This is something every opensource lover should know!Too often, open source projects labor in near obscurity. No corporate stipend, no team of publicists, no media blurbs for every new release. But the open source community is a vital source of productive creativity – truly an engine of the future.

Audio Tools

1. Audacity This cross-platform sound recorder and editor receives high marks for its speed and ease of use. Key features include envelope editing, mixing, and built-in effects; supported formats include WAV, AIFF, Ogg, and MP3.
2. Linux MultiMedia StudioThink you have what it takes to be a record producer? LMMS lets you create music on your computer, including creating loops, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples, and more.
3. Jajuk If you have a large or scattered music collection, Jajuk is for you. This jukebox provides a lot of advanced features for users who know what they’re doing, while also being relatively intuitive.

Communication

4. Mumble With Mumble, you can easily talk to other players while gaming, and the voices seem to come from the on-screen characters. Plus, the echo cancellation feature means you won’t get those annoying reverberation effects from your microphone picking up the sound from your speakers.
5. ePresence Interactive MediaDeveloped at the University of Toronto, ePresence claims to be “the world's first open source webcasting and conferencing solution.” It is designed to support conferences, online meetings, seminars, and demonstrations. Click the “Project Web Site” link from the link above to check out some of the (mostly educational) presentations created with ePresence.
6. Elastix With final code just released November 2007, Elastix is a brand-new appliance software for Asterisk-based PBX systems. It combines a lot of the most popular Asterisk tools with a unique interface, utilities, and add-ons for a complete open-source VoIP system.
7. trixbox Formerly known as Asterisk@home, trixbox is another VoIP solution based on the Asterisk PBX software. Ideal for home or small business users, the Web-based interface makes the software easy to set up and use.

Desktop Enhancements

8. LCARS 24 Ever wish your screen looked like those cool interfaces on Star Trek? LCARS 24 offers an alarm clock, calendar, games, maps, etc. all with look of the displays on the Enterprise. It’s probably not something you’d install on your regular computer, but you might want to use it to turn an old DOS laptop into a useful conversation piece.
9. Synergy If you’ve got more than one computer sitting on your desk, Synergy let’s you use the same mouse and keyboard for both. It works cross-platform, so it’s great if you switch back and forth between a Linux machine and a Windows machine, or a Windows machine and a Mac, etc.
10. LXDE Lightweight X Desktop Environment does just what the name suggests: it offers a fast desktop for Linux/Unix systems that doesn’t consume a lot of power or memory. Unlike a lot of similar projects, each of the components can be installed separately, so you can use only the pieces you want.
11. Lazarus Lazarus offers a complete and easy-to-use programming environment for FreePascal. It runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD.
12. jEdit This java-based text editor provides auto-indent and syntax highlighting for more than 130 different programming languages. Its huge library of add-ons gives programmers nearly every feature you could hope for in a text editor.
13. DotNetNuke DotNetNuke offers an alternative application framework for the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 platform. If offers enterprise users a versatile, user-friendly means to create cutting-edge Web applications.
14. Mantis This Web-based bug tracker is free, easy to install, and available in 68 different languages. Written in PHP, it works with MySQL, MS SQL, or PostgreSQL databases and multiple platforms.

Education

15. GCompris GCompris provides an open source alternative in a category that has very few open source options—children’s educational software. Although the Windows version is somewhat limited, the Linux version offers more than 100 activities for kids age 3 to 10.
16. LogiCampus Educational Platform Built by a college in Texas, LogiCampus gives educational institutions a free way to manage distance learning and on-campus classes. It gives educators the tools they need to set up an online class and stay in touch with students, and it simplifies tasks like exam scheduling, ordering textbooks, and making course changes.
17. WIKINDX Having trouble keeping track of all those sources you’re using to write your thesis? WIKINDX manages your quotes, notes, and citations so that they’re easy to search. Best of all, it formats the bibliography information for you based on your choice of style guide.

