Topic: Freely available and legal software.

[Nemesis]

"Abandonware" is a grey area ethically but strictly speaking is illegal.  Because the copyright holders are not using or apparently intending to use the material any longer it is often possible to get away with distributing it as they don't care enough to stop it.  Legally however they do have the right to stop it and could get awarded substantial damages against anyone who does distribute it. 

As an example Microsoft has "abandoned" WinME and earlier but if someone were to try and start distributing it they would definitely find Microsoft lawyers on the attack.  On the other hand the whole MAME project is based on running copies of the ROMs of old arcade games and rarely if ever has the rightful copyright holder ever stepped in to stop it.

Because of this I won't add abandonware to the master list.

[Bonk]

I don't see this one on the list:

QEMU

QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer.

When used as a machine emulator, QEMU can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performances.

When used as a virtualizer, QEMU achieves near native performances by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU. A host driver called the QEMU accelerator (also known as KQEMU) is needed in this case. The virtualizer mode requires that both the host and guest machine use x86 compatible processors.

The supported host and target CPUs are listed in the status page.

QEMU Manager

The QEMU manager provides quick control of the brilliant QEMU Emulator for win32.  It provides media management, virtual machine management, easy storage of your media to iso or floppy disk image files for quick boot with QEMU, and provides basic process management should your QEMU session become unstable.

Trying it out now, seems to run the old QNX4 demo OK, though I havent worked out networking yet. I'm going to try a 200MB SLAX distribution I have lying around on it too. I'm curious to see if I can get it all running from a usb drive with reasonable performance. If so I may package up a set of LiveCD virtual machines with QEMU packaged in the PortableApps.com format.

[Nemesis]

Mixxx is an open source DJ tool designed for both professional and amateur DJs alike.

Mixxx allows DJs to mix music live with a clean, simple interface. Futhermore, Mixxx has a number of key features to help DJs in the mix: Beat estimation, parallel visual displays, and support for various DJ hardware controllers.

Mixxx is available on all major desktop operating systems, including Windows (XP and Vista), Linux and OS X.

Mixxx is also open source, so it can be downloaded and used for free. Mixxx is distributed under the GPL.

[Bonk]

I came across an interesting one today:

XMPlay

XMPlay is an audio player, supporting the OGG / MP3 / MP2 / MP1 / WMA / WAV / CDA / MO3 / IT / XM / S3M / MTM / MOD / UMX audio formats, and PLS / M3U / ASX / WAX playlists. A load more formats are also supported via plugins. When XMPlay was first released in 1998, only the XM format was supported, hence the name "XMPlay".

I found it while researching their .mo3 file format:

MO3

MO3 is a file format, encapsulating the features of several "MOD" formats (IT, XM, S3M, MTM, MOD), but with one big difference - MP3 and OGG compressed samples. A lossless codec is also incorporated for any samples that don't like lossy encoding, and the whole file structure is compressed too.

I was quite impressed with the quality and efficiency of both products. Both are free for non-commercial use. Quite a neat set of audio tools that fellow has produced.

[Nemesis]

PDFSam - PDF splitter and joiner.

Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Join PDFs together, split them apart and pull out individual pages with pdfsam, an open-source, Java-based cross-platform tool that's a free download. The program, just released in a 1.0 alpha, does basic PDF manipulation pretty quickly, and job processes can be saved for common tasks. As with the OS X-native Combine PDFs, it's a handy tool to tuck away for when you need it, like pulling relevant chapters out of a manual or textbook. Pdfsam is a free download and works wherever Java can, but a Windows installation tool is available.

[psytce]

Hello.....

I'm new here and I didn't see 2 free text editors I use when coding:

http://www.context.cx/ --- Context.
http://www.xemacs.org/ --- Xemacs.

I use Xemacs on UNIX and Context on windows.

Thanks........

[Nemesis]

Nice to see new faces.  Welcome.

[psytce]

Thank You ....

[Bonk]

This one has come along since I last tried it. (or perhaps I have, and can actually make use of it now, lol)

Doxygen

   
Source code documentation generator tool

Doxygen is a documentation system for C++, C, Java, Objective-C, Python, IDL (Corba and Microsoft flavors), Fortran, VHDL, PHP, C#, and to some extend D.

