Articles about Free Software

The Linux desktop community has reached a sad state. Ubuntu 14.04 was a disappointing release and Fedora is taking way too long between releases. Hell, OpenSUSE is an overall disaster. It is hard to recommend any Linux-based operating system beyond Mint. Even the popular KDE plasma environment and its associated programs are in a transition phase, moving from 4.x to 5.x. As exciting as KDE 5 may be, it is still not ready for prime-time; it is recommended to stay with 4 for now.

In the midst of disappointing releases from the big names, relative newcomer KaOS keeps plugging away and focusing on getting better and being on the forefront of all things KDE. Today, KaOS 2014.08 is made available and it looks amazing. The exciting news is that KDE 4.14.0 is present, making it very modern and stable.

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Auslogics has released Auslogics Browser Care 2.0, a major new version of its Windows browser management tool that’s aimed at novices.

Version 2.0 adds a new system health scanner tool, promises better handling of Chrome, Firefox and IE plugins, fixes all known bugs and implements an improved browser cache cleanup feature.

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Antivirus software installations are often complex, involving many low-level alterations to your PC and its settings. Sometimes they don’t work as they should -- or the regular uninstaller fails to remove them completely -- and this can leave you with all kinds of frustrating problems and system instabilities.

Security vendors often have stand-alone tools to properly remove and clean up after their products. A quick web search should point you in the right direction, but if you’re regularly cleaning up other people’s PCs then the free Antivirus Remover could save you a little time.

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Emsisoft has released Emsisoft Emergency Kit 9, a major new build of its portable malware cleaning toolkit for Windows PCs. The new build jumps from version 4 to 9, which brings its version numbering into sync with the main Emsisoft Anti-Malware line of products.

Version 9 promises a simpler, more user-friendly user interface, faster scans and improved detection, clearer log entries and a new Pro license for use in a commercial environment.

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eBooks come in many different formats, and while some are easy to read anywhere (PDF, DOCX) others can be much trickier to handle outside of your regular reader (FB2, PDB). If that’s a problem, you might like to try TEBookConverter, a portable tool for Windows which converts these more awkward eBooks into something you can access just about anywhere.

The program is essentially a shell for Calibre, which immediately gives it support for 25+ common formats: djvu, docx, epub, fb2, html, mobi, pdf and more.

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EaseUS Software has released EaseUS Todo Backup Free 7.0, a significant update to its popular image and file backup tool.

The major addition is a new Smart Backup mode. Point the program at one or more folders, it backs up their contents immediately, then saves new or changed files as they appear.

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CherryTree is a versatile free tool for brainstorming, planning, creating to-do lists, managing tasks, and generally keeping yourself organized.

This works much like many similar programs. You’ll create a few "nodes" -- folders on a tree -- to structure your ideas. Each node is effectively a separate page where you can enter whatever text notes, links, images, tables, lists, files and more.

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Although Windows has a reasonable set of command line tools, they’ve not changed much in recent years. Microsoft presumably hopes you’ll master PowerShell and build anything else you need for yourself.

Alternatively, you could just install EventSentry SysAdmin Tools, a free collection of 35+ (mostly) console-based programs to help you with various file system, network and monitoring tasks.

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Shane Gowland’s SingularLabs has announced the release of Remembr 0.0.0.1, a simple free clipboard manager for Windows.

As with similar programs, Remembr lives in your system tray, and maintains a list of the text and images you copy to the clipboard.

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There are many ways to exchange data between applications, but the clipboard is probably the simplest. Copy here, paste there: easy.

The open-source HaveClip takes this idea to the next level by synchronizing clipboards across your network. Copy text, an image, maybe a file on one computer -- Windows, Mac or Linux -- and it’ll be (almost) immediately available from another.

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Sharing photos online can sometimes be an awkward process, where you’re forced to visit some ad-packed website, maybe sign up for an account, then enter all your details before you can do anything at all.

Fortunately MyImgur bypasses all the usual hassles, and allows you to share a batch of photos with almost no work at all.

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Tanner Helland has announced the first beta for PhotoDemon 6.4, the latest edition of his open source portable photo editor. But don’t be fooled by the apparently minor version number: this is a massive update with a host of significant new features.

Strong support for layers is a highlight. PhotoDemon 6.4 gives you an unlimited number which you can hide, show, reorder, merge or duplicate as required. There are 24 blend modes on offer and you’re able to resize, rotate, mirror or flip any layer without flattening the image.

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An msi file is a setup program based on Windows Installer, and, most of the time, it’s very easy to handle. You want to install some application, you’ve downloaded the appropriate msi, so now just run it and work your way through the setup process.

But what if you’re not sure what the msi file does, what it contains? Maybe you’d like to extract one or two of its files without installing the whole application. Either way, you need a copy of lessmsi.

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It first appeared around 25 years ago, but zip is still a great format for archiving, not least because it’s so widely supported. Send "stuff.zip" to anyone, on any platform, and they’ll have no problem in viewing its contents.

If you’re just archiving files for yourself, though, there are many interesting alternatives -- and the command line ZPAQ is a great example.

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IObit has launched the first public pre-release version of its forthcoming system and security suite, IObit Advanced SystemCare 8 Beta. The new build launches with a number of new tools, including brand new Protect Module.

It also showcases another redesigned user interface and introduces support for themes, allowing users to customize the program with photos.

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