Software: Requests and Suggestions

[KiNA]

I've been using Abiword for quite sometimes now to nominate it to the list.

AbiWord is GNU Free Software word processor .. so its .. free . Lots of plugin to enhances its ability.

There are some quirks, that makes you save always (as a protection) but so far I dont missed the lack of MSOffice in my own computer ^^

There still a few more free software I'm testing out .. I'll see if its worth it to post.

[felix]

Abiword isn't good enough to beat OO.o but it is a simple and effective little packege.. I guess..
The rule is top 2 get description the other good ones only get mentioned.. :P
*Adds to list*
*Reps KiNa*

Hmm.. oh yeah almost forgot.. *adds Office 2007*

[Sylf]

Just a little note - AVG is discontinuing their free antivirus program this January.

[KiNA]

o_O .. its good enough if you wanted only the word processing rather then the whole package I guess..

Also, the filesize is just a tiny 5Mb .. and <10Mb if you included the plugins..

[felix]

@ Sylf - I see @_@ thanks for the info.. well there are still lots to choose from..

@ Kira_Naruto - It is it is it is xD.. but I just don't see how that's a reason to make it stand out.. the basic idea is that if people need to just write something like an essey on X subject then WordPad is enough.. but if they want to start using tables, have some grammer checks etcetera.. then their better off with progs like OO.o where they have more control.. I like the program, the GUI is simple, clean ^_^.. but that doesn't make it a better alternative..

O_o And there's the little issues with the options.. (they're either way too basic, for example for tables, or they're over complicated, the math writer)

To give a simple off-topic example, for the graphics section I looked over a program called Art Rage 2 (it has a free version).. it's GUI is just heavenly and the painting tools and settings look great.. it's greate as a toy.. but because you can't save in anything else then it's native-format (to give just a simple example of one of the deficiencies) it's not practical..

*goes back to reserching other alternatives for graphic editing progys*

[demonix]

Originally Posted by Sylf

Just a little note - AVG is discontinuing their free antivirus program this January.

That's only for version 7.1 so anyone who is still using that version should upgrade to version 7.5

Taken from the grisoft website itself

It's not good to provide half of the information

[felix]

Ok finished testing everything.. (including programs like Corel Paint Shop Pro X, Corel Pianter, Corel Draw etcetera)

New Listing:

• Special Effects Tools
  • Photoshop Elements - Photo Editing, basic effects and retuching, Mini Version of Photoshop
  • Gimp - Free alternative to Photoshop Elements
  • Photoshop - advanced bitmap-image editing program..
• Painting/Drawing Tools
  • Open Canvas - Anime drawing tool
  • Pain.Net - free alternative to Open Canvas, also very similar to PS Elements in capabilities.
    Other : Xara Xtreme
• Vector Tools
  • Illustrator - Vector program, similar to photoshop only it works with vectors instead of pixels
  • Inkscape - the free alternative

*updates list*
*Reps* (gomen Sylf can't rep you right now.. forum software thing)

As always EVERYTHING is liable for discussion.
So if you disagree just post here..

---

IRC clients

Ok lets see.. How much better are mirc, x-chat, Irssi then the 100% free IceChat ( http://www.icechat.net/site/ ) (latest version 7 added 06-Feb-2005 )
Here's a basic description from the net..
"IceChat can connect to many IRC Servers, has full scripting support and customizable popup menus and a unique, easy to use Interface. It has emoticon support, skins, full DCC Support, and easy to setup for Multi Servers. IceChat is in constant development, and is totally free to use."

Unfortunatly I don't use IRC that much so I can't tell if it's good or bad.. all I could tell was that it could connect to #AnimeSuki
Any opinions on this would be appreatiated..

---

Quote -
--------------------------------------
If you list VLC, you may also want to list MPLayer. It's also a player that has a built-in, ffmpeg based decoder, just like VLC. By default, it does not have any type of GUI. But as of current, it has much better softsub support. (Only on the bleeding edge, non-official builds.)
--------------------------------------

How could have I forgoten about that lil' one.. ^^''
*quickly adds to list*

Quote -
--------------------------------------
At least list Sygate Personal Firewall as one of the free alternatives.
--------------------------------------

Ok it's done..

