Zip/Unzip Utility

Like its better-known competitors, the free 7-Zip unpacks a host of archive formats, including ZIP, TAR, GZ, and its own 7z format. Advanced options include the ability to create solid and self-extracting archives, and to adjust the compression level and password protection. The program also has a command line module. It's easy for Windows users to forget that WinZip isn't the only file-compression utility in the world. The context menu options, which include "testing" an archive, indicate that 7-Zip should be taken seriously. In our tests, 7z archives were up to 40 percent smaller then their ZIP equivalents, although compression did take longer, and the highest compression settings can hog system resources.7-Zip is fine for casual users with a bit of computer savvy, but it's especially well-suited for developers and anyone else who moves between the Windows and Linux/Unix worlds. Unlike WinZip, though, it can create TAR and GZ archives, which are commonly used on Unix and Linux systems. Though the main interface is overly simple and looks like it was designed for Windows 95, it's not hard to use and fairly self-explanatory. The program's ability to shrink files was stunning.

Music Editor

Audacity succeeds at being both feature-rich and flexible, while keeping the toolbar and work space uncluttered. Virtual Studio Technology (VST), Linux Audio Developers Simple Plugin Architecture (LAPSDA), and Nyquist plug-ins also are available if you're looking to expand. Audacity supports uncompressed audio standards such as WAV and AIFF in addition to OGG and MP3 files. A full complement of basic effects such as reverb, delay, and compression are included. Though Audacity doesn't offer advanced effects or features out of the box, its usability and price set this freeware wonder above the crowd. Another eye-catching feature is the Beat Analyzer, which helps you peg the beats per minute of a phrase. The performance of most functions is quick--even CPU-hogging tasks such as exporting to MP3 or adding complex effects. With so many audio editors out there, finding the right tool for the job can be tricky. It does this by relegating most functions--such as effects, edits, and project management--to handy drop-down menus. The multi platform, open-source editor Audacity has leaped to the top of our list with its clean interface, excellent features, and support for 32-bit floating-point audio.

3D Graphic Studio

The interface, though loaded with complicated tools, is remarkable for neither obscuring nor interfering with the image being worked on. There is also an extensive online Blender community, making familiarization with the apt less painfully not pain-free. A brief sampling of tools and functions includes 3D paint for vertex weighing, polygon meshes, 2D and 3D procedural brushes, edge rendering, textures, collision simulation, and support for around two dozen 2D and 3D file formats. Blender is a free, open-source 3D rendering program that puts the power of the medium back into the hands of the artist. However, none of these detracts from the overall experience or usefulness of the program, and we strongly recommend it for advanced users. Blender features a laundry list of animation essentials that can be broken down into categories: Interface, Modeling, Rigging, Rendering, Animation, UV Unwrapping, Shading, Physics and Particles, Imaging and Compositing, and Real Time 3D/Game Creation. Learning to use it is time-consuming and best done by following the detailed tutorials available on the Blender Web site. Extras can be added with Python scripting, and since it's open source, many scripts can be easily found for download in the user forums. Blender is not for the faint of heart. If you've ever thought about making professional-quality animations but decided not to because of the cost of the software, your excuse just got up and walked out the door.

HTML Editor

Bluefish is a powerful editor for experienced web designers and programmers. Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages, but it focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites. Fast - Bluefish loads complete websites within a second. User customizable integration of many applications, including weblint, tidy, make, javac etc. Lightweight - Bluefish uses on startup 40%-45% of the memory that other editors such as Quanta and Screem use, and during a full session closer to 33% of what these other editors use.FTP, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV, Samba and more) Customizable syntax highlighting based on Perl Compatible regular expressions, with subpattern support and default patterns for HTML PHP C Java JavaScript Java server pages (JSP) SQL XML Python Perl Cascading stylesheets (CSS) ColdFusion Pascal R Octave/Matlab Anti aliased text window Multiple encodings support, can convert between different character sets, supports multibyte characters, unicode, UTF8 etc. Custom search and replace pattern support for the Custom menu Excellent unlimited undo/redo functionality Function reference browser, including reference files for PHP, CSS, Python and obviously HTML Configurable recent documents and recent directories functionality Complete translations in Brasilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Tamil. Some other languages are partially supported. Bluefish has many features, this list will give you an overview of the most important or outstanding features.

