Why am I posting about this? It’s very difficult (at times) when new Linux (Ubuntu) users ask me how to do something and I cannot show them. Sometimes I’m far away, at other times it’s difficult to talk them through the necessary activities on the phone, often I do not have remote access to their systems (so they can watch what I do), and at other times there would be too much to write. Often the person I’m trying to help might not be technically savvy enough to follow my direction, but they do know how to use a web browser.

That’s where screencasting comes in!

I think many of us are aware of some of the commonly mentioned packages:

Istanbul – Every time I’ve tried it, it’s broken. Is it even in development anymore? Last news post on the site is in 2007.

Xvidcap – I often encounter problematic output (maybe a codec issue?). Is it in development anymore?

Wink – While Wink does work on the systems I’ve tried, I find it just looks horrid, especially the note explanation boxes you can add. They look cheap and tacky, not something I would use for a business (or personally). One issue that may effect Open Source enthusiasts, it that the source is closed.

recordMyDesktop – I often get sound problems with it. What is happening with development? It appears the developer bowed out in January 2009, and a new one took the reins in May 2009, but are there any changes, updates or fixes?

ffmpeg – I did try the solution presented by Embrace Ubuntu (where ffmpeg was patched), and while it did work, I found that ffmpeg (in this case) did not provide as stable an output as I expected.

Screenkast – I could not get it to work properly. Is it under development anymore? (Last update was in 2007).

As I mentioned, the above (I think) are the common tools that many of us may already be aware of. I also think the above tools are listed and discussed at length on several other sites, that’s why I chose to not go into any detail, discussing them – Been there, done that, we’ve seen them all before…

Suffice to say, I felt that I was at an impasse, I just wanted something that will work. Something that could save a screencast in FLV format for streaming across a web site. Granted the FLV format is proprietary, I wanted that because it’s a current web standard. Also, I did not want to have to manually convert the video file (as an extra step).

There are online tools such as ScreenToaster (which a reader suggested to me), but I prefer to do the work myself because the PCs I use sometimes don’t have a web connection. After asking around someone suggested vnc2swf, which I found has since moved on in development to the newer vnc2flv. It seems to me to be much more promising. I’m not suggesting that this is the ultimate solution, but it does have some great merits (and it works too).

vnc2flv

Without reading the installation notes, I tried a quick sudo aptitude install … command, but it’s not in the repositories (8.04, Hardy), and the developer does not seem to host a repository either.

I found there are a couple of requirements:

1) x11vnc

2) Python (2.4+)

The install itself is not too difficult:

Download the package from the developer at http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/python/vnc2flv/index.html#install extract the archive and (as the developer explains on his site), use python to install the app as:

python setup.py install

After which the installation script will run.

Currently this application is run off the command line. I tried this on an older test box (it has an earlier version of Ubuntu on it) and it seemed to run quite well. I should add that the developer indicates (I think) that the sound aspects are handled by a different application, using a script that automatically joins the video and audio.  Here’s the original video from the developers site:

While I’m mentioning the developer’s site, you’ll also get a lot more information (usage info) from it. I plan on installing this on my primary Ubuntu workstation after I’ve played a bit more with it on the test box. – Hopefully, this will result in some good screencasting…

Hopefully there’ll be a full GUI at some point? Either way, give it a try and tell us what you think.

Criticism aside, I just wrote a couple posts about turning your Linux (Ubuntu) computer into a multimedia system, which touched on the topic of videos:

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

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

While the focus of the above posts leaned more towards playback and web development, I did mention at least a couple video applications. In my opinion the state of video application development in Ubuntu Linux – For that matter all Linux distributions has a long way to go. In most of the current video application, I’ve found that the functionality is lacking, or that the user interface (UI) is so complicated that it makes the application a labour to use. I’m more familiar with applications such as Adobe After Effects which is Mac and Windows based (where are the Linux versions of your products Adobe? ) and I use it in a production environment. Additionally smaller “quickie” applications such as “MPEG_Stream Clip” or quickie video converters are not available in Linux with the same ease of use and functionality.

I appreciate that some may argue that After Effects is complicated. In the beginning, when learning, it is. But after you’ve been using it for a few years, it’s not as complicated. In all honesty, I use applications (such as After Effects) as my guideline to compare. There are so few available, and in my opinion, not one of the truly provides an adequate, complete production grade video application.

Video Conversion:

I operate several video streaming sites. These are sites with similar functionality to Youtube. They allow users (my clients) to upload their videos and the videos are converted by the server to flv files for streaming across the web. To accomplish this, I install various codecs and other tools on the server, most importantly ffmpeg.

ffmpeg means “Fast Forward MPEG”. It’s a command line application that is built and uses open source libraries and software. It also uses the installed video (and audio) codecs, mux/demux library, etc. to convert video’s from one format to another. As such, I’d highly recommend installing this in a Linux PC, if you’re using that box for video work.

It’s easy to install via aptitude (or apt-get):

sudo aptitude install ffmpeg

or: apt:ffmpeg

PHP scripting on the server uses much the same similar commands that we would use on our computers. Here’s a quick command (to get you going):

ffmpeg -i testvideo.mov -vcodec wmv2 -sameq -acodec wmav2 -f asf testvideo.asf

The above command specifies:

• Take my “testvideo.mov” file  (The “i” switch means “input file”),
• Convert it to the wmv2 video codec (“-vcodec”) and the wmv2 audio codec (“-acodec”),
• Use the same quality as the original video file (“-sameq”),
• Force the converted (output) file to asf (“-f asf”),
• Name that converted file “testvideo.asf”

The MAN page for ffmpeg allows you a more detailed explanation of the switches and other that are available for use.