[Sylf]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

Ok lets see.. How much better are mirc, x-chat, Irssi then the 100% free IceChat ( http://www.icechat.net/site/ ) (latest version 7 added 06-Feb-2005 )

I'm sure there are many good capable IRC clients out there. The problem comes around to the community support. Most people who hang around the fansub channels use one of those major 3 clients. Some may use opera chat or chatzilla just because those were available, but even those are rare.

mIRC remains to be one of the most popular client around just because of the sheer number of readily available scripts. And its scripting language is dead easy to learn. Major scripts like sysreset and UPP makes the users' lives much easier on IRC. And if they ever have any question, they can just turn around and ask any buddies in the channel, and someone is likely to know the answer. You can't expect the same thing for icechat.

I think x-chat and irssi are popular among people who are at least familiar with unix/linux environment. People who like GUI will use x-chat, and people who likes to type everything to get things done will use irssi. Or some people will buy a shell account somewhere, and run irssi in screen session, so their IRC session will never be dropped, even when they're rebooting their own PC.

[felix]

Mmm.. don't get what you mean by scrits.. (is it that diffrent then just using a plain out of the box version)
Ok I'll need to look this up........

[Sylf]

Scripts are scripts - they enhance the functionality of the program. Icechat has scripting capability as well. I think they have their own small script repository as well.

The major scripts such as sysreset and UPP that I mentioned are actually a whole package of scripts, many of them working together. It's almost like a plug-in system. Or like the extensions for Firefox. Some of those scripts even go so far to really make the whole mIRC experience a LOT different from using the stock mIRC out of box.

The scripts are there to enhance the irc experience. Some of those adds functionalities, such as file serving, auto greeting system, file server browsing helper, winamp / other media player song announcement, or even bittorrent status show off... Some others automate things, such as nickserv auto registration / identification, flood/spam control, channel stats taking, kick/ban management for the channel ops, etc, etc. Others are there for pure entertainment, such as slap scripts, trivia bots, quote bots, etc.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

Mmm.. don't get what you mean by scrits.. (is it that diffrent then just using a plain out of the box version)
Ok I'll need to look this up........

srcipts . They use e.g. some sort of a meta language based on perl (for mIRC). The scripts are interpreted by the IRC client. One can influence the user interface for some of the IRC clients (i.e. mIRC) very much. E.g. one can write mini-programs and other things that make the life of a chatter easier or funnier (depends).
The primary idea is automation and gadets.

edit: oops too late

[felix]

@ Sylf
@ Jinto Lin

Haha.. I already knew what scripts were.. didn't know what made them so improtant for IRC.. heh.. ok I get it now..

So I guess mIRC is the best pay one..
And the best free one is............ ????? // some help please..

Also I'm having some trouble with audio programs.....
I feel like Ableton Live is the best.. but I'm a n00b so I guess I think like that just because it's easy on me.. anyway.. any other opinions.. should I place Adobe Audition as the best, or maybe Audacity.. hmm..

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

@ Sylf
@ Jinto Lin

So I guess mIRC is the best pay one..
And the best free one is............ ????? // some help please..

For a pay program, mIRC is a horrible program. At least the bugs are becoming more obscure and less obvious now. For a free program, it is good enough.

I'm a member of the "do not pay for badly coded programs, find an alternative or use the trial as long as you can" camp.

[Epyon9283]

For IRC I'm a fan of Konversation (linux only), irssi, colloquy (os x only), and kvirc.

[TheFluff]

mIRC-script easy to learn? @______@
mIRC-script is one of the most counter-intitutive, inconsistent, syntax-anal, hard-to-debug, badly documented pseudo-languages that has ever been invented. Granted, if you don't know Perl already it's probably easier to get very simple things done in mircscript than it is to learn Perl AND how stuff works in irssi's script module, but at least there it's a real programming language that can do real things with real data, not a playground pseudo-language that doesn't even have proper support for lists or escaping, much less things like associative arrays (or more advanced data structures) and real file I/O.

[SeijiSensei]

Might I make a suggestion to the person (or persons) who wondered about how to try Linux?

Nowadays there are a number of CD-based Linux "distributions" that boot from and run off your CD drive. You don't need to do anything to your hard drive; all the software that you need comes on the CD and runs from there. (A Linux "distribution" includes both the Linux operating system "kernel" plus a whole raft of other software including the windowing front end, application packages like OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and the GIMP, and a wide variety of system utilities and other tools. Complete distributions these days can easily fill a few CD's or most of a DVD, and all the software in these distributions is free.)