AntiVirus

As with any antivirus tool, we strongly recommend reviewing your options and doing some research before you commit to protection of your primary PC. However, it did turn up a suspected Trojan horse. Right-clicking the program's system-tray icon let us configure and update ClamWin as well as schedule scans, display reports, manually check for updates, and attend to other matters. Good protection is cheap at half the price, and antivirus software is certainly one aspect of PC ownership you shouldn't scrimp on. Clam Win's installer let us choose to integrate the program with Explorer and install the Outlook module, both of which we selected. Free tools like ClamWin offer basic but viable alternatives to the subscription-based premium tools, many of which rely on automatic conveniences and extras to justify their price tags. While it probably wasn't dangerous since we knew its source, we opted to remove it anyway. When we opened Outlook, ClamWin opened with it, and it showed up on Outlook's Add-In ribbon; Outlook worked normally under ClamWin's protection, too. It offers good, basic protection without the bells and whistles of premium antivirus packages. This open-source free ware integrates with Windows Explorer and Microsoft Outlook, schedules scans, and automatically updates virus definitions. We selected our C drive, and ClamWin performed a thorough scan, turning up a variety of potential issues for us to review, some of which weren't problems but were worth verifying anyway. Clam Win Antivirus is a free antivirus solution for Windows Pectase program's main interface is utterly basic but efficient, with a simple tree view for selecting directories to scan. For second PCs, infrequently used machines, and tight budgets, we can recommend ClamWin without hesitation since any decent antivirus freeware is better than no protection at all. We could set ClamWin to report findings for manual cleaning, delete suspected files as they're found, or quarantine them.

DVD Authoring

DVDStyler is a cross platform DVD Authoring System. It allows not only burning of video files on DVD that can be played on standalone DVD player, but also creation of individually designed DVD menus. It is free software distributed under GNU General Public License (GPL).Features: you can drag and drop MPEG files directly; you can import image file for background; you can create NTSC/PAL menus; you can place text and images anywhere on the menu screen you can change font or color; you can put basic text buttons, change font or color and background color, you can copy and paste any menu object, you can set chapters for each movie, and you can change post command for each movie.

File Destroyer

The patterns used for overwriting are based on Peter Gutmann's paper Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory and are selected to effectively remove magnetic remnants from the hard drive. Eraser is an advanced security tool for Windows that allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Department of Defence, and overwriting with pseudorandom data. Other methods include the one defined in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual of the U. You can also define your own overwriting methods.

FTP Client

FileZilla is a cross-platform graphical FTP, FTPS and SFTP client a lot of features, supporting Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and more. FileZilla Server is a reliable FTP server for Windows. Book marking comes in two flavors: the Site Manager for all your major FTP locations, and QuickConnect for fast switching on the fly. The program lets you download or upload multiple files at once from and to several cerebrospinal also lets you browse FTP sites mid-transfer. Rich in Web content, short on cash?Caching directories speeds up browsing FTP sites, and multiple secure connection options ensure that you can move files around without concern. Clearly, this is one of the best FTP tools around. If your bandwidth is somewhat limited, you'll appreciate a feature that lets you automatically adjust transfer speeds based on the time of day or date. The straightforward interface offers translations in most of the world's major retransplanting is no monster, either, eating up a manageable 50 MB in memory. This free, open-source FTP application is handy if you're looking for a solid tool to handle FTP transfers and don't want to part with your bucks. The lack of a task scheduler is compensated for, in our eyes, by a powerful filter so you only see the files you need.

Internet Browser

Faster, more secure, easier to use and sporting a new look, this latest Firefox release sets a new standard for web browser innovation. Mozilla Firefox is small, fast and easy to use, and offers many advantages over other web browser, such as the tabbed browsing and the ability to block pop-ups. These include new options for searching, controlling tabs, and managing add-ons. The browser that you can download now is in the same speed category as its competition; offers many similar features (stronger in many areas and slightly weaker in others); includes broad, cross-platform support for hardware acceleration and other "future-Web" tech and standards; and is a must-have for Android users (download for Android).See the Features and Support and Performance sections below for more details. Fire fox's other channels--Firefox beta (download for Windows | Mac | Linux); Firefox Aurora, analogous to Google Chrome's dev channel (download Aurora for Windows | Mac | Linux); and the bleeding-edge, updated-nightly Firefox Minefield (download for all versions)--are respectively progressively less stable versions of the browser, and aimed at developers. While Firefox 7 emphasized performance gains, and there are definitely some of those in Firefox 8, this latest version brings some useful feature updates as well. Fire fox 4 had a rough time in its early development, but those days are over. The fourth version of Firefox to come under the new rapid-release aegis, Firefox 8 follows in the rapid-release cycle footsteps of Google Chrome, which adopted the faster update path a while ago and is now up to version 15 (at the time this review was written) despite having its first release only in 20 Even though we're now four versions past Firefox 4 and its impact continues to affect the browser, this version is not dramatically different from its predecessor. It's important to point out that there are four versions of Firefox available at the moment, and this review only addresses the "stable" branch, intended for general use.

