Garry Garrett's Homepage

Computers

OS - Emulation - Window Managers - Backup - Security and Encryption - Utilities - Networking - Programming Languages, Compilers, debuggers, programming aids - Databases - Geneology Programs - Address Books - Financial Software - Text Editors, Word Processors and Desktop Publishers - Groupware, Instant Messaging, Chat - Web Browsers and Servers - Medical programs - Graphics Programs - Multi-Media / Music - Games - Bible Tools - Vendors - Misc

I am not trying to catalog all the software in the world here, only ones that I have worked with, or ones that I find interesting. Some I have used and recommend, some I have not used but merely read about. Do not consider a link on this page to be an endorsement of any kind.

I have made some effort to note what platform(s) the software will run on. The web pages I've gotten this information from is not always clear. While many envirionments offer some form of backwards compatiblity, it's not always guarenteed, nor always trouble free. (Note: When I list a particular platform, OS and/or hardware, for a given piece of software, I may include platorms that have been supported in the past, but a no longer supported by the current version of the software. I don't update this page as often as I'd like.)

I've written programs before (still do), mostly in the C programming language. Going forward, however, I plan on learning more Java and writing more so in Java than in C. Processors are so fast that the additional overhead of the JRE having to translate java calls into native O.S. calls is no longer a significant issue. Writing a program once and running it "everywhere" is a big plus. I've got Sun Workstations at work and at home, IBM AIX boxes, Linux boxes, a Mac at home, a laptop PC from work. Why would I bother writing something that only works on one platform when I could write something that works on all of them? Consequently, you'll see a bigger focus on Java software below than on native software.

