One of the more popular open source applications out there is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is a powerful photo editing application. While you may here it referred to as a Photoshop replacement, if you actually compare the functionality you will see GIMP doesn’t completely measure up (but you sure can’t beat the price). However, if you...

If you do a lot of ‘tech related’ communication or computer walk-throughs, a good screen capture utility is a must have. While there are lots out there (I know I have written about several in the past), another tool to add to the list is the open source Lightscreen. For the most part, this utility has everything you would expect such as hotkey...

When you are examining your disk space usage to find the files/folders which are sucking up all the space, using a graphical/mapping disk usage utility can be very helpful for quickly locating the culprits. A nice open source utility for this, if you do not already have a tool you prefer, is KDirStat (Linux users) and WinDirStat (Windows users). If you are not...

After reading the title of this post, you are probably thinking to yourself: KVM. This tip is not about a KVM, rather a unique open source project called Synergy. From their about page: With synergy, all the computers on your desktop form a single virtual screen. You use the mouse and keyboard of only one of the computers while you use all of the monitors on all...

If you do any development using Microsoft SQL Server, a really useful tool available is SQL Profiler. This tool allows you to see queries submitted to the database which is useful for measuring performance, fine tuning as well as tracking down and debugging errors. Unfortunately, this tool is not provided with the SQL Express series, on the full and developer...

When it comes to ‘enterprise’ software solutions, usually they have one thing in common: they are expensive. While many software packages are worth the price, in my experience more times than not they not worth their weight. The perfect solution sometimes is open source and/or free software. The price is right and if you are willing to ‘self...

Over the past several months, I’ve written about a bunch of different accounting/book keeping applications which are freely available: GnuCash, Microsoft Office Accounting Express, QuickBook Starter Edition and various Excel spreadsheet templates. So today’s tip will add another one to the list, the open source application PostBooks. When you look at...

Those of you out there into video, especially DVD authoring, looking for a program without breaking the bank on commercial options should check out the open source program DVDStyler. DVDStyler is a cross-platform DVD authoring application that makes possible for video enthusiasts to create professional-looking DVDs. While the feature list may not blow you away,...

If you ever have the need to make changes to your hard drive partitions, rather than immediately going to the commercial options, check out the open source GParted. GParted fully supports NTFS and FAT as well as the two major Linux file systems (ext2/ext3) along with lots of other files systems. You can shrink, grow, copy, move (and more) partitions which should...

Periodically there will be times you’ll want to capture a screenshot of something on your computer screen. Your options of doing this the Windows way is a bit limited. The Windows way is by using ALT+PrintScreen (capture focused window) or CTRL+PrintScreen (capture entire screen including taskbar). Both are inadequate because you can’t be specific...

Not too long ago, I wrote about the open source take on the greatest game of all time, FreeCiv. Today, I’ll point you to another one with incredible depth: The Battle for Wesnoth. The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme. Build up a great army, gradually turning raw recruits into hardened veterans. In later games, recall...

If you use free software, odds are you are using at least open source program. If you aboslutely love a particular open source program you might want to consider contributing to it. By no means do you have to be a programmer to contribute, here are a few ideas of ways you can help the project without so much as downloading the source code:Spread the word by...

Every Windows user is familar with the open and save dialog boxes which are used by virtually every Windows application out there. While this dialog box has some handy navigation functions such as the ability to add new folders and navigate up, back and forward, for even more functionality in these dialogs check out the open source utility FileBox...

As work I make fairly extensive use of the excellent Microsoft Visio to create database ER diagrams and network topology markups, however a need came up recently where I had to provide someone who did not have Visio an editable copy of a file. Of course, the simple solution is to just go get a copy of Visio, but for those of you looking for a more...

In the past I have posted links to several older/classic games which you can either download or play online, so today I am going to do the same with one exception: the game I am linking to is the open source version of the greatest game ever made, Civilization (this isn’t opinion… it’s a fact . If you haven’t checked it out already...

If you have an extensive amount digital media (music, videos, pictures, etc.) and are looking for a great way to access / ‘deploy’ it throughout your house, a media center is the way to go. There are several packages available (both free and commercial) which accomplish this, but one you might want to give a good look at is XBMC. XBMC was originally...

This is the mentality of many on the Internet. Or so it seems. People want everything for free, almost to the point where they’re willing to steal what isn’t already free. This attitude leads to people searching out pirated software and otherwise trying to find ways to get something for nothing. Is it wrong or is it justified?This is completely an...

aMSN is a freeware clone of the popular Windows Live (formerly MSN) Messenger. While it’s true there are other alternative instant messaging applications out there, there are a few perks to aMSN the other guys don’t have:Available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X (Universal) and FreeBSD Can do voice clips Can do display pictures Can do custom...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about GnuCash being available on Windows which now means the open source accounting product is available for the vast majority of computer users. I then followed up this a with a guide on how to get started using it for your small business, but what about if you just want to manage your checkbook? If ‘merely’ managing your...

Users of Linux who like to use a dedicated program to keep track of their personal finances or run a small business are probably familiar with GnuCash. What Windows users might not be aware of, is that it now works on their OS as well. If you are not familiar with it, GnuCash is a viable open source replacement for Quicken/MS Money on Windows and...