Graphic Design Suite

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter and much more. The volunteer developers of The GIMP have been working hard to develop a polished, user-friendly, and freely distributed image editor. Although the separated palette windows may disturb those users who are used to more traditional layouts, your comfort level should grow exponentially as you discover how pain-free the program is. Extremely powerful and easy to work with, GIMP is ideal for both amateur and pro photographers, Web designers, or anyone who wants to create and edit professional-quality digital images on a budget. The application provides professional tools that can stand against the big boys without the hefty price tag. New improvements include GEGL integration for 32-bit color support, dynamic brushes, and more options for the free select tool. It even has regex-based pattern matching for power users. Even the installation process has gotten simpler, with no need to download and install the GTX Runtime Environment separately. One of the most powerful general-purpose image editors around, the upgrades make the GNU Image Manipulation Program eminently comparable to Photoshop. Older features include channels, layers and masks, filters and effects, tabbed palettes, editable text tools, perspective clone, improved printing, and color operations such as levels.

Accounting Software

Fortunately, GnuCash has an excellent tutorial that outlines not only the program, but also financial terminology as well. If you're overwhelmed by the number of personal accounts you're trying to manage, or you're trying to keep your small business on track financially, GnuCash is freeware you should try. Despite the overall simplicity of using the program, the sheer number of terms and actions may require a dictionary for some people. We found it a simple process to view spending reports, reconcile checking accounts, and other tasks. And novice users will appreciate the wizard that walks you through the setup process. At the top of the screen are various commands for actions, reports and tools. Gnu Cash is an ongoing project and this isn't the latest release, but the developers warn that the 3 series is not stable and is for testing only, so stick with this earlier version. This freeware program's interface is bland but functional, and presents itself in a way that will be familiar to users who do their banking online. Various holdings (anything from checking accounts, to CDs, stocks and any other form of investment) are listed in a tree along the left side. Although users with a solid grasp of financial management basics will get the most from this freeware program, GnuCash proved to be a capable tool for personal and small business accounting. Selecting an entry displays further details in a larger pane.

CD/DVD Burning Studio

InfraRecorder is a 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 available in a version that will run natively on 64-bit versions of Windows; however, this version doesn't include an Ogg Vorbis decoder or libsnd library due to compilation difficulties with MinGW on the 64-bit Windows platform. Infra Recorder can also burn a disc from an ISO image file. Infra Recorder supports disk rewriting and dual-layer Davidson of version 40, InfraRecorder offers features similar to most CD- and DVD-authoring software, including the creation and burning of data and audio disc images, the ability to work with rewritable and multisession discs, and the ability to extract WAV and ISO image files from discs. One can also use the LAME MP3 encoder to save Audio CD tracks. This program is completely portable on the Windows operating system.

Vector Graphics

Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inks cape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, and direct XML editing. Inkscape's main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Inks cape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development process, and by making sure Inkcape is easy to learn, to use, and to extend.

Password Manager

KeePass Password Safe Professional provides a helpful directory for remembering passwords and keeping them scorekeepers Password Safe Professional is freeware. Its strengths at saving passwords outweigh any negatives, and we recommend this excellent security tool to all users. You must enter a Master password to open the program, which keeps your sensitive information safe from prying eyes and adds an overall level of security. The program's interface has a stark, directionless layout that initially turned us off. The program's functionality is quite simple: Follow an onscreen menu to enter a Web site's information and its corresponding user name and pieceworkers also provided a strong feature that randomly generates passwords to meet specific security requirements, offering yet another way to secure your data and exchangeabilities might have offered a clearer layout, but its ability to generate, store and retrieve passwords was excellent. You can look up any forgotten password stored there, which will inevitably save a great deal of time and frustration. Use it, and you won't have to keep using the same passwords over and over again, just to remember them. Unwise. While its layout was slightly confusing, its excellent results made us very happy, and to top it off, it's free. However, a visit to the Help file's instructions and some experimenting quickly opened this program up, and it actually proved to be easy to use. This entry is stored in an alphabetical directory with all your other entries, much like a digital filing card system.

