Open Apps

New Commercial Application Available In Ubuntu Software Center

2010-10-23T01:46:00.000+02:00

Just finished my updates and when I opened the Ubuntu Software Center what do I see?
Yes, a new application in the "For Purchase" section of the Ubuntu Software Center.

Up until last week I only saw Fluendo Dvd Player in there, but this week I can also purchase a game called Brukkon.
Its a challenging logic puzzle game that you can buy for the price of US$ 7.00.

Take a look at the app center with 2 apps available:

And the description of Brukkon:

The artwork of the game seems to be pretty nice after looking at some screen-shots on their website http://brukkon-puzzle-game.com/

After playing the demo, available on their website, I really wanted to see more.
So I'll probably buy this game in a few days because its worth it in my opinion.

Its nice to see that they're making it possible to purchase a few commercial applications in Ubuntu now but I would really like to see some more applications added.

This is a good start, but keep improving your game Ubuntu...

Replaced Windows 7 with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 on my brother's medion netbook

2010-08-07T23:17:00.001+02:00

When I visited my dad and brother this week, I noticed that my brother had gotten a Medion E1222 netbook.
He told me that "it ran rather sluggish and that a number of features were locked."

Being a Linux enthusiast, I immediately proposed to replace it with Ubuntu netbook remix.
Sure enough, after watching some screen casts on Youtube, he thought it would be pretty cool to run the ubuntu netbook remix instead of that bloated Windows 7.

The install was smooth and easy enough for him to do while he's just an average pc user.
I was expecting some problems with the WIFI drivers and mouse pad but after installing all the updates and rebooting the netbook everything worked out of the box.

My brother has been working with it for a week now and I don't think he's ever going to switch to Windows again.
He says that working with Ubuntu Software Center is easier than installing applications in Windows.

It was so funny when I told him that "using a virus scanner is basically useless because there are almost no viruses for Linux" he almost couldn't believe why so many people are using Windows instead of Linux.

Mozilla Prism: Creating web applications on your desktop

2010-08-04T20:52:00.002+02:00

With Mozilla Prism its easy to create shortcuts to web/cloud applications on your desktop.

It works on Windows, Mac and linux and I'm showing you Prism on Ubuntu 9.10 'Karmic'.

After you've installed Prism you just have to give the link of the website you want to access on your desktop and hit "OK".

Here's an example:

As you can see you can also add a custom icon or you can use the one that is used by the website.
I've placed the icon on my left sidebar for easy access.

You will notice that it works much faster than Firefox for example, its quite handy if you use it for web services/applications that you use very often.

Ardour: Professional Digital Audio Workstation

2010-02-17T19:17:00.007+01:00

Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application.

Ardour's intention is to provide digital audio workstation software suitable for professional use.
As Ardour is a free and open source software application anyone can read and modify the source code of the program. This allowed the first port of Ardour to Mac OS X to be carried out by someone previously uninvolved with the Ardour project. Ardour attempts to adhere to industry standards to maximize functionality and ease portability.

Some of its features:

Unlimited audio tracks and buses
Non-destructive, non-linear editing with unlimited undo
Anything-to-anywhere signal routing
Unlimited pre- and post-fader plugins
32 bit floating point audio path
Automatic track delay compensation
Sample accurate automation
Standard file formats (BWF, WAV, WAV64, AIFF, CAF & more ...)
Full AudioUnit plugin support on OS X
More than 200 LADSPA & LV2 plugins freely available
Support for Windows VST plugins available
MIDI CC control with 1 click
Level 2 MIDI Machine Control
MIDI Timecode (MTC) Master or Slave
Full integration with all JACK applications
Video-synced playback, pull up/pull down

No copy-protection
Distributed, world-wide development
Released under the GPL
Source code for everyone
Open XML session file format
On OS X, works with any CoreAudio supported audio hardware
On Linux, works with any ALSA/FFADO-supported audio hardware
Network audio (full fidelity over local network or long haul with CELT) via NetJack

Ardour can be used on Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD and is available for download in most distributions' repositories.

Or you can download it at their website ardour.org

7-Zip: Open Source File Archiver

2010-02-17T19:01:00.003+01:00

7-Zip is a very stable file archiver with high compression ratio and support for many formats.

7-Zip is open source software. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license. The unRAR code is under a mixed license: GNU LGPL + unRAR restrictions.
You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don't need to register or pay for 7-Zip.
This application can be used in Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2008 / 2003 / 2000 / NT / ME / 98 and there is a port of the command line version to Linux/Unix.

Features for 7-zip:

High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
Supported formats:
- Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
- Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z.
For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
Self-extracting capability for 7z format
Integration with Windows Shell
Powerful File Manager
Powerful command line version
Plugin for FAR Manager
Localizations for 74 languages

You can freely download 7-zip from sourceforge.net

Gshutdown: Advanced shutdown utility

2010-02-14T18:27:00.000+01:00

GShutdown is an advanced shutdown utility which allows you to schedule the shutdown or the restart of your computer, or logout your actual session.
GShutdown is a free software under the GPL license. The graphical user interface uses GTK+2.

