Ubuntu Linux Help » Applications

More Useful Open Source Applications 2011

Roger Wheatley — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:42:35 +0000

In 2008, I wrote the popular post “Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications” http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/top-100-of-the-best-useful-opensource-applications/ As of today, it has been viewed over 1.8 million times. Still, one of the more common questions I get asked by new Linux users, revolves around the subject “What application do I use for…”

Over the last couple of months, I’ve received more and more of these type of questions. I remember when I first started this blog, I think I was using Ubuntu 7.04 and had just reinstalled Ubuntu 8.04. Today I’m using Ubuntu 10.04, with the following hardware (also changed since I first started using a Linux based OS):

Asus VH242H 23.6 1920×1080 LCD
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Socket AM2 CPU
Kingston 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz
Seagate 750GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G
Shuttle SA76G2 Socket AM2+ Barebone
LG 22X DVDRW SATA
ASUS VH242H 23.6in Wide 1920×1080 5ms LCD Monitor
SB Audigy 2ZS 24-Bit Surround 5.1*
Logitech Quickcam Fusion
Creative Inspire 5200 5.1 Speakers

*The Shuttle board already has integrated sound, but I preferred to use the Audigy soundcard that was on one of my old systems.

While this is by no means the most powerful desktop, it gets the job done for me. Needless to say, the following is a list of applications I use on this hardware. Because I do a lot of web and design work (as well as networking and technical support) the list leans towards such related applications (but I have included some “fun” ones). Hopefully this resource will help new Ubuntu users. If I missed something you think should be included, please let me know in the comments below, thanks. I worked hard to put this post together, so if you like it, please bookmark it or link to it from your site, or social favourites, and let me know. – Thanks!

Here are the Applications:

OpenShot | apt:openshot | http://www.gimp.org/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install openshot openshot-doc

I use it as a quick way to join video segments together, to create transitions and effects. It also allows me to slice out specific segments of existing video and use them to create a new one. I like it because it’s simple fast and useful.

GIMP | apt:gimp | http://www.gimp.org/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install gimp gimp-data-extras

I use this for quick editing (as well as advanced) or to open TIFF, JPG, PNG, PSD files. It is NOT a replacement for Photoshop, but after I got used to the interface, it became easier to use. Main uses (for me), photo editing and enhancement, photo retouching, graphic creation, logo creation, etc. I do not use this application for vector graphics work. There is a plugin registry at http://registry.gimp.org/

Inkscape | apt:inkscape | http://www.inkscape.org/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install inkscape

I use this for vector graphic creation. It is not a replacement for Illustrator, however it’s a great alternative. Main uses (for me), vector editing and manipulation, graphic creation, logo creation, etc. I do not commonly use this application for raster graphics work. Inkscape does provide some tutorials, which greatly help users become familiar with the interface and tools: http://inkscapetutorials.wordpress.com/

Dia | apt:dia | http://projects.gnome.org/dia/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install dia dia-libs dia-common

I use this for Dia to document network layouts in a visual manner. I do this when I create or change a network for my clients. There are all kind of icons (Server, Desktop, Database, Router, etc.) that make it easier for clients to understand their network documentation – Again, they key being that it’s a visible diagram. This application reminds me a lot of Visio, which I used when I worked in a predominately Windows based environment. Personally, I’m not too happy with the interface (same issue with GIMP), but the application gets the job done for me.

Fonty Python | apt:fontypython | https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/fontypython

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install fontypython

In terms of design and graphic work, this application is a gem! All my fonts are stored in one large directory. Fonty Python helps me gather different fonts and structure them into collections, specific to each project. I don’t have to copy fonts, I still leave them in the large directory! If I remember correctly, I think Mac and Windows users have something similar called “Suitcase”? Bottom line, when I’m ready to work on a specific project, I activate the font collection for that project, start up my application and work.

Hugin | apt:hugin | http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install hugin hugin-data

I use this simply to stitch photos together for “panoramic” views. Several tutorials are available at http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/index.shtml

PDFmod | apt:pdfmod | http://live.gnome.org/PdfMod

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pdfmod-team/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install pdfmod

I use this to edit PDF documents. Reorganize them, add or remove pages, and so on. Very useful when you’re in a pinch!

RawTherapee | apt:rawtherapee | http://www.rawtherapee.com

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rawtherapee/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install rawtherapee

A package for editing RAW images as well as a RAW converter and digital photo processing application. Again, very useful; when a camera is plugged in and the images are in RAW format.

Skype | apt:skype | http://skype.com

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install skype

Video conferencing and calling. One thing I did experience – No video? Try this: Install v4l2ucp and change the preview program via v4l2ucp to skype instead of mplayer. Start preview, Skype loads, and video works.

HandBrake | apt:handbrake-gtk | http://handbrake.fr/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-snapshots
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install handbrake-gtk

Video transcoder / decoder. A handy tool to have when you’re working with video files. One thing I like about it is that it works with almost any media as it uses libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode – And it’s cross-platform!

Transmission | apt:transmission | http://www.transmissionbt.com/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install transmission

A great tool to download Ubuntu or other Open Source related CDs. Select and set the download to run and it just works. Easy!

Chrome | apt:chrome-browser | http://www.chromium.org/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install chromium-browser

I’ll be honest – I don’t like this web browser. Personally I find the interface “old fashioned” in appearance, I find it assumes too much, in terms of what I want to see in a browser, and so on (I’m a Firefox user). However, others may not agree. This is a good alternative browser and it’s also fast.

ISO Master | apt:isomaster | http://www.littlesvr.ca/isomaster/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install isomaster

If you need to update or otherwise edit ISO files, this application will provide the features you need. This means you can add, remove or deleted files from an ISO. Additionally, other formats are also accessible, such as NRG, IMG, etc.

Trimage | apt:trimage | http://trimage.org/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kilian/trimage
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install trimage

I use this to compress image file sizes – Lossless! It supports PNG and JPG. And again, one feature I like is that it’s cross-platform friendly.

Gmount-iso | apt:gmountiso | https://launchpad.net/gmount-iso

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install gmountiso

Sometimes I don’t want to install a CD. This application allows me to easily mount a CD image.

RecordMyDesktop | apt:gtk-recordmydesktop | http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gtk-recordmydesktop
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install gtk-recordmydesktop

Need to create a screencast? This tool does a good job for me. I like that I can record the whole screen, or just one area. The ability to tweak the video and sound quality is also a nice feature. Output files are in .ogv format, but they can be converted to other formats.

DropBox | apt:nautilus-dropbox| http://www.dropbox.com/

Terminal:
sudo apt-key adv –keyserver pgp.mit.edu –recv-keys 5044912E
sudo aptitude install nautilus-dropbox

A great tool for online backup, file sync, and sharing. For me at least, it’s the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online. All I have to do is drag and drop files right from my desktop or folder. Also, they have a rewards system to get more space: Automatically sync a folder across computers with Dropbox! Use the following link to receive an extra 250MB for free as I’ll also get extra space too! We both win!

Clonezilla | Download | http://clonezilla.org

While I don’t normally use applications that have no repository (actually this is the only one I made an allowance for). I found this application to be very worthwhile. Why? Once I install Ubuntu and then install all my applications (and configure their settings), I can use Clonezilla to create an image of the disk. This way, if disaster strikes, I can simply restore the image. One caveat – MAKE SURE you have regular backups of all your important files (as you’ll probably not be recreating disk images all of the time). Again there’s no repository (that I’m aware of), but this application is useful.

More applications, etc. will be uploaded when I have extra time. I’ve been very busy on many projects, for the last several months, so it’s good to come back and find a bit of time to blog about Ubuntu related things; something I enjoy!

What applications would you include, what apps do your enjoy, which ones deserve your mention? Feel free to include them in the comments below!

Upgrade Ubuntu Firefox to Version 3.6 – Reader Questions

Roger Wheatley — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:12:38 +0000

Erica from Canada asks:

“… I’m using Ubuntu 9.04… the “Check for Updates” in Firefox is grayed out and apt-get does not upgrade Firefox… I’m stuck at 3.0.18, how can I get upgraded?…”

This is an issue, I’ve encountered before. The newest versions of Firefox are not yet in the repositories, and the “Check for Updates” is disabled on purpose. I tried upgrading Firefox via PPA’s on a couple occasions, butthe updates failed and I ended up with broken packages! In my opinion, the following steps might serve as a safer way to upgrade.

