Category: Open Source

Free and Open Source Software Listing

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Freedom Toaster Kiosk- Free and Open Source Software Dispenser !

I think many of you already familiar with vending machine that dispense soft drinks and chocolates. Now meet another type of ‘vending machine’ that dispense free software. Yup, that’s right, just bring your CD-R and the Freedom Toaster will take care the rest.

The term vending machine might be misleading as you can get free and opensource software for free from a Freedom Toaster kiosk. It is powered by none other than GNU/Linux operating system and the selection of software is only limited to the total harddisk space on the toaster.

The project was sponsored by Shuttleworth Foundation (the guy behind Ubuntu Linux) and it started as one solution to overcome the difficulty of obtaining Linux and other Open-source software in South Africa, where the restrictive telecommunications environment makes downloading large software files through the internet expensive.

What’s interesting is, the Freedom Toaster specifications is also release for free! That means anybody can duplicate the Freedom Toaster functionality to dispense free software. And this makes me wonder when I could a Freedom Toaster within my university compound.

All the specs and information about the kiosk can be obtained from Free Toaster Project website, which currently run by a group of volunteers. Check it out, it’s a cool way to provide free download.
[tags]free software, open source, opensource,linux, foss,embedded,kiosks[/tags]

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OpenOffice Premium – openoffice 2.0.3 with extra toppings!

Some nice folks have released Openoffice Premium 2.0.3 , OpenOffice suite packaged with extra stuffs into a single binary. The English language binary download is 190MB and the binary is packed with :

  • Clip Art (currently more than 2,800 objects)
  • Templates (number varies by language)
  • Samples (number varies by language)
  • Documentation (if available)
  • Fonts (more than 90 fonts)

Which is handy for those who want to have extra templates and clip-arts for their project.

Depite its name, OpenOffice Premium is available freely (free as in beer and freedom), and the package can be downloaded from OpenOffice Premium Project Website

[tags]openoffice,open office,linux,office,desktop,opensource, open source, free software[/tags]

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Download UML software in Linux

Real programmers don’t do software documentations! They just code! However, there’s a time where you need to document your software project, and UML is probably the most popular tool to document your software design effectively.

But what if you’re developing using GNU/Linux operating system? Which software should you use to draw those UML? Do you need to use a Windows machine just to document your development?

Here’s a list of software that can help you draw UML diagram in GNU Linux :

Hope that helps you in your quest of drawing UML diagram under Linux. If you have any other suggestions, then feel free to add them in the comments box

[tags]uml,draw,software engineering,linux,ubuntu,debian,sdlc,sadm[/tags]

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Full length Website Screenshot with khtml2png

Today I read that two bloggers has been recommending Webshots , a freeware application to take full length website screenshot in Microsoft Windows and is unavailable to users of other operating system such as GNU/Linux, *BSD and Solaris.

khtml2png is a free software application which can also take full length website screenshot like Webshots does, except it works on unix like platform such as GNU/Linux and flavors of BSD.

The software depends on libkhtml (from kdelibs KDE project) to render website and ‘convert’ from ImageMagick to create the actual screenshot.

Originally the software can only output screenshot in lossless PNG format, but the latest version however is able to support as many output format as ImageMagick support including jpg, gif, png and bmp to suit your needs.

Please refer to khtml2png website for sample website screenshot produced by khtml2png.

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youtube-dl – handy for downloading youtube videos in Linux

Every once a while you may come across youtube videos on the internet, this service enable easy? video sharing among internet users. However, youtube seems to discourage it users from downloading the videos to their computer.

This? is rather annoying because you’ve to bookmark the video url in your browser in case if you want to watch it again, plus having to wait for the video to download to your computer. The video will be in Flash Video format FLV, which can be played using Mplayer or any compatible Flash Video Player you can find in the internet
Thank god there’s youtube-dl , a small utility written in python which ease up downloading youtube videos. The tool is easy to use with the only requirement is only the python interpreter which can be immediately found in any modern GNU/Linux distro.

Once you downloaded? youtube-dl, all you need to do is run it :

python youtube-dl http://youtube.com/watch?v=yEiML_9NNYA

Of course there’s some video’s in youtube meant for 13 years and above users, so youtube-dl has an option to specify username and password too.

python youtube-dl -u yourname -p mypasswd http://youtube.com/watch?v=yEiML_9NNYA

Because youtube-dl was written in python, it can be used in any operating system platform provided the platform has python interpreter installed including Windows, Mac OS X or any Unix-based platform for that matter.

You can download youtube-dl from it’s creator website.

[tags]youtube,flash,flash videos,flash video,video,sharing,linux, flv,windows[/tags]

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GetGnuLinux.org – Informational website about Linux

GetGnuLinux.org is an informational website about GNU/Linux operating system. The website is simple and easy to navigate and written to accomodate non-technical people. The website answer questions such as “What is Linux?”, “Why not Windows?” and how to switch from Windows to Linux in “Making the Switch”.

The website explains the advantages and disadvantages of using GNU/Linux operating system in in layman terms to help people make decisions whether GNU/Linux operating system is right for them or not. The website also has an FAQ section which answers common questions about GNU/Linux operating system and free software.

I like the way GetGnuLinux.org website was organised with simple layout and theme,it emphasis simplicity to the web users.

[tags]linux,gnu/linux,advocate,free software, open source,opensource[/tags]