Software Gadgets

PlayOnLinux is a frontend that helps to install a number of population Windows games and applications on Linux using WINE. It connects to an online PlayOnLinux script repository for the latest script to automate the installation of a given program. You still have to own a copy of the Windows program you want to install, of course. Currently, automated install scripts are available for 30 or 40 Windows games (including such popular titles as World of Warcraft, Steam, Elder Scrolls 4 and Call of Duty 2). Only about ten applications currently have scripts, but these ten include Office 2003 and Trillian.

This is a fairly specialized tool for Linux users, but if you need to install a Windows game that will work with WINE (Or Office 2003), and are having trouble getting WINE to cooperate, PlayOnLinux might solve your problems.

Operating System: Linux
Price: Free
Web Site: http://www.playonlinux.com/en

Tags: linux, WINE, freeware, PlayOnLinux, Windows

The PDF document format has become an industry standard and many Linux office programs can produce a document in PDF format without any additional software or special printer drivers needed. Editing a PDF document directly, however, has been hard in Linux due to a lack of a well-designed PDF editor (commercial or open source).

The open source PDFedit project is attempting to fill this need. Judging by the current version (0.3.2), they have already succeeded in producing a program that will do the average job of making a minor changes or corrections to a PDF file. Changes can even be scripted in EMCAscript (aka Javascript). PDFedit is easy to use. If you use Linux and need to edit PDF files directly, PDFedit looks like the answer to your problem.

Operating System: Linux (and most other Unix variants)
Price: Free
Web Site: http://pdfedit.petricek.net/pdfedit.index_e

Tags: linux, pdf format, pdf editor, freeware

XYplorer is a popular shareware replacement for the standard (and low on features) Windows Explorer file manager that comes standard on the Windows operating system. What few know, because the author keeps it well-hidden on his web site, is that an older version of XYplorer has been released as freeware: XYplorerFree. While XYplorerFree lacks the new XYplorer features added after December 2006, it has a number of powerful features that Windows Explorer lacks:

Portable (works from USB)
Multi-Tabbed
Powerful File Search
Search Templates
Instant Multi-Media Preview
Mouse Down Blow Up
File System Reports
Directory Print
Calculate Folder Sizes
Popup Breadcrumb
Catalog (Favorites Panel)
Batch Rename
Visual Filters
Selection Filter
Portable File Associations
Color Coding (File List)
Support of Icon Overlays
Highly Customizable Interface
Windows Shell Integration
Vista Compatible

XYplorerFree is a powerful, free replacement for the Windows Explorer file manager. If you often find yourself wishing Windows Explorer would do more to help you manage the tens of thousands of files on your hard drive, you owe it to yourself to download XYplorerFree.

Operating System: Windows
Price: Free
Web Site: http://www.xyplorer.com/free.php

Tags: XYplorer, XYplorerFree, Windows, Freeware, File Manager

KDE 4.0 has been released, with a large number of improvements to the KDE desktop. I tried it. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is really ready for everyday use yet as there are lots of (mainly minor, at least from my brief trial) problems and issues. I’m going to stay with Gnome for the time being, but I will probably need to re-evaluate this decision in six to nine months as KDE 4 is very nice — or looks like it will be very nice once more of its problems are worked out. It’s the first release of a major new version and it has all the problems any such release will have.

Tags: Linux, Desktop Environment, KDE 4

With version 2.6, Newsgator’s popular FeedDemon newsreader for Windows is freeware. I personally prefer Great News for Windows and Liferea for Linux, but if you are looking for a feed reader, FeedDemon is definitely worth a look now that it is free. It has some special features that interact with Newsgator and consistently gets good reviews.

Here’s FeedDemon’s major features as listed on the FeedDemon web site:

Reading Feeds

* Newspaper Format: When you select a channel, FeedDemon’s tabbed browser displays the channel’s news items in a newspaper for easy reading. You can display a newspaper of news items for an entire folder or view one feed at a time.
* News Bins: Store news items in a central location and provide a handy way to collect items from different channels. If you find an interesting item that you might want to read again, just store it in a news bin for future reference. News Bins are synchronized through the NewsGator Online platform, so you can read these items from FeedDemon on other computers as well as other NewsGator readers.
* Synchronization: Read a post in FeedDemon and it is marked as read in other NewsGator readers.
* Shared Experience: See what news is popular with other NewsGator users and find out who is linking to the news you’re reading.
* Video: Watch embedded video right within the newspaper view.
* Panic Button: Ever gone on vacation and gotten a little behind on your reading? The Panic Button solves this and many other problems by quickly marking all older items read.

Finding Feeds

* Watches: Look for keywords in news items as they’re downloaded. After you create a watch, it examines every incoming news item whenever any channel is updated.
* News Comes To You: Subscribe to feeds from all over the web or choose some of the dozens of default feeds.
* Search: Search outside of FeedDemon’s subscriptions by selecting a feed search engine, then enter your keyword, and FeedDemon will subscribe to a dynamic channel containing the search results for that keyword.

Other

* Podcasts: Powerful podcasting tools enable you to download audio files and automatically copy them to your iPod or other media player. The bundled FeedStation utility enables you to schedule your downloads so they happen overnight while you’re asleep. When you wake up, you’ll find new audio waiting on your media player of choice.

Operating System: Windows
Price: Free
Web Site: Click Here

Tags: Windows, Freeware, FeedDemon, RSS Feed Reader