Wednesday January 10, 2007 I Want a Freeware Utility To ... - Update 10th Jan 2007
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See my original post for more details on what this is all about. |
Thanks to everybody who commented. I've used those comments to update the webpage containing the similar Linux/Unix list.
I've added a simple key to each entry:
- no suggestions for this topic yet.
- something suggested
that I haven't personally tried yet.
- something I've personally
tried that works for me.
As you can see, there is a lot still to check out. If you've got suggestions for any of the table entries, please comment. Particular the red balled ones. I've tried to keep it simple. Suggestions for improvement are most welcome. I really didn't like hard-wiring those two purple colors everywhere. If anybody can show me how to set two color names in CSS (so that they can just be replaced via two new definitions), I'd be very appreciative.
As I run a GNOME desktop, my preference are for GNOME applications over KDE, but if KDE has best-of-breed, then I'll use that. I'm looking to expand some of the yellow entries that just say something like "shell scripting". I'm really looking for GUI applications that are easy for everybody to use, not command line incantation for just us propeller heads. Ultimately I'd like to put together a set of applications, with at least one in each category that is fully accessible.
I've still got to go through the table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux which is a huge list. That'll be in a future update.
( Jan 10 2007, 07:46:42 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [26]
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talk to skype and google-talk clients : uhm... skype? for gtalk, there are experimental builds of coccinella, psi, gossip and other clients, but to my knowledge nothing stable. Works on the N770 though.
launch applications with shortcut names : gnome deskbar applet
remove unnecessary information from a jpeg file : imagemagick's "convert" has a strip parameter, I think. Also, the -thumb parameter does it.
encrypt email messages : enigmail for thunderbird
completely wipe/delete a file : shred, i think. also, many other "secure deletion" apps.
Posted by Renato on January 10, 2007 at 08:26 AM PST #
Posted by Martin Garton on January 10, 2007 at 08:33 AM PST #
For example, 'cdrecord' and 'cdrw' are already built into Solaris and don't require installing any additional software. Likewise, why people spend almost $100 for CD/DVD burning software for OS X is silly, but I imagine since products like "Toast" is sold, ill-informed buyers assume this functionality wasn't built-in to the OS! ...especially if they are Windows converts. ;)
As for screen captures, why not capture with the GIMP? You can then edit the image from the same program.
Another great code editor/text editor is jEdit - and it's cross platform, and very extensible.
To encrypt a "file" you can just simply type 'encrypt' on Solaris! Done. No extra software needed.
Want to archive files? Why not try 'tar' or 'zip' in in Solaris?
I could go on, but this list can get long quick, so in conclusion, I firmly believe learning the OS's built-in software tools is often best, especially when your target OS's often use common commands like most UNIX and UNIX-like OS's do.
Perhaps a sister cross reference list for OS's built-in common commands is next?
Posted by Wes W. on January 10, 2007 at 08:36 AM PST #
If you are running your blogs on your workstation computer, please don't come hunting for me if this causes too much traffic.
But, kudos to the list.
Posted by Amjith on January 10, 2007 at 08:37 AM PST #
> You don't always need a freeware utility to do something that is already built into the OS!
Good point. The original list was for Windows where this is perhaps more relevant. Don't forget that everything built into Linux (and Solaris) is freeware (and most of it is open source too). A bit of an oxymoron though I agree.
Thanks Wes, Renato and Martin. I'll update the list in a few more days to include your entries.
Amjith, the blog is on Sun's servers. It should be able to take a digg if it generates traffic. And thanks for the digg.
Posted by Rich Burridge on January 10, 2007 at 08:53 AM PST #
Posted by Joachim Sauer on January 10, 2007 at 09:05 AM PST #
Posted by Flávio Pontes on January 10, 2007 at 09:07 AM PST #
Posted by Patrick Wagstrom on January 10, 2007 at 09:55 AM PST #
Posted by Robert Sugg on January 10, 2007 at 10:07 AM PST #
Posted by sam tygier on January 10, 2007 at 12:01 PM PST #
Posted by Brian on January 10, 2007 at 12:08 PM PST #
Here is a little script that you can put as the command for a launcher on the GNOME panel if you like, clicking the launcher will toggle the visibility of your desktop icons :
bash -c 'if "`gconftool-2 --get /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop`" = "true"; then gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop "false"; else gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop "true"; fi;'
Here are a few suggestions for other utilities, that I have already tested and recommend :
For burning a CD I use GnomeBaker : http://gnomebaker.sourceforge.net/v2/
Gnomebaker will also burn CD/DVD iso image files, you can use mkisofs (command line) to create them.
Apparently Exaile is a good music manager (not tested) : http://www.exaile.org/
To master audio CDs, serpentine seems nice : http://s1x.homelinux.net/projects/serpentine/
To show all the fonts installed, you can go to the fonts:/// location in Nautilus.
To backup/mirror a folder on another drive, I found DAR rather useful (supports longer filenames and directory depth etc. than TAR) : http://dar.linux.free.fr/
To archive (zip) files, 7-zip is nice, it has very good compression, arguably the highest compression ratio available. It is supported by file-roller. 7-zip is similar to RAR. http://www.7-zip.org/
To compare two text files and find difference or merge them, Meld is a nice graphical app : http://meld.sourceforge.net/
To encrypt a file, DAR supports the Blowfish algorithm. You can use file-roller to create a password protected archive I believe.