In your existing Firefox version (3.0.18), install the following extension manager, named FEBE, in case something happens to your extentions, you’ll be able to reinstall them:

FEBE: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2109

Use FEBE to backup your extensions.

Also, just in case something happens to your saved passwords, you can back those up as well with an extension named “Password Exporter”: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2848

Backup up your passwords.

Finally, don’t forget to backup your bookmarks in case something goes wrong.

In a Terminal, run the command:

which firefox

You should see this answer displayed:

/usr/bin/firefox

This guide is based on the pathing above. If the steps below are not followed properly, then this will not work! ALWAYS make sure you have BACKUPS of data you do not want to lose, in case something in your system goes terribly wrong.

Now, let’s use the Terminal to move into Ubuntu’s temporary (working) directory:

cd /tmp

Download Firefox 3.6 for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty):
wget “http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.6&os=linux&lang=en-US”

(The above is for the North American version, you can change that to meet your needs).

Extract the contents:
tar xvjf firefox-*.bz2

We are going to copy the new version of Firefox to a directory called “firefox-3.6″ (instead of “firefox”), this way we can revert back to the original Firefox 3.0.18 is needed.

Copy the executable to /usr/lib/:

sudo cp -r firefox /usr/lib/firefox-3.6

Move the older version (3.0.18) to “firefox.old”:
(This way you can revert back to it if needed)

sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.old

Create the links to the correct verion of Firefox will run:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/firefox-3.6/firefox /usr/bin/firefox-3.6
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/firefox-3.6 /usr/bin/firefox

Now open Firefox and you should be running version 3.6. If not, then some of the steps above were not followed (or Firefox was not in “/usr/bin/firefox”).

If you ever need to revert back to your older version of Firefox, you can run the commands below in a Terminal:

Backup the existing:
sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.bak

Now restore the older version:
sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox.old /usr/bin/firefox

You should notice that your settings, bookmarks, passwords are all intact (as they are stored in your user profile – /home//.mozilla). We backed them up just in case there was an issue.

I hope this helps!

Google Earth and Chrome – Reader Questions

Roger Wheatley — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:29:41 +0000

Ruud emailed asking, “How do I install Chrome and Google Earth? I’ve tried using apt-get, but the packages are not found. I am using Ubuntu 8.04”

For Ubuntu 8.04 users, please try the instructions below. (I’m not in front of a Hardy, 8.04, box right now, so please comment below if you find I’ve made a mistake; and I will correct it – Thanks). If I recall correctly, these packages are not in the “regular” Ubuntu repositories. To get them installed, we can create the appropriate entries in our sources/list, add the GPG keys and then use Aptitude to complete the installation.

For Google Chrome, try the following steps.

Add the chromium-daily PPA to your sources list:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the following:

# Chrome Source
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Next add the GPG key with this command:

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys 4E5E17B5

Update with this command:

sudo aptitude update

Then try to install Chrome withthe following command:

sudo aptitude install chromium-browser

As for Google Earth, I’m sure it’s in the Medibuntu repository. Here are the steps:

Add the Medibuntu source:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the following:

# Medibuntu Source
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

Next add the GPG key with this command:

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add

Update with this command:

sudo aptitude update

Now try this install command:

sudo aptitude install googleearth-4.3

Have any suggestions, changes or know another way to do this? Feel free to say so, in the commonts section below.

Font Management for Ubuntu Linux

Roger Wheatley — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:25:41 +0000

As someone whose business also provides web development and graphic design, among other services, it was a real treat to bump into this font management gem (a few hours ago) “Fonty Python“.

As the name implies, it’s a python based application used to manage fonts – Great if you have a lot of fonts that you’d like to manage and preview. The first thing that grabbed my attention was that users can create what the developer calls “pogs”, as the developer indicates, the name comes from “tyPOGraphy”. In general, I can create a pog which filters a listing for just the fonts used on that site (I think Mac does something similar with font management?).

Best of all (for me at least), I found it’s really easy to install and use.

Installing is as simple as the terminal command:

sudo aptitude install fontypython or Firefox users can click the apt link: apt://fontypython

Once installed, creating a “pog” is easy. I created one called ac2a.com (in the screenshot below) by clicking the “New Pog” button and following along.

To add fonts to the pog:

1) Use the left side “Source Folders” to surf to the directory containing the fonts.

2) On the right side panel, click to activate the pog (you want to add fonts to),

3) In the middle panel select your fonts by clicking on them and then (when you’re done) click the “Put…” button (at the bottom).

Now when I need to go back and look at which fonts were included in a logo, web site, etc. I don’t have to look through source files, CSS files, etc.

If you need to remove a font from one of the pogs you created, simple select the pog and font as seen the the screen shot below:

From the developers site, it’s indicated that once you surf your folders and select a font to add to any particular pog, it will automatically install the font for you, placing it in the ~/.fonts folder – I great feature!

Another way this can be used (I think) is to avoid installing an excessive number of fonts, just the ones you want.

Finally, one thing I do hope is that Fonty Python develops extensions so that “pog” can have their fonts automatically included in any “pog project” when using tools such as Gimp, Inkscape, Blender, and so on.

Hope some of you enjoy this post. Suggestions, other ideas? – Please feel free to comment below.

Cheers!

Building a Web Developer / Designer PC Using Ubuntu Linux – Revisited

Roger Wheatley — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:31:41 +0000

Recently I posted “Build a Web Developer PC and Enable Most Media Playback Using Ubuntu Linux” and received a few messages asking what other tools I use. To save me time with answering email messages that essentially contain the same information, and to help the maximum number of readers, I thought it would be a good follow up to that earlier post.

First off, there some other applications I use, namely:

xVidCap. This facilitates screen capturing video so that I can create tutorial videos. After which ffmpeg can be used to convert the captured video to flv format for web streaming. If you’re interested, they have a couple instructional videos: Video 1 and Video 2. To install it, the command is:

sudo aptitude install xvidcap

Also, to be able to quickly find the differences between file versions I use TkDiff File Comparison and Meld. Both allow me to open different versions and display where files differ. These are particularly helpful if you access files from different locations and then need to troubleshoot changes. To install:

sudo aptitude install tkdiff

sudo aptitude install meld

In my personal case, this became more useful when I tried out Unison. As explained on the Unison web site:

“…Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other…“

While I’m mentioning Unison, I should point out that I had a horrible experience with it (Note: I did not read the manual). In my opinion it’s a great idea, and I am truly waiting for the latest versions, however I did have issues (which I have not been able to resolve yet):

It advertises that synchronization can also occur between Linux and Windows systems (or Linux to Linux systems).

My reality with regards to Windows :

Linux can connect to Windows, but then the connection is lost with an error message after supplying the correct password.
Window can connect to Linux and does begin searching for changes, but then the application freezes, becomes unresponsive, network traffic is almost zero and CPU load shoots to 100% if you try to stop.
For it to work the same version needs to be installed on both machines.
Compiling from source did not work on Ubuntu 8.04 as it indicated there were errors in the make file (yet the sudo aptitude install unison-gtk command does succeed – So I know all dependencies and libraries are already available)
Currently it does not work. (However other solutions like rsync etc. work without any issues or much hair pulling).
There is no option to delete a profile.
Importantly, the FTP synchronization option is not available.

I really hope I can get this going – But it’s slow as it’s taken me almost 5 hours to try and get it working – to no avail. I wish there would be the same updated versions for all platforms available as packaged binaries (I think this would make things easier).

imgSeek is another useful tool that manages graphic collection and has the unique search capability where you can provide a rough sketch of the image you are looking for – And the results will be returned. No more having to use tags! In my opinion that is a great feature. You can view the screenshot of the search feature.

Many of the other web design and development related tools are also Firefox extensions:

Codetch allows me to edit files right inside Firefox. It’s a little bit like Bluefish.

Copy Plain Text gives you the ability to copy and paste text without all the formatting.

W3C CSS Validator does exactly that – validate that your CSS is formatted to the correct standards.

CSSViewer allows you to hover your mouse around a web page and see a small box that clearly shows all the CSS element in effect for any object or area.

EditCSS allows you to edit the CSS of any web page in real time and see the immediate changes, then you can simply copy and paste the change into your final style.css file.

