Whatever happened to Fraise?
It all started with Smultron, an open source text editor that came to be much loved by the Mac community. Smultron is no longer free, but it did get forked into Fraise and once again we had a free version.
But now Fraise has disappeared — or at least fraiseapp.com has reverted to a generic Go Daddy page. And that’s never a good sign.
Luckily, Tincta has just hit version 1.0, so there’s still hope for a fast, free and full-featured Mac text editor.
By the way, developer Mr. Fridge does more than just Tincta. There are three other free apps, including the wonderful Toady. Build your self-esteem with random compliments via Growl. Or go the other way and get insults with evil Toady.
Posted Saturday, July 9, 2011 in Open-source
A trio of dupe finders
Whether it’s pictures, music or plain old files, Hardcoded Software has an app to help you find duplicates and delete them. Or move them or copy them.
Fuzzy matching allows the programs to find file names that are not only the same, but similar. Preferences allow you to tweak the search engine to find exactly the type of files you want. In the case of pictures, you can compare supported formats.
Files: dupeGuru
Pictures: dupeGuru PE
Music: dupeGuru ME
While you’re at it, have a look at two other programs from the same developer: moneyGuru for managing finances and musicGuru for organizing your music collection. All programs are open source, but the developer asks users to make a contribution.
Posted Monday, October 18, 2010 in Open-source
Open, libre . . . what's going on?
I’ve never worked on an open source project, but I have worked with volunteer groups — and I imagine there are similarities.
First of all, it can be a wonderful experience because your colleagues are idealistic and they are there because they want to be. Your work is appreciated and your contributions are praised.
One of the frustrations is that someone has to pay the bills. It would be great if they could be covered by fundraising, but all too often you need a benefactor of some sort. It might be a government agency, it might be a corporate sponsor, it might be a foundation — but in the end they call the shots because without their money, the whole thing comes crashing down.
I thought of these things as I contemplated the emergence of LibreOffice, which is a project of the Document Foundation. It’s hard to explain its relationship to OpenOffice.org — a widely used open source office suite — but let’s try. Here’s their mission statement:
Our mission is to facilitate the evolution of the OpenOffice.org Community into a new open, independent, and meritocratic organizational structure within the next few months. An independent Foundation is a better match to the values of our contributors, users, and supporters, and will enable a more effective, efficient, transparent, and inclusive Community. We will protect past investments by building on the solid achievements of our first decade, encourage wide participation in the Community, and co-ordinate activity across the Community.
It’s wordy, as is typical of many mission statements, but the key word — as I see it — is “independent.” OpenOffice.org is currently run by Oracle, which obtained it when the company took over Sun Microsystems. More information can be gleaned from the Document Foundation’s FAQ, but two important points are that the name OpenOffice.org is a trademark owned by Oracle, and that Oracle has given the Community (as they call themselves) “notice to quit” from its previous web infrastructure.
Reading between the lines, it appears that Oracle is not interested in supporting OpenOffice.org, and the project has been forced to move on to an independent foundation model. They contend this will be a good thing, and that it was the goal all along. By creating the Document Foundation, the group will have more freedom to carry on its office suite project (and possibly others) as it sees fit.
If there is a downside, it is the loss of deep corporate pockets. If the group can no longer count on support from Oracle, then the question of funding becomes crucial. Mozilla has carried on independently and done a fine job with Firefox, Thunderbird and other projects — so it can be done. A big source of revenue for Mozilla, though, is a deal with Google to use it as the primary search engine. I couldn’t find any mention of funding on the Document Foundation website, but it has to a priority somewhere along the line.
There is also the issue of familiarity. After 10 years on the market, OpenOffice.org is widely known as a cross-platform, free alternative. An interesting discussion of the distinction between “gratis” and “libre” can be found at Wikipedia. Basically, “libre” means free as in little or no restrictions — as opposed to “gratis” as in zero price. While this has meaning in the open source community, it could be a challenge to educate the public. The Document Foundation hopes that Oracle will donate its trademark on OpenOffice.org. But if it does, will the name of the software be changed, further adding to the confusion?
Meanwhile, OpenOffice.org is as freely available as it ever was from its website, with not a hint of trouble. But the future is cloudy at best, with much hinging on decisions from Oracle.
Posted Thursday, October 14, 2010 in Open-source
An open source version of FreeHand?
