My Favorite Free Software!

I love the Open Source/Free software movement.  It has provided me with some incredibly powerful tools to solve problems, not to mention hours of fun tracking down and playing with this stuff.

The following is a list of some of my favorite open source or free software tools.  It’s a mixed bag of things that can help improve productivity, solve PC problems, aid with development or just have fun.  

I’m always looking for more so please post your own favorites as comments and, assuming it makes my Geek-o-meter twitch, I will update the list as time goes on.

• XMind – Mind Mapping and Storming
• MindMeister – Online Mind Mapping (multi-edit – great for collaborating)
• GIMP – The GNU Image Manipulation Program
• Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office
• Ubuntu – Linux.  There are too many flavors of Linux to list here but Ubuntu is probably the easiest for a Linux newbie.
• Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder
• CamStudio – Free Screen Recording Software
• CCleaner – PC Optimization and Cleaning
• Recuva – Get back those deleted files!
• JDiskReport – Graphical disk space analysis
• LibreOffice – The Free and Open Productivity Suite
• OpenProj | Serena Open Source and Hosted Project Management Software
• PDFCreator – The free PDF Creator and Converter
• Skype – Free audio / video communication
• TOAD (Tool For Application Developers)
• MySQL Database
• Joomla – Open Source CMS System (a great way to create your website)
• VMWare Player – Run multiple Operating Systems on one PC
• Jira – Bug and Task tracking tool.  Not free but for $10 it practically is.
• Talend: Open Source ETL and Data Integration Software
• Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG Anti-Virus – Why spend good money on virus protection when you can get it for free!

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Microsoft Office for FREE!

Summary	Difficulty Rating	Time to complete
Install LibreOffice as a fully functional office suite that is Microsoft Office compatible.		5 – 20 minutes.

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OK…that headline isn’t 100% true.  But I hate seeing people spend money on software they don’t need.

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Lately I have run into several people with Macs (or older versions of Office) who find themselves unable to open files from the School / PTO / Local Charity, etc.  because the files were created in Word or Excel.

Like it or not MS-Office is a standard today that cannot be ignored even if you do “think different“.

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But before you blow over a hundred bucks on the latest version of  MS-Office I’m going to ask that you give LibreOffice a shot.

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LibreOffice is a complete Office suite that is fully compatible with all versions of Microsoft Office.  And since it is open source it is also 100% free.

It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs, updated often, and is the only office suite that works almost identically regardless of machine.

To be fair LibreOffice can’t do everything that MS Office 2010 does.  But it does a lot more than offerings such as Google Docs, and has more power than most users need. It is an obvious choice for any user, company, or organization that wants to stop paying for Office.

It comes with a:

• Word processor (Writer)
• Spreadsheet (Calc)
• Presentation system (Impress)
• Drawing package (Draw)
• Database (Base)
• Math equation editor (Math).

More details on the features are found here.

One very cool  feature is the ability to create PDF files right out of the box.  No need to mess around with additional software or creating fake printers.

Installation couldn’t be simpler – just download, run and…that’s it!  Depending on your Internet speed you could literally be up and running with it in a few minutes.  And if MS Office is your mainstay then I’d suggest taking a few moments to set the default file save format to Word/PowerPoint/Excel before you start.

The one thing it doesn’t come with is an alternative to Microsoft Outlook.  However, if you really need an email client, then Mozilla’s Thunderbird comes highly recommended.

But if you are looking for an office suite that is Microsoft Office compatible then you have nothing to lose – so  give it a shot!   Unless you actually enjoy spending money on software you don’t need.

Protect your PC with Linux (Dual-boot)

Summary	Difficulty Rating	Time to complete
Install Linux alongside Windows to provide additional virus protection  and access your data if Windows becomes inoperable		Less than 1 Hour

Installing Linux alongside Windows provides a number of benefits, even to novice users. Benefits to installing Linux alongside Windows (a practice known as dual-boot) include:

1. The ability to run virus scanning software from outside of Windows – more on that later.
2. Should the Windows system become unusable for any reason you can still boot into Linux to access and backup your files before any drastic action is taken with the Windows partition.
3. If all you are doing is browsing the web then Linux will boot faster and be significantly more secure that Windows.