• Operating Systems
• Unix [ mainframes , PCs , Sun Sparc , HP , SGI , Digital , RS/6000 , ... It's easier to list the ones that don't run unix! ]
• SVR4 - System V Revision 4 (AT&T style) Unix
• Solaris
• AIX
• HP-UX
• Irix
• BSD - Berkley Standard Derivation Unix
• FreeBSD
• OpenBSD
• Linux
• POSIX - Not really a style of Unix, but rather a standard that the above may or may not (most do) conform to.
• MS-DOS
• Windows
• Win16 - 16 bit Windows:
• MS-Windows 3.x [ PCs (requires MS-DOS; requires a 80386 or better for multitasking) ]
• Win32 - 32 bit Windows:
• MS-Windows 95 [ PCs (requires a 80386 or better) ]
• MS-Windows 98 [ PCs (requires a 80386 or better - basically Win95 with some bugs fixed) ]
• MS-Windows NT [ PCs (requires pentium or better), Alpha ]
• MS-Windows 2000 [ PCs (requires a pentium or better - WinNT with some bugs fixed an a facelift) ]
• MS-Windows XP [ PCs (requires a pentium or better) ] (Many older Windows programs don't run on XP anymore)
• Windows Vista [ PCs (requires a pentium or better) ]
• OS/2 - IBM's windowing integrated O.S. (written by MicroSoft), now largely relegated to "black box" applications. [ PCs ]
• Novell Netware [ PCs ]
• MacOS
• MacOS 7, 8 & 9 [ Mac ]
• MacOS X [ Mac ] (MacOS X is layered on BSD Unix under the covers)
• Java is a programming environment. Programs written in Java will run on a "Java Virtual Machine". This translates the device/platform independant java calls into platform specific calls. While Java isn't an "operating system", I'm starting to list it like it was one, because if something runs on Java, it runs on any environment that supports Java. (Note: a program written on Java 1.2 may require Java 1.2 or better to run, etc., so you might need the right version of java to run it).
• PalmOS - The operating system on PDAs.
• MIDP - an operating system for cell phones (?)
• MIDP 1.0.3 for OSX
• SimbianOS - an operating system for cell phones (Nokia).
• Emulation Software
• Apple used to make MAE a Macintosh emulator for Unix. [ Solaris , HP-UX ]
• Wine is a freeware Windows emulator.
• Darwine is Wine ported to MacOS X (a.k.a. Darwin) [ MacOS X ]
• CrossFire by CodeWeavers is a Windows emulation environment [ Linux ]
• Insignia Solutions has taken the source code to Windows95 and developed an emulation package called SoftWindows95 They also made a Win 3.x emulator called SoftWindows. [ Mac , Solaris , SunOS , HP-UX , AIX ]
• UnxUtils (GNU utilities for Win32) are a number of GNU Unix utilities ported to Windows.
• GnuWin32 is similar to UnxUtils above, however, it ports over individual commands whereas UnxUtils comes as a package.
• NT Command Shell - a Unix like shell for Windows [Win32]
• Sun made WABI, a Windows 3.x emulator. They also make SunPC which is emulates a PC (a 286 with software alone, but you can get PC CPU on an SBUS card to emulate a newer PC). SunPC can load Win3.x or (with a pentium SBUS card) Win95. Their latest in this series is SunPCi, a PCI card with a AMD Pentium clone on it which runs Win95 or WinNT [ Solaris ]
• VICE is a Commodore emulation program for X-Windows based Unix.
• Emulation.Net has emulators for the following computers and related devices: Amstrad CPC - Apple I, II and III - Atari 800 - Commodore 64 - Amiga - Edsac - IBM PCs - Memotech MTX, - SAM Coup� - Sinclair ZX81 - Thomson T08 - TRS-80 - VAX - VIC-20 - Atari 2600 - Atari 5200 - Colecovision - Intellivision - Nintendo 64 - Super Nintendo - Nintendo Gameboy - Sega Genisis - Sony Playstation - Atari Lynx - PalmPilot - Texas Instruments Calculators
• Classic-Gaming.com has many emulators, focused on playing classic games.
• Java Arcade Emulators has some programs that emulate various video game hardware. Used to have the ROM data as well, but appears to have disappeared (copyright issues?). [ Java ]
• vMac and MinivMac emulate the original, black & white, Motorola M68000 based Macs. Like most Mac emulators, you are required to have an original Mac chipset in order to legally use it.
• Bochs x86 PC Emulator - emulates an IA32 based PC (load your own O.S.) [ C++ ]
• DOSBox [DOS] - emulates a PC (load your own O.S.) [ C++: Win32, Linux MacOS X, FreeBDS, BeOS, OS/2 ]
• E/OS LX - claims to be able to run programs from multiple O.S.es. [ C/C++: Win32, POSIX Unix, Linux ]
• Spectemu - ZX Spectrum Emulator - emulates a Sinclair ZX Spectrum [ C: POSIX Unix ]
• Services for Unix is a Unix kernel for Microsoft Windows servers (NT, 2K, XP - server versions, not home editions) that runs in parallel with the NT kernel. It can access various NT resources, so it can do things like share directories via NFS, etc. Version 3.5 was free.
• Terminal Emulation
• It's tempting to break down terminal Emulators by what terminal they emulate, however, many programs give you options of emulating more than one. I will list the terminal types emulated in curly brackets. Some programs that do terminal emulation may fall into other catagories (for example PuTTY).
• tn5250j - TN5250 emulator {IBM 5250} [Java]
• Window Managers
• X-Windows [Unix]
• Weird X is an X11 (X-Windows) server [ Java ]
• Gnome is a freeware X-Windows window manager. [ Linux . Solaris , and others ]
• cygwin has a port of X-Windows that allows you to run an X server on a Windows desktop (like eXceed). [Windows]
• XLiveCD - a CD you can insert and autorun an X-Windows server. Cygwin based. [WinXP, Win2K, WinNT, Win98(*)]
• XDarwin X-Windows on Darwin [MacOS X]
• X11 Extension is an X-Windows server [ MacOS X ]
• Fluxbox is an X-Windows server [ MacOS X ]
• osx2x - VNC & X11 software [MacOS X]
• Remote Desktop Protocol [Win32]
• Windows Terminal Server (WTS) is a version of NT or Windows2000 that supports RDP. I am told that WinXP supports RDP out of the box.
• rdesktop is an X-Windows client for RDP. [Linux, Solaris, etc.]
• Aqua [MacOS X]
• Space.app virtual dekstops for Aqua [ MacOS X ]
• X Resource Graph - shows peformance info (CPU, Disk, Network) like perfmeter, plus battery life, current weather info, and current stock prices. [MacOS X]
• dockside - "dock" style monitors (date, time, CPU) [MacOS X]
