Open Source movement is seeing a lot of excitement this week. Hot on the heels of the much anticipated  release of Firefox 3, openSUSE has released their shiny new version openSUSE 11.0 today.

openSUSE 11.0 is in the wild now with almost 200 new features specific to openSUSE, an awesome new installer, a faster package manager, KDE4, Gnome 2.22, Compiz Fusion and much more than I can list here.

I have been running openSUSE 11.0 beta for a week and love every bit of the improvements made. Plus, with KDE4 coming out with a stable release, you could get openSUSE 11.0 with KDE4 out of the box.

As much as I’d love to do a full review of openSUSE 11.0, some of my trusted sources have already done so and much better than I can. So, I am going to point to some excellent resources if you’d like to read up on this new version!

About openSUSE 11.0

openSUSE 11.0 Main page | Release Notes | Product Highlights | Screenshots | Guide to open SUSE 11.0 | openSUSE 11.0 Review

The above links will inform you of all things openSUSE 11.0. I will try to post a follow up post with little tricks and tips if there is enough interest in your comments as I don’t usually talk much about Linux here.

Download openSUSE 11.0

openSUSE 11.0 CD ISOs | openSUSE 11.0 DVD ISOs | openSUSE 11.0 torrents | openSUSE 11.0 deltas

To help avoiding over loading their servers, it is recommended to use the mirrors when possible.

Post 11.0 Installation

Scott Morris of SUSE Blog has put together a nice list of package repositories you can add to YAST.

If you can’t find a more recent package via YAST, openSUSE Build Service might have it.

I found this tutorial referenced by Scott very helpful in setting up my openSUSE with codecs, video drivers and the applications I need.

If you get stuck with anything, there is always the openSUSE forums to get help from.

At the moment I use Linux for my desktop only at work as it well suits the tasks i do. But, with openSUSE 11.0 I am seriously considering making the switch in my home desktop as well. Especially with the release of Wine 1.0 this week, I could run many of my Windows only applications in Linux as well.

What would it take you to make the switch to Linux? (if you already haven’t)

Hello newcomer, did I say welcome to ShanKri-la yet? Before you move on, just wanted to thank you for visiting and we hope you come back and see us again!

I come across friends & family who are forking out big bucks for everyday software like anti-virus, Office, spyware, photo editing, etc. They do so, not because they like to spend the money but because they have no idea that there are excellent, free, open source alternatives available. Today. Right now.

I have nothing against paying for excellent software or services that provide value. But, if there is a quality free alternative for your everyday needs why not save that money you would have spent for a better product/equipment that you wouldn’t have been able to afford before?

In fact, one of the most popular (all time number 3 .. if you looked at the footer) posts here has been about Free Software for your Computer. I should update that post soon with my new finds.

I recently wrote in a guest post at Techie-Buzz about a very cool project called WinLibre. WinLibre was a project where they put together some of the best in breed open source software available for free into one downloadable package.

A reader (thanks MechMike) quickly pointed out that WinLibre hasn’t been updated in a while and told me about the OpenDisk project. Here is an excerpt from their About page which summarizes this cool project!

OpenDisc is a high quality collection of open source software (OSS) for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The two main goals of the project are:

• To provide a free alternative to costly software, with equal or often better quality equivalents to proprietary, shareware or freeware software for Microsoft Windows.
• To educate users of Linux as an operating system for home, business and educational use.

OpenDisc project gathers some of the best free & open source software out there into one easily downloadable CD image. They also list the programs in the cd image with description and link to the individual software home page if you’d like to get them A la carte.

Here are the list of programs that are included in the OpenDesc project categorized by its function:

Design

• Blender - a 3D graphics modeling program
• Dia - a Visio like drawing program
• The Gimp - Adobe Photoshop alternative
• InkScape - Adobe Illustrator alternative
• Nvu - WYSIWIG Web page editor
• Srcibus - A professional desktop publishing program
• Tux Paint - Free drawing program for young children

Games

• The Battle of Wesnoth - Turn-based strategy game
• Enigma - A puzzle game
• Neverball - A fun game where you tilt the floor to get the ball in a puzzle
• Sokoban YASC - Yet Another Sokoban Clone

Internet

• Azureus - A cool bit-torrent client
• Filezilla - FTP client
• Firefox - An excellent Internet Explorer alternative
• Httrack - Offline web browser utility
• Pidgin - Multi-protocol IM client
• RSSOWL - A Feed reader client
• Seamonkey - Web browser, IRC client, newsgroup client and HTML editor in one
• Thunderbird - A modern email client
• TightVNC - A remote control software
• WinSCP - Full featured SFTP client

