Topic: Freely available and legal software.

[Bonk]

Some video editors (which I have not tried yet) which are not on our list.

t@b ZS4 Video Editor

ZS4 Video Editor is video editing and compositing software which aims to provide media experts with a facility to combine a variety of media types (currently photos, videos and audio files) into one (or more) output file(s).

virtualdub

VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).  It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video.  It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters.  VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.

Wax

Wax is a high performance and flexible video compositing and special effects software. The idea for Wax is to be very general purpose and flexible in video compositing and effects, so that you can compose your dream video sequence with ease everytime.

jahshaka

    * Edit with flexibility and speed
    * Create Effects in real time
    * Animate with unlimited features
    * Paint and design on moving video
    * Create music with all the tools the pros use
    * Work in any format at any resolution

[Nemesis]

R

R - R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.

[Nemesis]

The KDE Education Project

The KDE Education Project

Free Educational Software based on the KDE technologies: students, parents, children, teachers, adults, you can freely use our software, copy it, modify it to your needs and enjoy learning!

Please have a look at the Tour webpage to get a quick preview of our programs which are translated in more than 65 languages.

Our primary focus is on schoolchildren aged 3 to 18, and the specialized user interface needs of young users. However, we also have programs to aid teachers in planning lessons, and others that are of interest to university students and anyone else with a desire to learn!

While until now only available on Unix, BSD and Linux, still in beta but already usable, the KDE 4 series bring our applications on Windows. Read more on the KDE-Edu on Windows page!

All the KDE-Edu news are available in your favourite RSS reader: RSS
Have a look at aKregator.

[Nemesis]

Trinity Rescue Kit

Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues.

It is possible to boot TRK in three different ways:

• -as a bootable CD which you can burn yourself from a downloadable isofile
• -from a USB stick/disk (optionally also a fixed disk), installable from Windows or from the bootable TRK cd
• -from network over PXE, which requires some modifications on your local network (version 3.2). Version 3.3 has the ability to act as a network bootserver itself, without any modifications to your local network.

TRK is a complete commandline based distribution, apart from a few tools like qtparted, links, partition image and midnight commander

[Bonk]

Two good ones not on our list:

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL Licence.

Based on a powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendlyness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.

BKChem

BKChem is a free (as in free software ) chemical drawing program. It was conceived and written by Beda Kosata.

BKChem is written in Python, an interpreted and very nice programming language. This implies some of the program features:

    * platform independence - BKChem should run on any platform that Python does.*
    * performance - as Python is interpreted language you should not expect the performance of a native code compiled application (in present days a very cheap tradeoff for platform independence). However BKChem should be pretty usable on all modern systems.

* BKChem is developed on GNU/Linux. It was however successfully used under WinXP and MacOS X.

[Bonk]

Another text editor geared for source code editing (not on our list):

SciTE

SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It is best used for jobs with simple configurations - I use it for building test and demonstration programs as well as SciTE and Scintilla, themselves.

SciTE is currently available for Intel Win32 and Linux compatible operating systems with GTK+. It has been run on Windows XP and on Fedora 8 and Ubuntu 7.10 with GTK+ 2.12.

... and the library it is based on:

Scintilla

Scintilla is a free source code editing component. It comes with complete source code and a license that permits use in any free project or commercial product.

As well as features found in standard text editing components, Scintilla includes features especially useful when editing and debugging source code. These include support for syntax styling, error indicators, code completion and call tips. The selection margin can contain markers like those used in debuggers to indicate breakpoints and the current line. Styling choices are more open than with many editors, allowing the use of proportional fonts, bold and italics, multiple foreground and background colours and multiple fonts.

[Bonk]

And another good one not on our list:

ConvertAll

Why write another unit converter? There are plenty of them out there. Well, I couldn't find one that worked quite the way I wanted.

With ConvertAll, you can combine the units any way you want. If you want to convert from inches per decade, that's fine. Or from meter-pounds. Or from cubic nautical miles. The units don't have to make sense to anyone else.