Firebug is a robust extension that allows you to live debug and monitor CSS, HTML, JavaScript, etc. actions and results. It’s a good tool for troubleshooting issues.

Web Developer provides a tool bar with lots (and lots…) of development tools! If you’re only going to check one of these extensions, this is the one to look at!

Side note: I’ve often been asked what the “Ubuntu Firefox Modifications” extension does (as there is no ability to edit the preferences for it). It’s function is to allow installation of Firefox add ons via the Ubuntu package manager, however I’ve not played with that yet.

Finally, one issue I’ve found very helpful is to tweak how Firefox operates, in other words making it function faster. The video below provides a good guide to tweaking Firefox for speed improvements:

Hopefully the revisit of this topic helps answer questions as well as improving the web developer and designer productivity in an Ubuntu Linux environment.

Build a Web Developer PC and Enable Most Media Playback Using Ubuntu Linux

Roger Wheatley — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:48:49 +0000

For those of you who follow my other blog, you’ll know that my last Windows PC had a major failure again. You can read some of the specifics in the “When Disaster Strikes – Again” post. At that point I decided to install Ubuntu (effectively removing Windows based PC’s from the network).

In some ways I was bothered about this. Why? I work best with Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Dreamweaver, WinSCP, Flash and so on. I felt like I was going to lose all the productivity these applications provided. I enjoy being able to double click media and play it automatically, same goes with DVD movies, etc. In Linux, I’ve often encountered problems with media playback as the media usually includes restricted formats, MP3 for example. On the developer/designer side, I was not looking forward (nor do I have time) to a steep learning curve.

This post (hopefully) will show the desktop user how to enable all the restricted media playbacks (movie DVD, music MP3, etc.)

It will also show web developers and designers some of the issues, applications and work arounds – Or at least the current state of them.

First off, let’s deal with the media issues. I built this PC using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64Bit (Hardy). I did try installing 8.10 64Bit but found that the network cards did not properly work. After much investigation, I also discovered out that I would benefit best using a release with LTS “Long Term Support”, as apparently there was better hardware support – So I’m waiting for 9.04 (still in alpha 6 release as of this post).

One of my favourite tools is aptitude. I used to prefer apt-get, however I found out that aptitude does a better job in removing applications. Aptitude will also remove the dependencies when a package is removed. apt-get will not do that (and I don’t think synaptic will either – someone please correct me if I’m wrong). I almost always use aptitude, this way my system (and hard drive space) is keep cleaner whenever I use aptitude to remove packages.

In order to install some of the applications and enable some of the media formats, we’ll need to edit your sources.list file. You can use nano, gedit, etc. An example terminal command is below:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

The above command will open a window with the gedit application containing your sources.list file. MAKE SURE that you have no mistakes (syntax or otherwise) in the file. If you do, you’ll get an error message when using aptitude and will have to edit the file. Therefore, make a BACKUP of the /etc/apt/sources.list file that you can later revert back to BEFORE editing it.

Below is a copy of my sources.list file – As you may see, I’ve added some addresses (sources) to it:
# Main and Restricted deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security main restricted deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security main restricted deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted

# Universe deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe

# Multiverse deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security multiverse deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security multiverse

# Canonical deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ hardy partner

# Medibuntu deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

# Third Parties deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian hardy non-free

If you have a repository in your sources.list file (that I do not, remember to make sure that you include it!

A couple things about the above edit:

I use ca. within the URL because I’m in Canada. Change the ca. to whatever your country is. Also, Ubuntu Linux 8.04 is called “Hardy”, if you are using 8.10 “Intrepid” (or earlier versions) then change “Hardy” to the name of your distribution.

As seen above, we added the mediabuntu repository source, but we still have to add the public key. If we don’t we’ll get a message from aptitude that indicates the source cannot be verified. Here’s how to add the public key via terminal commands:

Download the key:

wget http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg

Add the key:

sudo apt-key add medibuntu-key.gpg

Now let’s make sure that we update the repositories with this command:

sudo aptitude update

And then let’s upgrade everything:

aptitude full-upgrade

The above command can also be issued as aptitude dist-upgrade (the old name – which still works).

***Warning***
This command will attempt to upgrade packages. It is aggressive with solving dependency problems. It will install and remove packages until all dependencies are satisfied. Because of this, it is possible that undesirable things may happen to your system and/or application. Therefore you should be careful when using it! Back up FIRST.

Now we’re ready to start installing some media playback and file sharing capabilities. Particularly:

Multimedia Codecs.
DVD playback.
Java plugin.
DVD (and CD) burning.
Some Compilers.
File/Printer sharing.

All the following commands are using aptitude via terminal commands.

Let’s start with the codecs:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras && sudo aptitude install w64codecs

For 32 Bit users, use substitute this codec command: sudo aptitude install w32codecs

Don’t forget to install the restricted extras:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Now let’s get that DVD movie playing capability working:

sudo aptitude install libdvdcss2 && sudo aptitude install libdvdnav4 && sudo aptitude install gxine && sudo aptitude install libxine-main1 && sudo aptitude install libxine-extracodecs && sudo aptitude install libxine-ffmpeg && sudo aptitude install vlc && sudo aptitude install mplayer

And some DVD/CD burning software. I prefer K3B – But you can substitute any other one you prefer:

sudo aptitude install k3b

Let’s enable compiling:

sudo aptitude install build-essential

(If you want documentation, install it too: sudo aptitude install manpages-dev glibc-doc).

Let’s install a couple extra things like NFS (Network File Sharing), NTP (Network Time Protocol) and NIS (Network Information System) like so:

sudo aptitude install nfs-common && sudo aptitude install ntp && sudo aptitude install nis

Were pretty much done with the multimedia, but there are a couple application related things we’re going to install:

Flash player for Firefox can be obtained from Adobe by downloading the .deb version (Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.22.87 as of this post). This will allow you to save a file called “install_flash_player_10_linux.deb”. Simply double click the file to begin installation.

While we’re working with Firefox, let’s turn it into a web developer tool with the following extensions:

Installing the Web Developer Toolbar, allows for the inclusion of some productive tools, such as:

Editing CSS.
Disabling CSS.
Outlining images or finding broken ones.
Displaying ID and Class details.
View response headers.
Edit HTML.
Outline tables, elements, etc.
And tons more!

Let’s also install Firebug so that you can edit, monitor and debug various web site scripting.

The use of MeasureIt helps in that you use it to obtain width and height form any element you draw in your browser screen. It’s like a drag and stop (width/height) ruler.

When developing or editing files displayed in my browser screen, I often copy and paste content. Unfortunately, Firefox will also copy the formating that’s been applied to the text. The extension, Copy Plain Text fixes this for me, now I get exactly what I want – Text only.

I do like using Shutter to capture full web page screen shots, so here’s how we install it according to the Shutter web site like this:

Include the repository and key:

wget -q http://shutter-project.org/shutter-ppa.key -O- | sudo apt-key add -

The above is for the stable releases. For more installation information or other methods you can visit Shutter Downloads.

In terms of development tools, many of them have already been listed in our Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications post. However, there are a few that I’d particularly mention below.

Blender, Gimp and Inkspace. I’m not suggesting that Gimp or Inkspace are substitutes for Photoshop or Illustrator, rather they are an option. While they can produce the same resulting artwork, I find they require a steeper learning curve. Particularly steep in that the keyboard shortcuts are different, the names of many of the interface tools are different and/or they function in a different way. I’ve found several site with some great tutorials for both Gimp and Inkscape, however I don’t have the time (or motivation) to learn new applications. In my personal opinion, the GIMP interface is a horrid mess, but that is probably because I am used to the Photoshop interface. I think GIMP would be adopted much more readily if they improved the interface to be more intuitive and similar to Photoshop – But that’s simply what I think, I’m not the GIMP expert here.

One tool I use to enable continued use of Photoshop, etc. is VirtualBox. VirtualBox provides a virtual environment in which I can install a Windows based environment and any applications I wish (including Flash, etc.) – Hopefully Adobe will soon release Linux versions of their software as I think it is a huge market for them to tap into. After I’ve configured that environment, I can take a snapshot. If the virtual Windows installation or applications ever fail or become corrupted, I can simply restore the snapshot to bring the environment back to a working state – Voilà a quick 2 minute fix instead of reinstalling everything. Also, the virtual environment facilitates an optional shared directory on the host OS (that’s the Ubuntu Linux installation), so that I can access and store input and output files. If the virtually installed OS crashes, I still have that data within the Linux host installation.