Advanced Notepad

Notepad Plus Plus has some noticeable differences from Word Pad. Support for tabs is key, letting users manage different documents simultaneously. Note pad Plus Plus is a Notepad replacement with an eye toward programmers, although it should also appeal to the casual user who wants a cross between Notepad and Word Pad. Line-numbering is important, too, a feature that nobody mucking about in C should be without. The rest of the screen is made of nothing but pure white space. All the coding tools live in the menu bar, with some represented on the tool bar. The interface is much simpler compared with some of its competitors. There's also a built-in spell-checker. Users can compile and run macros, convert text to Hex, submit directly to W3C for validation, launch in Firefox and IE, and more. Although, forgive the pun, notably Notepad Plus Plus can not autoreplace Notepad, it's still an excellent Notepad replacement. A familiar row of icons with their mouse-over labels sits at the top, and one row of tabs is just below that. Choosing between Notepad Plus Plus and NoteTab Light probably will depend as much on layout as anything else.

OpenOffice 3.3.0

The latest versions of OpenOffice have seen a spurt of growth in the extensions available for the program. We were pleased to find that stability has improved too. The interface is similar to that of MS Office, and even advanced Office users will find almost everything they're used to: templates, collaborative features (versions, recording changes), macros, and even a programming language. HTML and XML documents. A credible rival to MS Office, Open Office. Blog publishing assistance especially strikes us as a natural area for word processing to grow toward. However, it normally saves files in the open-standard Oasis OpenDocument XML format, for maximum compatibility with other applications. These include templates for professional writers, an export tool for bidirectional functionality with Google Docs, blog publishing, and authoress, as it's known, lets you open and save documents in formats as diverse as MS Office formats, PDF, HTML, and XML. No doubt about it, the multilingual and crossplatform Open Office. It can also import files from those formats, as well as WordPerfect and others. Not only does it let you edit basic documents, such as letters and faxes, it also handles equations and complex and multipart documents with bibliographies, reference tables, and indexes.

Create PDFs

PDFCreator appears as a small, white, rectangular box with a thin strip of command icons along the top. This one asks users to create a file name, creation date, author, keyword and subject for the soon-to-be-created PDF. The email option instantly adds the PDF as an attachment in your Outlook em ail. At the bottom of the screen are commands for saving the PDF or emailing it. Here you can print, look at options, navigate your files, and open new files. However, by keeping the visuals to a minimum, users will be able to quickly and easily navigate the program and get right to the task at hand. After selecting a file for conversion, users are taken to another simple screen. We were impressed with the speed and ease we converted our files to PDF with PDFCreator. There may be more flashy conversion applications available, or ones that try to do more than this one, but for those just looking for an inexpensive and simple PDF converter, this one fits the bill nicely. PDF Creator has a very basic interface that won't win it any beauty contests. It's not much to look at, but this program quickly and easily helps users convert files into PDF format, and comes at no cost. Below the strip is an open space that displays your selected file's name, size, and status.

IM All-In-Once

Twenty-two plug-ins come prepackaged as Pidgin repositions itself as a highly extensible chat client. Still, Pidgin remains a highly recommended text-only messaging appear spouse prefers MS N. Your office insists on Yahoo.However, it lacks IP telephony and video conferencing, and there are still some bugs--most notably in the Help menu.Like Trillian, Fire, and other third-party IM clients, this open-source messaging application lets you access multiple IM networks from one window, including Google Talk and MySpaceIM as well as lesser-known protocols such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu.You could run all those chat clients at once, or you could use Gaim, now renamed Pidgin.Your mother uses AOL Instant Messenger.The Buddy List can be viewed in Basic or Advanced mode, and the most important features, including the Plug-in List, have been graduated from the Preferences window into their own panes.Pidgin also gets lots of intangibles right: logging and time-stamping, for instance, are well-executed and easy to access.Pidgin's biggest change is the redesigned interface. The IM features are unimpeachable: smileys (you can find tons of emoticons on the developer's site), file transfers, and multiperson chats.What are you going to do?The Buddy Pounce feature lets you automatically perform certain actions (play a sound, execute a command, open an IM window) when a contact signs on or off.