To batch rename files, I find Purrr excellent : http://mathrick.org/software/purrr.html
To manage personal finances there is (not tested) : http://www.grisbi.org/ and http://homebank.free.fr/ (homebank looks rather good)
To stitch together multiple photographs, two great apps : http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~nowozin/autopano-sift/ and http://hugin.sourceforge.net/
To blog from the desktop there is blogtk : http://blogtk.sourceforge.net
To create/edit html files / website Oxalis looks cool (not tested) : http://sergejx.mysteria.cz/oxalis/
To create/edit xml files conglomerate was excellent but development seems to be stalled :-/ I'm mainly suggesting this in the hope someone might like it and pick up development :o) http://www.conglomerate.org
A download manager for Internet downloads : gwget is very nice : http://gwget.sourceforge.net
For displaying all file activity in real-time, "lsof" lists open files, don't know if that can help.
To keep more than 1 text snippet in the clipboard, we have GLipper, very highly recommended ;) : http://glipper.sourceforge.net
The open group has a very nice overview of current installer solutions to create installation programs. They are working towards what should be a rather elegant solution to installing third party packages on a distribution : http://www.freestandards.org/en/Packaging/Wiki
Hope these suggestions can help. You may have noticed the choices are rather "GNOME oriented". They are all free software by the way ;)
Love, Karderio.
Posted by karderio on January 10, 2007 at 12:24 PM PST #
Posted by Andrew Sayman on January 10, 2007 at 01:07 PM PST #
Posted by mike on January 10, 2007 at 02:01 PM PST #
Posted by Tester on January 10, 2007 at 03:17 PM PST #
Posted by Andrew Nicholson on January 10, 2007 at 05:44 PM PST #
A possibility for "phone free using the internet" is Gizmo. They also indicate that support for calling Google Talk users is on the way.
Posted by Joanie on January 10, 2007 at 06:02 PM PST #
B. Audio/Music/MP3/Real/Wav Freeware Utilities
tag/fix mp3/audio file tags: Amarok (here too! did you try it? it works just sooo great)
C. Business/Office Freeware Utilities
create/edit html color codes: KDE color selector, also available standalone as KColorChooser
D. Communication Freeware Utilities
chat on IRC: Konversation
chat with different messenger clients: Kopete
check multiple email accounts with 1 utility: Kontact/KMail
phone free using the internet: Twinkle, OpenWengo
E. Desktop Freeware Utilities
display a calendar: Kontact/KOrganizer
display weather information: Liquid Weather
launch applications: Katapult, or "alt-f2 for minicli in KDE"
launch applications with shortcut names: Katapult? (what's a "shortcut name"? a self-defined one or just the abbreviated full name?)
write sticky (post-it) notes on the desktop: KNotes
F. Editors/Notepad Replacements Freeware Utilities
edit text: Kate
G. Files and Folders Freeware Utilities
access files remotely: ftp://, webdav:// and (for ssh) fish:// works in every KDE application, no need for add-on applications
archive (zip) files: Ark
compare two text files and find difference or merge them: Kompare
rename multiple files: KRename
upload/download using FTP: as mentioned before, ftp:// works in every KDE application, no need for an addon app
H. Financial Freeware Utilities
manage personal finances: KMyMoney, Eqonomize!
I. Graphics/Images/Photographs Freeware Utilities
convert images into various formats: Krita
create a web photo album and slideshow from my photographs: Gallery plugin for Konqueror, digiKam
create thumbnails of images: digiKam, or every other application that supports kipi-plugins
edit an image: Krita, Showfoto
find the color of any pixel: KDE color selector, also available standalone as KColorChooser
manage galleries of photographs: digiKam, KPhotoAlbum
view images in an album folder: Gwenview, Showfoto
J. Information/Fun/Misc Freeware Utilities
solve equations and plot graphs: GNU Octave
K. Internet Freeware Utilities
blog from the desktop: gnome-blog, KBlogger
create/edit html files / website: Quanta+, or even better, one of the many open source content management systems out there, like Drupal, Joomla! or Plone.
download a file via a torrent / p2p site: KTorrent
manage passwords: KWallet (already installed on all KDE systems)
read my RSS feeds: Akregator, RSSOwl
safely browse the web: Konqueror
display CPU information: KInfoCenter
display all processes running: KDE System Guard, summoned by Ctrl-Esc on a KDE system
display system information: KInfoCenter
view/kill running tasks: KDE System Guard (again - I think this category is redundant)
N. Productivity Freeware Utilities
keep more than 1 text snippet in the clipboard: Klipper, running by default on every KDE system
organize calendar, contacts, to-do: Kontact
organize schedules and tasks: Kontact, KArm
read the text file to me: KTTS - also works with PDFs from KPDF and HTML files from Konqueror
spell check in an application that doesn't have that feature: the built-in KDE spell checker, enables spell checking in all text boxes
print 2 pages on 1 side of the paper: available as an option in every KDE printing dialog
Phew. That should catch up a little bit to the (indeed) GNOME-inspired list. Although, GNU Octave is not a KDE application at all :D
Posted by Jakob Petsovits on January 10, 2007 at 06:21 PM PST #
Posted by Rich Burridge on January 10, 2007 at 07:04 PM PST #
Posted by karderio on January 10, 2007 at 07:31 PM PST #
Posted by Bart Raatgerink on January 11, 2007 at 01:33 AM PST #
Posted by Omari Norman on January 11, 2007 at 10:45 AM PST #
Posted by Iain Cheyne on January 11, 2007 at 12:35 PM PST #
Posted by bob on January 11, 2007 at 06:41 PM PST #
Posted by Pádraig Brady on January 12, 2007 at 06:11 AM PST #
Posted by Geoff Johnstone on January 17, 2007 at 11:35 AM PST #