To install VirtualBox, please follow the guide posted here: Installing VirtualBox 2.0.0 On Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop. Or use sudo aptitude install virtualbox as the repository is already in your sources.list file (above).

As web development is no longer simple HTML pages, but rather full multimedia, below are more of the development tools I’d suggest exploring:

Bluefish Editor – Script editor – apt:bluefish
Meld Diff Viewer – apt:meld
Ardour – Audio editor – apt:ardour
Audacity – Audio editor – apt:audacity
Avidmux -Video editor – apt:avidmux
Kino -Video editor – apt:kino
Gftp – FTP client – apt:gftp
Kompozer – Script editor – apt:kompozer
puTTY – SSH client – apt:putty

The above applications are all available via aptitude or getdeb.net or by clicking the “apt” links above.

Finally, in order to have fonts consistent with Windows (and other) users, we may want to install some of the Windows based fonts like this:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

This will install the True Type Fonts (TTF).

Now simply update the shared font directories with this command:

sudo fc-cache -f -v

If you’d like CTF (Clear Type Fonts) the How to Install TTF and CTF Fonts in Ubuntu post will help you with that.

This just about covers most everything. These further resources can help you:

Medibuntu.

Converting MP3s to Ogg-Vorbis.

Enabling 5.1 Surround Sound.

Playing Blu-Ray and HD DVD Video.

If you think I’ve missed anything or you’ve an idea, feel free to comment about it! – cheers!

Switching From XP to Linux – Should You?

Roger Wheatley — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:48:42 +0000

A question from John.P in Texas:
“…About the poll called “Are you considering a switch from Windows to Linux?” I see that almost 47% of visitors say “Yes” (so did I). I am an XP user and was wondering if you can post a short note for advice about switching to Linux?…“

What’s surprising, is when I examine the web stats for the blog, the month of March 2008 showed 41% of visitors used Windows XP! (The first week of April shows 48.8% used XP). Also, for mere interest 88.3% of browsers for the first week of April 2008 are Firefox. And, for March 2008 Firefox comprised 78.5% of visitors. This tells us that visitors are indeed Open Source users and that readers are almost a 50/50 split between Windows and other OS’s (such as Linux). Additionally, it appears from this week’s poll (the one you mentioned above) and earlier polls, that there is genuine interest in your question.

This is a hard question to answer for you in one post. To answer the question, perhaps it’s best to ask yourself this question, “Is it a good idea to switch to Linux?” or “Am I willing to take the time to explore new things and have fun?” If you’ve answered yes, read on…

Try the LiveCD first and see if you are able to get used to the newer system. I made my choice very quickly after using it.

Obviously preparation is important. When I switched, the primary concern for me was my data. I needed a way to save all my documents, music and email. The email was an easy fix because I had already migrated to Thunderbird (if I remember correctly, Thunderbird will import all your Outlook express email). I’ve posted a couple times about Thunderbird, and both posts do include information about backing up your email:

Thunderbird Has Lost my eMail in Ubuntu!
Easily Use Cron to Backup Thunderbird eMail in Ubuntu Linux

To ensure you don’t lose other important files, such as documents, browser favourites, etc. You can burn all of them to a DVD, or save them to a file server. Don’t have a file server? If interested, take a peak at this post: 30 Dollars, 30 Minutes, 1 Nice Fileserver. In my case I set up a local (LAN) FTP server and uploaded all my files and the email backup to it.

Side note: If you’re using a Windows server, such as IIS for FTP, the file system will probably be NTFS. Don’t worry, that will not prevent you from accessing the files and copying them back to your Linux based PC. When you copy them back, the ownership (permissions) of the file will reflect to the account that you logged into your Linux session with.

Obviously, I needed a copy of Linux, and in this case chose Ubuntu Linux: Get Ubuntu. I might add that there are several flavours of Linux as well as several flavours of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. You may want to consider some of them. Here are the Ubuntu flavours that I’m aware of: “Ubuntu Based Linux, 32 Flavours and Then Some…”

What Applications Should I Use:
After you’ve completed the Linux installation, you’ll need some applications that are more or less, equivalent to your older Windows counterparts. Here’s a mini-list to consider:

Microsoft Office – Get Open Office.
IE – Get Firefox (it is part of the Linux Installation).
Outlook Express – Get Thunderbird.
WSFTP (or some other) – Get gftp.

The above four I think are the main ones, just to get you going right away, but you will want to install more applications. For a larger, more robust list, read: “Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications“. Prior to installing more applications, Evolution is included with Ubuntu Linux installations and I don’t have any use for it. I’ve had to keep removing it for the last four years that I remember. In my opinion, I’d suggest removing it:

sudo apt-get --purge remove evolution*

Other things I’d suggest:

Looking for software equivalents? Try here: “Software Equivalents”
Looking for a guide? Try: “The Perfect Desktop – Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon“

After your installation, I’d suggest the following:

Improve the Software Repository list: “The Best Ubuntu Linux Repository List“.
Expand your Multimedia experience: “How to Play Most Restricted Media Formats in Ubuntu“.
Get cross platform fonts: “How to Install TTF and CTF Fonts in Ubuntu.”

Finally, there’s been some discussion on this blog about the need for anti virus software on Linux. The “informed” consensus appears to indicate that it’s not needed. One of our readers (yochai ) wrote:

“…To further exemplify the inherited process argument, lets give an example:
You open firefox as a normal (ie non-root) user. No matter what you do from here, any program or file executed by firefox will only maintain your permission set; ie if you downloaded a nasty executable it STILL couldn’t hurt your machine as it only had the rights of the program that downloaded it— namely firefox, which is being run by you, the normal user…” You can read the full post and discussion here: Does Ubuntu Linux Really Need Antivirus Software?

Needless to say, there is a lot more freedom and flexibility than I could ever write in this post. So… If you have a question, feel free to ask in the comments area below.

Above all, have fun!

Update: There’s a good post on Look2Linux called “10 reasons to convert to Linux, 5 not to” where, like me, the blogger was a Windows user. They covered my two favourite reasons:

#5 “Extremely fast compared to Windows. Linux may take longer to boot up than Windows but once you are logged in you rarely see any lag in running time (unless on really old computers). Linux doesn’t have to run applications such as a virus checker which are running all the time taking up system resources, so it can run a lot faster. Because of the lack of things running continuously it means that Linux hardly ever crashes. I say hardly ever because it has crashed on me in the past. What tends to happen though is that an application will crash and then you can force quit it, not keep pressing exit and then getting End Now windows coming up over and over again doing nothing like a certain operating system (mentioning no names, W*nd*ws, lol, I don’t totally hate Windows you’ll see that later on)”

and

#8 “A wide range of choices. Unlike Windows where you can choose between 5 versions, one better than the previous one, there are literally thousands of Linux distro’s out there for you to choose, geared at different types of users. Most people start with the simpler and popular ones like Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat etc. and then when they get really good at it they may try investigating what else is out there. As a beginner it is always best to go for a popular one so that there is a big community to get help from if needed.”

Visit the post (link above) to see all the points. Pretty good.

Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications

Roger Wheatley — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:00:53 +0000

The following is a list of about 100 of the best OpenSource Applications, that actually help make Linux more usable for people. It is my hope that this list shows potential Linux users that there really is a large, effective, productive and usable range of free, OpenSource applications. For existing Linux users (like myself), I think this will provide a great resource in finding applications that may better suit your needs, or just for fun! Needless to say, this is just some of the thousands of applications available! I develop web sites, so this list tends to focus on applications which support that type of work.

The majority of these applications can be installed by either apt-get or synaptic, however I’ve included the web site addresses of these applications so that you can obtain more information. I’ve tried many of these applications myself – and they are pretty good!

This list took a long time to put together and I tried to keep it in alphabetical order for you. – You might want to bookmark this and come back later.
Enjoy!

Audio Applications

Ardour:
(http://www.ardour.org/)

Ardour is a digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. You can produce your own CDs, mix video soundtracks, or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound.

Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-destructive editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a powerful mixer, unlimited tracks/busses/plugins, timecode synchronization, and hardware control from surfaces like the Mackie Control Universal. If you’ve been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Pyramix, or Sequoia, you might have found it.