• iHook - Provide Aqua point & click access to shell scripts [MacOS X]
• Microsoft Windows
• True X-Mouse Gizmo for Windows is a add-on for MS-Windows to make it behave more like X-Windows (focus follows mouse, window with focus is not necessarily topmost window, middle mouse to paste, etc.) [Win98, WinMe, Win2K, WinXP, WTS2003]
• Backup Software
• Legato makers of backup software. They are beta testing their support pages called Tech Dialog (You need a support contract to use Tech Dialog). You can send e-mail to [email protected] for support issues.
• Network Data Management Protocol is a protocol used by many backup solutions (though not Legato).
• Security and Encryption
• For Security information in general, see my Computer Security page. This list is for sofware security tools.
• dban - Darik's Boot and Nuke is a utility that allows you to create a floppy or cdrom that you can boot off of that will erase your hard drive(s). Personal information (passwords, on-line banking info, credit card numbers, social security numbers, phone numbers and addresses, etc.) often get left behind on discarded PCs.
• SSH - Secure Shell is an encrypted method of logging in, remotely running commands, and transfering files.
• OpenSSH
• PuTTY is a Windows SSH, SCP and SFTP client. Download here.
• WinSCP - a drag and drop Windows GUI client that operates as a SCP and/or SFTP client.
• VeJOTP - Onetime RFC2289 (S/Key) Password Generator [Java]
• PAM is Pluggable Athentication Modules, a method of controlling authentication mechanisms for Unix. The Sun version and the Linux version are very different. [ Solaris , Linux ]
• Sudo is a Unix tool that allows you to give out limited root access to run specific commands.
• Axent makes a very nice security package called ESM.
• Internet Security Systems makes a number of security products.
• Trinux is a stripped down version of Linux (fits on 2-3 floppies) that can be used for security testing and monitoring.
• WU-ftpd is an FTP server with added security. There is a listserv on it with archives.
• IP Filter
• NMAP, by Fyodor, is a unix port scanner. NMAPNT is an NT version.
• Whisker, by Rain Forest Puppy, is a web server scanner.
• NSAT - Network Security Analsys Tool (another network scanner).
• STunnel allows you to tunnel other TCP/IP traffic through SSL, commonly used with Whisker (above) to scan HTTPS-only web servers.
• dsniff - a Unix packet sniffer. WinSniff - a Windows NT/2000 packet sniffer
• Armor a tool to lock down security [ Solaris ]
• Solaris Fingerprint Database is among Sun's "blueprints" for security [ Solaris ]
• Password Managers - I list these here, but I'm not particularly keen on them. For starters, for these to be of any value, the passwords must be saved encrypted (I'm not sure that all of them do). For this to work, the encryption must be two way encryption, which is necessarily weaker than the one way encryption scheme used by the computer. You are taking a password from one computer and saving it on another computer using relatively weak encryption. I'm not sure this is wise.
• Universal PW Manager []
• Secure Wallet - password manager to store your passwords on your cell phone. [Java, J2ME, MIDP 1.0]
• idled is a daemon to kick off users with too much idle time. [ Unix ]
• Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG) - Free Encryption software (replacement for PGP).
• 1024 bit encryption
• Many cyphers to choose from
• Available on many platforms [Unix, Windows, MacOS X]
• GPGMail - Encryption plugin for mail.app [MacOS X]
• jFileCrypt encrypts/decrypts files using the Blowfish, DES, 3DES, AES or RC4 algorythms. [Java 1.5]
• JavaScrypt is a javascript based implementation of AES encryption. Enter passphrase and encrypt/decrypt text. (the "lean" version")
• aescrypt a command-line program (Linux) or a built-in for the Windows Shell (Win32) that appears on your menu when you select a file, that will encrypt/decrypt using AES. [Win32, Linux]
• AxCrypt - A Windows based encryption software. Only uses AES 128 bit encryption, but has a drag & drop interface that integrates with Windows Explorer. [Win32]
• XAES - Encryption using AES ( download dmg ISO image ) [MacOS X]
• UnderMP3Cover - a program that "hides" files (text, jpg, etc.) within MP3 files in such a way that it does not noticibly alter the sound. [Unix]
• Utilities
• SymbEL 3.x is a performance monitoring tool for Solaris [ Solaris ]
• rpc.rstatd comes with most flavors of Unix and can be used to monitor system performance. Solaris comes with perfmeter (OpenWindows) and stdperfmeter (CDE). Most versions of unix come with rup. rstat is a generic command-line client that who's output is modeled after vmstat.
• Ghostscript - a program for processing PostScript. It can be used to convert from PostScript to PDF files. It can be used to convert from PostScript to PCL, often used as an "output filter" on a print queue, so you can print PostScript there and have it print on a printer that only supports PCL. The Windows version can be used to view PostScript files.
• Ghostview an X-11 PostScript viewer. [Unix]
• gsview is GhostView ported to Windows. [Win32]
• Enscript was once an Adobe product, now it's free. It will format text (with a variety of options) for printing on PostScript printers. [ Solaris , SunOS , AIX , HP-UX , IRIX , NetBSD , OpenBSD , FreeBSD , NeXT , Win95 , WinNT , OS/2 , AmigaDOS , Linux ]
• Display Postscript by Bluestone allows you to use DPS programs (such as Sun's Answerbook) on X-Terminals. DPS support comes with Suns, but not with most X-Terminals.
• Kermit is a file transfer utility downloadable from ftp://kermit.cc.columbia.edu/ (ported to just about every platform on the planet). [ Mainframe (VM/CMS, MVS/TSO, CICS, Amdahl Unix) , Solaris , SunOS , HP-UX , AIX , Linux , Digital Unix , SGI , SCO Unix and UnixWare , NetBSD, BSDI , FreeBSD , OpenBSD , MS-DOS , Windows 95/98 , Windows NT/2000 , OS/2 , VMS , AmigaDOS, BEos, VOS, AOS/VS, OS-9 ]
• Jacksum is a program that will perform various checksums. It can do 44 checksums, including: POSIX cksum, BSD sum, SVR4 sum, MD5, etc. [ Java ]

