The Weekly Open Source

Nap

2008-09-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

Okay there comes a time in every blogs life to fall asleep for a while. I think this is that time for me. I am really tired and there is nobody here to keep me awake. If I had just one person to keep me awake, one person to read me, one person to care, I might wake up. I plead you, if you are reading this send just one email to weeklyopensource@gmail.com
saying that you want me to stay awake, and that you promise to read me. Until that day I will be taking a nap.

Ajax Animator

2008-09-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

Ajax animator is a web application made for creating animations. This project started out to try to be a web replacement for Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash. Flash is a proprietary technology that is used for many web applications and games...i.e. Youtube, linerider, and annoying ads that say you have won a free apple ipod. It has continued to mature but now is only for creating animations. It is very sexy, and shows some promise. Check out the Homepage (Blog) here, and the application here.

Ajax Animator v 0.20

Another app that is closely related to Adobe Flash is Liveswif. Liveswif was released as shareware with a (free) lite version, and was later released as freeware. The most recent and final release was Liveswif 2.2. The developers were not profiting so they stopped developing and gave the source to the public. Now the community is working on the first open source version of Liveswif, now called Openswif. This software is not actively worked on, but there is huge potential for it. Please help keep this project going liveswifers.org.

Pidgin

2008-09-06T07:08:00.001-07:00

Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messaging client. Pidgin used to go by the name Gaim, but due to copyright issues with AOL it was changed to Pidgin. With Pidgin you can connect to every major instant messaging service all within one program. For instance you can have a Yahoo messenger account, Aim account, Google-talk/Jabber account, and an IRC chatroom all running inside of this application at the same time. You can also have more than one account on the same protocol.

Check out pidgin at pidgin.im.

To request an open source application email weeklyopensource@gmail.com.

Firefox

2008-08-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Firefox is a web browser just like Internet Explorer (IE). You can go to webpages, you can check your email, you can book flights. It does everything internet explorer can do. Why would I use this, you might ask?

Firefox

is much safer than IE
is faster than IE
its open source and gets updates much more often
it is free
it has thousands of addons and themes to download

Check out Firefox 3 at getfirefox.com.

Identi.ca

2008-08-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

This is a new one, its a website. If you have ever heard of Twitter.com, it is modeled after it. It is essentially a micro-blogging service. What micro-blogging is basically updating what you are doing. For example you are hiking down by the local river, you can explain that in 140 characters or less.

"Identi.ca is a micro-blogging service based on the Free Software Laconica tool." - from their website.

This means that the website is not really open source, but the software, laconica, is. It is built on PHP.

Check it out at identi.ca.

VLC

2008-08-16T13:51:00.001-07:00

"VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network." Says the VLC website.

VLC is my favorite media player on both Windows and Linux. It plays any multimedia you can throw at it. It has an alright user interface. It has over 96 million downloads. If you are looking for a player that can do it all, VLC is definately worth a try. Check it out at videolan.org/vlc/.

Here it is running in Xp.

Open Office

2008-08-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Open Office is an office sweet the closely rivals Microsoft office. It can handle Microsoft office files and files can be output as Microsoft office files. It has most features that Microsoft office has, and more. It has Writer that resembles Word, Calc that resembles Excel, Impress that resembles PowerPoint, and many more applications. It uses Java so it is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Check it out at openoffice.org

Writer

XMoto

2008-08-03T19:03:00.001-07:00

In XMoto you are riding a motocross bike. Your goal is to collect strawberries and then get to the flower to finish the level. Of course its not as easy as it sounds. There are many obstacles in your way, such as wreckers, little spike ball shaped objects. Controlling the biker takes a while to get used to, but easy after you have figured it out. There is also a room feature you can set up on the website so you can compete with friends. You can't race each other in real time but upload your scores to the room and see who was faster.

XMoto has over a thousand completely free levels, so check it out over at xmoto.tuxfamily.org.

Here is some gameplay footage of the world record on the hardest level in XMoto.