Audacity:
(http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more!

Grip:
(http://nostatic.org/grip/)

Grip is a cd-player and cd-ripper for the Gnome desktop. It has the ripping capabilities of cdparanoia builtin, but can also use external rippers (such as cdda2wav). It also provides an automated frontend for MP3 (and other audio format) encoders, letting you take a disc and transform it easily straight into MP3s. Internet disc lookups are supported for retrieving track information from disc database servers.Grip works with DigitalDJ to provide a unified “computerized” version of your music collection.

Hydrogen:
(http://www.hydrogen-music.org/)

Hydrogen is an advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux. It’s main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming.

Jokosher:
(http://www.jokosher.org/)

Jokosher is a simple and powerful multi-track studio. Jokosher provides a complete application for recording, editing, mixing and exporting audio, and has been specifically designed with usability in mind.

The developers behind Jokosher have re-thought audio production at every level, and created something devilishly simple to use.

LMMS:
(http://lmms.sourceforge.net/)

LMMS aims to be a free alternative to popular (but commercial and closed- source) programs like FruityLoops/FL Studio, Cubase and Logic allowing you to produce music with your computer. This includes creation of loops, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples, having fun with your MIDI-keyboard and much more…

MusE:
(http://www.muse-sequencer.org/)

MusE is a MIDI/Audio sequencer with recording and editing capabilities written by Werner Schweer. MusE aims to be a complete multitrack virtual studio for Linux.

Midi sequencing
Record/Playback/Import
Input filter
Audio sequencing
Record/Playback several mono/stereo inputs/outputs.
AudioGroups

LASH
Perform audio effects like chorus/flanger in realtime!
Jack – jack-audio-connection-kit
Use the jack for midi/audio routing.
Internal Audio Routing Interface

ALSA – based on the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

You can use several soundcards to access external midi devices and record/playback them with MusE.

Rosegarden:
(http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/)

Rosegarden is a professional audio and MIDI sequencer, score editor, and general-purpose music composition and editing environment.

soundKonverter:
(http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=29024)

soundKonverter is a frontend to various audio converters.

The key features are:
Audio conversion
Replay Gain calculation
CD ripping

Streamripper:
(http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/)

With the emergence of file sharing protocols such as Napster, Gnutella, and now Mojonation and Freenet, the average Internet user can download nearly any mp3 he wants in a matter of no time, but many times people don’t know what they want. Streamripper allows you to download an entire station of music. Many of these mp3 radio stations only play certain genres, so you can now download an entire collection of goa/trance music, an entire collection of jazz, punk rock, whatever you want.

Graphic Design Applications (2D)

Cenon:
(http://www.cenon.info/frame_gb.html)

Cenon is a graphical tool of a special kind. Build upon a modular graphical core, Cenon offers a wide variety of possibilities and applications.
The best of all, the Cenon core is free software, available with full source codes, and at home on many computer platforms.

GIMPshop:
(http://www.gimpshop.com/)

GIMPshop is a modification of the free/open source GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop. Its primary purpose is to make users of Photoshop feel comfortable using GIMP.

It shares all GIMP’s advantages, including the long feature list and customisability, while addressing some common criticisms regarding the program’s interface: GIMPshop modifies the menu structure to closely match Photoshop’s, adjusts the program’s terminology to match Adobe’s, and, in the Windows version, uses a plugin called ‘Deweirdifier’ to combine the application’s numerous windows in a similar manner to the MDI system used by most Windows graphics packages. While GIMPshop does not support Photoshop plugins, all GIMP’s own plugins, filters, brushes, etc. remain available.

Due to the changes to the interface, many Photoshop tutorials can be followed in GIMPshop unchanged, and most others can be adapted for GIMPshop users with minimal effort.

Hugin:
(http://hugin.sourceforge.net/)

An easy to use cross-platform panoramic imaging toolchain based on Panorama Tools.
With hugin you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more.

Inkscape:
(http://www.inkscape.org/)

An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.

KoverArtist:
(http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=38195)

KoverArtist is a program for the fast creation of covers for cd/dvd cases and boxes. The main idea behind it is to be able to create decent looking covers with some mouseclicks.

Supports changing covers on the fly to use cases that can house more discs.

Ktoon:
(http://ktoon.toonka.com/)

KToon is a 2D Animation Toolkit designed by animators (Toonka Films ) for animators, focused to the Cartoon Industry. This project is covered by the GPL License using G++, OpenGL and QT as programming resources from KDevelop as the development platform.

Krita:
(http://www.koffice.org/krita/)

Krita is a painting and image editing application for KOffice. Krita is part of KOffice since version 1.4. Krita contains both ease-of-use and fun features like guided painting (never before has it been so easy to airbrush a straight line!) and high-end features like support for 16 bit images, CMYK, L*a*b and even OpenEXR HDR images.

MyPaint:
(http://mypaint.intilinux.com/)

MyPaint is a fast painting/scribbling program. It supports pressure sensitive graphic tablets and comes with an easy to use brush collection. There is a complex interface for creating your own brushes, focusing on brush dynamics (changes with speed, pressure, or randomly). The canvas size is unlimited and undo is supported, but not layers.

OpenOffice Draw:
(http://www.openoffice.org/product/draw.html)

DRAW - from a quick sketch to a complex plan, DRAW gives you the tools to communicate with graphics and diagrams.

‘Park’ your most commonly used drawing tools around your screen ready for single-click access.

Use Styles and Formatting to put all your graphics styles at your finger tips.

Manipulate objects, rotate in two or three dimensions; the 3D controller puts spheres, rings, cubes, etc. at your disposal.

Arrange objects: group, ungroup, regroup, and edit objects while grouped. Sophisticated rendering let you create photorealistic images with your own texture, lighting effects, transparency, perspective, and so on.

Smart connectors make short work of flowcharts, organization charts, network diagrams, etc. Define your own ‘glue points’ for connectors to ‘stick’ to.

Dimension lines automatically calculate and display linear dimensions as you draw.

Use the picture Gallery for clipart; create your own art and add it to the Gallery.

Save your graphics in OpenDocument format, the new international standard for office documents. This XML based format means you’re not tied in to DRAW. You can access your graphics from any OpenDocument compliant software.

Import graphics from all common formats (including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and WMF).

Use DRAW’s free ability to create Flash (.swf) versions of your work.

Panorama Tools:
(http://www.all-in-one.ee/%7Edersch/)

Software to View, Create, Edit and Remap Panoramic Images :

PTStitcher: High quality, simple to use, all format stitching software.
Panorama Tools: Photoshop plug-in for panorama creation, editing and remapping.
PTViewer: High quality spherical viewer, Standalone and java versions for many platforms.

Pixelize:
(http://lashwhip.com/pixelize.html)

Pixelize will use many scaled down images to try to duplicate, as closely as possible, another image.

Pixelize works by splitting up the image you want rendered (or duplicated) into a grid of small rectangular areas. Each area is analyzed, and replaced with an image chosen from a large database of images.

Pixelize tries to pick images that best match each area.

Pixelize works best when it can choose images from a very large database of images. With about 1000 images, Pixelize can do a reasonable job.

Scribus:
(http://www.scribus.net/)

Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout.

Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

Skencil:
(http://www.skencil.org/)

Skencil is a Free Software interactive vector drawing appliction. Known to run on GNU/Linux and other UNIX-compatible systems, it is a flexible and powerful tool for illustrations, diagrams and other purposes.
A somewhat unique (for a drawing program) feature of Skencil is that it is implemented almost completely in a very high-level, interpreted language, Python. Python is powerful, object-oriented and yet easy to use.

Synfig:
(http://synfig.org/Main_Page & http://www.synfig.com/)

Synfig is a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. While there are many other programs currently on the market to aid with the efficient production of 2D animation, we are currently unaware of any other software that can do what our software can.

2D Animation has traditionally been very expensive because every frame must be drawn by hand. Even with today’s digital inking and painting software, the process still relies on individuals hand-drawing each frame. This laborious task is called “tweening”.

Our animation technology eliminates the task of manual tweening, producing smooth, fluid motion without the animator having to draw out each frame individually.

This allows you to produce 2D animation with fewer people while producing a product of a higher quality.

Xara Xtreme:
(http://www.xaraxtreme.org/)

Xara Xtreme for Linux is a powerful, general purpose graphics program for Unix platforms including Linux, FreeBSD and (in development) OS-X.