Now obviously running off the CD is going to be somewhat slower than running off an installation on your hard drive, but you can get a feel for what Linux looks and acts like without making a major investment in altering your system.

There are two of these CD-based distributions that I would recommend. One is Ubuntu and the other is Knoppix. I'd recommend trying them both as they use different desktop managers (Ubuntu uses GNOME, while Knoppix uses KDE) so you can see what the alternatives look like.

Now for the bad news. Do not expect to play any audio or video files that have any proprietary features without some additional work; this means no mp3, no avi, no wma, no DVDs, etc. The problem is that all these technologies are proprietary and to use them (in some countries, notably the US) a licensing fee must be paid. Because most Linux distributions contain only open-source software they can't include these proprietary items.

All hope is not lost, however, because there are third-party sites (on servers outside the US) that you can access to download the missing pieces. (Note that downloading such packages onto a machine in the US may run afoul of copyright and patent laws. You've been warned.) For Ubuntu, you might want to check out Automatix which will install the missing parts for you.

If you're williing to take the plunge and install Linux, you can still preserve your Windows installation and set up a "dual-boot" arrangement. The simplest and safest technique is to install a second hard drive for Linux, but you can also repartiion a single drive and install both operating systems. Always install Linux after Windows; if you do it the other way around, Windows will make it impossible to boot Linux.

If you go the full installation route, you can choose from an ever-widening array of distributions. I'd stick with either Ubuntu or Fedora Core, a version of the popular RedHat distribution. I use Fedora myself because I've been a RedHat user for about a decade now. However Ubuntu is the hot new contender so you might want to look into it as well.

I've haven't used Windows anywhere for a couple of year now and don't miss it at all. (I don't play PC games.) My daughter has a dual-boot laptop, but she only uses the Windows side for the occasional game like Age of Empires. Tonight she asked me why anyone uses anything other than open-source software. Guess I've done a good job of brainwashing, oops I mean educating, her!

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by BlackCatXIII

....
Also I'm having some trouble with audio programs.....
I feel like Ableton Live is the best.. but I'm a n00b so I guess I think like that just because it's easy on me.. anyway.. any other opinions.. should I place Adobe Audition as the best, or maybe Audacity.. hmm..

Regarding the pay programs...
If I had the money I'ld choose Ableton Live too (as a sampler program), Adobe Audition is the best regarding sample editing (imo), but generally I don't want to influence you in that particular matter, the ranking is up to you.

[Danj]

It's looking like the RSS reader I currently use (wTicker) is effectively dead in the water. So I'm thinking of looking for a replacement. I'm on Windows XP (so no point suggesting Mac or Linux apps) and I don't want something that's integrated into my browser. It needs to have at least the following capabilities:

• A "watch" list where articles matching certain expressions (preferably regular expressions or something equally powerful, I need something more than just plain old AND/OR boolean stuff) are grouped together (wTicker's watch view looks like this)
• Groups, so that RSS feeds can be put under one group heading, for example I want to be able to have a group called Webcomics and when I click on that I want to see the latest unread articles from all Webcomic group feeds (in wTicker this looks like this)
• It also needs to fully support RSS 2.0 and whatever the latest version of Atom is, including stuff like Topics which wTicker only added recently.
• Finally, it would be nice, though it's not essential, if it could have a ticker going across the top which displays the icons for unread Watches and scrolls unread article titles. In wTicker this looks like this.

Basically, I want something with the expression-matching capability of RSSOwl and the smartfeeds functionality of FeedReader. Can anyone give me a recommendation?

[Sylf]

Why are you trying to replace wTicker other than it's not being developed? If it's working good for you, and if you don't have any other compelling reason to switch, why not stick with what's working for you?

[Danj]

Originally Posted by Sylf

Why are you trying to replace wTicker other than it's not being developed? If it's working good for you, and if you don't have any other compelling reason to switch, why not stick with what's working for you?

It has some bugs, and they seem to be getting worse. For example, it doesn't time out properly, so if a feed's server doesn't respond, it gets stuck in the "Downloading" phase for hours until I get home and abort the refresh. Then after that I have to do a manual refresh or it won't download properly again. This problem seems to be happening increasingly often. Also, if I accidentally left my mouse pointer over the right hand side of the screen where the notification window appears, it doesn't disappear after popping up, even if the mouse is idle for several hours, and this blocks further downloading phases as well.