This is a very handy application to schedule the shutdown or the restart of your computer.

Its freely available for download in most repositories but you can also download it at their website gshutdown.tuxfamily.org

Mixxx: Open source DJ software

2010-02-14T18:04:00.006+01:00

Mixxx is a complete package for amateur and professional DJs alike, providing everything you need to create live mixes.
Mixxx runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X Leopard, Ubuntu, and other distributions of Linux. If you don't like something the way it is, change it! Mixxx is licensed under the GPL v2.

The bpm sync and detection is still a little bit buggy for high bpm ranges but its comming along nicely.

Its a pretty stable application but it still has some minor glitches. Maybe a good reason to make a donation to support this great project.
This package can be downloaded free of charge at their website mixxx.org

PortableApps.com: Portable Software/USB

2010-02-14T17:58:00.001+01:00

PortableApps.com provides a truly open platform that works with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc). The entire platform is open source built around an open format that any hardware or software provider can use

PortableApps.com Suite™ is a complete collection of portable apps including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, audio player, sudoku game, password manager, PDF reader, minesweeper clone, backup utility and integrated menu, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you're ready to go.

Everything is freely available to download at sourceforge.net

Audacity

2010-02-14T17:48:00.008+01:00

Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds.

It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Recording

Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.

Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

Import and Export

Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new recordings. Export your recordings in several common file formats.

Import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files.
Import MPEG audio (including MP2 and MP3 files) with libmad.
Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder library.
Create WAV or AIFF files suitable for burning to CD.
Import and export all file formats supported by libsndfile.
Open raw (headerless) audio files using the “Import Raw” command.
Note: Audacity does not currently support WMA, AAC, or most other proprietary or restricted file formats.

Editing

Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any number of steps.
Very fast editing of large files.
Edit and mix an unlimited number of tracks.
Use the Drawing tool to alter individual sample points.
Fade the volume up or down smoothly with the Envelope tool.

Effects

Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
Other built-in effects include:
- Echo
- Phaser
- Wahwah
- Reverse

Sound Quality

Record and edit 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit (floating point) samples.
Record at up to 96 kHz.
Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and dithering.
Mix tracks with different sample rates or formats, and Audacity will convert them automatically in realtime.

Plug-Ins

Add new effects with LADSPA plug-ins.
Audacity includes some sample plug-ins by Steve Harris.
Load VST plug-ins for Windows and Mac, with the optional VST Enabler.
Write new effects with the built-in Nyquist programming language.

Analysis

Spectrogram mode for visualizing frequencies.
“Plot Spectrum” command for detailed frequency analysis.

Free and Cross-Platform

Licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and GNU/Linux.

You can download this great application for free at sourceforge.net

Cube 2: Sauerbraten

2010-02-14T17:39:00.005+01:00

Cube 2: Sauerbraten is a free multiplayer/singleplayer first person shooter, built as a major redesign of the Cube FPS.
Much like the original Cube, the aim of this game is not necessarily to produce the most features & eyecandy possible, but rather to allow map/geometry editing to be done dynamically in-game, to create fun gameplay and an elegant engine.

Personally I find the game rather good for an open source game. It has a very fast paced gameplay and is very fun to play.

You can download the game at sourceforge.net

How To Create A Song/Tune For Free With LMMS (video tutorial)

2010-01-09T15:00:00.002+01:00

Information:

Here I show you VERY BASICALLY how to create a tune with instruments provided with Linux MultiMedia Studio (which you can download on Windows here):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/lmms/...

LMMS is a great tool to mess around with instruments and create a basic tune (ideal for introductions for videos, something personal and copyright-free). There are loads of instruments. Leave a response with your song/tune!

For anyone for some reason wanting the loop, its here: http://www.mob3.co.uk/skype.mp3

or the project to work in or edit what i've done:
http://www.mob3.co.uk/demosong.mmpz

The sound isnt too good in the video as the original file was 9.35GB (don't ask) which was compressed down to 23MB.

Resize/move partition with gparted

2010-01-06T02:06:00.005+01:00

Resizing or moving a partition with gparted isn't possible when you're on the partition that you want to resize or move.

A solution for this problem is using an Ubuntu Live CD and resize/move the partition that way.
Because you aren't using the HD, you can resize any partition on your pc or laptop.

You may want to make a backup of the HD that you want to resize or move. I have done this several times and have never needed to use my backup.

LMMS Tutorial - The Piano Roll

2009-12-17T04:03:00.005+01:00

Great LMMS tutorial about various functions of the piano roll.

VLC Tutorial

2009-09-10T02:21:00.000+02:00

A nice VLC tutorial

Description:

This shows you cool things you can do with VLC Player, a multi-platform video player. You can do things like rip and encode DVD's, play videos as ASCII art, and even stream music and video over the internet.