Formely known as Xara LX, it is based on Xara Xtreme for Windows, which is the fastest graphics program available, period. The Xara Xtreme source code was made available open-source in early 2006, and is being ported to Linux. This process is almost complete and Xara Xtreme for Linux is available for download.

Xara Xtreme for Linux:

Is very fast, very slick to use.
Offers some of the most powerful graphics tools available.
Is simple to use and learn.
Has a clean, un-cluttered user interface. Few floating dialogs, palettes, menus etc.
Is able to create a huge range of outstanding graphics.
* Has a huge resource of learning material, tutorials, movies, tips and a very active enthusiastic and growing user community.

Graphic Design Applications (3D)

Art Of Illusion:
(http://www.artofillusion.org/)

Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java, and should be usable on any Java Virtual Machine which is compatible with J2SE 1.4 or later.

Many of its capabilities rival those found in commercial programs. Some of the highlights include subdivision surface based modelling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials.

Blender:
(http://www.blender.org/)

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
model • shade • animate • render • composite • interactive 3d

Crystal Space:
(http://www.crystalspace3d.org/main/Main_Page)

Crystal Space is a free cross-platform software development kit for realtime 3D graphics, in particular games.

FreeWRL:
(http://freewrl.sourceforge.net/)

FreeWRL supports the VRML97 and X3D open standards;
Is confirmed as “Interchange Profile” conformant by the Web3d Consortium;
Runs on OSX and Linux, it runs within Web browsers, or standalone;
Is ReWire and MIDI enabled for sound-based interaction;
Is able to interconnect to other programs using MIDI, or the EAI and SAI external programming interfaces.

G3DViewer:
(http://automagically.de/index.shtml?g3dviewer)

G3DViewer is a 3D file viewer for GTK+ supporting a variety of file types:

3D Studio (.3ds, .prj)
LightWave (.lw, .lwb, .lwo)
Alias Wavefront (.obj)
Impulse TurboSilver / Imagine (.iob)
AutoCAD (.dxf)
Quake II Models (.md2)
Quake III Models (.md3) (new in 0.2.99.1)
Neutral File Format (.nff)
3D Metafile (.3dmf, .3mf, .b3d)
Caligari TrueSpace Objects (.cob)
Quick3D Objects & Scenes (.q3o, q3s)
VRML 1.0 files (.wrl, .vrml) (new in 0.1.1, still buggy)
AC3D objects (.ac, .acc) (new in 0.1.99.1)
LeoCAD Models (.lcd) (new in 0.2.99.1)
Racer car models (.ar, .dof) (new in libg3d 0.0.5, not really complete)
Ultimate Stunts car models (.glb) (new in libg3d 0.0.5)
VDrift car models (.joe, .car) (new in libg3d 0.0.5)

K3DSurf:
(http://k3dsurf.sourceforge.net/)

K3DSurf is a program to visualize and manipulate Mathematical models in three, four, five and six dimensions. K3DSurf supports Parametric equations and Isosurfaces.

Studying mathematical surfaces with K3DSurf include doing:

Interactive visualization with mouse events (Right: Rotate, Middle: translate and left: Scale).
Real time animation (rotation) and morph (by the introduction of t_time variable). Animation and morph can also be monitored by controls that affect the CPU usage and t_time step.
Create screenshots by copying the draw window or by using the best ray tracer on the net: Povray.
Create movie scene is also supported.
Generate Mesh files that describe the shape of the mathematical model.

Supported formats are:
Povscript: Povray is the best ray tracer available on the net…and it’s free.
VRML2: to use with the majority of current browsers via an appropriate plug-in.
OBJ: a well-known file format supported by the majority of 3D applications (Blender, MAYA and Moray…).

KPovModeler:
(http://www.kpovmodeler.org/)

KPovModeler is a modeling and composition program for creating POV-Ray(TM) scenes in KDE.

For most of the modelers, POV-Ray is nothing but a rendering engine and they bring a lot of limitations to the innate possibilities of POV-Ray scripted language. This is not the case for KPovModeler which allows you to use all the features of POV-Ray through the translation of POV-Ray language into a graphical tree.

Almost all options of POV-Ray’s script language can be used within KPovModeler. “Almost” because variables, loop instructions, macros and some operators can’t directly be, unfortunately. On the other hand, KPovModeler allows you to include a part of a script with the “Raw POV-Ray” tool; such a raw code will only be taken into account by POV-Ray during the rendering stage.

Among the features you can find:

Management of the scene through a graphical tree.
Object modification with control points in a graphical view or direct manipulation of object attributes in a dialog.
Nonblocking scene rendering with OpenGL as wire frame views.
Freely configurable view layout with dock widgets.
Copy/paste and drag/drop of (a subset of) povray(!) code into and out of the object tree.
Undo and redo.
Scene rendering and texture preview with povray inside the program.
Support for almost all povray objects.
Support for all textures.
Prototypes (declarations) and references.
All projection modes of the camera.

PovRay:
(http://www.povray.org/)

The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.

White Dune:
(http://vrml.cip.ica.uni-stuttgart.de/dune/)

White_dune is a low level VRML97 tool for Unix/Linux/MacOSX and Windows.
It can read VRML97 files, display and let the user change the scenegraph/fields.
Unlike most highlevel tools, it uses a light model based on the VRML97 standard.

Video Applications

AvideMUX:
(http://avidemux.berlios.de/index.html)

Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEGfiles, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.

Cinelerra:
(http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3)

Cinelerra does primarily 3 main things: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample level accuracy. It’s a seamless integration of audio, video, and still photos rarely experienced on a web server.

If you want to make movies with the same kind of compositing and editing suite that the big boys use, on the world’s most efficient UNIX operating system, it’s time for Cinelerra.

CinePaint:
(http://www.cinepaint.org/)

CinePaint is used to retouch feature films and in pro photography. CinePaint opens high fidelity image file formats such as DPX, 16-bit TIFF, and OpenEXR, and conventional formats like JPEG and PNG. It has a flipbook for movie playback of image sequences in RAM. It supports 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit color channels, HDR and CMS.

CinePaint is used for motion picture frame-by-frame retouching, dirt removal, wire rig removal, render repair, background plates, and painting 3D model textures. It’s been used on many feature films, including The Last Samurai where it was used to add flying arrows.

For still photography, CinePaint can import bracketed HDR exposures. It has gallery-quality 16-bit per channel color printing with GutenPrint. CinePaint’s high dynamic range is crucial with B&W still photography, where images only have a single channel.

Jahshaka:
(http://jahshaka.org/)

Edit with flexibility and speed.
Create Effects in real time.
Animate with unlimited features.
Paint and design on moving video.
Create music with all the tools the pros use.
Work in any format at any resolution.

Kino:
(http://www.kinodv.org/)

Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in Raw DV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.

You can load multiple video clips, cut and paste portions of video/audio, and save it to an edit decision list (SMIL XML format). Most edit and navigation commands are mapped to equivalent vi key commands. Also, Kino can export the composite movie in a number of formats: DV over IEEE 1394, Raw DV, DV AVI, still frames, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. Still frame import and export uses gdk-pixbuf, which has support for BMG, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PPM, SVG, Targa, TIFF, and XPM. MP3 requires lame. Ogg Vorbis requires oggenc. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 require mjpegtools or ffmpeg. MPEG-4 requires ffmpeg.

LiVES:
(http://lives.sourceforge.net/)

LiVES mixes realtime video performance and non-linear editing in one application. It will let you start editing and making video right away, without having to worry about formats, frame sizes, or framerates. It is a very flexible tool which can be used by both VJ’s and video editors – mix and switch clips from the keyboard, trim and edit your clips, and bring them together using the multitrack timeline. You can even record your performance in real time, and then edit it further or render it straight away as a new clip!

recordMyDesktop:
(http://recordmydesktop.iovar.org/about.php)

recordMyDesktop is a desktop session recorderfor GNU/linux that attemps to be easy to use, yet also effective at it’s primary task.
As such, the program is separated in two parts; a simple command line tool that performs the basic tasks of capturing and encoding and an interface that exposes the program functionality in a usable way.

Slideshow Creator:
(http://slcreator.sourceforge.net/)

With Slideshow Creator and dvd-slideshow you can transform your pictures in a beautiful dvd-quality slide show rich of fashinating effects like ken burns, pan and animated transitions. Adding a musical soundtrack too you will have a really cool result!