  java -jar jacksum.jar -a cksum file1 file2 ...
  java -jar jacksum.jar -a bsd   file1 file2 ...
  java -jar jacksum.jar -a sysv  file1 file2 ...
  java -jar jacksum.jar -a md5   file1 file2 ...
  

• Problem Informant/Killer Tool is a freeware program that searches for problems on your system and fixes them if it can. Looks interesting, I'll believe it when I see it. [ Solaris , SunOS , Linux ]
• Enterprise Security Manager is a tool for finding your security problems made by Axent [ Solaris , SunOS , Irix , HP-UX , AIX , Digital Unix , VMS , WindowsNT , Windows95 , Novell ]
• sudo is a unix utility to give limited root access to select users. [ Solaris , SunOS , HP-UX , AIX , SCO , Digital Unix , Linux , probably others too ]
• Background Changing App is a program to periodically change your background image in Windows.
• Ukelele is a keyboard layout editor that allows you to make custom keyboard layouts for unicode characters. [ MacOS X ]
• Windows Process Tools [Win32]
• Tools for Windows [Win32]
• Winmt a port of the unix "mt" tape utility to Windows [ Win32 ]
• Networking
• TCPWrappers is a security tool that allows you to to control who can access what daemons that run under inetd on Unix. [ Solaris , SunOS , HP-UX , AIX , SCO , Digital Unix , Linux , probably others too ]
• Samba is a unix SMB daemon (orginally at Australian National University in Canberra) to share files with PCs (makes your unix box look like an NT file/print server). [ Solaris , SunOS , HP-UX , AIX , SCO , Digital Unix , Linux , probably others too ]
• Syntax TAS is a commerical product that, like Samba (which it predates) allows a computer to emulate an NT file server, but it also allows it to emulate a Macintosh and/or a Novell Netware server too. [ Solaris , HP-UX , AIX , IRIX , Tru64 ]
• FTP
• FTP Servers
• Wasthington University FTP Daemon is a replacement for your standard unix FTP daemon that has some enhanced features. [ Solaris , SunOS , HP-UX , AIX , Linux , SGI , BSDI, probably others too ]
• ProFTPd
• Bromo - FTP server [Java]
• AtomicFTPd - FTP server [Java]
• Java Secure FTP server [Java 1.5]
• iFTPd - FTP daemon [Java]
• Fonc - proxy to tunnel FTP traffic within SSH session [Java 1.4]
• FTP Clients
• JS-FTP - GUI, but no drag and drop. [Java 1.1]
• FtpGUI - Strictly download, no upload. [Javai 1.3]
• jftp2 - Java FTP/SFTP client [Java]
• ftp applet - FTP client [Java 1.1]
• BitTorrent
A download technology aimed at downloading very big files via broadband connections. It relies upon a collaboration effort - you download pieces of the file from various others who have already downloaded the file, and BitTorrent their software is now sharing it. This buys you someting over broadband connections where you have more bandwidth to download then to upload (i.e. [A]DSL, Cable Modem).
• Instant Messaging
• Fire.app instant messaging client {AIM, ICQ, irc, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!Messanger, Bounjour/Rendezvous} [MacOS X]
• Web Huddle groupware
• EWGIE is a chat client and server (not compatible with IRC). It has a neat whiteboard feature. It is freeware. I would give a pointer to where to download it, if I had one. [ Java ]
• Novell Netware [ PCs ]
• MrPostman talks to "read your e-mail with your web browser" sites (like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), and and acts as a gateway, serving up e-mail via POP3. I'm not sure how I feel about this program - these web sites live by advertising, which you are effectively bypassing. I'm only keeping a link to this, should I ever "need" it some day (say to download a copy of my e-mails for posterity, etc.)
• Programming Languages, Compilers, debuggers, programming aids
• Java SDK is a kit for developing O.S./hardware independant Java programs
• C++ Builder is a compiler by Inprise (formerly known as Borland International). [ DOS , Win3.x , Win95 , WinNT , ]
• Troll Tech makes a freeware X-Windows widget library called QT. [ Unix (most major brands - all have X11), Win95/98 , WinNT , ]
• CVS - Version Control Software.
• CVS cheat sheet
• Theoretical Computer Science -- 10 pages of commonly used formulas and other useful information for computer scientists
• Erich's Java cheat sheet for C++ programmers
• Javascript cheat sheet
• Python cheat sheet
• Ruby script cheat sheet
• PHP cheat sheet
• PHP cheat sheet
• ASPLogin
• OpenGL Vertex programming
• Databases
• SQL cheat sheet
• Sybase databases
• Oracle databases
• Oracle cheat sheet
• Yard - a lightweight database.
• Solid - a lightweight database.
• MySQL is a database that is free for non-commerical use. [ Solaris , SunOS , Digital Unix , AIX , BSDI, Linux , Irix ]
• MySQL cheat sheet
• dBase is a compiler by Inprise (formerly known as Borland International). [ DOS , Win3.x , Win95 , WinNT , ]
• Intuit known for their Quicken money management database software. [ DOS , Win3.x , Win95 , WinNT , ]
• BEA makes Tuxedo - a transaction monitor that is used with databases.
• jcards - Java mini-Database [Java]
• Geneology
• Gedcom based (LDS format)
• Create Gedcom [ Java ] { Gedcom 6.0 XML / imports Gedcom 5.5 }
• Geneology J - Also has a applet that can be run in a web browser so you can add your geneology to a web page. [ Java 1.4 ] { Gedcom 5.5.1 and 5.5 }
• Generation X - native Cocoa app. [ MacOS X ] { Gedcom 5.5 }
• Gnuology - Converts Gedcom to HTML [ C++ - Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2K, WinXP, Linux, BSD, POSIX Unix ]
• G�n�Toile converts Gedcom to HTML [ Java ]
• Gedcom Filter - converts from databases to Gedcom and GedXML files.
• Other
• Family Site creates geneology using an SQL database of your choice on the backend. [ POSIX Unix, Linux ]
• Genealogy - a geneology program that uses Gentech (not Gedcom) program. [ Java ]
• Address Books
• vCards are "virtual business cards" - a method of exchanging addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc. Most e-mail programs import/export them as do most cell phones. These are programs that work with them.
• Java AddressBook imports/export various formats, including vCard [ Java ]
• JAddressConverter Converts CSV to vCard [ Java ]
• Wiki in a Jar - this program is intended to be used with USB thumbdrives to make easy to store and edit infomation there. It comes with a stripped down version of Jetty . I list it here because it has some limited support for vCards, which is how I envison myself using it. See my write-up on how to use Wiki-in-a-Jar. [ Java ]