News Feed Reader

RSSOwl lets you gather, organize, update, and store information from any compliant source in a convenient, easy to use interface, save selected information in various formats for offline viewing and sharing, and much more. It's easy to configure and the best of all: It's platform-independent.Applications that collect data from RSS-compliant sites are called RSS readers or "aggregators.RSSOwl is such an application. In combination with the well-known full-text search engine Lucene, we are able to give you the best experience of reading, managing and seeing through all your news. RSSOwl 0 is the next major release with a lot of new and exciting features.I teamed up with another developer (Ismael) to work on RSSOwl 2 from scratch.The idea to work on a completely new RSSOwl was born back in Summer 20 At that time it became clear to me that it was very hard to catch up with the features of other readers without redesigning everything.Our main goal is to provide a newsreader that is powerful, easy to extend and easy to use.We chose the Eclipse Rich Client Platform as framework and db4o as powerful database to store all the news. RSSOwl is a free RSS / RDF / Atom Newsreader in Java using SWT as fast graphic library.This release enables the installation of additional languages into RSSOwl (from Tools | Language). Supported OS are Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris.RSSOwl comes with a huge list of sample favorites.Some features are export of news to PDF, Import / Export with OPML and the full-text-search with syntaxhighlight.For easy execution, a exe-file is provided on Windows, a shell-script on Linux / Solaris and the Mac version is deployed in an application bundle.

Document Creator

Scribus offers up a freeware desktop publisher that lacks the polish of more popular, pay-for-use applications. What it lacks in pretty design, though, it more than makes up for with a full complement of useful features that compare very favorably against more expensive competition. The detailed Web site includes a wealth of documentation, tutorials (some with video), and notes on everything from installation problems to drawing a grid to creating a text frame. We found it an invaluable resource when testing the application. There wasn't much jazz to the interface, but all the major beats were present: buttons were laid out logically and grouped according to function, without any unusual placement. Scribus does have some oddities, mostly related to the scaling of imported images, but there's something else about it that's far more interesting: it painlessly brings in documents from the OpenOffice.org suite and it uses The GIMP for image editing. By taking advantage of these other freeware apps to boost its own productivity, Scribus enhances its appeal by forming a virtual freeware suite. We highly recommend this app to anyone who needs the power of expensive tools but can't afford them.

Browser, Email, Newsgroup And More

SeaMonkey is a free & open source cross-platform Web suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code. Core Mozilla project source code is licensed under a disjunctive tri-license that gives the choice of of the following sets of licensing terms: Mozilla Public License, version.1 or later, GNU General Public License, version.0 or later, GNU Lesser General Public License, version.1 or later. SeaMonkey consists of a web browser (SeaMonkey Navigator), which is a descendant of the Netscape relatives, an e-mail & news client program (SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups, which shares code with Mozilla Thunderbird), an HTML editor (SeaMonkey Composer) & an IRC client (ChatZilla). The program suite supports skins. It comes with skins in the default installation, Modern & Classic. Mail features includes support for multiple accounts, junk mail detection, message filters, HTML message support, a dictionary, an address book, customizable labels , add-ons & mail views as well as integration with the remainder of suite. SeaMonkey Composer is a WYSIWYG HTML editor. Its main user interface features tabs: Normal (WYSIWYG), HTML tags, HTML code, & browser preview. The generated code is HTML.01 Transitional. As of version.1.13, SeaMonkey Composer supports basic text formatting & styling, insertion of hyperlinks & pics, & the creation of tables. It does not support the addition of form elements (text fields, check boxes, & buttons). SeaMonkey Composer is scheduled to be updated with the release of KompoZer 0.8 which is currently under development.

Data Recovery

TestDisk is OpenSource application & is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL v2+). TestDisk is powerful free knowledge recovery application! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these signs are caused by defective application, positive types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is simple. TestDisk can Fix partition table, recover deleted partition, Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup, Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector, Fix FAT tables, Rebuild NTFS boot sector, Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup, Fix MFT using MFT mirror, Locate ext2/ext3/ext4 Backup SuperBlock, Undelete files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS & ext2 filesystem, Copy files from deleted FAT, exFAT, NTFS & ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions. TestDisk has features for both novices & specialists. For those who know tiny or nothing about knowledge recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed knowledge about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures ought to find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

Mail Client

Mozilla Thunderbird is a e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It aims to be simple but without ignoreing the security. Features include Message management, Junk filtering, Extensions and themes, Standards support, File formats supported, Cross-platform support, Internationalization and localization, Security. Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at making a web browser. Thunderbird aims to be a simple e-mail, newsgroup and news feed client. The vanilla version is not a personal knowledge manager, although the Mozilla Lightning extension adds PIM functionality. Additional features, if needed, are often available by other extensions.

