Radu Luchian(ov): Pastime:
Shareware and Freeware

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up."
-- Oliver W. Holmes, Jr.

On this page you can find some of the programs for which I (like many other netizens), am in debt to their authors. If you're curious, read what I think about the freedom of information.

Operating Systems and utilities are the bridge between the user/aplications and the hardware. The mainstream or specialized ones (Windows, MacOS, Solaris, HP/UX, System V, Irix...) are pretty expensive, but there are some projects under various open source licenses:

Linux - the king of the hill of rogue OSes and the backbone of the pure open source movement. There are so many variations, so many distributions of the OS packaged with many apps, that it tends to overwhelm any beginner; I'll list here the ones I like:

PuppyLinux (tiny barebones)
dyne:bolic (multimedia)
Knoppix Games

FreeBSD - I toyed with it a little, but there's less suport for it than for Linux (so new releases and bug fixes are fewer and farther between). I mention it only because its unix core is more efficient at handling system resources, and better organized.

Wintilities - not only Linux has a monopoly on open source and cheap system tools. There's plenty of it for Windows too:

Office Suites: OpenOffice, GoogleApps
Net: Firefox with GreaseMonkey, Opera, FileZilla, Eudora, Xitami, utorrent, Skype, GoogleTalk, TeamViewer, mIRC,
Emulators: M.E.S.S., scummVM, DOSBox, virtualNES, project64
Text: LyX, NoteTab, CutePDF, Acrobat Reader, CSDiff, WinMerge
Images: irfanview, xnview, CDisplayEx, Picasa, inkscape, gimp, SqirlzMorph, Blender
Sound: WinAMP, Audacity, SwitchFSC, CoolEdit, mp3ext
Video: VirtualDub, PrismVC, AviSynth, autoGK, Quicktime, RADTools
System: ProcessXPlorer, FreeRegistryCleaner, FreeUndelete, FolderSize, ReNamer, AutoIt
Programming: php, python, javaScript, web design
Math: Axiom, Utopia, Octave
Storage: 7zip, imgBurn, daemonTools, VCDGear, Cathy, disktective, SyncBack, ReNamer,

Macoscopy - though the only Mac in my house is an old Performa running MacOS 8, I spent a while (from OS6 to OS9) at the cutting edge of Mac software and hardware. Since OS X, the 'Darwin' core on the Mac is based on BSD, therefore removing the largest problem that OS had, file system corruption. If I ever get back in that game, I'll add here the utilities I dig.

If you may want to see why I consider programming a worthwhile pastime, you can consider the projects on my drawing board, or check my portfolios available now: WebDesign, Programming and Cognitive Science. .

End.

Radu Luchian(ov): Pastime:Shareware and Freeware

Radu Luchian(ov): Pastime:
Shareware and Freeware