Software Resources
This Resources page is one of three on the Front Range PC Users Group web site. The other two are Knowledge Resources and Hardware Resources.
On this page, you will find links to web sites for free software (and some shareware). There are links to specific applications, and links to web sites that provide lists of additional applications. All the links listed are consistent with the not-for-profit educational mission of FRPCUG (please read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page). All the links are annotated to help the reader evaluate whether the application or web site can be of help.
Additional resource contributions from members are encouraged. Each suggestion will be given careful consideration and posted to this page if the content is deemed consistent with the educational content requirement.
Please note that there is a separate list of free online Tech Support resources on the Computer 911 page.
Members and non-members are encouraged to report broken links by sending a message to contact@frpcug.org.
Free software can be organized into two categories:
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Free proprietary software. This type of software is usually provided by a manufacturer of a product or a developer of a software application. The software is provided without charge as a marketing tool for the manufacturer's product/developer's application. The manufacturer (or developer) maintains strict control over the software source code, and vigorously defends its intellectual property. The Avery DesignPro® label software and the free version of the Serif PagePlus® Desktop Publishing application are examples of this type of free software.
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Open source software. This type of software developed from the first type, but is distinguished from the former by its use of "open source" code. From the Wikipedia article on Open Source Software: "Open source software (OSS) began as a marketing campaign for free software. OSS can be defined as computer software for which the human-readable source code is made available under a copyright license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that meets the Open Source Definition. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner."
The debate over proprietary vs. free software has been known to get very heated. For an objective discussion of this topic, connect to this Idealware report. Although the report compares Microsoft Office 2003® with Open Office 2.0, there is an excellent discussion of the different business philosophies between proprietary and open source software. Idealware is a non-profit organization that claims to provide "...candid Consumer-Reports-style reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits."
The information on this page is organized into five sections:
- Free proprietary software applications
- Open source software organizations
- Open source software applications
- Application download and information web sites
- Supplemental informational web sites
Free Proprietary Software Applications
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Avery DesignPro® Label Application. DesignPro®
Avery claims that the DesignPro® software allows you to "Quickly customize and print professional labels, business cards, dividers, greeting cards and more using the step-by-step guide. Fast and easy mail merge for large or small mailings."
The DesignPro® label software is a completely stand-alone, free, easy to use application for creating lables and more. It works with a variety of external data source formats for mail merge applications. You do not need a word processor for this application, but you do need a lot of hard disk space. The required minimum is 200 MB, with 800 MB recommended.
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Serif PagePlus® Desktop Publishing (DTP) Application. PagePlus®
The free version of PagePlus® is a very early version of this application. It therefore is not compatible with some of the newer graphics formats. There are also issues with the EPS graphic format, color management, and spot colors. However, the application is potentially useful as an introduction to a true DTP application.
Open Source Software Organizations
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This description of OpenOffice was extracted from the OpenOffice website:
"OpenOffice.org is both a product and an open-source project. Both have been in existence since October 13, 2000. OpenOffice.org 1.0, the product, was released on April 30, 2002.
OpenOffice.org's Mission Statement is...
To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.
The OpenOffice.org project is primarily sponsored by Sun Microsystems, which is the primary contributor of code to the Project. Our other major corporate contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google. Additonally over 450,000 people from nearly every curve of the globe have joined this Project with the idea of creating the best possible office suite that all can use. This is the essence of an "open source." community!"
This open source product/project is unusual in that it has major corporate sponsorship.
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"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) donor supported charity founded in 1985 and based in Boston, MA, USA. The FSF has a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users."
You won't find a long list of software on this site. You will find, instead, information on the GNU operating system and the philosophy behind free software.
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This is a companion site to the Free Software Foundation website. It provides information on the GNU operating system.
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The ODP claims to be "...the most comprehensive human edited directory of the Web, compiled by a vast global community of volunteer editors." It is "...hosted and administered by Netscape Communication Corporation." "The ODP is also known as DMOZ, an acronym for Directory Mozilla. This name reflects its loose association with Netscape's Mozilla project, an Open Source browser initiative. The ODP was developed in the spirit of Open Source, where development and maintenance are done by net-citizens, and results are made freely available for all net-citizens."