Multimedia

• Audacity - Sound editing program
• Celestia - Simulation of entire universe
• Really Slick Screensavers - Collection of some cool screensavers
• Stellarium - Planetarium in your computer
• Sumatra PDF - Lightweight alternative for Adobe Reader
• VLC Player - Media player supporting numerous audio & video formats

Productivity

• GnuCash - QuickBooks alternative
• MoinMoin Wiki Engine - A wiki building software
• NotePad2 - Windows Notepad alternative - with syntax highlighting and other features
• OpenOffice - Full featured alternative for Microsoft Office
• PDFCreator - Generate PDF documents from any Windows program with the Print button

Utilities

• 7-zip - Packing & unpacking archives tool with support for a lot of formats
• Abakt - A backup tool
• ClamWin - Powerful anti-virus program (misses an on-access scanner - so it can’t replace a full time scanner yet)
• GTK+ - Toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces
• HealthMonitor - System monitoring tool
• TrueCrypt - Powerful encryption software to protect your private data
• WorkRave - Protect yourself from Repetitive Strain Injury

Whew.. isn’t that an excellent collection of free software? There are a few in here like InkScape & WorkRave I haven’t tried yet.

Download OpenDisc iso image | bit-torrent

OpenDisc uses a K-Meleon interface in the cd image so far and is experimenting with a Kiwix interface that’s supposed to be leaner and better for the next release.

Also, OpenDisc has a pretty active forum if you have questions about any of these or if you’d like to see something included to this list. I have downloaded OpenDisc and I am going to make copies and give it to friends who have an open mind about trying new things. I am sure some of them are going to chase me away but hey it’s worth a try, isn’t it?

If you feel like I am preaching to the choir, I would love to hear about a (more the merrier) open source software that’s not on this list but that you feel should be.

Mozilla Prism is an open source initiative from Mozilla Labs which attempts to bring web applications from the browser to run directly from your desktop. In Mozilla’s words,

Prism is an open source cross-platform prototype of functionality that lets users split web applications out of the browser and run them directly on the desktop.

Web applications like Gmail, Google Reader, etc. are more and more mimicking the functionality we have gotten used to in desktop applications such as right click contxt menu, drag and drop interface, etc. But, you still need to fire up a browser, go to the website and login to use the web application. It does give you the flexibility to access from anywhere with a browser but takes a bit of time if you are using a desktop day in and day out to go through all these steps to get to your favorite web applications.

Mozilla Prism attempts to bridge that gap and splits the web application from the browser and lets you run a web application like Gmail straight from your desktop. It helps web applications act like desktop applications with the benefit of being on the web without the web application developer having to do anything to offer that to an user, you.

Prism is cross-platform and is availble for Windows, Linux and Mac. You will have the option of having a location bar, status bar or the location bar in the web application window. I just include the status bar alone to see the links when I am hovering and hide the other 2 to maximize my screen real estate.

New Features in Prism 0.9

Prism 0.9 was just released last week with some major updates and new features. A few of those are:

• Simpler installation and desktop integration capabilities
• Browser integration with Firefox 3 through an extension Prism for Firefox 3. This extension lets you split a web application you are on directly out of Firefox without installing and maintaining Prism as a separate application. You will get a ‘Convert Website to Application’ option in the Tools menu with this extension.
• Ability to pick an icon to represent the desktop application (or pick it from the web by default)
• Run each webapp in its own profile - in other words, you can have 2 desktop Gmail webapps for 2 accounts simultaneously (link to old post)

If you’d like to learn more about it, check out the Mozilla Prism Wiki. Here is a screenshot of creating a web application for my favorite online task manager.

Running Prism from behind a Proxy

At work, I was first unable to run it from behind our proxy and found a helpful tip in Ubuntu forums on how to do this. Here is what I did to get Prism working from behind the proxy. This involves editing a all.js file in the Prism installation.

1. Open the <install-directory>/prism/xulrunner/greprefs.js in your favorite editor
2. Find and edit this line from:
   pref(”network.proxy.type”, 5);
   to
   pref(”network.proxy.type”, 1);
3. Then add your proxy information in the following lines: (enter your own ip & port there)
   pref(”network.proxy.http”, “127.0.0.10″);
   pref(”network.proxy.http_port”, 80);
   pref(”network.proxy.ssl”, “127.0.0.10″);
   pref(”network.proxy.ssl_port”, 443);
4. That’s it!

I am already running my favorite web apps like Gmail, Google Reader, Remember the Milk via Prism from my desktop. One downside right now is that I am missing my Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail & Google Reader. But, with Prism being built on Mozilla’s platform, I wonder if there will support for Firefox extensions. If I find out how or if it’s even possible, I will write another post soon.

