Would Ulteo help OpenOffice to beat MS Office ?

Openoffice is an open source software offering its users many desktop applications as text editing and spreadsheet application. Since its appearance it was the first competitor of Microsoft Office but has never been the number one ! Microsoft Office is still the best sold Microsoft product ever! This desktop suite alone is making huge revenues and still the most desktop suite used in the world. You may say that's because integrated with Windows but it doesn't. It's sold separately from Windows. IE is integrated in Windows and couldn't beat Firefox so it's time to OOo to have some wings !

Wings.. This is what Ulteo is offering to OOo. Ulteo will allow users to use OpenOffice desktop suite on line with no installation process required. May be it will give some lazy and curious users an opportunity to give it a try. It will also allow people who were making some economies to buy a MS office suite to give OOo a try and may be they will be convinced to download OOo.

How to ?
Make sure you have:

• A high speed network connection
• A recent Safari,IE( 6 or 7) or Firefox(1.5 or more) browser.
• A virtual Java machine
• An Ulteo free account.

The OpenOffice.org desktop suite is great and can satisfy all the users need but it wasn't well introduced to users. That's what the Open source community lacks! The ability to make people try their products. If Ulteo could reach many users I'm certain that OOo will get a great step forward. Ulteo is counting (until now) 15,000 beta users. If you want to be one of them visit this page.

Best Free C/C++ IDE

The first question to ask is what does a programmer need ?
To create an application you have to make sure that all these tools are available.

• A Text editor : To write the code source ( of any language). Basically a simple software as "bloc-notes" under Windows or "vi" under Linux is enough. The best thing is to have an intelligent text editor that make your code colorful and make your codes more comprehensive and easier to read.
• A Compiler : to compile your source code to binary code.
• A debugger : To help you to correct the bugs in your code.

Programming demands a lot of effort and concentration and you have to pick the tools that can make your life easier! You can look for these components separately but this will be like torturing yourself! You should pick 3 in 1 software called IDE : Integrated development environment.

Best Free C/C++ IDEs

• DevC++
• Code::Blocks

Both of them are free and simple which make of them the best tools for beginners.
Note that both work on Windows and only Code::Blocks can run on Linux. And for Windows vista users you should follow some particular procedures to set up thes IDE or else you'll face many bugs with compiling. Nevertheless, Visual Studio Express work correctly on Vista.
For mac users, I recommend "Xcode". You can install it from the CD of Mac OS.

Phonon : where QT and KDE meet

Originally posted and verified by bluestorm

Trolltech has recently announced that its graphic library Qt will be using Phonon, he new multimedia library created by the KDE developers. This is good news for Qt4 users allowing Qt to be better and simpler and it's a good sign of a great collaboration between Trolltech and the other Free software projects.

Qt is a library which allows programmers to write graphic application codes. Basically used in C++, it's also available with many other languages (Java, Python, Ruby...). Qt is Free software and can be used in many OS (Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux, BSD...)

Trolltech is the enterprise which has developed Qt. Founded in 1994 by students. It's counting about 100 developers in Norwich, Australia, California , China and Germany. Influenced by KDE, Trolltech has made of Qt a free software by using a clever double licenses : One Free ( and free of charge) license allowing to create Only Free software and proprietary software editors have to buy a commercial license. This politic is also used by MySQL, it allows to have a free library and have a good financial sources.

KDE is one of the most famous Free desktop environment for GNU/Linux distributions and the first competitor of GNOME. Allows the user to exploit many features : Desktop, menu, control panel...etc. KDE has also some applications as File explorer, Browser, Text editor, PDF reader...etc. To that purpose, the KDE project builded (on top of the Qt librairies) a framework helping programmers to create desktop application easily..

KDE Screeshots:

Phonon is a multimedia library ( sound and video) developed by Matthias Kretz, a KDE developer. KDE4 developers intend to use Phonon so any developer will be able to add a video or a sound to his application.

There are many multimedia libraries dedicated to sound and video like Xine , Gstreamer and FMOD. Phonon doesn't make the whole library from the beginning but uses the existing ones and propose some unified functionalities for all developers.

Qt developers were so interested in the multi-platform aspect of Phonon. In fact, Qt uses the same ingredients and gives some features to facilitate software conception. ( It's easy to manage networks, SQL...etc).
Consequently Trolltech suggested to support Phonon development. Which was very convenient for KDE developers, because this will bring to them more programmers. Phonon will be integrated in the new 4.4 Qt version and the Qt developers are already improving the library
during their work time. Trolltech hopes to finish the backends early allowing to Phonon to use some multimedia systems of MacOS (QuickTime 7) and Windows (DirectShow 9).

The most important detail in this news is that Phonon will be related the KDE project. KDE developers will continue developing the library and will discuss with Trolltech developers about its evolution. The whole source code of Phonon will stay hosted with the KDE code. Instead of working on Phonon alone, Trolltech engineers will collaborate directly with KDE developers.