Open Source Software Applications
With two exceptions, open source applications are a result of a collaboration between individuals, rather than products of corporations. Those individuals may come from industry and/or academia (or just plain—knowlegeable—users). The applications listed are, with three exceptions, generally at the "Beta" development stage. From Wikipedia, "... a beta version is the first version released outside the organization or community that develops the software, for the purpose of evaluation or real-world black/grey-box testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release. Beta level software generally includes all features, but may also include known issues and bugs of a less serious variety."
The two exceptions, regarding both corporate sponsorship and beta releases, are the Linux operating system, and the OpenOffice applications suite. It needs to be noted that both Linux and OpenOffice started without corporate sponsorship. The GIMP application (described below) can also be considered to be beyond the Beta stage and a complete product.
The applications are:
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Linux is not precisely an application but rather an operating system. This description was extracted from the Wikipedia link listed above: "Linux ... is a term commonly used to refer to Unix-like computer operating systems which use the Linux kernel. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development; typically all the underlying source code can be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone."
There are number of variations of the Linux operating system. The Wikipedia article is an excellent description of the operating system and its history, and a link to a list of those variations, or "distributions" is included in that article.
There is a very large quantity of "tech support" information available, both electronic and print, on the many Linux distributions.
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Openoffice is a "suite" of applications similar to the Microsoft Office® products. OpenOffice contains word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation and other applications.
The products are easy to use, complete and reliable. Tech support is provided on the OpenOffice website. There is also substantial third party support for these applications, both web-based documentation and tutorials, and print publications. The applications are, with minor exceptions, compatible with the Microsoft products, and comparable in capabilities to the Microsoft products.
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Scribus claims to be an "...open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation."
Development started with a small group of graphics/publishing professionals in Europe. The team has expanded over time. The product is intended for use with commercial printing. It is not now, nor is it intended to be in the future, a copy of the Adobe InDesign® product. Its strengths are the many platform options available and complete compliance with the Portable Document Format (PDF) specification. The development team claims that Scribus is suitable for short marketing and sales documents such as book covers, flyers, brochures, business cards, letterheads, etc. For long academic or technical documents with footnotes and indexing, other applications are appropriate.
Tech support is provided via several Scribus websites. There is a print manual in progress, but it is not yet available (November 2008). This is a professional DTP application. Users new to the complexity level of this type of application can expect a steep learning curve. However, since it is free, it is potentially a good place to start with such an application.
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Inkscape is "...an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator®, CorelDraw®, or Xara X®, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format."
Inkscape is available for "...Linux, Windows 2000/2003/XP (fully self-contained installer), and OSX (dmg package)." Windows 98/ME is no longer supported.
Inkscape is not a replacement for GIMP or Photoshop®. "Inkscape is used for creating vector drawings, such as laying out a poster or creating a fancy logo, whereas bitmap editors are for working on raster images, such as touching up a photograph."
Tech support is provided on the Inkscape web site.
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"GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages."
Tech support is provided on the GIMP web site. There is also substantial third party support for GIMP, both web-based documentation and tutorials, and print publications. GIMP is considered by many in the industry to be a capable alternative to the Adobe Photoshop® product.
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"Artweaver is a simple Freeware program for creative painting, i.e. Artweaver offers you all artistic effects which you need for your work.
Where does Artweaver differ (from) other graphic programs?
Artweaver is a program to simulate tools as naturally as possible, while traditional graphic programs are intended for processing images."
Tech support is provided on the Artweaver web site.
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"This project aims to create an archive of user contributed clip art that can be freely used. All graphics submitted to the project should be placed into the Public Domain according to the statement by the Creative Commons. All images are in the SVG (scalable vector graphics) format only, up to 10 MB in size."
This is a collection of drawings-there are no photographs here. To access those drawings, click on the Clip Art tab from the home page. The instructions are not all that helpful, but that is where the drawings are. There are no categories and no thumbnails (previews), but key words (tags) are displayed with the title of each item, and there is a reasonably effective search function. Some of the drawings will display if you click on the title of the drawing. You must scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the word "more" (in tiny letters) to move from page to page. NOTE: not all applications are compatible with the SVG format. And, if you are still using dial up internet access, be prepared for a long wait (minutes) before the home page finishes loading. Tech support is provided on the Open Clipart Library web site.