Of course if you have any recommendations send them to weeklyopensource@gmail.com.

Miro

2008-07-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

I am still on vacation but I have an internet connection so I thought I would post anyway. You can still submit your idea for a chance to win a Ubuntu CD.

Miro is a program made for watching internet television. Miro has over 2500 channels with more added daily. The software has a nice guide to search through the channels. It claims to have the most HD on the internet. Miro has many popular channels such as all of Revision3, and TED. Miro can also search though and download videos from many video sharing sites such as youtube and dailymotion. You can make a search and save that search as a channel. It can also handle regular rss feeds and torrent files.

Be sure to check out getmiro.com and download the app.

Here is a video showing the basic UI of Miro

If you would like to recommend some software send your recommendation to weeklyopensource@gmail.com

Linux

2008-07-13T11:09:00.000-07:00

Since this is my first real post I will start by defining open source. Open source is when software is developed by a community of volunteers, and the source code of the program is available so you can see it. I will use an analogy to explain how it works. Pretend you are a young guy, and you love to jump bmx bikes. You found a nice field to make jumps in so you start making some. You picked a nice public spot for your jumps, so anyone can use them. Anyone can come by and make adjustments to the jumps to make them perfect. Pretty soon there is enough people using and working on the jumps they become better than commercially owned parks. Now just imagine that, but the field is a web page and the jumps are the piece of software you are developing.

Linux is a free operating system, such as Windows or Mac OS X, that is developed by the community. This operating system is one of the most advanced in the world. There are variations of Linux called distributions (distros for short). Some of the more popular ditros are Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE linux. If you are a beginner I would recommend Ubuntu linux. You can download an .iso image from the distro's website. This is a disk image and can be burned and booted from.

Some of the features of linux are:

there are hundreds of completely free distributions
it can run directly from a disk without touching the hard drive
most of the software is all completely free
you can surf the internet and check email just like you do on windows
there are no viruses
it is faster that Mac OS X or Windows Xp or Vista
many ditros have much more eye candy than Windows or Mac OS X
too many things to mention

The eye candy is what will get most users to try it so I have included a video showing some features of the compositing manager Compiz Fusion.

Be sure to check out these three Linux distributions: Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Fedora

If you have recommendations please email them to weeklyopensource@gmail.co m

Edit - OK I know this is only my first post, but unfortunately (for the readers) I am going on vacation. I am making a deal with some of the first readers of this blog. I am having a giveaway. Nothing special or expensive, but a copy of Ubuntu on a disk. To enter you have to send an email to weeklyopensource@gmail.com with "Giveaway" as the subject. In the body you have to include some suggestions on how to make my blog better, along with your address (your address will be kept secret). The person with the best advice will win the giveaway. If you already have a copy of Ubuntu and don't need one, feel free to send advice anyway. You only have until the 3rd of August to send an email, any messages sent after that will be read but not eligible. Good Luck!

What you will Receive:

CD Holder (cardboard)

Disk (CD-rom)

Stickers

OK I lied the first post wasn't the longest.

Goal of the Weekly Open Source

2008-07-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

This is my first post on my first blog ever. Before the judging begins, I would like to let you know a little bit about me.

I have never had a blog before. I have no experience in writing in a blog, let alone writing anything. I am only 15. I am a techno geek. I love to ride my unicycle.

I am going to tell you right off the bat that this will not be the best written blog on the internet. It will most likely be the most poorly written thing in you rss feeds, try to keep that in mind when you are reading.

Now I will get to the goals of The Weekly Open Source:

to let you know about a helpful or fun to use open source applications
articles will mostly be short and to the point, (to be honest this will probably be my longest post)
I will include a brief description of the software, and usually a screen shot or two
it will be easy enough for beginners, but aimed towards advanced users
it will include well known and unheard of software
new posts will come out some time on Saturdays
if you have any suggestions for software send it to weeklyopensource@gmail.com

That pretty much sums up this post so check back next Saturday for the first real post.