Huge list of freeware/open source software

For those of you who hate paying for their software, here is a huge list of freeware / open source software. P.S - I have not compiled this list. I just got it through an email received from a friend. The list includes Windows as well as Linux software.

3D Graphics:
3Delight Free - http://www.3delight.com/index.htm
Anim8or - http://www.anim8or.com/
Aqsis - http://www.aqsis.com/
Blender - http://www.blender3d.org/
Houdini (Free Edition) - http://www.sidefx.com/apprentice/index.html
Now3D - http://digilander.libero.it/giulios/Eng/homepage.htm
OpenFX - http://www.openfx.org
POV-Ray - http://www.povray.org/
SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP - http://www.softimage.com/products/exp/v3/
Terragen - http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
Toxic - http://www.toxicengine.org/
Wings 3D - http://www.wings3d.com/

Tweak Firefox beyond expectations!

Firefox is a great browser and I just can’t write enough about this amazing piece of software. Here’s another reason why I love Firefox (coz I can tweak the crap out of it!) -

1. Start Firefox

2. Type about:config in the address bar and press enter

3. Access advanced options and hidden configuration not available from Edit > Preferences

Click here to read the official documentation about this feature.

Load a linked image without opening a browser window

Grease Monkey (Firefox extension) + Greased Lightbox (Grease Monkey Script) = BLISS

*Happy!* - That was my reaction after I installed Grease Monkey and the Greased Lightbox script for Grease Monkey. What the hell am I talking about ? You want to smile too? You hate opening up seperate browser windows for viewing images too? Well then follow the simple instructions below -

1.) Download Mozilla Firefox Browser - Click here

2.) Download Grease Monkey (Firefox Extension) - Click here

3.) Download Greased Lightbox (Grease Monkey Script) - Click here

Note - If nothing happens after you click on install extension after going to above sites, there will be a bar that says “Site was blocked… blah blah”. Just click the options button at the end of the bar and add the above sites to the safe list and then install the extension
After you have followed the above instructions, just goto Google Image Search and click any image - Wow! Nifty isn’t it? You can also use the right and the left arrow keys to browse through the images!

Say hello to XGL and AIGLX

XGL and AIGLX (Accelerated Indirect GL X) are the latest technologies being developed by Novell and Fedora respectively. They are determined to give you much better eye candy for your Linux desktops than what the current systems provide.

Tame that Fox and Bird!

If you ask me I think Mozilla Firefox beats any browser hands down. Mozilla Thunderbird is the best email client out there. The icing on the cake is the fact that both these great products are free as well as open source. It just doesn’t get any better than this. The latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird are 1.5.01 as of this writing. I have received emails asking me how to install these products as they no longer use an installer. Instead we have an archived file that needs to be setup properly. So without wasting any more time, here’s how to install them -

TuxMag #11 out!

Issue number 11, March 2006, of TUX now is available.  To download the current issue, subscribe for FREE today. Features of this issue -

• Customizing KDE with KDE-Look.org by Jes Hall
• Hydrogen–the Home Musician’s Free Drum Machine, Part II by John Knight
  
• Customizing GNOME by Dee-Ann LeBlanc
• Pimping the Fix by Daniel Bartholomew
• OpenOffice.org Writer, Does More Than Just Word Processing by Kevin Shockey
• Without Open Source, What Are Our Choices from Computerized Voting Systems? by Phil Hughes
• It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Poked in the Eye by Kevin Shockey
• Letters
• Q&A with Mango Parfait by Mango Parfait
• Nokia 770 by Kevin Shockey
• Artwork for Your Linux Desktop by Xavier Spriet
• Gadget Guy Goes to CES 2006 by Sean Carruthers

Once you subscribe, you can also download previous issues!

Neverball for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac

If I were to describe this game in one line - Nail biting, stomach churning and surprisingly simple addictive fun! I came across Neverball as it was pre installed along with my current Linux distro - Suse 10.0 Eval. But others fret not, Neverball is also available for Windows as well as Mac OS X and FreeBSD!!!

Click here to download the Linux tarball

Click here to download the Mac OS X version

Click here to download the Windows version

Click here to download the FreeBSD version

To read a full review about the game before downloading click here.

All in all, I highly recommend this game for killing time. It does take some time getting used to, but it’s well worth the effort!

Gnome 2.14 sneak peek!

Well Gnome 2.14 releases on 15th March and all I can say is - *fantastic!* Just when I thought the guys working at the Gnome project had outdone themselves with v2.12, I came across this article shedding some light on the upcoming v2.14. They’ve done it again. Gnome just keeps getting better and better. This release sees a major focus on the speed aspect of the desktop. Simple things like gnome-terminal have gotten faster than - you wont believe this - the xterm. That’s right the gnome-terminal works faster than the xterm. A lot of other enhancements and tweaks have been made by the developers working very hard and the effort has been well worth it. Other enhancements include faster searching and help and loads more. To get a scoop of the details click the following link - http://www.gnome.org/~davyd/gnome-2-14/