Also, I am yet to see how it affects cpu & memory usage by running multiple Prism applications. Although I am getting rather spoiled with our new addition of 2GB memory to our Windows XP desktop making it a 3GB RAM! Firefox can consume a gig of ram as fas as I am concerned and I can test even more extensions to share with you without affecting it’s performance.

You have probably heard about Joost, one of the popular Internet TV clients that made the rounds in the blogosphere for a while. I hardly hear about it anymore.

Joost was proprietary and had about 250 channels. Did you know that there is an open source alternative that has about 2500 unrestricted channels? Yes, I said 2500!

Miro is the open source version that is free and can turn your computer into an Internet TV. It is loaded with numerous features and a built-in bittorrent client that touts faster downloads. Let’s check out some of the impressive features that make up this hard to ignore piece of open source software!

Read More

Mozilla Firefox is one of my most beloved open source software. If you are a regular reader here, then it’s no secret. I recommend and sometimes even install Firefox anytime I see a friend or a family member using IE.

Firefox is awesome because you can make it into something more than a browser with the numerous extensions available. You can make it into a swiss-army knife of blogging, web development, writers tool, or just plain fun with the right set of extensions. You can check out my neatly categorized list of Top Firefox Extensions to see what I mean.

With all this power comes difficulties to regular users and that is one of the main reasons for Firefox spreading slower despite its obvious benefits.

Mozilla has taken that into consideration and is smartly offering real time Firefox Support through Live Chat! It is totally supported by volunteers which means you and I could help Mozilla out. At the moment, support is only provided in English.

When can you get help?

Since this is supported totally by volunteers, the hours are limited at the moment and will expand as they add more people. If you see the cute Foxkeh say Live Chat is open, you can jump right in to get support.

• Monday, Wednesday & Friday: 9am - 12pm PST (GMT -8)
• Tuesday and Thursday: 1pm - 4pm PST

Next time you install Firefox to someone you know. make sure you bookmark this link for them so they can get some help if they have questions.

Of course, you can feel free to drop me a line anytime if you have questions about Firefox too and I will absolutely do my best to help you. Even if I didn’t know the answer, I will sure try to find the answer for you.

Make your first stop at these 3 excellent resources anytime you have Firefox problems

Firefox Knowledge Base

Firefox Support Forums

Firefox Support Live Chat

Long gone are the days of Napster & Kazaa. There are many options in the fray now for a P2P file sharing program. Limewire has its one following of people who love it and use it. I have used it for a while as well. LimeWire used to be totally free but they offer a PRO version now for $21.95 with features such as optimized search results, turbo-charged downloads and Tech support. Sound familiar? That’s the route taken by a lot of free programs and I don’t blame them.

And you can’t blame me for looking for a totally free alternative, right?

Frostwire is a great alternative for LimeWire and it has so much promising features that I find hard to ignore. It offers a lot of the PRO features of Limewire and even more like iTunes support.

Frostwire Quick Facts

• Completely free & open source (an awesome combination)
• It is a Java Gnutella P2P client
• Offers a clean slick interface with no spyware or adware
• iTunes integration
• Firewall to firewall transfers
• BitTorrent support
• Proxy support & community chat rooms
• Turbo charged maxmum download speeds & network connections
• Works in Windows, Mac, Ubuntu/Debian. RedHat /Fedora and available as a tarball.

I love open source software and Frostwire is a welcome addition to my list of open source software I use in my computer.

Download Frostwire (7.1 MB - Windows)

What do you use for a P2P client? Does it matter to you if it’s open source?

It’s no secret that everyone is developing a taste for free open source alternatives to traditional proprietary software. Mozilla Firefox as an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser is my favorite example when I explain ‘Open Source alternative’ to a friend or a family member.

Even if you haven’t actually stepped out of your way to find an open source alternative, you might be already using a couple of these. Some people consider open source versions to be inferior to proprietary software but in a lot of occasions that’s far from the truth.

I have shared many of my finds here and I have a bunch of these apps bookmarked in del.icio.us as well! A fellow open source lover has done something very useful with his collection of bookmarks. He created Open Source Living.

Welcome to Open Source Living, a collection of the Web’s best Open Source software, applications and references for a zero-cost / top quality digital experience.

Open Source Living has a great list of open source apps categorized based on their function so you can easily find an application you are looking for.

Each open source link comes with a short description and the site’s link. I browsed through various categories and found the listing to be quite extensive and features some of the best in the category. Here are some screenshots from Open Source Living for your viewing pleasure.

I like the simplistic interface and it makes it very easy to find an open source alternative you are looking for.

I am always looking for sites such as this one that makes finding the right app for the job at hand very easy. Where do you turn for your open source needs?