Enterprise

18. Openbravo ERP This Web-based enterprise resource planning tool offers small- and medium-sized businesses the benefits of integrated systems management without the high cost. It includes customer resource management (CRM), business intelligence (BI), procurement and warehouse management, project and service management, production management, and financial management capabilities.
19. Compiere Compiere ERP + CRM Business Solution is designed specifically for the distribution, retail, manufacturing, and service industries. It includes components for managing and reporting on projects, financial management, point-of-sale, e-commerce, service, sales, order management, manufacturing, materials management, purchasing, and performance management.
20. MailArchiva Thanks to all the new compliance requirements, many organizations must pay closer attention to how long they store e-mail and other messages. MailArchiva works with Exchange and other popular messaging systems to provide long-term storage with an easy “Google-like” search capability.
21. Covide Covide offers web-based groupware and customer relationship management (CRM) in a single package. It can also integrate with PBX systems to provide VoIP services.
22. Open EMM This professional e-mail newsletter and marketing software offers many of the features of commercial products, including event- and time-driven transaction e-mails. It makes it easy to manage bounced e-mails, as well as providing advanced tracking and statistics.

Finances

23. Buddi Buddi makes it easy to set up a household budget and track your finances, even if you’ve never done it before. The feature set is purposefully small so that financial novices won’t get confused, but it does allow you to create reports and graphs so that you can see exactly where all your money went.
24. GFDThis personal finance manager runs on any Java-enabled operating system and is available in 11 different languages. While it’s still easy for novices to use, it includes some advanced filtering, report, and chart capabilities for tracking your household finances.

Games

25. FreeCol Remember the old game Colonization? This is a free version where you start with a few colonists on a boat and try to create an independent nation. (Also similar to Civilization.)
26. PokerTH Have you fallen prey to the Texas Hold ‘Em craze? PokerTH lets you play against up to six computer opponents or online players from around the world.
27. Scorched3DThis is a 3D version of the old DOS game Scorched Earth. In case you don’t remember how it’s played, you use your tanks to try to blow up your opponent’s tanks. The new version has much better graphics, as well as changing environmental conditions and the ability to network with 24 other online players at a time.
28. UFO:Alien InvasionIn this futuristic sci-fi game, you and your secret organization must defend the earth against an alien invasion. While you hurry to maneuver your troops for tactical advantage in skirmishes with the aliens, you also have to try to uncover the secret alien plot in time to save humanity from certain doom.

Graphics

29. Inkscape If you’d rather not spend the many, many dollars you need to stay up-to-date on the latest releases of Adobe Illustrator, try Inkscape. This vector graphics editor is compatible with Windows, OS X, and Linux, and it includes features like transparency, gradients, node editing, pattern fills, PNG export, and more.
30. Art of Illusion This 3D modeling and rendering studio boasts many of the features of much more expensive applications, including subdivision surface based modeling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials. And because it’s built in Java, it’s platform-independent.

Groupware

31. Group-OfficeGroup-Office groupware allows work groups to share calendar, project management, e-mail, tasks, addressbook, and file management information. It works with the company Intranet or the Internet, and users can use any browser they like.
32. Simple Groupware Built in sgsML for easy customization, Simple Groupware is a standards-based enterprise-ready groupware application. It offers email, calendaring, contacts, tasks, document management, synchronization with cell phones and Outlook, and full-text search. Plus, it’s simple to install, update, use, and adapt to your needs.
Messaging
33. aMSN Have friends who only use MSN for instant messaging? This platform-neutral MSN messenger clone lets you keep in touch without actually using a Microsoft product.
34. SquirrelMail The “Webmail for Nuts” is written in PHP and renders pages in pure HTML 4.0 for maximum compatibility. An active community has developed more than 65 plug-ins that extend SquirrelMail’s capabilities and make it even easier to use.
35. Miranda IM This instant messaging client for Windows aims to be “smaller, faster, easier.” It supports multiple protocols, including AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, and Gadu-Gadu, and it has hundreds of handy plug-ins as well.

Miscellaneous

36. StarDict Modestly calling itself “the best free dictionary program in Linux and Windows,” StarDict searches multiple international dictionary databases to find the correct spelling, definition, and/or translation for any word. The latest version (released November 2007) includes full-text translation, fuzzy queries, and more.
37. Gramps Genealogy continues to be one of the country’s most popular hobbies, and Gramps (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System) gives you many of the tools of more costly family tree tracking applications for free. It was developed by genealogists and offers a huge wiki of advice for how to trace your ancestry. Plus, its name is one of the best acronyms we’ve ever seen.
38. NavIt NavIt is an open-source alternative for in-vehicle navigation. It works with multiple maps and is touch-screen friendly.
39. Gnaural It already does everything else--now your computer can help you meditate. Using something called the “binaural beat principle,” Gnaural generates audio tones designed to get you in the right frame of mind for relaxation.

