home, roll it out across your enterprise. Save money. It works!

Writer	Calc	Impress
Base	Math	Draw

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Projity Open Proj - Open Source Project Management

OpenProj is a free, open source desktop alternative to Microsoft Project 2003 ($549). Different from other Open Source project management software, this application is a very close matching alternative. Though it will not sync with MS Project Server, it does import and export MS Project .mpp files and XML. It requires JRE 1.5 to run, which is freely downloaded. If you do not already have JRE 1.5, you are prompted to download it as part of the installation process.
The application itself supports the majority of features that one would use within MS-Project including project planning, baslining, time-phasing, and Earned Value Management.

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qvPDF - Open Source PDF Creator

qvPDF is a PDF creator for Windows. It is an alternative to Adobe Acrobat ($97). For those who may not know Adobe Reader does not create PDFs, it only reads them. With qvPDF, one can create PDF's without buying Adobe Acrobat. It's implemented as printer driver and uses plugins to execute different actions after creating the PDF. Processing parameters can be written directly into the printed document like: @|mapi.mailto=me@you.de|@.

To help install this, you will need to first install GhostScript. GhostScript displays, prints and coverts PostScript and PDF Files.

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Once downloaded, you will need to go through the system check, and double click other elements that need to be installed.

The website for this one is in German, but can be located Here. A better reference can be found at SourceForge Here.

Evolution - Open Source Mail Client

Evolution is an incredibly versatile email/calendar/PIM. It is an alternative to MS-Outlook ($86). Originally, Evolution played a major role in allowing the Linux desktop to move into the enterprise by being able to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server and schedule/accept Microsoft Outlook Meetings, this is the Windows version.

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Note: make sure MSVCR71.DLL is in c:\windows\system32 (get it from MS or google it).

Mozilla Firefox - Open Source Web Browser

Though MS Internet Explorer is freely installed on Windows Platforms. Mozilla Firefox offers a better alternative with enhanced features including a better interface, enhanced security and a wealth of Add-ins that extends it's capability.

Download From Their Website

Install the following Add-on's as desired:

ScribeFire - A full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.

Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.

iMacros for Firefox - Tired of repetitive tasks like visiting the same sites every days, filling out forms, and remembering passwords? iMacros allows you to record a macro and then run macro will run at the click of a button.

Adblock Plus - Gets rid of annoying ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page.

BlueOrganizer - Smart-browsing technology for Firefox that automatically recognizes things like books, wine, travel destinations and offers contextual shortcuts between your favorite sites.

Clipmarks - Lets you clip and share the best pieces of web pages. Instead of having to bookmark entire pages.

StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon Discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.

ThumbStrips - Find what you seek -- visually.

PicLens - Transforms your browser into a full-screen 3D experience for viewing images across the web and lets you effortlessly drag, click, and zoom your way around a wall of pictures for an extraordinary viewing experience.

Interclue - Using a user centric design, display content previews, useful extra information and relevant next actions for almost any link on the web.

PDF Download - Relieves the pain experienced when encountering PDF files on the Web. Whenever you click on a PDF file, PDF Download lets you know before trying to open it, and then offers you choices such as downloading, opening, or converting it straight to HTML.

Forecastfox - Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive...

Yoono - While you are surfing, Yoono instantly suggests what others have discovered: websites, people and articles.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized.

Firefox Companion for eBay - Keep an eye on your eBay trading wherever you are on the web when you install the eBay Companion for Firefox. It’s a free tool built with eBay users in mind that will help you get more out of your buying and selling.

Download Statusbar - View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.

Delicious Bookmarks - The Official Delicious Add-on seamlessly integrates your browser with del.icio.us, the leading social bookmarking service on the Web.

Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews gives you the power to browse and share Web links and rich media faster. Just mouse over any link, and the Cooliris preview window immediately appears to show you the content.

Web Developer - Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.

FoxyTunes - Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.

Firebug - Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. (Saul Note: This is a web development MUST!)

BlogRovr - You don't have time to read ALL those Blogs! Let RovR do it for you. Rovr fetches posts from your favorite blogs about anything you're browsing, and shows you summaries you can open read posts without leaving the web page you were on.

Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery - Organizing and sharing your pictures is easier than ever with Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Upload photos directly to your Kodak EasyShare Gallery, all within your browser. Drag, drop and arrange pictures adding photo titles.

Zotero - A free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources...

Wizz RSS News Reader - A constantly improving RSS and Atom feed reader. It is fairly powerful, feature rich, well supported and has comprehensive online help.

ChatZilla - A clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.

LinkedIn Companion for Firefox - LinkedIn is an online network of more than 10.5 million experienced professionals. LinkedIn helps you be more effective in your daily work and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your network of business.

Firefox Recommeded Add-Ins Website

Audacity - Open Source Sound File Editor

Audacity is an application that is an alternative to Sonic Foundry Sound Forge ($350). It has a variety of effects, sound filters and editing tools that help edit captured laptop mic input as well as a wide variety of sound file formats.

I have used this application for many purposes, to add and edit sound to PowerPoint presentations, capture and edit recordings from my digital voice recorder, combine and edit different sound samples together. I have used it to produce mp3's converting from different kinds of sound files and even use it to custom create cell phone ring tones (for mp3. ring tone phones) with your favorite music, avoiding the shiesters who charge you 99 cents for 5 seconds of audio. This is truly a must have application!

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Note: To save to MP3, you must also install another Open Source package, the LAME MP3 encoder - Download Now

Notepad++ - Open Source Editor

Notepad++ can be considered a replacement for Notepad. In essence it is Notepad on steroids. Though Notepad is already free with Windows, Notepad++ ranks with editors like TextPad ($33) and others like it. Unlike Notepad, Notepad++ allows tabbed viewing of multiple files, line numbering, syntax highlighting and many other features as an improvement over Notepad and offers a free alternative to proprietary text editors.

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PeaZip - Open Source File Compression Utility

PeaZip is a file compression utility that can be considered a free alternative to WinZip ($49.95). PeaZip compresses and decompresses .ZIP files, however it also spans compression formats between operating systems covering 7Z, ARC, BZ2, GZ, PAQ/LPAQ, PEA, QUAD, TAR, UPX, ZIP; ACE, ARJ, CAB, DEB, ISO, LHA, RAR, RPM and other compression formats.

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ClamWin - Open Source Anti-Virus Package

ClamWin is an Open Source Anti-Virus alternative to Norton Anti-Virus ($40). ClamWin has high detection rates for viruses and spyware, a scanning scheduler, automatic downloads of regularly updated virus database, standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer, and an addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.

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