System Applications:

APTonCD:
(http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/)

APTonCD is a tool with a graphical interface which allows you to create one or more CDs or DVDs (you choose the type of media) with all of the packages you’ve downloaded via APT-GET or APTITUDE, creating a removable repository that you can use on other computers.

APTonCD will also allow you to automatically create media with all of your .deb packages located in one specific repository, so that you can install them into your computers without the need for an internet connection.

Beagle:
(http://beagle-project.org/Main_Page)

Beagle is a search tool that ransacks your personal information space to find whatever you’re looking for.

More technically, Beagle is a Linux desktop-independent service which transparently and unobtrusively indexes your data in real-time. For example:

Files are immediately indexed when they are created, are re-indexed when they are modified, and are dropped from the index upon deletion.
eMails are indexed upon arrival.
IM conversations are indexed as you chat, a line at a time.
Web pages are indexed as you view them (with a browser extension).

ClamAV:
(http://www.clamav.net/)

Clam AntiVirus is an open source (GPL) anti-virus toolkit for UNIX, designed especially for e-mail scanning on mail gateways. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and advanced tool for automatic database updates.

Conky:
(http://conky.sourceforge.net/)

Conky is a light-weight system monitor under active development, a highly configurable system monitor for X based on torsmo

Ekiga:
(http://ekiga.org/)

Ekiga (formely known as GnomeMeeting) is an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. Ekiga uses both the H.323 and SIP protocols. It supports many audio and video codecs, and is interoperable with other SIP compliant software and also with Microsoft NetMeeting.

Endeavour Mark II:
(http://wolfpack.twu.net/Endeavour2/)

Endeavour Mark II is a complete file management suite that comes with a File Browser, Image Browser, Archiver, Recycled Objects system, and a set of file & disk management utility programs.

FileZilla:
(http://filezilla-project.org/)

FileZilla is a fast FTP and SFTP client.

GParted:
(http://gparted.sourceforge.net/)

GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the filesystems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).

gZIP:
(http://www.gzip.org/)

gzip (GNU zip) is a compression utility designed to be a replacement for compress. Its main advantages over compress are much better compression and freedom from patented algorithms.

K3b:
(http://k3b.plainblack.com/)

K3b was created to be a feature-rich and easy to handle CD burning application.

MondoRescue:
(http://www.mondorescue.org/)

Mondo Rescue is a GPL disaster recovery solution. It supports Linux (i386, x86_64, ia64) and FreeBSD (i386). It’s packaged for multiple distributions (RedHat, RHEL, SuSE, SLES, Mandriva, Debian, Gentoo).
It supports tapes, disks, network and CD/DVD as backup media, multiple filesystems, LVM, software and hardware Raid.

OpenBerg:
(http://openberg.sourceforge.net)

Read, write, publish e-Books with open standards and free software.

OpenOffice:
(http://www.openoffice.org/)

OpenOffice.org the product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office, and the vendor-neutral OpenDocument standard from OASIS.

Available in over 65 supported languages with more being constantly added by the community, OpenOffice.org runs stably and natively on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), Windows, Mac OS X (X11), and numerous other platforms. Our porting page lists the platforms (ports) that OpenOffice.org can run on.

openSSH:
(http://www.openssh.org/)

OpenSSH is a FREE version of the SSH connectivity tools that technical users of the Internet rely on. Users of telnet, rlogin, and ftp may not realize that their password is transmitted across the Internet unencrypted, but it is. OpenSSH encrypts all traffic (including passwords) to effectively eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other attacks. Additionally, OpenSSH provides secure tunneling capabilities and several authentication methods, and supports all SSH protocol versions.

PDFedit:
(http://pdfedit.petricek.net/pdfedit.index_e)

Free (and open source) editor for manipulating PDF documents. GUI version + command line interface.

Pidgin:
(http://www.pidgin.im/)

Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once. Pidgin can work with:

AIM
Bonjour
Gadu-Gadu
Google Talk
Groupwise
ICQ
IRC
MSN
MySpaceIM
QQ
SILC
SIMPLE
Sametime
XMPP
Yahoo!
Zephyr

PuTTY:
(http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/)

PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.

Reconstructor:
(http://reconstructor.aperantis.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1)

Reconstructor is an Ubuntu GNU/Linux CD Creator.
It uses the Desktop(Live), Alternate(Install), or Server disc as a base, and then allows for user customization.

For the Ubuntu Desktop base, you can customize the entire environment. For instance, you can add/remove software, change the default look (splash, themes, fonts, wallpaper, etc.), add desktop links, etc.

For the Alternate and Server bases, you can add any additional software to the disc that you would like installed.

Rox-Filer:
(http://roscidus.com/desktop/ROX-Filer)

ROX is a desktop environment, like GNOME, KDE and XFCE. It is an attempt to bring some of the good features from RISC OS to Unix and Linux.
Traditionally, Unix users have always based their activities around the file system. Just about everything that’s anything appears as a file: regular files, hardware devices, and even processes on many systems (for example, inside the /proc filesystem on Linux).

However, recent desktop efforts (such as KDE and GNOME) seem to be following the Windows approach of trying to hide the filesystem and get users to do things via a Start-menu or similar. Modern desktop users, on Windows or Unix, often have no idea where their programs are installed, or even where their data files are saved. This leads to a feeling of not being in control, and a poor understanding of how the system works.

The ROX Desktop, however, is based around the file system. Its core component is ROX-Filer, a powerful graphical file manager which, in addition to being a popular filer in its own right, provides a couple of extra features which allow it to solve the above problems.

TrueCrypt:
(http://www.truecrypt.org/)

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:

1) Hidden volume (steganography – more information may be found here).

2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).

VNC:
(http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/attarchive/vnc/index.html)

VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is, in essence, a remote display system which allows you to view a computing ‘desktop’ environment not only on the machine where it is running, but from anywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machine architectures.

WINE:
(http://www.winehq.org/)

Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix.

Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.

XFE:
(http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/)

X File Explorer (Xfe) is an MS-Explorer or Commander like file manager for X. Although all these file managers are feature rich and cleverly designed, let’s face it, they are huge! If you’re a console addict, light desktop user or have an older system, resource hogging file managers just aren’t the way to go.

Especially since most file managers are Desktop dependent (KDE, Gnome, Xfce, etc.), requiring you to load all kinds of unwanted bloat onto your system.

Developer Applications

Bugzilla:
(http://www.bugzilla.org/)

(I know Bugzilla is web-based, but it’s so good). Bugzilla is a Web-based general-purpose bugtracker tool originally developed and used by the Mozilla project. Released as open source software by Netscape Communications in 1998, Bugzilla has been adopted by a variety of organizations for use as a defect tracker for both free software and proprietary products.

Eclipse:
(http://www.eclipse.org/)

Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large and vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse platform.

Gambas:
(http://gambas.sourceforge.net/)

Gambas is a free development environment based on a Basic interpreter with object extensions, a bit like Visual Basic™ (but it is NOT a clone !). Read the introduction for more information.

With Gambas, you can quickly design your program GUI with QT or GTK+, access MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, ODBC and SQLite databases, pilot KDE applications with DCOP, translate your program into any language, create network applications easily, make 3D OpenGL applications, make CGI web applications, and so on…

Geany:
(http://geany.uvena.de/)

Geany is a text editor using the GTK2 toolkit with basic features of an integrated development environment. It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other packages. It supports many filetypes and has some nice features.

Gobby:
(http://gobby.0×539.de/trac/)

Gobby is a free collaborative editor supporting multiple documents in one session and a multi-user chat. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other Unix-like platforms. It uses GTK+ 2.6 as its windowing toolkit and thus integrates nicely into the GNOME desktop environment.

jEdit:
(http://www.jedit.org/)

jEdit is a mature programmer’s text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it.

Netbeans:
(http://www.netbeans.org/)

The NetBeans IDE is a free, open-source Integrated Development Environment for software developers. You get all the tools you need to create professional desktop, enterprise, web and mobile applications, in Java, C/C++ and even Ruby. The IDE runs on many platforms including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris; it is easy to install and use straight out of the box.