It can help you in three ways:

   1. It can generate an on-line documentation browser (in HTML) and/or an off-line reference manual (in $\mbox{\LaTeX}$) from a set of documented source files. There is also support for generating output in RTF (MS-Word), PostScript, hyperlinked PDF, compressed HTML, and Unix man pages. The documentation is extracted directly from the sources, which makes it much easier to keep the documentation consistent with the source code.
   2. You can configure doxygen to extract the code structure from undocumented source files. This is very useful to quickly find your way in large source distributions. You can also visualize the relations between the various elements by means of include dependency graphs, inheritance diagrams, and collaboration diagrams, which are all generated automatically.
   3. You can even `abuse' doxygen for creating normal documentation (as I did for this manual).

Doxygen is developed under Linux and Mac OS X, but is set-up to be highly portable. As a result, it runs on most other Unix flavors as well. Furthermore, executables for Windows are available.

[Bonk]

I came across a few windows shell replacements not on our list today:

Emerge

Emerge Desktop is a replacement windows "shell" (the desktop environment normally provided by Windows Explorer) for Windows 2000 and above. In order to replace Windows Explorer as a shell, it provides a system tray (the area that collects the icons collected at the lower right corner in Explorer), called emergeTray. It will also provide access to the users programs (normally accessed with the windows "start" button) via a right-click on the desktop, via emergeCore.

Litestep

For those of you picking up LiteStep for the first time you have yet to experience the power and flexibility that you can find in LiteStep. LiteStep was originally written years ago by lonerunnr as a AfterStep interface port for windows. It has since grown into the most powerfull shell still in active development.

GeoShell

GeoShell is a replacement shell for Windows™ to replace the standard desktop interface. In other words, you trade your start menu, taskbar, system tray and desktop in, and you get our versions, featuring slick, skinnable geoBars which can be placed anywhere and alpha blended into your background. GeoShell has plugins that add additional functionality like rss readers, weather forecasts, mail checkers, web search bars, virtual desktops and more.  In it's default installation geoShell also uses less resources than Windows Explorer, and is particularly effective when combined with third-party web browsers and file managers to completely upgrade your basic Windows interface.

I haven't tried any of them yet but I'm about to give Emerge a go and will download Litestep soon. I'll report my findings.

EDIT:  So far I approve of Emerge Desktop, it seems to work well for me. I'll try Litestep next.
EDIT2: I tried Litestep, I did not like the look and feel of it at all, I'm using GeoShell now, I like it better but Emerge is my favorite I think as it is so minimalist. None of them have borked my system.

[Bonk]

Here's a good ol game not on our list:

Neverball

Tilt the floor to roll a ball through an obstacle course before time runs out. Neverball is part puzzle game, part action game, and entirely a test of skill.Also found here is Neverputt, a hot-seat multiplayer miniature golf game using the physics and graphics of Neverball. Neverball and Neverputt are known to run under Linux, Win2K/XP, FreeBSD, and OSX. Hardware accelerated OpenGL is required. A 500MHz processor is recommended.

I like a good dose of neverputt from time to time. Fun and maddening at the same time!

[E_Look]

Is Geoshell anything like GeoWorks was?

(GeoWorks was a substitute for early Windows on early PCs; it seemed a little more efficient, a little more user-friendly than Windows was.)

[Bonk]

Is Geoshell anything like GeoWorks was?

(GeoWorks was a substitute for early Windows on early PCs; it seemed a little more efficient, a little more user-friendly than Windows was.)

I recall seeing copies of GeoWorks lying about years ago (still in the box), but had never used it, so I can't say for sure. Here's what wikipedia says:

The original code was released under the GPL by author Geoffrey Elliott ("geO"), circa 1998.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoShell

... so, I guess not!

[Panzergranate]

The ZX80, ZX81, Spectrum, +2, +2A, +3 and QL ROMs all have Sir Clive Sinclair's permission for use in emulators.

