Going the Whole Hog

A freeware feast on a platter called the TheOpenCD…

If you have been following my cawings in this space, you must be aware of the type of software that I usually consort with. Most of my regular peckings, pawings, pokings and proddings are limited to software programs that money can’t buy but everyone can download legally, free of cost. Yeah, freeware. Well, this month--in continuance of my umbilical bond with like-bellied, ever-hungry freebie mongers--I go the whole hog and tell you about something that is quite the mummyji and daddyji of all free downloads. This something is called TheOpenCD (www.theopencd.org).

TheOpenCD is a single-point aggregation of some of the best, most stable, as well as hugely popular, free and Open Source Windows programmes available in the world currently. These programmes encompass most universal computing tasks that you and I may need on a daily basis: Word processing, e-mail, presentations, web browsing, image manipulation, gaming, or even web design. (You may notice that we have already spoken about many of these in this column here.)

Hurmph! A few gyani fellas out there may grunt that the stuffing in each of these categories is not all that very comprehensive. Maybe... But a one-stop collection like this is hard—if not impossible--to come by. So no arguments.

Bundled together as an ISO file, TheOpenCD is ready for burning straight onto a CD. And each of the numerous applications on it is available for download individually from the OpenCD website as well. Now let’s sneak a quick peak at what’s on the platter…

PRODUCTIVITY

• AbiWord, a decent standalone word processor that does just about everything you can belt out at the keyboard and whisk around with the mouse.
• MoinMoin, a very good collaborative tool to generate, organize, and manage content via wikis (easily editable web pages).
• OpenOffice.org, the famous, full-featured productivity suite that is fighting the might of Goliath (Microsoft Office); it includes a word processor, spreadsheet, web page editor and presentation programme.
• PDFCreator, a well-tempered Adobe Acrobat workalike that can create PDF documents from any Windows programme.

DESIGN

• Blender, a pretty advanced 3D modeling software for producing creating animations, generating renderings, performing post-production, interactive creation and playback.
• GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program, a good, powerful and compelling imaging solution; can’t beat Photoshop, but it’s legally free!
• Nvu, pronounced “en-view”, is a Macromedia's Dreamweaver workalike that weighs in as a surprisingly full-featured what-you-see-is-what-you-get web page editor.

INTERNET

• Firefox, my fav web browser, that ably takes on if not licks IE7; TheOpenCD still has to update its download to FF 2.0 though.
• Gaim, an instant messenger (IM) client that can chat it out single-handedly in real time with any supported network—from AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, to Zephyr.
• Thunderbird, a rock-steady e-mail client that can wing it against Outook Express.

MULTIMEDIA

• Audacity, a groovy audio editing programme which can record, mix sounds, apply effects using a variety of filters, and provide playback.
• Celestia, an amazing three-dimensional simulation of the universe based on current astronomical information.
• Really Slick Screensavers, some mesmerizing, non-static eye candy (fractals, light trails, fireworks) for you desktop.

UTILITIES

• 7-zip, a beaut of a ute to create, compress, decompress files into 7zip, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM, and DEB archive formats.
• Notepad2, a neat and nifty replacement for Windows Notepad; need we say more?

GAMING

• Sokoban YASC (Yet Another Sokoban Clone), that age-old crate pushing game; crazily effortless, yet abominably addictive.
• Battle for Wesnoth, a turn-based, fantasy-themed strategy game; good (no, not awesome) graphics, first-class gameplay, must try genre.