QT
KDE
KDE announcing the integration of Phonon
Trolltech announcing the integration of Phonon with KDE

eZ Publish CMS 4th version : all the features you need

CMS are Content management systems created to make creating a website an easier task. Among many others, eZ Publish has some unique criteria. It's a flexible and extensible CMS created by eZ Systems, a Norwegian company was behind the PHP eZ Components Library, eZ Publish is an ECMS ( Enterprise Content Management System) distributed under both GPL and proprietary licenses.

eZ Publish offers a great number of features: document publication, as text and multimedia files, is possible once the software is installed. Integrated solutions gives you the possibility to manage : Web shop, news, a social website, a personal website, photo gallery, forums and polls...

Mainly dedicated to enterprises, eZ Publish included many features as : Product catalog, the caddie function, tax and promotion management, sells stats and sending management using a secured payment system.

For developers, such features are implemented in eZ Publish 4: Classes and object definition, parametred and programmable workflows, WebDAV interface and clustering..

Where hides the revolution !
After many bugs corrections, the fourth version is a revolution by being the first version using PHP 5. So many new features are available as autoload, DOMDocument...
Another new thing, eZ Flow. It's a new extension dedicated to media publication using the WebDAV technologies. The import/export communication with ODF you can stream Flash and videos in eZ Publish.

Ameliorations:
eZ is more efficient with ameliorated scripts and a reorganization to the XML. The new versions also allows you to use eZ Components Library in the extensions. A great importance is given to the famous Web 2.0 by giving many features to publish pages with tag clouds, photo galleries, blogs...etc..

The eZ Publish community counts about 25000 members, composed by 2000 reference clients, 2 millions downloads and a network counting 200 partners.

Related links
Official eZ systems website
download eZ Publish 4.0
eZ components

12 Megapixels video cam... and more !!

astonished! this is how I was when I saw this "supacam"! You can call it the video cam of your dreams! I'll try to be brief so you can get its fabulous criteria easily:

• 12GB VGA Streaming video
• Tapeless digital movie cam
• HD photo W/face detection
• 15 X Zoom. 30fps @ D1 720x480
• 6 HR personal Media player

You can get some of these extra accessories:

• Water-proof case
• Tripod
• Remote control
• Extra battery
• Fast charge
• Memory ( high speed SD )

It's a 12 Megapixels video cam. It means that you can make a DVD quality videos and stream it directly to the web using this cam! This cam contains a face detector so you can use it as a security cam for your baby. The Tripod allows you to use it as a web cam and the remote control will allow you to manipulate it easily for family home videos. It contains Flash and night shouting video!!
The price is $349
You can find it here

Free international calling : The real deal !!

Imagine that you can call for free! Talkster givs you the possibility to do this. All you have to do is visiting their home page and fill the forms and your call will work. You can do this either from your desktop, your phone or via sms. If you want to get more informations about how to make your free calls work visit this page.
Actually, this service is free. You may be wondering "hmm.. free things doesn't exist anymore... there must be something in return..!" Let me be frank with you : You are right ! After doing this phone call you will receive some sms ads on your mobile. There can be some surprises on these sms (prices, coupons...)
How can they make it possible?
Actually, after filling the forms, the server will search for a local phone and will make the call for you then bridges you and your contact together. This will allow you to have a good quality phone call. It makes also group calls possible! After this call Talkster will send a ad for you and for your contact, an ad that suits each country. Consequently, this service is available in a limited but a great number of country around the world. If your country doesn't appear in the list, don't worry all that you have to is filling a form asking to add your country. Tell your friends about it so they claim to add your country too. The operator will send you an email once the service is available in your country.
Now visit Talkster.com

How to run games on Linux (sweet links)

The most important thing that make youngsters so attached to Windows and reject Linux distributions is running games. To solve this problem we give those links:

How to install any game using Wine?
This question was asked in the Linuxquestions.org and largely discussed. It mainly deals with the best tools to run games on Linux such as Wine and VMware.

Linux games lists:
You can find here some Opensource games easy to set up. Those websites use lists sorted by the gaming type, developers and liscence.
Linux gamers' game list
Gnome files game list

Frank's Corner
Frank is a linux user. His blog is about how to run windows applications on Linux. In this website you can find how to run a huge list of games using Wine. Most of them need to be installed in Windows first then run them on Linux and this is his list of games that worked on Linux using Wine :

First person shooters

Call Of duty
Code Red
Counter-Strike
Delta force
Delta Force 2
Gore
Half-life
Half-life 2
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2
Gunman Chronicles
Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast
Heavy Metal FAKK 2
Kingpin: Life Of Crime
Max Payne
Quake 2
Quake 3 Arena
Sin
Soldier Of Fortune
Soldier Of Fortune 2
Steam
Starsiege Tribes
Unreal
Unreal Tournament
Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory

Action

AquaPop
Billy Bob
Bomber Mania
Daiktana
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
Galaxy Invaders
Gem Mine
GeneRally
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Highway Pursuit
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
JBall
Lode Runner Online
Mageslayer
Mummy's Curse
Naval Strike
Onslaught
Pacmanic Christmas
Pacmanic Worlds
Sky Fire
Snowball
Starball
South Park Mario Bro 2
Tank Assault