Multimedia

40. MediaPortal MediaPortal aims to turn your PC or TV into a complete media center. It combines DVR capabilities with a radio tuner, audio player, video player, and more.
41. NicePlayer NicePlayer calls itself “Quite simply, the nicest media player for Mac.” The base version plays the same types of files as QuickTime, and add-ons provide support for most other types of video files.
42. xine Xine plays CDs, DVDs, and VCDs, as well as decoding and playing most types of audio and video files. Written in Assembly and C, Xine works with OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris.
Photography
43. Gallery Gallery makes it easy to add a photo library to your personal or business Web site. Key features include user authentication, automatic thumbnails, mirroring, themes, and more.
44. Souvenance Unlike most photo gallery programs, the XML-based Souvenance doesn’t require a separate database, making it really fast to deploy. It was just released in October of 2007, so it’s still a very much work in progress.

Office Productivity

45. OpenProj This project manager will look and feel very familiar to users of Microsoft Project, and it even opens MSProject files. It works on multiple platforms, and was downloaded more than 100,000 times in the first month it was released.
46. OpenOffice.org Portable Now you can take the entire OpenOffice.org suite (Writer, Impress, Math, Draw, Calc, Base) with you wherever you go. Simply load OpenOffice.org onto a USB drive, CD, iPod, or other portable drive and you can use the programs without installing them in your system.
47. PDF Split and Merge Need to cut a long pdf file down to size? Or would you like to combine two shorter documents? PDF Split and Merge lets you do both without having to purchase the costly software.
48. PDFCreator As you might expect, PDFCreator creates PDF files from any Windows program. It can also create PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, and EPS files, as well as encrypting PDF files.
49. MultiMedia Office This package from Plata Software combines some of the most popular open source software into a single package. It includes OpenOffice.org, Audacity, GIMP, VirtualDub, Thunderbird, and Opera.

Here is the list of sexy wallpapers for Ubuntu and actually for any other Linux distribution. Every wallpaper can be downloaded from gnome-look.org.

Most people lock their doors and windows, use a paper shredder to protect themselves from identity theft, and install antivirus software on their computers. Yet they routinely surf the Internet without giving a second thought to whether their browser is secure and their personal information safe. Unfortunately, it's easy for someone with nefarious intentions to use a Web site to glean data from -- or introduce spyware to -- your computer. Even worse, sometimes all you have to do is randomly click on a site to have your data probed in a most unwelcome way.