• LaukvikPDI vCard and vCalendar program (vaporware) [ Java ] (as of 4-Dec-2006 still vaporware)
• VCardTools Edit and create vCards [ Win32 ] (as of 4-Dec-2006 still vaporware)
• csv2vcard Converts MS-Outlook CSV to vCard [ Ruby ]
• rolo curses based vCard 3.0 editor [ C {Unix?} ]
• ccard C library for parsing vCards [ C {Unix?} ]
• CardMe - Java library for parsing vCards [ Java ]
• vcard4j Java libraries for working with vCard 3.0 [ Java ]
• CSVfile Java libraries to work with CSV files [ Java ]
• Record-Editor A CSV Editor [ Java and COBOL??? ]
• plab PHP LDAP server (imports CSV, exports vCard) [ PHP ]
• WebAddressBook - PHP Address book, exports/imports vCard & CSV [ PHP ]
• BitPim - a free program to synch data to your phone. It can backup your phone's address book, calendar, ringtones, pictures, etc. (features supported vary by phone). You typically need to get a USB cable and for Windows, a driver. [ Win32, MacOS X 10.3+, Linux ]
• Drivers for Sanyo Phones
• Cables for Sanyo Phones
• Financial
• GnuCash - GNU's answer to Quicken [Linux, POSIX Unix, MacOS X 10.3+] (heard it can be done on 10.2, but it is a real pain to get it to work)
• jGnash - Seems to be a rewrite (or at least borrowed heavily from) of GnuCash in Java. Can import both Quicken and GnuCash files. [Java 1.4]
• Buddi - a budgeting tool. [Java 1.5]
• Text Editors, Word Processors and Desktop Publishing
• Programmer's File Editor is a replacement for Notepad. It edits larger files, and recognizes and can save files with Unix text file conventions (very useful if you use Samba). [ Win95 , Win98, WinNT , Win2K, WinXP ] If PFE doesn't meet your needs, you can try one of these other Notepad replacemnts: Programmer's Notepad - Notepad++
• hexplorer an editor that can edit files as text files, but also can be used to edit binary files in hex. [ Win95 , Win98, WinNT , Win2K, WinXP ] - Hexeditor [Java 1.5]
• J - text editor [Java 1.4]
• MS-Office (MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-Outlook, MS-PowerPoint, etc.) - the most common office suite around (which is sad, if you think about it). [ Win32 ]
• AbiWord is a word processor. In many ways it clones the functionality of WordPerfect. [ Win32, MacOS X 10.2+ Linux ]
• StarDivsion makes an office suite similar to MS-Office. They were recently bought by Sun and are now giving StarOffice away for free. For registered users, they have a Knowledge Database database you can search. [ Win3.x , Win95 , WinNT , Solaris , Linux OS/2 , ]
• OpenOffice I believe is the decendant of StarOffice. [ Java? ]. NeoOffice is OpenOffice ported to native Aqua [MacOS X]
• WordPerfect was my personal favorite (over Word). It is now owned by Corel who also makes graphics software. Does it still exist? [ DOS , Win3.x , Win95 , WinNT , Mac , Solaris , SunOS , HP-UX , AIX , SCO , Digital Unix , Linux ]
• Applix makes Applixware an office suite for Unix. [ Solaris ]
• The New Deal makes an office suite for older PCs, 286's or better (it's also it's own O.S.). It's light weight enough to run on older PCs, yet has many features of more weighty office suites.
• PDF - Portable Document Format
• Adobe Systems makers of PostScript, desktop publishing software, and PDF.
• PDFCreator sets up a bogus print queue named PDFCreator. Anything you print there, gets saved as a PDF file. This feature that comes standard with MacOS X is now available for Windows. [ Win95 , Win98, WinNT , Win2K, WinXP ]
• PDF Blender merges multiple PDF (and PostScript) files into one big PDF file. (requires Ghostscript) [ Win95 , Win98, WinNT , Win2K, WinXP ]
• PDF Split and Merge will take PDF files and merge them together, and will also split them up. [ Java ]
• JoinPDF - merge two PDF files. [Win32, Linux, MacOS X]
• Mindscape makes Printmaster Gold, a desktop publishing program. They have a customer service page and you can e-mail them for support.
• LaTeX and TeX are typesetting utilities that can do some powerful desktop publishing.
• Interleaf desktop publishing software [ Win3.x , Win95 , WinNT , Solaris , ]
• Adobe Illustrator appears to be the reigning king of Desktop Publishing these days.
• Inkscape is a free Desktop Publishing tool that is said to rival Illustrator
• Lilypond is a Music typesetter.
• Web Browsers and servers
• Netscape World-Wide Web server and browser software. They have an FTP server where you can download their shareware browser. They also have an archive of old stuff. You can get an alpha version of their version 5 browser from mozilla.org [ Win3.x , Win95 , WinNT , Mac , Solaris , HP-UX , AIX ]
• Firefox
• Camino is a Mozilla based web browser translated into a Cocoa interface [ Mac ]
• Microsoft makes Internet Explorer [ Win95 , WinNT , Solaris , ] ( download the Solaris version )
• FlashPeak makes "Slim Browser". Most of Internet Explorer is written in DLLs, and Slim Browser is just a new "front end" to the Microsoft DLLs. If offers "tabbed browsing" like Mozilla and also lets turns off pop-up windows. Because it is mostly IE code, then "IE Only" web sites work with it. [ Win95 , Win98, WinNT , Win2K, WinXP ]
• Lynx is a freeware text based web browser. They have a help menu page that is very useful. [ Solaris , HP-UX , AIX , and most flavors of Unix ]
• Verisign Encryption services
• Thawte Encryption services
• Jetty is a small web server written entirely in Java. Something called "mini-jetty" (a stripped down version perhaps?) is embedded in Wiki-in-a-Jar above. [Java]
• TJWS is a stripped down Java web server (77KB). [Java]
• Medical programs
• XMedCon - a program for preparing various medical images (CAT scans, MRIs, etc.) for presentation (powerpoint, etc.).
• Graphics Programs
• XV is an one of the best all around graphics programs for X-Windows. It can be used to view graphics files in various formats, convert between formats, take snapshots of screen images, display an image on your background, and to a perform some basic editing on the image. [ Solaris , HP-UX , AIX , SCO , and most flavors of Unix ]
• GIMP a utility for manipulating images (like photoshop, only free). [ Solaris , HP-UX , Linux , and many flavors of Unix ]
• GTK+ and The Gimp installers is Gimp ported to Windows
