(Approx.
1,476 words)
By the time you read this, the holiday shopping
season will be over and many of you will be trying to figure out what to put on
your new computer. It seems fitting, then, to make a few suggestions of
programs you will find in your Web browser-based shopping center, the Mall of
Free and Open Source Software, or the Mall of FOSS. All of the suggestions made
here are suitable not only for users of Linux and BSD, but also for Windows
diehards. In some cases, other operating systems, such as the Mac and Solaris are
supported. So fire up your computer and head on out to the Internet highway.
Oh, and you can leave your credit card at home, for the goods at the Mall of
FOSS are priced most attractively: free.
Screensavers
The holidays are really meant for the child that resides in all of us, and
all children want to have fun. So spice up your PC with some fun items. Start
by stopping at the Really Slick Screensavers Web site at
http://www.reallyslick.com/. Here you will find out-of-this-world, mesmerizing
screen savers that range from “psychedelic” to “nauseating.” One includes great
sound effects. They all perform best with hardware-based video acceleration,
but that should not be a problem with recent hardware. Once you see these,
you'll never go back to the flying Windows or pipes again.
Web
browsers
Is your gift recipient still using Internet Explorer? Head on over to
http://www.mozilla.com/ to get Firefox for him or her. Firefox is a great Web
browser with such features as tabbed browsing, configurable security, extensions
that provide additional features, and themes that change the look and feel.
Firefox version 2.0 was released Oct.
24. Or you can shop for a newer browser, Flock, at http://www.flock.com/. Flock
is based on the same page rendering engine, Gecko, that the Mozilla family of
browsers is built around. But Flock focuses on sharing and connecting with
other people online, with enhanced support for blog posting, RSS feed
integration, photo posting on Yahoo Flickr, and saving your bookmarks on the
Internet for sharing between all the computers you use.
Instant
messaging
Maybe your giftee spends time in the world of instant messaging. If so,
get Gaim, a multi-protocol instant
messaging (IM) client, from http://gaim.sourceforge.net/win32/. Gaim will work with
several different protocols, including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, ICQ and
others, so it could become the only IM client anyone needs. If someone prefers
the more traditional Internet Relay Chat (IRC), consider getting Xchat
(http://xchat.org/windows/) or Kvirc (http://www.kvirc.net/) for them.
Juice
Receiver
Has someone on your holiday giving list complained about using iTunes on
Windows? That person may enjoy receiving an open source replacement, Juice
Receiver, available at http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/. It has access to
many of the same podcast indexes that iTunes provides, as well as a number of
indexes that it does not.
Bittorrent
for file swapping
If you have diehard computer geeks on your list, they most likely share
files with their friends. The standard file- swapping protocol is bittorrent,
and you will find bittorrent clients for them at http://www.bittorrent.com and
http://www.getazureus.com/. Perhaps they have always wanted to create their own
dynamic Web site but have balked at the price of commercial Web server software
for Windows or the Mac. If so, head over to the XAMPP for Windows store at
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. XAMPP for Windows will give
them everything they need to build a robust, full-featured, dynamic Web site,
and it is ready to go out of the box.
CLAMAV
Does anyone on your list need or want to try a different virus scanner? The
shop at http://www.clamwin.com/ has the open source scanner, CLAMAV for
Windows, available for you to give. They'll be getting a GUI-based virus
scanner, free and automatic signature updates, and scheduled virus scanning.
Outlook
alternatives
The shops at http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ and
http://shellter.sourceforge.net/evolution/ offer alternatives to the Outlook
e-mail client. The former site has Thunderbird, an easy-to-use product of the
Mozilla project, while the latter provides Evolution, which sports additional
support for calendaring and Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers.
GIMP
Moving on to applications, if there is one on your gift list who does any
sort of work with images, ranging from doctoring photographs to graphics for a
Web site, you owe it to them to stop off at http://www.gimp.org/windows/ and
pick up a copy of the GIMP. Somewhat mischaracterized as the “Poor Man’s
Photoshop,” the GIMP provides a large range of image processing tools and
plugins, as well as a framework for writing custom plugins. With the GIMP,
they’ll be able to do just about anything they'd ever want to do to their
pictures.
Audacity
Or maybe you are looking for something for someone who is into sound
recording, someone who perhaps was a Mr. or Miss A/V in high school? They
undoubtedly would really enjoy receiving the Audacity sound recorder, editor,
and writer. Look for it at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. This powerful
program literally will turn a PC into a full-featured sound recording and
production studio. Pair it with a professional-quality sound card, and it is
hard to beat at any price.
DVD-capable
media players
Many of those on your gift list also want to be entertained, and maybe
they'd like to watch a DVD while working at their computers. A couple of
DVD-capable media players they would like can be found at
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ — which offers the MPlayer media player — and
http://www.videolan.org/ — which offers the VideoLAN VLC player.
Office
applications
Chances are the computer users on your holiday gift list use traditional
applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and the
like. There are several gifts in this category that you cannot go wrong with.
OpenOffice.org is possibly the most popular open source office application
suite available. The latest version, which can be found at
http://www.openoffice.org/, is highly compatible with Microsoft’s Word, Excel,
and Powerpoint formats, and all but the most complex of documents can be shared
in both directions. OpenOffice.org also supports out-of-the-box export to PDF
and Flash formats.
OpenOffice.org is certainly not the only option in this arena. The Abiword
word processor from http://www.abisource.com/ is a mature product offering a
range of features. Since it is a lightweight user of computer resources, it
runs well on older hardware that might bog down under OpenOffice.org, Microsoft
Office, and Vista.
GNUmeric, from http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/, is a nice, mature
spreadsheet program that has all the options and features your giftee wants for
the spreadsheet work. If someone would like something to help create pretty, Visio-like
organizational and flow charts, stop over at
http://dia-installer.sourceforge.net/ and pick them up a copy of DIA, a
diagramming tool.
PDFCreator, Scribus
Do your giftees need to produce PDF documents? If so, they’ll be grateful
to receive PDFCreator, which is available at http://www.pdfforge.org/.
PDFCreator works with any application that prints to the Windows printing
system, making it easy to create not only PDF documents, but PNG, JPG, TIFF,
BMP, PCX, PS, and EPS as well. Or maybe they want to create
professional-looking documents like brochures, booklets, or newsletters. For
them, take a trip to http://www.scribus.net/ and get them Scribus, a desktop
publishing system with many of the same page layout and formatting features you
expect to find in the more expensive commercial systems. Scribus also runs on
the Mac.
Web
page design
Do you have a Web designer on your giving list? He or she might like to
receive Nvu (pronounced n-view, and found at http://www.nvu.com/), a WYSIWYG
Web page editor that will remind you of Dreamweaver. With its integrated FTP
client, it may be all an e-designer would need. Perhaps they prefer to develop
their Web pages from scratch (or someone on your list might like to get an
advanced text editor). If so, stop off at
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm and pick them up a copy of
Notepad++, which is what Windows’ Notepad might be if it consumed strong
steroids. It will give your recipient syntax highlighting, auto-completion,
WYSIWYG markup, bookmarking, zooming, multi-document viewing, and much more.
I hope this gives you some ideas about which stores to look at for your
holiday gift-giving needs. And do not forget the most important person on your
holiday gift list: you! If anything here looks interesting as you read about
it, make sure to get yourself a copy. The great thing about all the stores
offering FOSS software gifts is that they always have a great
two-for-the-price-of-one sale going on, the perfect holiday sale.
There is no
restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is
kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of
the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international
organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.