I can't see Microsoft giving a sh*t about Windows 1.03, 2.03, 2.03 386, 3.00, 3.11, 3.51, etc. these days. I've had all of them.

[Bonk]

Came across this one the other day:

Remora USB Disk Guard

Remora USB Disk Guard is a small tool performed as a file encryption switch in your usb drive. With Remora USB Disk Guard, you can secure all your files anytime and anywhere.

I haven't tried it yet, but I understand its main benefits are that in comparison to Truecrypt it is smaller and does not require admin status. (Truecrypt's latest release now includes whole disk encryption as well)

[Panzergranate]

I've always used the ARJ arciver (banned in all governement establishments as it is also a powerful hacking tool in the wrong hands ) to encript any files I want to keep secure.

We used this at one of the MOD jobs I was on.

Up to 256 layers of 32 character passwords can be set, all of which have to be hacked to unpack the contents of the archive.

We were using it to encript my cricuit designs onto Caddy Drives for porting between computers in different places.

[Tus-XC]

not really program persay, but http://www.videohelp.com/ provides plenty of resources for video stuffs.  I personally used it to find a few free proggies to help me convert some video files to my zune

[Bonk]

Noticed this one is not on our list. I was reminded of it when I found masm examples with the BASS audio library. After working with NSIS for a while, assembler does not look so scary, especially with macros and large library of functions.

MASM32

MASM32 version 9 is a working development for programmers who are interested in either learning or writing 32 bit Microsoft assembler (MASM). Installation is an automated process that will install on the local drive of your choice.

An assembler as powerful as MASM is capable of enmulating higher level languages while maintaining the performance and size of assembler code. This has been demonstrated with C style code that MASM already supports. The macro capacity built into MASM has allowed the development of a combined macro and library system that partly emulates basic style string handling and other similar language capacities. This allows experienced programmers with multiple language skills to leverage their existing skills and get up to pace writing MASM code more quickly.

[Bonk]

SCons

SCons is a software construction tool--that is, a superior alternative to the classic "Make" build tool that we all know and love.

SCons is implemented as a Python script and set of modules, and SCons "configuration files" are actually executed as Python scripts. This gives SCons many powerful capabilities not found in other software build tools.

 

[Panzergranate]

Using Assembler to programme computers.... that big difference between and IT person and an Electronics Engineer!!

Electronics Engineers are raised on Machine Code and Assembler,so we find it pretty easy.

All I can say to anyone starting off using Assembler is, "Welcome to the realm of the gods and titans in software!!"

If you're going to use Assembler to programme a PC you seriously need a copy of the "IBM Built In Operating System Manual" for all the in built subroutines and helpful bits of code.

Also things like the XDPB (Expanded Disc ParameterBase), media read/write routine calls (with regster conditions), acknowledgements, interrupts, non-maskableinterupts, graphics calls, etc. are held.

You can't seriously create complex software on the PC without this book.

Also data is chucked around the insides of any computer in in what engineers refer to as "Streams" and these have been standardised in computer design since the darkages.

Streams can be linked to each other, with a line of code tocall certain BIOS subroutines.

Forinstance linking Strem #2 (keyboard output) to Stream #1 (display input) willhave everrything typed into a keyboard appear on the screen rather than goto thekeyboard memory buffer (Stream #5 input).

Stream #8 is the printer input, so directing the keyboard to this will have any computer running the printer as a typewritter.

If anyone wants some help with learning assembler, I've taught people the core basics before.

I started out with the Signetics 2650 in the late 1970's.

I can now programme 80x86, Z80, Z8000, 8080, 6800, 68000, 80x1, PIC, etc. or any micriporcessor that will ever enter existance. Once you can programme one, you can programme any processor. Just like cars, trucks and motocycles, they all have the same controls, drive the same way, though the controls may have different names, just like French and European cars have the driving position on the wrong side.
 
The easiest processor to programme in Assembler, for an novice, is the 68000. The 80x86 is quite awkward due to its lack of registers, which was the main reason that 1980's amd 1990's Macintoshs were always superiour to the PC, as the PC had the inferiour processor.