• GIMP documetation
• Grokking the GIMP
• jhead - Exif JPEG header and thumbnail manipulator program. Will do thing likemake thumbnails; extract information from the JPEG like the camera and settings used, time the picture was taken; can even set the date/time stamp on the file to match that in the header. [ Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS X ]
• iPhotoDiet is supposed to do some clean-up and remove some unnecessary redundancy that iPhoto leaves behind. Haven't tried it yet. ( Download ) [MacOS X]
• jcap - Java Photo Captions - adds captions to photos. [Java]
• SANE is scanning software. It can act stand-alone to scan in images in various formats, or it can be used as a plugin to the GIMP (see above).
• Hamrick makers of VueScan scanner software. I highly recommend it. [ MacOS X ]
• PosterRazor takes a large image file and breaks it up into smaller printable PDF files which you can print, and then piece together. [ Win32, MacOS X ]
• Image Stitching is the process of taking multiple photos and merging them into one photo. Often this can be done to create a panoramic photo from a series of photos, or it can be done to take a scan of a large picture (too large for your scanner) and piece it back together in one image.
• hugin [ Win32, MacOS X, Linux, FreeBSD ]
• Multi-Media / Music
• OpenDVD - an attempt to create an Open Source DVD player, giving people a choice as to what operating system they want to run (viewed by the DVD industry as a threat to their "trade secret" DVD encoding)
• Handbreak - DVD->MPEG4 converter [MacOS X, Linux]
• iVideo - Video (QT) editing [MacOS X]
• Muscript is a Perl script to turn it's own music mark up langauge into PostScript sheet music. (see my page on guitar for stuff I've done with Muscript)
• OpenSong manages chord sheets, lyric sheets, displays lyrics, etc. [ Win32, MacOS X, Posix Unix ]
• Metronome programs:
• jtick is a metronome program [Java 1.5+]
• Metronome is a Metronome for PCs [Win32]
• Lo Facil Me Caga a metronome. English and Spanish instructions. [Win32]
• Palm Tuner is a program that acts as a tuner (plays the pitch, you tune to match) and a metronome. [PalmOS]
• Hendrix is a program for learning chords; also includes a metronome.
• iMetronome is a Yahoo!Widget
• Wiretap PRO - takes the audio output by a Mac, or audio from the line-in jack, and turns it into various formats (MP3, AIFF, AAC, etc.). It can be configured with iCal to schedule recordings, so you can use iTunes along with streaming audio put out by your favorite radio station's web page, to turn your Mac into a VCR for radio. [ MacOS X 10.2+ ]
• MP3 / MIDI software
• iTunes is Apples program to go along with their iPod MP3 player. It will import songs off of CDs and covnert them to MP3. You can make playlists and burn them to CD-Rs. You can also go online and buy music at $.99 a song from Apple. [ Windows, MacOS X ]
• iTunes Agent is a tool to make non-iPod MP3 players show up as playlists in iTunes. [ Win32 ]
• Audioslicer looks in MP3 files for gaps and can split an MP3 up into multiple MP3s [ MacOS X ]
• MP3 Split Will split MP3 and OOG files into multiple files. Can set split points or can search the internet for split points in MP3Wrap and AlbumWrap archives. [ Win32, MacOS X, Posix Unix ]
• MP3 wrap joins multiple MP3s into one big MP3. [ Win32, Posix Unix ]
• MP3 Splitter will split up MP3 files into multiple smaller files. [ Win32, Posix Unix ]
• Tape Producer organizes and plays MP3s so you can record them to tape. You tell it the size of tape (60min, 90min, etc.) and put together a song list for sizes A and B, and then plays them. You hook up a tape recorder to your PC's headphone jack and record. [ Win32 ]
• MP3 Database makes a database of MP3's on CDs so you can more easily find songs. [ Posix Unix & X-Windows ]
• MP3 DB makes a database of your MP3 CDs. Saves to an external SQL database. [ Java 1.4 (Win32, MacOS X, Linux) ]
• TNG MP3 DB a Perl module to work with MP3s and maintain MP3 Databases.
• MoreAmp - audio editing/converting. [Win32, MacOS X, MacOS classic, Linux, POSIX Unix]
• StreamRipperX - Converts streaming audio to MP3 (Wiretap Pro can do the same with the help of iTunes) [MacOS X]
• OggCarton - CD ripping softare (Ogg & MP3) [Java / Mac, Unix, Win32]
• MidiKeys (keyboard) [MacOS X]
• Text to Speech (TTS) programs
• Cepstral sells "voices" compatible with MacOS X's TTS capabilities. [ MacOS X 10.2+ ]
• iSpeak It turns text files into MP3/AAC tracks in iTunes.
• Read it to Me A program to take text from various sources (web pages, e-mail, news feeds, text), convert them to sound using the Mac's built in text to speech features, converts them to MP3, and loads them into iTunes. [ MacOS X 10.3+ ]
• Lips has 22 voices, will play over speakers or save to an AIFF file. [ MacOS X 10.3+ ]
• tclspeech - an interface between TCL scripting and Apple's text to speech engine. [ MacOS X ]
• FreeTTS a text-to-speech engine. Seems to be no way to control the speed at which it reads - fast CPU, good luck understanding what it is saying. [ Java ]
• Books2burn - takes Project Gutenberg text files and produces AIFF audio files. [ MacOS X 10.3+ ]
• MacOS X Speech Queue (still investigating) [ MacOS X ]
• Text to Speech MP3 1.70 [ Windows ]
• Games
• Commercial Game Companies
• Electronic Arts makes games. They have a Tech Support page which includes some troubleshooting guides or you can e-mail [email protected] for help.
• MicroProse
• Hasbro Interactive
• 3Dfx Interactive
• Note: Many of the games will be described in terms of well known games they emulate or are similar to. The similarities are my own impressions.
• Chess Games
• There are a lot of chess games out there. Frankly I'm more interested in ones that use PGN files to save games, and/or can be used with internet chess servers (speaking standard protocols) so that you could play against someone on-line.
• GNU Chess comes in 2 pieces. GNU Chess is the chess engine itself. XBoard is a GUI front end. A windows version of Xboard exists called WinBoard. XBoard/WinBoard was written by Tim Mann
• jose [Java]
• Jin - Chess Client [Java]
• Brutal Chess - battle chess clone [Win32, MacOS X, Posix]
• Sports games
• Eat the Whistle - Soccer [Win32, Linux, MacOS X, AmigaDOS]
• "Tetris" games
