My world is full of free, open, and exciting software. Here are jump points to groups of software I use or respect.
Since I'm Java-oriented, any pure Java software is my favorite. However, if often use various open source applications as well.
| Item | Description | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | A free and capable operating system running on many platforms. A UNIX style operating system. | In use on my firewall machine, and my laptop main machine. | I still am forced to keep a single Win95 system to run educational software for my kids. |
|
Java.net
and Java.com |
A cross platform and improved programming language I use for all my programming efforts. | In use. | Don't let Microsoft or Oracle distort Java! |
| OpenOffice | An excellent, full featured, and free office suite. This has all the same features as Microsoft Office or WordPerfect. | In use constantly. | The ability to read and write Microsoft Formatted documents has improved steadily. Also, this toolset stores the documents in the OASIS standards compliant XML format for future readability. |
| git | The dominant (apparently) distributed version control system. | In use on my personal Win7 machines via cygwin. | Harder to learn. Fast and capable. |
| Google Chrome | A new way to implement web browsers that run for a long time and manage important state. Its also very fast. | Now in use for most of my web browsing. | Works perfectly. |
| Apache | A lightweight, robust and open source web server, available on numerous platforms. | Now in use on my web server. | Works perfectly. |
| Plucker | An offline Web and e-book viewer for PalmOS(r) based handheld devices and PDAs. See "Sunrise" just below for a way to create files for download to your PDA. | Was using with Palm reader. Now needs replacement for android support. | Works wonderfully! |
| Calibre | An ebook format converter. | Replaces Plucker | Very flexible, and a bit tricky to use. |
I have an Android phone (PDA) and I find these apps useful:
| Item | Description | Status | Issues |
|---|---|---|---|
| FBReader | A cross platform book reader. I find by adjusting the font larger I can easily read books on my little android screen while using exercise equipment or traveling. | My preferred reader | Limited to FB2 and epub formats. Use Calibre for conversions. |
| c:geo | A well feature geocaching app. | My preferred geocaching tool. | The live map is a little limited, but a simple search and select working fine with stored caches. |
I periodically get stuck using Win32 systems. I survive by finding ports of my favorite free software to run on the Win32 platform.
| Item | Description | Status | Issues |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java Products | A cross platform, improved programming language I use for all my programming efforts. | In use for all my portable programming. That means everything, folks! | Don't let Microsoft distort Java! |
| CygWin | Cygwin is a GNULinux-like environment for Windows. If fully installed, includes the crucial tools zip, unzip, ssh, git. gnuemacs, gnudiff and more! This is the best way to survive on windows. | In use when forced to use Windows machines. | Directory path seperator problems on windows with bogus backslash choice by Microsoft. |
| PuTTY | A free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator | Handy for making remote Windows machines connect to real servers (UNIX). | None. |
| Item | Description | Status | Issues |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monotone | A configuration management system that is fully distributed, letting all functions occur at the client side. All synchronization is handles in a peer to peer manner. Its young, but the concepts it uses are interesting. | Under analysis. | None. |
| BeanShell | A very small (< 200K) Java interpreter that can be embedded in your applications. | Under analysis. | None. |
| Thinlet | A GUI toolkit, a single Java class, parses the hierarchy and properties of the GUI, handles user interaction, and calls business logic. Its compressed size is 39KB, and it is LGPL licensed. | Under analysis. | None. |
| the foaf project | The Friend of a Friend (FOAF) project is about creating a Web of machine-readable homepages describing people, the links between them and the things they create and do. My own FoaF RDF file is available. | Under analysis. | None. |
| jEdit | Java-based general purpose and extensible text editor. | Under analysis as a replacement for my use of emacs. | None. |
| WebDAV | "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning", a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers | Under analysis. | None. |
| WebStat | A free Java Applet that performs statistical computations. | Used for testing spreadsheet calculations. | None. |
| FreeNet | Anonymous distributed content system, protecting the freedom of speech on the internet. | Under analysis. | Implements a part of the Xanadu vision. |
| Mojo Nation | A shared resource system with distributed micropayments for contribution of space, processing, and indexing. | Under analysis. | Goofy name for a nice idea. Implements a part of the Xanadu vision. |
| E | A new highly distributed and highly secure language. | Under analysis. | Layered on top of Java, though with a unique syntax. Offers clever access to existing Java functionality. |
| AcmeServe | A lightweight 100% java web server, available with source. | In periodic use for experiments. | Doesn't support standard server logging format. I also added code to support more MIME types. |
| VPS | Opensource VPN implemented with Linux gateways | Under study. | ... |
| Jazz | New style user interface with extensive zooming and collaboration aspects. Implemented in Java2. | Under study. | ... |
| Squeak | Another new style user interface and environment, based on the Smalltalk language. | Under study. | ... |
| Xanadu | An advanced, historically significant, hypertext system. | Under study. | ... |
| Cyc | CYC is a very large, multi-contextual knowledge base and inference engine, the development of which started at the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas during the early 1980s. | Under study. | ... |