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This website is run by the same people that run the Open Clip Art Library. The fonts are all public domain--although, at the time of writing (November 2008), there are less than 100 fonts in the library. A few of the fonts have sample displays when you click on the font name in the list. The list contains, at present, many unusual fonts. Don't look for free versions of the more common fonts. Like the Clip Art Library, you must scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the word "more" (in tiny letters) to move from page to page. The site claims that the fonts are all high quality. Tech support is provided on the Open Font Library web site.
Application Download and Information Websites
- Free Downloads
This is the CNET® download page, with the following claims:
"Download.com® offers a huge library of free and legal software downloads, music downloads, and game downloads. We provide timely, relevant, and credible information about important software updates and game releases as they come available. Our editors write unbiased reviews and ratings for thousands of free downloads, and they are committed to maintaining coverage that is objective and accurate. All the downloadable software, music, and games in our library undergo a rigorous testing process to ensure it is safe and spyware free."
- Freeware #1
The tag line for this website is "Your free software resource." There is no information on the web site about the organization or people behind the website, although you will find a long list links on the "Partners" page. Presumably, those are links to the software suppliers/developers.
- Freeware #2
This web site claims that it is "A place for you to look for great freeware that's been tried and reviewed by people just like you."
This link was contributed by member Rick Mattingly.
- Freeware #3
"All programs have been installed and tested by ourselves, so you can be sure that it works as promised. New programs are added regularly to all categories, and as soon as a new version of an already listed program becomes available, we immediately update its listing."
- Freeware #4
This web site claims to offer "Best-ever Freeware" in a variety of categories. It also has "How to" guides and tutorials, and a freeware forum.
This link was contributed by member Bill Greger.
- Product Reviews
This is the CNET® home page. "CNET® is your premier source for tech product reviews, tech news, daily videos, and free downloads, as well as podcasts galore."
- Shareware
This is a separate CNET® web site that allows you to "search for shareware programs & free software."
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SourceForge.net
This web site claims to be "The world's largest development and download repository of Open Source code and applications."
- Tucows
"Our site is designed to provide users with solutions to Internet and technology problems. It includes a library of over 40,000 software titles available for download on a shareware, freeware or trial basis."
Supplemental Informational Web Sites
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This web site claims to be "...a collection of high-quality public domain images specifically tailored for use in word processors and optimized for printing on home/small office inkjet printers." The web site also claims to be "...a clean and safe site for children and others to find good-quality, printable images that have no copyright restrictions. All the images are in the Public Domain."
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This site offers a dummy text generator, along with a few words about the origin of the dummy text provided. This is an excellent resource that everyone should add to the list of bookmarks or favorites in one's browser.
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This web site contains links to information on copyright and intellectual property law (and also many resources for both print and electronic publishing).
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The official web site description is: "U.S. Copyright Office is an office of public record for copyright registration and deposit of copyright material."
This web site is a comprehensive source of copyright information. It has a search capability. However, it can be a little tedious following related links within the website. It is best used with a book reference (see below), or something similar.
Kozak, Ellen M., "Every Writer's Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law, 3rd edition." Henry Holt and Company, LLC, New York, NY, 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7378-7
A useful, helpful and (relatively) inexpensive reference.
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Computers: Graphics: Fonts: Foundries
This web site provides a list of 113 type "foundries" with hyperlinks for Aerotype to Zang-O-Fonts. Only a few hyperlinks in the list have been tested. Inclusion in the list is not a guaranty of the quality of the product. It is also important to note that the fonts available from the foundries in the list are, mostly, not free. The list is part of the Open Directory Project (ODP) from dmoz.org.
Disclaimer
This information is made available as a service. Use of any information found in the web sites listed above is at the sole risk of the user. Past positive reports on information received from these web sites does not imply an endorsement of the web site by Front Range PC Users Group or a guaranty of future success. Neither Front Range PC Users Group, nor its officers, nor its contributors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages resulting from use of information found in these web sites. All users are encouraged to report their experiences with these web sites (or any other web sites), good, bad or indifferent, to contact@frpcug.org.