• Java Tetris - play it on line through your web browser, or download it and play it at home. [ Java ]
• Risk style games
• jrisk [Java]
• Elfquest style games
• The Battle for Westnoth [Win32, MacOS X, BEOS, FreeBSD]
• "Empire"/"Warcraft" style (planetary domination) games
• Conquest of Time - akin to "Empire"/"Civilization" [Java 1.5.0]
• Empire - akin to the classic "Empire", recast as a M.U.D. [Java]
• W6 Java Edition - I think it is an "Empire" clone. (hard to tell, no screen shots, etc.) [Java 1.3]
• Stratagus {formerly freecraft} [Win32, POSIX, MacOS X, BSD, Linux]
• "Planets" style (stellar conquest) games
• VGAPlanets
• Foundation [Linux, POSIX Unix]
• Vega Strike space combat game (reminicent of GDW's "Traveller" RPG) [Linux, Win32, MacOS X]
• "Star Trek" style games
• There have, of course, been many "Star Trek" games. I'm referring to the old text based (curses) ones. Of course these new ones all are graphical based, but they have the same feel to them.
• Star Voyager [MacOS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Win32?]
• Rescue Max [Java 1.4]
• Tank Battle games
• MegaMek - clone of BattleTech (futuristic armored battles) [Java]
• Flight Simulation / Air Combat games
• OpenBirds - air combat (WWII, etc.) [Win32, POSIX Unix, BSD, Linux; also some Java]
• x-plane (so realistic it is approved by the FAA for flight training purposes) [Win32, Linux, MacOS X]
• FlightGear [Win32, Linux, Solaris, Irix, FreeBSD]
• Ported to MacOSX as MacFlightGear [MacOS X 10.4]
• CRRCSim - Model Airplane Flight Simulator [Win32, POSIX Unix, Linux, MacOS X]
• Top View (cartoonish) air combat
• Kobo Deluxe [Win32, Linux, MacOS X, AmigaOS, Solaris, Irix, BSD, BeOS, QNX, Syllable] ( Freshmeat's page )
• First Person Shooter style games
• Castle Wolfenstein
• Doom by ID Software
• PrBoom [Win32, MacOS X, Linux]
• Freedoom
• "SimCity" style games
• Open City [Win32, Linux, MacOS X]
• Lincity [Win32, Linux, POSIX Unix, OS/2]
• Pacman style games
• Njam [Win32, Linux, MacOS X, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, BeOS, MorphOS]
• "Gauntlet" style games
• S.C.O.U.R.G.E. - Heroes of Lesser Renown - a "rouge" clone with a "Gauntlet" style interface [Win32, POSIX Unix, Linux, MacOS X]
• UFO 2000 - akin to X-COM (repell alien invaders) [Win32, POSIX Unix, Linux, FreeBSD]
• Arianne - A game engine for creating other games [Java]
• Stendhal - R.P.G. M.U.D.
• Jmapacman - Multi-player PacMan.
• Bible Tools
• Sword a tool for preparing for bible studies and sermons. Actually, useful for anyone who is studying the bible. [Win32, Linux]
• MacSword [ MacOS X ]
• E-Sword is intended to help you prepare for bible studies and sermons, but it can be useful to anybody who is studying the bible. [ Win32 ]
• Zefania XML Bible ML [Win32, Linux, POSIX Unix]
• Vendors
• Check out the Superstores
• OS Express carries a variety of Unix software.
• Programmer's Paradise
• Much of the freeware is available via various anonymous FTP sites
• Misc
• Yahoo!Widgets are tiny applications you can run on your desktop (I put them under "Misc" because they could fall into so many different catagories). I personally like "Yahoo!Weather", "Weather Warning", "Werewolf Monitor" (shows currrent moon phase - almost a replacement for Moontool), "Simle Info" (I use the Calendar, Time, Battery Monitor, Memory Monitor, CPU Monitor), "Mouse Odo Meter" and "freeSpace". I also tried out "Free HD Space" but it takes up too much desktop realestate and only tracks the C drive. I've tried a number of the RSS News Readers and I have to say, I dislike most of them because of the desktop realestate they consume. I like NewsTicker put it does consume an awful lot of CPU. What I like about it is it shows you the headline, in a scolling fashion that doesn't take up too much desktop realestate, and if you pause your mouse over the headline, you can read an overview, and then you can click on it to go to the full article. Most RSS Reader Widgets don't show you the summary. I am trying to decide between "Monitor Standby" and "Monitor Off" which seem to essentially be the same program. Both allow you to turn your monitor off (useful for saving power, particularly if you have a laptop on batteries). I am trying "Weather Station" on for size. I looked at "System Widget", a lot of duplicates with "Simple Info" and the Hard Disk monistor will only monitor one drive (though you do get to choose). [Win32, Mac]
• The Open CD is an ISO image of a CD (which you can burn to a CD-R), that has on it a number of Open Source programs (many of which are listed here) ported to Windows, along with an easy to use install program to install them.
• What is ... every file format in the world is an exhaustive list of various file formats and the programs that use them.
• FirstLogic, formerly Postalsoft, makers of postal presort software. [ Solaris , AIX ]
• Bluestone, makers of Display PostScript software. [ Solaris ]
• GEAR is a unix CD-R writer software package. You can create your own CD's, CDROMs, etc.
• Galacticomm makes the World Group BBS which my old ISP used.
• John Walker makes a number of interesting tools for tracking the phase of the moon and other interesting celestial objects.
• xmoontool [ Solaris / SunOS ]
• 32-Bit Moontool [ Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2000, WinME, WinXP ]
• 16-Bit Moontool [ Windows 3.x + ] Note: The 16 bit version of Moontool is very readable and useful when it is minimized, but on Win95+ machines, this usefulness is lost by the way that minimizing works on them.
• HomePlanet incorporates all the features of Moontool and it adds information about the Sun, other celstial objects, etc.
• His site map has some other interesting stuff I'll have to come back to (like qprint).
• Xplanet a decendant of Xearth, this shows as the background image on your desktop, a view of what the earth, or some other planet in its catalog, looks like. Now, these aren't photos (they do look photorealistic), so the clouds are necessarily where Xplanet shows them, etc. but it shows light and darkness and the position of moons, etc. based on the time of day.
• Soft Demon makes a free, full featured clock called Topmost Clock
• Delorme makes map software.
• xodo 1.2 is an odometer for X-Windows
• OpenBarCodes []
• Countdown Timers - count down to some upcoming event (Christmas, end of the semester, etc.)