Mozilla Firefox has several security settings you can adjust via the Preferences pane, but there are also more than 150 privacy and security extensions you can add as well. They are easy to install and take little time to set up; some even work automatically after you restart your browser. Let's have a look at some of the most popular and most useful.
One of the best ways to protect your computer is to prevent the browser from using JavaScript at Web sites without permission. JavaScript, though useful for developing glitzy Web sites, has gained something of a reputation as a method for doing Bad Things to unsuspecting computers. NoScript is an extension that makes every site that uses JavaScript ask your permission before running it. NoScript can render JavaScript-heavy sites unreadable, but it provides a whitelist of acceptable sites that you can easily add to in order to speed up your surfing experience.
Many people use Tor to hide their online surfing habits. FoxTor provides a way to mask and unmask your browser on the fly, without having to commit to anonymous surfing throughout an entire browsing session. It requires the use of Tor and Privoxy.
Your browser's history logs help provide a speedier surfing experience for you. Unfortunately, skilled hackers can peek at them remotely to see where you've been. Deleting log information after each browsing session would slow you down, but fortunately, there's another way. Don't delete your data -- hide it with SafeHistory.
Some of the most sensitive information sent over the Internet travels via email, so many people prefer to send their messages encrypted. The Gmail S/MIME extension encrypts Gmail messages, including attachments, automatically, as long as you have the recipient's digital certificate.
While Firefox 2 has built-in phishing protection, it never hurts to have a backup plan. The premise behind Petname is simple: leave reminder notes on your trusted Web sites and the notes will automatically appear each time you return. If you surf to what you assume is one of your whitelisted sites and no reminder note appears, you'll know something's not right. This extension is particularly useful if you're running an older version of Firefox without anti-phishing protection.
SecurePasswordGenerator is a long name for a little extension that sits in your toolbar and helps you create unique passwords. Half the battle of staying safe online is using complex and different passwords whenever you register at a Web site. Use this tool to help you create a unique password everywhere you go.
Have you ever wondered where the information you type into an online form goes once you hit "send"? With FormFox, you can find out. Once you download and enable this extension, hovering your mouse over the data field of a form or search box will reveal exactly who receives the information you enter. Use this extension to check out an unfamiliar Web site before you cough up your name, address, and credit card information while doing your online holiday shopping.
Many people use disposable or temporary email addresses around the Internet to avoid email spam. Although spam is generally considered more of a nusiance than a security issue, there are occasions when a disposable address may be a safer option than providing a real one (on message forums, for example). There are several temporary email services to choose from; the TrashMail.net Firefox extension makes that service an attractive choice.
Sometimes you need to protect your information from the prying eyes of people around you. If you're surfing at an airport or local coffee shop, people wandering past can have a look at the titles of the tabs you have open. Page Title Eraser lets you either blank out the title and icon in your browser's tabs, or replace the text with something of your choice.
When trying to protect your privacy, the last thing you want is for a Web site to collect data on what you do while you visit: where you click, how long you view a page, and so on. That's called profiling. While it's harmless if a site tracks data on how long it took you to read an article on how to install a video game, most people feel that there's no reason a Web site needs to know anything about your surfing habits, even if it's only to collect data for marketing purposes.
Most extensions and tools commonly used to prevent data profiling by search engines work by concealing information from outsiders. TrackMeNot takes the opposite approach and actually sends out a bunch of information for the search engines to process. Of course, it sends mostly false information, which means your search activities remain hidden from view and search engines won't glean any meaningful data from your visit.
These are only a few of several dozen privacy and security extensions available for Firefox; you can find a larger list at Mozilla's Web site. Tools like these can make your surfing experience safer, but remember: nothing is foolproof, and talented hackers can still find ways to pull information from your system if they try hard enough. Always be careful.

The new version of the GNU Affero General Public License has been published by the Free Software Foundation, based upon the existing GNU GPLv3 license but with one important difference: support for on-demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. By publishing this license, the FSF aims to foster user and development communities around network-oriented free software.

The GNU Affero General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software which has been specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community in the case of network server software. It is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change versions of a program, ensuring it remains free for all its users. So while the GNU General Public License enables the user to make a modified version of the software and provide pubic access to it via a server but without ever actually releasing its source code, the Affero version is designed from the ground up to ensure that this modified source code is made available to the wider community. Specifically, it requires the operator of that network server to provide the source code of the modified version running upon it to the users.

Although this new license is based upon developments by San Francisco-based volunteers rating and reputation company Affero, responsible for the Affero General Public License based upon GPLv2, and which aimed to achieve similar ends, it is not the same and should not be thought of as a version of that license. According to the FSF, Affero has released a new version of the Affero GPL which permits relicensing under this new GNU AGPLv3 license. Affero confusion apart, it is hoped that by introducing this new license the Software as a Service development arena will find favour with the Open Source community. FSF board member Benjamin Mako Hill said, “The GNU GPL has been the most successful free software license because it makes a program's source available to its users. This enables massive collaboration between developers, since everyone gets the same benefits from this rule. The GNU AGPL will enable the same kind of cooperation around web services and other networked software.”

When Valve called Apple out for not taking games and game developers seriously, nobody really paid much attention. Despite Valve’s offerings in terms of games, they never really did anything for the Mac and so these were seen as outside comments. Between this and the later news about the large amount of money asked by the company for a Mac port of Half-Life 2, the arguments just weren’t that convincing. Now, longtime Mac developer id software is singing the same song.