Note: The instructions below enable you to set up your machine as a dual boot device.  However if the unthinkable has already happened and your Windows PC is already infected with a virus then a simpler option is to create a bootable Linux virus scanner.  Both AVG and Kaspersky kindly provides the necessary disk image which can be found here and here will allow you to create either a bootable CD or USB drive.  As with the dual-boot option below, this runs in a Linux environment and should therefore be immune to whatever nasty things have infected your Windows environment.

My preferred version of Linux is Ubuntu, mostly because it has a great graphical interface, so that is the one that we will focus on here.

Image via Wikipedia

For those not familiar with it, Ubuntu is the most popular version of Linux available today.  It comes in several varieties (desktop, notebook, and server being the primary ones).  Ubuntu has a very ‘windows like’ interface (except server), comes pre-packaged with software such as open office (which is Microsoft office compatible even up to Office 2010) and is, of course, completely free.

Part 1 – Installing Ubuntu

There are several ways to install Ubuntu but here we are going to assume that most people have Windows and would like to install it alongside – providing a choice of operating system to run appearing at boot time.  I have personally installed it alongside Windows 7 and windows Vista, and I’m told it will happily work with Windows XP.

Important note:  Before you start, please take a backup of your system and make sure that you have Windows boot disk available.  I have not seen it wreck anything yet, but I would hate someone to send me an email describing how they lost everything.

There are detailed instructions on the Ubuntu web site for installing Ubuntu alongside Windows, including the necessary download links to Wubi (the windows Ubuntu installer).  These can be found here : http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/windows-installer.  Since they will keep that up to date there is no reason for me to rewrite that here.

At the time of writing there is a bug in the current version  Wubi of where it sometimes tells you that a disk is missing and give you the option to Try Again, Cancel or Continue.  Apparently this is something to do with extra disks (e.g. USB drives) being attached and is very annoying because it won’t go away.  However the solution is very simple – just hit continue many, many times (about 30 or so) and the program will continue and work fine (sic).

If presented with the option to do a Demo and full installation or Install inside Windows, select the Install inside Windows option.

You should then be asked which drive to install to (assuming C:) how much disk space to allocate (you should select at least 5gb), and you will need to select a user id and a password.  Passwords are used a lot in Ubuntu for admin functions, so make sure it is something you can easily remember and do not leave it blank.

The install will start and, after a while, you will be asked to reboot.  Once you reboot you should be given the option to boot into Windows (which will occur automatically if you do nothing) or Ubuntu.  Select Ubuntu and the installation of Ubuntu will continue.  Once complete you will be able to boot into either operating system on system startup.

Extra notes:

– If you are using a laptop and Ubuntu doesn’t have a driver for your wi-fi card then try connecting to a wired LAN and running a system update (System –> Administration –> Update Manager).  That sometimes solves the issue.  If not then you will have to install a program called ndiswrapper and use that to install your driver (quite easy to do).

– I always run the update mentioned above anyway to make sure that I have the most up to date software.

Part 2 – Using Ubuntu as a Windows virus scanner.

Some viruses are smart and act protect themselves.  One common way to do this is to  start multiple versions that watch each other constantly. Should an instance be stopped by your anti-virus software, the other instances immediately reinstate it.  But if you don’t start Windows then the virus never runs in the first place.  As such running a scan from a Linux partition can be particularly useful with stubborn viruses.

To run a full virus scan from Ubuntu you will need to boot into Ubuntu and install two programs.  By default Ubuntu does not come with any Virus scanning software installed (which I think personally smacks of hubris).
To do this do the following.

From the menu bar at the top select – System –> Administration –> Synaptic Package Manager

– Search for ClamAV and mark that for installation by checking the box.  It will automatically add any other software needed to support that.  ClamAV is the virus scanning software.

– Search for ClamTK and mark that for installation by checking the box.  It will automatically add other software needed to support that.  ClamTK is the Graphical User Interface for the scanning software.

– Click on the Apply button and wait for the software to install.

Part 3 – Running the scan.

From the menu bar at the top select – Applications –> Virus Scanner

The first time you run it, it will probably tell you that the virus definitions are out of date.  Let it sit for a while, close the program and then open it again and you should find they are OK now (it updates when you run it).