ConvertAll Features:

    *  The base units for conversion may be either typed (with auto-completion) or selected from a list.
    * Units may be selected using either an abbreviation or a full name.
    * Units may be combined with the "*" and "/" operators.
    * Units may be raised to powers with the "^" operator.
    * Units with non-linear scales, such as temperature, can also be converted.
    * A unit list may be filtered and searched
    * Numbers may be entered on either the "From" or the "To" units side, for conversions in both directions.
    * Basic mathematical expressions may be entered in place of numbers.
    * Options control the formatting of numerical results.
    * The unit data includes over 400 units.
    * The format of the unit data file makes it easy to add additional units.
    * Command line options are available to do conversions without the GUI.

[Bonk]

And another:

Cornice

Cornice is a cross-platform image viewer written in Python + wxPython + PIL. It doesn't pretend to be complete, fast, or even useful, but I like it and it is the viewer I use on both Linux and Windows. It has been inspired by the famous Windows-only ACDSee.

Why did I write it? Well, because I like ACDSee, but it's not free and it doesn't run on Linux, which is my main platform. There already exists an ACDsee-like viewer, GTKSee, but it is unmaintained and it lacks some features I wanted (bookmarks, a good keyboard navigation and zooming). First I tried to add such features to it, but then I decided to rewrite it from scratch, so that I could use it also on windows (and also because I had some troubles, especially when trying to port GTKSee to the gdk_pixbuf lib, and also because Python is more fun than C, and... ;-)

Here is a list of the main features of Cornice:

    * Fully cross-platform: it should run wherever wxPython does;
    * Detail and thumbnail view for images;
    * Image preview;
    * Automatic recognition of images, with a variety of formats supported;
    * Bookmarks;
    * Full-screen view;
    * Zooming and rotation;
    * Slideshow;
    * Good keyboard navigation (still not perfect, but this is true for all the features ;-);
    * Image loading from zip archives;
    * i18n support (with Italian and French translations available);
    * EXIF data support;
    * Some more...

(Note: most of the software I've been posting lately will run portably, I found this one at portableapps: http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/cornice_portable)

[Bonk]

This looks like a good one, (I haven't tried it out but intend to do so eventually):

Clonezilla

You're probably familiar with the popular proprietary commercial package Norton Ghost®, and its OpenSource counterpart, Partition Image. The problem with these software packages is that it takes a lot of time to massively clone systems to many computers. You've probably also heard of Symantec's solution to this problem, Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition® with multicasting. Well, now there is an OpenSource clone system (OCS) solution called Clonezilla with unicasting and multicasting!

Clonezilla, based on DRBL, Partition Image, ntfsclone, partclone, and udpcast, allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the harddisk. This increases the clone efficiency. At the NCHC's Classroom C, Clonezilla SE was used to clone 41 computers simultaneously. It took only about 10 minutes to clone a 5.6 GBytes system image to all 41 computers via multicasting!

[Bonk]

This one looks handy for those who are not comfortable doing it manually:

The PC Decrapifier

The PC Decrapifier will uninstall many of the common trialware and annoyances found on many of the PCs from big name OEMs. Here is the current list of software and items that the PC Decrapifier can detect and remove. You get to see the list of items it detects and then choose what will be removed automatically.

I usually do it myself, but some may be unsure what is crap and what is not, this looks reasonably accurate. Note it uses Autoit which may flag some AV scanners, but it is OK. He is moving to another development platform soon anyway.

[Bonk]

I can't believe we forgot this one, thought I'd add it to the list before I go to bed and forget tomorrow.

TightVNC

TightVNC is a free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer.

Made somewhat obsolete by windows remote desktop, but with all the crippled versions of Vista out there, it is useful again.

Edit: Oh, poop... from the FAQ:

Does TightVNC work on Windows Vista?

Unfortunately, TightVNC has known issues with Windows Vista operating system, just like all other versions and free distributions of VNC-derived software. Vista's new security features broke the way VNC service was implemented. And it's not clear yet how much effort would be required to workaround the problems. Unfortunately, that does not look very simple.

Oh well, still a good program for other platforms.

[Bonk]

Actually, I have discovered that TightVNC can work on Vista, mostly.