John Carmack has criticized Apple for its game related decisions, concluding that the company simply does not get this market. Despite joining Jobs on stage at WWDC, to renew his studio’s commitment to the platform, the legendary game developer is not very
optimistic about gaming on the Mac.
To further dive his point, Carmack points towards Apple’s handling of games on both the iPod and iPhone.

The two mobile devices may not be Macs, but they are a product that can support games and that requires special attention from Apple in order to ensure that game developers can actually develop.
Instead of making sure that these developers can flourish, Apple has done the exact opposite, locking the two devices and giving only the most rudimentary access. In the case of the iPod, when development was finally allowed, developers had to work with an emulator. With the iPhone and iPod touch, the company refuses to allow any development until the native software development kit is released in February next year.
Both of these decisions make developing games for these platforms highly impractical.
"The honest truth right now is that Apple's not exactly hugely supportive of [games for the iPhone]," Carmack says. "When they finally allowed games to be put on the iPod... in many ways it's one of the worst environments to develop games for. You have to work on an emulator... just all these horrible decisions."

This is not too different from what valve was saying and does indicate that the company as a whole simply disregards the entire game market. While this seems to be the case, Apple isn’t exactly being hounded by their stance.
"[Apple's] strategy seems to be working just fine from a business standpoint, so I'm not going to second guess them and tell them they're being fools or idiots for not focusing on this," the developer admits.
While all of Apple’s products are doing well even despite the lack of commitment to games, this market remains an important one for many users and it could be very beneficial to the company if only it could be bothered to do anything about it.

With Windows Vista far from being the last mammoth release of the Windows operating system as we know it, Microsoft is increasingly focusing on Windows 7. Stripped down of its Vienna codename, following the development strategy implemented by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, debuted with the introduction of product numbers, Windows 7 is currently set for 2010, in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. At the same time, there are generally only scarce details related to Windows 7 available, most of which do not benefit from any official confirmation from Microsoft.

But one aspect of the operating system, that the Redmond company will evolve, concerns the ecosystem of programs and applications built on top of the platform. In this context, Windows 7 could be synonymous with an overhaul of how the Windows client handles the deployment, configuration and management of third-party software products integrated into its fabric in an effort to improve installation, stability, performance etc.

Well, according to the Windows Survey on Deploying and Configuring Applications, Microsoft is quite interested in the impact of the User Account Control on the development, installation and configuring of applications. While it is highly unlikely that the company is considering dropping UAC, the security mitigation could be tweaked as a consequence of the feedback received. But at the same time, Microsoft is pointing to a simpler installation experience that does not by any means require elevation of privileges.

Microsoft is also questioning developers in relation to the diagnostics and troubleshooting process of application failures, as well as extensive repair options, complete uninstall and a separation of the program from Windows in order to avoid conflicts and errors impacting the operating system. Still, by the repetition of the topic involving the lack of administrative privileges for future applications for Windows 7 it appears that the UAC is here to stay.

The French authorities seem to be prepared to launch a campaign against the illegal downloaders in the country as they want to stop the distribution of pirated music and videos. According to Financial Times, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to create a special government body which will be responsible for blocking these illegal downloads. But what's more interesting is that the authorities want to remove the access to the Internet for the ones discovered as illegal downloaders. Although some of you might believe this move is way too harsh, it can be pretty efficient as the pirates will be unable to download additional illegal files after they are first detected.

In case you're wondering how they will get the information about the users who download pirated content, it's quite easy to obtain it since the ISPs are able to monitor the entire activity. This way, every time a consumer accesses an application flagged as illegal, the authorities could start an investigation. The targeted applications are obviously the peer-to-peer and file sharing solutions. The copyright holders and the Internet service providers will probably become partners for the government as this move can reduce the pirated content distributed inside the country.

"In exchange for the clampdown on illegal downloading, the music industry has agreed to make individual downloads of archive French material available on all types of players by dropping digital rights management protection," Financial Times added. "The French film industry has agreed to release DVDs more quickly after a film’s first cinema screening, reducing the delay from 7½ months to 6 months."

As far as I can see, this seems to be the most important move made by the French authorities to reduce software piracy and encourage users to download only genuine software, music or movies. However, there are way too many more steps to do until this huge phenomenon stops so let's hope some of the pirates will get scared and will stop distributing pirated content.