File/Disk Encryption

Free open-source disk encryption program for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, & Linux. Main Features: Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file & mounts it as a actual disk. Encrypts a complete partition or storage gizmo such as USB flash drive or hard drive. Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) & transparent. Parallelization & pipelining permit knowledge to be read & written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted. Encryption can be hardware-accelerated on modern processors.Provides believable deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password: Hidden volume (steganography) & hidden operating method.

Graphic Design For Kids

A variety of useful drawing tools are made available. (See Drawing Tools, below.) The drawing canvas is a fixed size, so the user doesn't need to worry about 'pixels' or 'inches' when making a new picture. The whole program fits on a screen as small as 640x480, & can be displayed full-screen, to hide the computer's underlying 'desktop' interface. (It defaults to 800x600 mode, but can run at larger sizes & in portrait or landscape mode, as well.) Loading & saving of images is done using thumbnails, so no knowledge of the underlying operating system's filesystem structure is necessary. Even filenames are unnecessary. Tux Paint is an award-winning drawing program for children ages to 12. It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, & an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program. Children are introduced with a blank canvas & a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative. Works on Mac OS X (Intel & PPC), Windows (Windows95 through Vista), Linux & other systems. Entertaining Interface - Fun sound effects are played when tools are selected & used. A cartoon version of Tux, the Linux penguin, appears at the bottom to give tips, hints & knowledge.

Video Editor

A video capture/processing utility for Windows. It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for speedy linear operations over video. It's batch-processing capabilities for processing giant numbers of files. It is chiefly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 & also handle sets of BMP images. VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit & 64-bit Windows platforms (98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/Vista/7), 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 speedy linear operations over video. It is batch-processing capabilities for processing giant numbers of files & can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is chiefly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 & also handle sets of BMP images.

VLC Media Player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols. VLC is The media player that fills all of your needs. It can handle DVDs, (S)VCDs, Audio CDs, web streams, TV cards and far more. Features - Simple, Powerful and Fast, Plays everything, Files, Discs (DVD, CD, VCD, Blu-Ray), Webcams and Streams, Plays most codecs with no codec packs needed: MPEG-2, H.264, DivX, MPEG-4, WebM, WMV player. Free, 0 Adware, Ads or User Tracking, Works on most platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix. Media Converter and Streamer.

BitTorrent Client

Azureus was first released in June 2003 at SourceForge.net, mostly to experiment with the Standard Widget Toolkit from Eclipse. It later became of the most popular BitTorrent clients. The Azureus program was released under the GNU General Public License, and remains as a free program application. However, the Vuze program added in more recent versions is proprietary and users are necessary to accept these more restrictive license terms in order to put in current versions of the BitTorrent client. Vuze (historicallyin the past Azureus) is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files by the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and makes use of the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading knowledge linked to .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content. Content is introduced through channels and categories containing TV shows, music videos, movies, video games and others. Additionally, if users prefer to publish their original content, they may earn funds from it.

Video Converter

WinFF is open source & cross platform written in Free Pascal & Lazarus. WinFF is published under the GNU public license. WinFF is published without any warranty or suitability for any purpose. WinFF is a GUI for the command line video converter, FFMPEG. It will convert most any video file that FFmpeg will convert. WinFF does multiple files in multiple formats at time. You can for example convert mpeg's, flv's, & mov's, all in to avi's all directly. WinFF is available for Windows 95, 98 , ME, NT, XP, VISTA, 7 & Debian, Ubuntu, Redhat based GNU/Linux distributions. WinFF is available in Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese Traditional, Danish, Dutch, English, French, French, Greek, Hebrew, French, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, French & Turkish.

Secure FTP Client

WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client, SCP client, FTPS client & FTP client for Windows. Its main function is file transfer between a local & a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers scripting & basic file manager functionality.Features include, Graphical user interface, Translated in to several languages, Integration with Windows (drag&drop, URL, shortcut icons), All common operations with files, Support for SFTP & SCP protocols over SSH-1 & SSH-2 & plain elderly FTP protocol, Batch file scripting & command-line interface,Directory synchronization in several semi or fully automatic ways,Integrated text editor, Support for SSH password, keyboard-interactive, public key & Kerberos (GSS) authentication, Integrates with Pageant (PuTTY authentication agent) for full support of public key authentication with SSH, Explorer & Commander interfaces, Optionally stores session information, Optionally supports transportable operation using a configuration file in lieu of registry entries, suitable for operation from removable media