I did a search on Youtube and found a great ffmpeg video (below):

Video Applications:

AvideMux is okay for cutting existing videos, stripping audio or video, capturing video, etc. It does not provide the functionality that some of us are familiar with in applications such as After Effects or Final Cut Pro. More information can be found on the Avidemux wiki-documentation site.

Installation:

sudo aptitude install avidemux

or: apt:avidemux

Cinelerra-CV is (the UI) closer to what we’d expect in a video production application.The functionality is much closer to those of the professional production environments, but in my opinion, it still needs work. I’ve tried Cinelerra three times now, and I don’t use it. Why?:

1. It’s a pain in the rear to get installed and working properly (at least it was for me).
2. The interface, while it does have better functionality, is still horrid (VERY ugly and not intuitive) to try and work with (which takes more time).
3. When I last tried it, Cinelerra used the “floating windows” interface (like GIMP does), which was horrible to work with (as there was no locked parent window).

However, it may work well for your environment (they way you work), so you should give it a try. To install it via aptitude, you’d need to add the appropriate repositories to your sources.list. For installing on Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) – The following is directly (Copy & Paste) from their site:

For all x86 (full working on 32 and 64 bits), by Paolo Rampino:
deb http://akirad.cinelerra.org akirad-hardy main

Installation notes:

• For your convenience you can install a package for detecting your version of Ubuntu, installing akirad repository and keeping it updated.
• Just double click on the link http://akirad.cinelerra.org/pool/addakirad.deb and install it with GDebi Package Installer.

Alternatively, use the following terminal command:

wget -c http://akirad.cinelerra.org/pool/addakirad.deb && sudo dpkg -i addakirad.deb

To update the repository information press Reload in Synaptic Package Manager (Adept for Kubuntu) or use the following terminal command:
sudo apt-get update

7 are the packages available in the akirad repository:

• cinelerra (x86 and x86_64 without opengl 2.0 video card)
• cinelerra4-repack (Heroine Virtual version)
• cinelerra-generic (all x86 and x86_64 with opengl 2.0 video card)
• cinelerra-k7 (amd32 without opengl 2.0 video card)
• cinelerra-k7gl (amd32 with opengl 2.0 video card)
• cinelerra-k8 (amd k8 optimized with opengl 2.0 video card)
• cinelerra-swtc (extra Shape Wipe Transitions)

Ubuntu Hardy moved to Pulse Audio Sound driver. Since it comes with a PulseAudio ESD compatibility layer, Cinelerra can be set to work with PulseAudio. Simply open Cinelerra and go to:

Settings->Preferences->Playback->Audio Driver

Select ESound and set the following parameters:

Server: Port: 7007

• These packages set shmmax to 0x7fffffff and add non-English language support for Cinelerra.
• Please, report any package bug to akir4d at gmail dot com

for i386 (not working on amd 32 bits), by Valentina Messeri:
deb http://giss.tv/~vale/ubuntu32/hardy ./

Installation for other systems: http://cinelerra.org/getting_cinelerra.php

Video editing in Ubuntu Linux using Cinelerra (below):

If you’d like to see the full series of the above video here is Part 1 and Part 2.

Side note: Speaking of PulseAudio (above), this is what caused my 5.1 surround sound not to work. But I posted a fix: Enable 5.1 Surround Sound on Linux – Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy.

Kino, I use more for video capture than anything else. I wouldn’t really call it a video production application. It can export different formats and has some effects. You can stich video files together. You can use it to render a dv file as well as a few other features.

To install:

sudo aptitude install kino

or: apt:kino

I think Kino is great for putting together a medley of clips with nice transition effects between them. Check out the how to video below:

The above video is using Kino in a KDE environment.

KDEnlive, I think is another great potential (I’ve not used it as I’m in a Gnome environment). Don’t get me wrong, if you’re also using Gnome, you can still try KDEnlive as all the KDE dependencies will be installed – And quite frankly, if you’re going to do that, it may be better to simple use KDE (such as Kubuntu). If you already have tools like ffmpeg installed, this one can be a bit tricky to install. Either way, here a preview video below that shows some of the features:

Realistically, the state of video development (at least on our Linux desktops) is still in its infancy. We’ve got a long way to go before we have an open source application that rivals the likes of Final Cut or After Effects. For those interested in experimenting further, one promising distribution is worth looking at: Ubuntu Studio. From their site:

“…is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional. We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination…”

I certainly hope that this multimedia type distro can spearhead and pave the way to better video editing applications in Linux. I’d love to write a post about the Top 10 Video Applications, but right now we don’t really have 10.

Feel free to include any video applications or solutions you use, in the comments.

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!

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]

However, the primary purpose of today’s post is enabling 5.1 surround sound. During the upgrade I was also able to grab an almost new set of Creative Inspire 5.1 5200 series speakers. When I plugged them in I was only hearing audio from the front speakers.

While troubleshooting the earlier sound card issue, I remembered that ALSA was one of the components in the configuration. After lots of research, here is the solution that worked (below).

Edit the configuration file like this:

gedit .asoundrc

(You can use vi or nano to edit it if you don’t have gedit).

Then add the following:

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm “surround51″
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}

I think however, that it might be helpful to include some of the sound card related issues…

In my case the above 5.1 solution worked well (ONLY after I disabled the onboard audio of the motherboard!)

You can check to ensure that an issue is the sound card (and not the speakers) by using the following command in a terminal.

aplay -l

This will list the sound card installed. (If you see others, just remove or disable them).

If using the “aplay -l” command does not show your sound card, then try listing the sound card (PCI) device by entering:

lspci -v

If you see your card, then (most likely) the drivers are not installed, so just install them. More information for this can be found here: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

Update: The edit to asoundrc is to configure the surround output so that it duplicates the stereo output to all 6 channels, instead of only through the front channel speakers.