To make it work on Vista, don't install or run the service, run the server as admin from the start menu shortcut, turn off Aero and check "poll full screen" in the TightVNC server options.

So it works with some limitations.

Take that MS cripplemeisters! 

[Bonk]

Here's a good one I used back in '01, I must check out the latest version:

AMDIS

The Automated Mass Spectral Deconvolution and Identification System (AMDIS) is a computer program that extracts spectra for individual components in a GC/MS data file and identifies target compounds by matching these spectra against a reference library. It was developed at NIST with support from the United States Department of Defense and is freely available.

Download page

[Bonk]

There are a number of such scientific programs linked through here:

http://www.nist.gov/srd/index.htm

[Bonk]

About to give this a try, running it from a folder with the kubuntu-8.10-desktop-amd64.iso in it. (It is reminiscent of the the old BeOS Personal Edition installer)

Wubi

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier!

Note: Wubi is an AWESOME use of NSIS!


P.S. On researching what became of BeOS I was led to this:

Haiku

Haiku is an open-source operating system currently in development designed from the ground up for desktop computing. Inspired by the BeOS, Haiku aims to provide users of all levels with a personal computing experience that is simple yet powerful, and free of any unnecessary complexities.

[Bonk]

Found what looks like a good one today. I will be testing it soon on my Vista -> XP *ahem* "downgrade" installation.

InfraRecorder

InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

InfraRecorder is released under GPL version 3.

[Bonk]

R

R - R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.

Just noticed this one - good find Nemesis! PCA for free! Sure beats the heck out of the price of SYSTAT! I must check this one out at some point.

[Bonk]

I must check this one out for compatibility with the Dynaverse server kits and compare with UnrealIRCd.

InspIRCd

InspIRCd is a modular C++ IRCd (IRC daemon) for Linux, BSD, Windows and Apple OS X systems created to provide a stable, modern, and lightweight IRCd written from scratch.

As InspIRCd is one of the few IRCd projects written from scratch, it avoids a number of design flaws and speed issues that plague other more established IRCd projects with the same or less features, such as UnrealIRCd 3.

[Bonk]

I found this one handy recently:

GParted Live

GParted Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86 machine.
It enables you to use all the features of the latest versions of GParted.

In explanation... What is GParted?

Gnome Partition Editor

GParted is the Gnome Partition Editor application. Before attempting to use it, here is some basic background information.

A hard disk is usually subdivided into one or more partitions. These partitions are normally not re-sizable (making one smaller and the adjacent one larger). The purpose of GParted is to allow the individual to take a hard disk and change the partition organization therein, while preserving the partition contents.

GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging). See Features, before using it.

[Bonk]

More from the Gnome people:

Gnumeric

The Gnumeric spreadsheet is part of the GNOME desktop environment: a project to create a free, user friendly desktop environment.

The goal of Gnumeric is to be the best possible spreadsheet. We are not attempting to clone existing applications. However, Gnumeric can read files saved with other spreadsheets and we offer a customizable feel that attempts to minimize the costs of transition.
Gnumeric is...

Free!
    Gnumeric and its source code are available free of charge, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. This makes it easy to audit, and make custom extensions.
Fast!
    Gnumeric handles large spreadsheets while remaining responsive.
Accurate!
    A spreadsheet should calculate the right answer. Gnumeric's built-in functions and tools are accurate. A recent report praised Gnumeric as more accurate than leading proprietary spreadsheets.

They are not kidding about fast, it starts instantly (running the windows build on vista here). A quick evaluation shows array worksheet functions (e.g. LINEST) working as expected. (like excel) Chart tool seems OK, but darned if I can figure out how to add a trendline to an x-y plot, if it is possible. I suppose I could calculate it from the linest results and add another series to the chart but that would be a pain...

Overall it looks good. Hmm... lemme test it on a big SFC shiplist.... 

edit: it worked a little to open the OP+4 shiplist (short delay), but it opened it as a TAB/CSV delimited text file just fine, a data autofilter on the second row and a view freeze panes on the third row works just fine (as in excel) though responsiveness does slow down contrary to their claim. Still though, it appears to do the job just fine, and for free!