RPG/adventure

American McGee's Alice
Avernum
Avernum 2
Avernum 3
Baldur's Gate
Blades Of Avernum
Blades Of Exile
Dark Earth
Exile: Escape From The Pit
Deus Ex
Diablo 2
Heretic 2
Icewind Dale
Nethergate
Planescape Torment
Rune
Wizardy 8
World Of Warcraft

Strategy

Caesar 3
Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
Commandos - Behind Enemy Lines
Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars
Emperor
Europa Universalis
Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000
Pharaoh
Starcraft
Steel Panthers: World At War
Stronghold: Crusader
Sudden Strike
Total Annihilation
Warcraft 3
Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne
Zeus - Master of Olympus

This list is huge! If frank can do it you can do it. All you need is patience ... Now get back to work!!

Every video fan must have : A free and full featured DVD ripper

Once we install the Linux on our desktop, the first thing we want to make sure it works properly is our media files : music and video files. We talked too much about music tools. It's time to have a clue about some powerful video tools.

DVD::RIP is mainly written in Perl, made to provide users an easy way to rip and transcode dvd. What makes this tool so special among others is the huge number of features:
This tool is able to support almost all major video codecs : Divx, Xvid, mpeg1, mpeg2,ffmpeg. That means that you can rip your DVD to any video type you want. It also uses Divx/Xvid multipass encoding. The transcoding process uses video filters with realtime configuration and a live transcoding preview window so you can make sure that your video is doing alright. You can also adjust every possible parameter of your zoom manually. The resizing modes are two : the fast one and high quality one.
The best thing in this tool is its manipulation of the audio data while the transcoding. It's able to rip as much audio tracks as you want to AVI/OGG/SVCD file. It also allows you to encode MP3, to maximize audio volume and range compression, to create WAV file form a selected audio track,render subtitle and create vosub... It supports OGG/Vorbis. It's easy to use your CD burning facility with this tool and much more other features
Dvd::rip home page

Edit sounds like a pro !

You're a music fan and Linux user. the combination was a little bit hard to satisfy because proprietary sound editing software are expensive now let's find a solution. I'm trying to cater to music lovers as I did with Gnormalize now let's get a bit more professional and find some useful sound editing tools.
I'm suggesting Audacity: The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor
Audacity is an OpenSource software which allows you to manipulate digital audio data. The Audacity author is Dominic Mazzoni, an ex-NASA engineer and a Google engineer. Now he has a crew of 20 developers and 30 translators to help him.
The most important feature of Audacity is the ability to record digital sound via micro/cd... and treat it by manipulating and exporting using multiple filters and extra effects like pitch, tempo, noise reduction, equalizer, Fourier filters, increasing precise frequencies, compression, amplification, normalization, echo, phaser, wahwah, inversion. It also allows you to convert CDs and tapes to a digital support.
Audacity is considered as an alternative to some professional proprietary software like sound edit of Macromedia! It's also an Award winner from sourceforge.org considered as the best multimedia project of 2007 ! It works on Linux/Unix, mac OS X and Windows.

Now what are you waiting for to get your Free copy ? ... and let us see some of your art pieces !
All you need to do is to visit the Audacity home page and you'll find all what you need to install it properly.


More screenshots here

Playing MP3 on Linux have never been that easy !

Let's Imagine this situation : " you're a Linux newbie and you have just got the ubuntu CD. You were so happy about it , after some hustle and bustle you could install it properly on your PC then you opened your music directory looking for an old MP3 file you want to play it loud so you can celebrate your new achievement... And BING : " Cannot open this file !! " you click over and over again, you change the song and the same thing occurs. Finally you find out that your Linux can't play MP3. You curse the linux and maybe you'll blame who told you about it."

You could prevent that if you come across this article before. Maybe you should send it to your Linux newbie friends so they won't hate Linux for preventing them from playing their music because we will show you how to play all music file type.

All you need to do is to set up gnormalize. It's an audio converter and it allows you to decode these MP3/MP4/MPC/OGG/APE/FLAC file to WAV so you can play it on your PC. With gnormalize you can also extract an audio CD and output as other audio format (MP3,MP4,MPC,OGG,APE,FLAC,WAV).

This software requires some programs to be installed first. Not all of them it depend on what you need gnormalize for. We will put only what you need to play MP3 on Linux :

1. You need perl-Gtk2
2. You need lame
3. You need normalize

To download this software:
RPM package ( mandriva, Fedora, RedHat...)
Debian package ( Debian, Ubuntu...)

gnormalize-0.53.tar.gz or http://www.gnomefiles.org/ (release notes).

With root privilege, execute the bash script commands to install gnormalize:
tar zxvf gnormalize-version.tar.gz
cd gnormalize-version/
./install

If you need other optional features on gnormalize you can check the Gnormalize profile on sourceforge.org and here are some screenshots of gnormalize

the author of gnormalize
Source of information