Scan –> Recursive scan

Select the File System disk from the options available and click OK.  If you are not sure which disk needs to be scanned then select the largest drive available – that is usually your main PC drive.

The scan will start but it will take several minutes for any information to be displayed in the scanner software.  Don’t Panic!

The full scan can take a long time depending on the size of your disk.  If any viruses are found they will be displayed at the end as a list and you can right-click on each file to choose an action.

That’s it!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here.

Virus Scanners and Snake Oil

There are millions of infected PCs in the world and they are coming after you through cyberspace – are you protected?

Regardless of the machine you are using, I think the answer is somewhere between no and…it depends.

IT security is enough of a black art that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a “security professional” sacrificing a chicken over the mother-board to expel its demons.  And if you put 3 “security professionals” in a room and asked them to select the best Anti-virus program you’ll get 4 answers. None of them will be able to articulate why they chose one over the other but, when pressed they, will resorting to implying  that it’s too technical for you to understand, which should probably be read as  “I have no idea, but it sounds way cooler if I choose a program no one has heard of.”

There are plenty of anti-virus choices out there, and the fact that most industry reviews won’t include the free offerings for fear of losing ad revenue, makes figuring this out all the more challenging.

Frankly, I don’t trust any company that is making money on virus scanners, mostly because if I were the CEO of McAfee or Symantec, I’d be paying people in China to write viruses that only my software could detect – thus keeping the paranoia high and my detection ratings even higher.  Just saying….

But the free security offerings do seem to do a reasonable job of keeping my machines clean, so I believe that most  of the benefits touted by the paid AV companies are in the snake oil group, designed to keep you paying them to protect you.

Fortunately, Microsoft has recently started to include their free Security Essentials (MSE) system as an optional part of its regular Windows update.  Personally, I think this is a great step forward, because there are a shocking number of PCs out there with no Anti-virus protection at all – usually  because people opted not to pony up when the trial subscription ran out – and this is bound to fill at least a few of those holes.

Those of you reading this on your Apple MAC, are probably feeling pretty smug, because viruses don’t affect your machines…right?

Well don’t go thumbing your noses at your Windows cousins just yet, because you are not immune.  Much of the reason that MAC based systems have fewer viruses has been, frankly, because they didn’t offer a big enough target.  But, with their growing popularity, that situation is changing quickly.

Unix based platforms (including MAC and Linux) may be technically more secure, but most viruses get in through social engineering and not security loopholes.  It doesn’t matter how good your security is if you open the door and invite that nasty virus in.  If you don’t believe me, watch this video and tell me you wouldn’t have installed that program.

And MAC users shouldn’t be so selfish!  Just because you are immune to a Windows virus does not mean you are free to spread it to other people like some modern Typhoid Mary.  How are you going to feel when someone calls you to say you gave their PC the ‘clap’?  If you answer ‘well then they should have bought a MAC’ then you have truly drunk the Apple cool-aid.

Personally, I take a belt and braces approach.  Each of my Windows PCs has Microsoft Security Essentials as the main virus protection, and a dual-boot of Ubuntu Linux (a great, free, operating system) running ClamAV.  This gives several advantages:

1. Some viruses are great at hiding from Windows programs, so I periodically boot into Linux and run a virus scan of the entire disk from there. It is not uncommon for the Ubuntu scan to find programs that the Windows scanners have missed.
2. Should Windows become unusable, I can boot into Ubuntu, access my files, and run a virus scanner from outside of Windows.
3. Some viruses are smart and protect themselves – for example, they will install multiple versions that check each other and, should one die, immediately reinstate it.  They can’t protect each other if they never start in the first place.

For any of you fellow geeks who are interested, I have included instructions on how to set up that dual-boot here.

Ultimately, the most important thing is for you to do something – ANYTHING – to protect your machine. I don’t care if you are a gold member of McAfee, run the free AVG product or never actually plug your PC into the Internet, but if you infect me or one of my friends, then I’m coming after you…in cyberspace, of course.  😉

The Technology Jihad

There is a religious war being raged at this very moment in our homes, and in our pockets. It is a little quieter than your average war – for the most part, no-one is losing limbs to IEDs – but it is a war none-the-less.