Despite Adobe’s best efforts to entice artists to its Illustrator vector graphics program, there is a hard core that refuses to give up on FreeHand.
A new website called Free FreeHand has sprung up to encourage FreeHand users to band together in an effort to breathe new life into the app. Among the options they’re looking at is the release of FreeHand code and licensing to the open source community. If that doesn’t work, they’re considering a lawsuit.
As of this writing, 1,398 people have already signed up for the group’s newsletter.
For many years, FreeHand competed with Illustrator until Adobe acquired its parent company, Macromedia, in 2005. Read the full story at Wikipedia.
Meanwhile, development continues on Inkscape, a vector graphics program that has long been open source.
Posted Tuesday, September 8, 2009 in Open-source
A freeware wiki
It seems there is no end to the number of Mac freeware sites out there, but here’s one that’s a little different — a wiki. Downloadpedia has a number of categories listing software for all platforms. In the Mac section, there is best open source and best free. I haven’t tried it, but presumably you could join up and add your own apps. So far, the selection looks quite good — there’s none of the junk that plagues so many freeware sites.
Posted Tuesday, June 23, 2009 in Open-source
FreeSMUG CD available
FreeSMUG has released a “CD with the most useful free open source applications packaged for Mac OS X.” As far as we can tell, though, there is no actual physical CD involved — just a 694.5 MB download. You could, presumably, burn the apps onto a CD once they’re downloaded. In any case, the programs are all listed with links to their sites, so you can pick and choose which ones you want. And by the way, we agree that this is indeed some of the most useful free stuff you’ll find for your Mac.
Posted Saturday, June 6, 2009 in Open-source
Put GIMP to work
GIMP is your best bet as a free alternative to Photoshop, but — like any powerful program — it has a steep learning curve. Fortunately, there is strong support in the open source community. An example of this is a comprehensive article in Smashing Magazine that outlines ways to tweak GIMP so that it comes closer to being a true replacement for Photoshop. Good stuff.
Posted Friday, April 3, 2009 in Open-source
Miro 2.0
This has to be one of the slickest open source programs around. At its most basic, Miro offers a way of subscribing to video feeds so that they automatically download for your viewing convenience. But it’s much more than that.
Miro has featured feeds such as videos from the spoof news website, The Onion. Or you can browse popular feeds ranging from Monty Python skits to the NBC Nightly News to Mac Tips and Tricks. A search function allows you to find videos on virtually any subject imaginable. In addition, there are numerous other ways to discover videos.
What makes Miro different from watching a video at a website is that you actually download before watching. The video sits in the Miro library, where it can be played as often as you like. It will automatically expire after five days, but you can change this by clicking a Keep button. Another button allows you to remove it altogether.
With Internet videos increasing in popularity, Miro is a great way to keep track of what’s available and ensure you don’t miss your favourites. It has an active fan base and good support for your inevitable questions.
Posted Friday, February 13, 2009 in Open-source
Open vs. Neo vs. Plus?
Adding a twist to the OpenOffice vs. NeoOffice debate is the announcement that PlusOffice is coming out with a Mac version in January. PlusOffice builds on the code for OpenOffice to add features such as full support for Open Document Format (ODF) version 1.2 and the ability to open documents in Microsoft Office Open XML. It is free, but you have to pay $34.95 for support.
Posted Friday, December 12, 2008 in Open-source
Three million downloads for OpenOffice
After hitting version 3 — and adding native support for OS X to boot — OpenOffice has been downloaded more than three million times. That’s a phenomenal number that shows a real hunger out there for a Microsoft Office alternative. We have a copy sitting in the Applications folder here at thriftmac headquarters, but haven’t had a chance to use it much. One little surprise is that we can now open the PowerPoint attachments that occasionally come by e-mail.
Meall Dubh has a chart showing the download figures, including a breakdown by platform. Not surprisingly, most downloads are for Windows, but Mac and Linux hold their own.
Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 in Open-source
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You'll find nothing here but 100 per cent, totally free software for Mac. There are no demos, no crippleware, no "freemiums." The only exceptions are for programs supported by tasteful ads. In some cases, developers ask for a donation — and we encourage you to make one if you find the program useful. Let us know if you find an app here that is not totally free, and we'll delete it. And if there is a program that deserves to be here — but isn't — we'd like to hear about that, too.
