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OpenOffice shakes off X11

OpenOffice has long been offered as a free alternative for those needing a combo of word processing, spreadsheets, presentation and all that. But to get it working, it has been necessary to fire up the X11 (Unix windowing software) that comes with your Mac. I don’t mind doing this for something quick and dirty like testing a website on the Windows version of Internet Explorer, but it seems a bit much to have to do it for an office suite. Especially so when there is yet another free alternative called NeoOffice, which has by and large received good reviews.

Anyhoo, all this has been a particularly long-winded way of letting you know that OpenOffice 3 is now available as a public beta for your downloading pleasure and testing. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s another step toward freedom from the domination of You Know Who.

[ Posted May 8, 2008 in ]

POSSIBLY RELATED
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future
Pastor 1.8

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End of the road for mini$

A simple little program for money management called mini$ has been updated to version 2.6. So what? Well, it turns out this is the final release. Check it out, and if you like it, rest assured that this is as good as it gets. Here at thriftmac we use an even simpler money management program — it’s called never-spend-more-money-than-you-have-in-your-bank-account. Works great.

[ Posted May 3, 2008 in ]

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OpenOffice shakes off X11
NetNewsWire looks to the future
Pastor 1.8

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NetNewsWire looks to the future

Ars Technica has some details on upcoming releases of the now-freeware NetNewsWire, many of which are aimed at making it easier to sort through huge volumes of news feeds. While this general geekiness may be appealing to some, we were much more impressed with a new news reader called Times. It breaks away from the read-the-news-like-email paradigm and presents it in a layout somewhat like a newspaper. You can even “turn” the pages. Unfortunately, it’s not freeware, but you may find it worth the $30 they’re charging.

[ Posted May 2, 2008 in ]

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OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
Pastor 1.8

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Pastor 1.8

Pastor, one of the thriftmac top 10, has been updated with some cool new features: find as you type, automatic sorting, and speakable passwords. To top things off, there is version for iPhone coming. Pastor sits in the thriftmac dock, always at the ready with the super-secret thriftmac passwords.

[ Posted Apr 24, 2008 in ]

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OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future

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AllBookmarks 3.0

AllBookmarks now sports a new user interface, new search bar and the ability to automatically check for updates. This menubar item is a great way to keep all your bookmarks in one place — regardless of which web browser you’re using.

[ Posted Apr 22, 2008 in ]

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OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future

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GIMP gets a new look

Wired has the low-down on a major upgrade in the works for the GIMP, a popular open source alternative to Photoshop. It’s still in the developer stage, but screenshots show the program’s interface is evolving nicely and the app is incorporating many of its users’ suggestions.

[ Posted Apr 15, 2008 in ]

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OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future

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Cyberduck 3.0b1

Cyberduck, the FTP app that quacked, is on the verge of version 3 with some major new features in store. Among them are support for Amazon S3 and WebDAV, and the ability to search bookmarks.

[ Posted Apr 7, 2008 in ]

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OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future

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Smultron 3.4

Quite possibly the best freeware text editor for Mac has updates that include more speed, reduced memory usage and syntax definitions for MySQL, Metaslang and VHDL. And of course Smultron has various other improvements and bug fixes.

[ Posted Apr 4, 2008 in ]

POSSIBLY RELATED
OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future

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Onward and upward for ImageWell

It’s one of those good-news-and-bad-news scenarios. ImageWell continues to go from strength to strength with amazing new features, making it one of the handiest image editors you can imagine. The latest addition is a sharpness filter, and more goodies are in the works for the next version.

It goes without saying, though, that an increasingly powerful feature set comes at a price. As of version 3.5, a freeware version is no longer offered and ImageWell is thus removed from the thriftmac collection.

While it’s true we’re all about freeware here at thriftmac, it should be duly noted that we’re not complete cheapskates. ImageWell is a great bargain at $19.95. If you’re able to pry your wallet open even a little bit, it’s well worth the price.

[ Posted Apr 4, 2008 in ]

POSSIBLY RELATED
OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future

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FinderPop ready for Leopard

They say it’s the mouse equivalent of keyboard-driven Quicksilver. This is high praise indeed for the venerable FinderPop, which has survived through the years as an excellent way to put your files just a right (or control) click away. Navigate, view, perform actions — and more . . . Macworld has a review of version 2.1.2, which has been updated for Leopard.

[ Posted Apr 1, 2008 in ]

POSSIBLY RELATED
OpenOffice shakes off X11
End of the road for mini$
NetNewsWire looks to the future

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