These crusades are being fought between two main factions:

• Those that wish to control the technology in your lives – “The Empire”, and the 800lb Gorilla in that camp is Apple.
• Those that want technology to be free to create in new and innovative ways, without a single overlord ruling everything – “The Rebel Alliance”. The Rebels are supported by companies like Google, and by a group of loosely organized technical wizards (Jedi).

The Empire has jammed people into the box-car of conformity using slick user interfaces and the promise that you will be safer if you use their products.  As part of this they make sure that you can’t “harm yourself” by taking away features that they deem unsuitable for you (e.g. Flash video), and giving you just enough functionality that you won’t feel overwhelmed.  In a nutshell, they offer a sanitized computing experience for the masses.

This sanitation of experience is something that we seem to have adopted universally as a society.  Blogs such as Free Range Kids, show us just how much we dumb down things for our children’s protection, so perhaps we have no-one to blame but ourselves if we end up being controlled and manipulated.

But it was not always so.  Once upon a time people thought for themselves, and Apple fought on the side of good.  But Apple became corrupted by the money that is made by locking people in, and have since been consumed by the dark side.  Now they attempt to drive conformity to the Apple way wherever possible – Very interesting considering that Apple once used the slogan “Think different” and had a famous ad campaign using Orwell’s 1984 to represent the need to break the mold.  This was back in the days when the Apple still had color in its logo.

The safe, and easy-to-use, Apple products become the “Golden Handcuff” that locks you in. Once they have you, their marketing machine uses the power of the Dark Side to make sure you spend the maximum amount of money on your initial purchase, and yet still feel compelled to upgrade when the next version hits the shelves.  For example, where is the USB port on the iPad (still not there in version 2)?  And why can I tether my iPhone to my Netbook, but not to an iPad?  Obviously they want you to buy the more expensive 3G model and sign up for another monthly data plan – because recurring revenue is really where it’s at. The Force can have a powerful effect on the weak minded.

The Rebels, in contrast, are trying to create a world where you are free to use technology as you see fit. These Jedi use their amazing ability to manipulate technology (The Force) to create incredible software and then they give it away for free! But, along with great power, comes great responsibility.  Creating such an open system allows a vast array of software to be produced, but without a standard look and feel.  As a result these products often provide state-of-the-art capabilities, but are too confusing for novices to use.

The Rebel Alliance has pushed Linux as an alternative to Windows, and Android (based on Linux) as an alternative to the iPhone.  These are technically sound solutions, and the open nature of these ensures that there are plenty of apps available, many of which are free.  Unfortunately they can’t seem to get their act together and work as a team. The most successful Linux desktop (Ubuntu) is gaining ground with end-users by providing an easy to use, user interface.  But the hard-core Linux folks claim it is only for beginners (it is not) and seem to want to stick with ‘the old ways’ of using Linux just for servers.

This fragmentation of the user interface is making it difficult for Linux to gain widespread adoption. It also makes support difficult because the only way to make sure that a solution works in all instances is to go beneath the GUI – and that can mean support answers sometimes involve manually typing in commands like “sudo mv /var/lib/dpkg/info/libopenal1.* /tmp”– seriously, can you imagine your mother doing that?

At the moment Linux is viable as a home computer platform only as long as you have someone slightly geeky who will take your calls. I have been slowly converting people in my neighborhood to Linux – not because I wanted to, but because they have problems with their computers and never seem to have their original OS disks.  Buying Windows is expensive so I usually leave them with a machine happily running Ubuntu, Firefox and Open Office.  So far I have converted about half a dozen people, all without complaint – but there is only so much I can do in my role as part of The Resistance!

The Rebel Alliance have had better luck penetrating the mobile phone market, and Android phones now outsell the iPhone. This makes sense in a market that has not yet created a standard look and feel.  And perhaps, The Rebels can use this platform to open a chink in the armor of the desktop space, and make some real inroads in the future.

I believe in the open source movement – I really do.  I feel as though they have justice on their side, and I use so much open source software now that the thought of actually buying software sends a shiver down my spine.

But the Rebel Alliance are vastly outnumbered by the hoards of Luddites who just want their devices to work and, in the process, are happy to fork over money for software that they could easily have gotten for free if they had known better.

The war is on, and the future is uncertain.  But, to paraphrase Ben Franklin “Those who give up Freedom for Security, deserve neither.”

Choose wisely, and may The Force be with you.