QuantaPlus:
(http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/)

Quanta Plus is a highly stable and feature rich web development environment. The vision with Quanta has always been to start with the best architectural foundations, design for efficient and natural use and enable maximal user extensibility. We recognize that we don’t have the resources to do everything we would like to so our target is to make it easy for you to help make this the best community based desktop application anywhere. Pretty much everything in Quanta is designed so you can extend it. Even the way it handles XML DTDs is based on XML files you can edit. You can even import DTDs, write scripts to manage editor contents, visually create dialogs for your scripts and assign script actions to nearly any file operation in a project. You can even look at and communicate with a wide range of what happens inside Quanta using DCOP.

SciTE:
(http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html)

SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla (http://scintilla.sourceforge.net/index.html), it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It is best used for jobs with simple configurations – I use it for building test and demonstration programs as well as SciTE and Scintilla, themselves.

Productivity Applications

Basket Note Pads:
(http://basket.kde.org/index.php)

This multi-purpose note-taking application helps you to:

Easily take all sort of notes
Collect research results and share them
Centralize your project data and reuse it
Quickly organize your thoughts in idea boxes
Keep track of your information in a smart way
Make intelligent To Do lists
And a lot more…

Firefox:
(http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/)

I think most people know that Firefox is a web browser. Choose from over a thousand useful add-ons that enhance Firefox. It’s easy to personalize Firefox to make it your own.

Gnome Do:
(http://do.davebsd.com/)

A powerful, speedy, and sexy remote control for your GNOME Desktop. GNOME Do is not only for GNOME. Although it was created by a GNOME lover, Do runs on KDE and other common environments.

GNOME Do is not a search tool. If you know what you’re looking for and what you want to do with it, Do will help you do it quickly. GNOME Do is not just a launcher. Send emails and IMs, play music, search the web, and launch applications too. Plugins make it possible.

GnuCash:
(http://gnucash.org/)

GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.

HomeBank:
(http://homebank.free.fr/)

HomeBank is free software. Use it to manage your personal accounts. It is designed to easy to use. Analyse your finances in detail using powerful filtering tools and graphs.

inCollector:
(http://www.incollector.devnull.pl/)

ncollector is an application to collect various kinds of information (like notes, conversation logs, quotes, serial numbers, source code, web addresses, words). All the entries can be tagged, so you can find them very easily. There are also search folders which allows you to search for entries by specified criteria. You can also export (and import, of course) entries to an external file.

Katapult:
(http://katapult.kde.org/)

Katapult is a KDE application that provides you with faster and easier access to your applications, bookmarks, and more. It is plugin-based and can launch anything it has a plugin for. Its plugin-driven appearance is completely customizable. Katapult was inspired by Quicksilver for OS X, and it is written in C++.

Meld:
(http://meld.sourceforge.net/)

Meld is a visual diff and merge tool. You can compare two or three files and edit them in place (diffs update dynamically). You can compare two or three folders and launch file comparisons. You can browse and view a working copy from popular version control systems such such as CVS, Subversion, Bazaar-ng and Mercurial.

OpenOffice:

http://www.openoffice.org/

qOrganizer:
(http://qorganizer.sourceforge.net/)

qOrganizer is a general organizer that includes a calendar with schedule,reminders,journal/notes for every day, to-do list.
But provides features useful for students such as:timetable and a booklet for marks and absences.It’s designed to be easy to use.
It represents a new approach to an organizer, with several innovative features.

RSSowl:
(http://www.rssowl.org/)

Applications that collect data from RSS-compliant sites are called RSS readers or “aggregators.” RSSOwl is such an application. RSSOwl lets you gather, organize, update, and store information from any compliant source in a convenient, easy to use interface, save selected information in various formats for offline viewing and sharing, and much more. It’s easy to configure, available in many many languages and the best of all: It’s platform-independent.

Specto:
(http://specto.sourceforge.net/)

Specto is a desktop application that will watch configurable events (such as website updates, emails, file and folder changes, system processes, etc) and then trigger notifications.

For example, Specto can watch a website for updates (or a syndication feed, or an image, etc), and notify you when there is activity (otherwise, Specto will just stay out of the way). This changes the way you work, because you can be informed of events instead of having to look out for them.

Sunbird:
(http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/)

Mozilla Sunbird is a cross-platform calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit. It provides you with a full-featured and easy to use calendar application that you can use around the world.

Task Coach:
(http://www.taskcoach.org/)

Task Coach is a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and todo lists. It grew out of Frank’s frustration that well-known task managers, such as those provided with Outlook or Lotus Notes, do not provide facilities for composite tasks. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks.

Thunderbird:
(http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/)

Thunderbird allows you to customize your email to suit your specific needs whether it’s how you search and find messages or listening to music right out of your inbox.

Thunderbird 2 offers a variety of ways for you to organize and display your folders, whether by favorites, recently viewed or folders containing unread messages. As always, you can also set up RSS and newsgroup folders to stay on top of news and your interests. Thunderbird 2 also allows you to maximize your message view pane by opting for a folder drop down menu instead of the traditional sidebar.

Thunderbird 2 allows you to “tag” messages with descriptors such as “To Do” or “Done” or even create your own tags that are specific to your needs. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.

tkdiff:
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/tkdiff/)

tkdiff is a graphical front end to the diff program. It provides a side-by-side view of the differences between two files, along with several innovative features such as diff bookmarks and a graphical map of differences for quick navigation.

Zim:
(http://www.pardus.nl/projects/zim/)

Zim is a WYSIWYG text editor written in Gtk2-Perl which aims to bring the concept of a wiki to your desktop. Every page is saved as a text file with wiki markup. Pages can contain links to other pages, and are saved automatically. Creating a new page is as easy as linking to a non-existing page. Pages are ordered in a hierarchical structure that gives it the look and feel of an outliner. This tool is intended to keep track of TODO lists or to serve as a personal scratch book.

Web Development Applications

Amaya:
(http://www.w3.org/Amaya/)

Amaya is a Web editor, i.e. a tool used to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium.

Aptana Studio:
(http://www.aptana.com/)

Studio is Aptana’s free, open source Ajax development environment. With over a million downloads, developers all over the world are discovering why Aptana Studio is the leading choice of web professionals everywhere. Studio offers free plugins for PHP, Ruby on Rails, Adobe AIR, and even Apple iPhone development.

Of course Studio also includes rich support for development of Jaxer-based Ajax applications. In fact, as of Studio 1.1, Jaxer is fully integrated so that development of end-to-end Ajax applications requires no further installations or server setup. Just create a new HTML document and you can build fully realized client/server applications rich with database access, network access, and much more.

BlueFish:
(http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html)

Bluefish is a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdesigners, with many options to write websites, scripts and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages, and it focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites.

FontForge:
(http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/)

FontForge — An outline font editor that lets you create your own postscript, truetype, opentype, cid-keyed, multi-master, cff, svg and bitmap (bdf, FON, NFNT) fonts, or edit existing ones. Also lets you convert one format to another. FontForge has support for many macintosh font formats.

gFTP:
(http://gftp.seul.org/)

gFTP is a free multithreaded file transfer client for *NIX based machines. One very nice feature is: “Supports FXP file transfers (transferring files between 2 remote servers via FTP)”.

Kompozer:
(http://www.kompozer.net/)

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.

KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

Kruler:
(http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/graphics/kruler)

Kruler is a screen ruler (using pixels) and color measurement tool for KDE.

SeaMonkey:
(http://www.seamonkey-project.org/)

The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite (see below). Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users.

Wink:
(http://www.debugmode.com/wink/)

Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.

Xampp:
(http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html)

Many people know from their own experience that it’s not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.

Update 1: Many Russian speaking people have visited this site and I appreciate some of the messages you have sent, I wish I could provide you with a Russian version of this article but (unfortunately) I don’t speak Russian… Спасибо! Вам всегда рады!

Update 2: Hola Chile! Espero que este sitio web le ayuda. Lo siento, no hablo español. Gracias por visitarnos!

Update 3: Ευχαριστω Ελλαδα! Εκτιμω τις επισκεψεις και τα σχολια. Συγνωμη, αλλα εγω δεν μιλουν ελληνικα.

Update 4: Witaj Polsko! Dziękuję za odwiedzenie tej strony. Przykro mi, że nie rozumiem Polskiego.

[tags]top 100, open source, applications, audio, graphic, video, web development, productivity, developer, system, tools, apps, linux, windows[/tags]