Stuff I haven't hand time to look at / deal with / catagorize...

This is stuff I've heard about, but just haven't had time to check out, etc. It may be total junk. It may be worthwhile. Some I have checked out, but have not had time to catagorize and/or add to the above lists. Might have a couple of duplicates with the above.

*** Spreadsheets

OpenJeks - Java based spreadsheet [Java]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openjeks

*** Games

vectoriods (game) [Win32, MacOS X]
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/vectoroids/

ZAP multiplayer (game) [MacOS X, Win32, Linux]
http://freshmeat.net/projects/zapmultiplayer/
http://www.opentnl.org/

Oddspace (game) [Java 1.4]
http://soft.killingar.net/soft/wiki.view.action?wiki=Oddspace

KRaptor (game) [Win32, MacOS X]
http://kraptor.sourceforge.net/

kball (game) [Win32, MacOS X, Linux, MS-DOS]
http://kball.sourceforge.net/

FLTK sudoku (game) [Win32, MacOSX 10.4, Linux]
http://www.easysw.com/~mike/sudoku/

Pete's Blackjack [Java]
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/thimi777/index.html

Tetris game -  [Java - MacOS X, Win32, Linux, Web]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mymtetris



*** Utilities

Java Service Wrapper [Java]
http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.org/doc/english/introduction.html

YaBoot - Boot Loader [PPC]
http://yaboot.ozlabs.org/

YuBurner - CD/DVD burner [MacOS X 10.4.3]
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA027835/index_e.htm

Morf encoder (base64) [perl]
http://morf.sourceforge.net/

Lynksys Log Viewer [MacOS X]
http://www.linksyslogviewerforosx.com/



*** Programming

Balsilisk Game Library for Java [Java]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/basiliskgl


*** Cell / PDA programs

WatchStop - stopwatch, etc. [Java, J2ME, MIDP 2.0]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/watchstop

Cellduku - Sudoku for Cell Phones [Java, J2ME]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/celldoku

Phone Manager - send SMS messages to populate phone info [Java]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/phonemanager

SMS Communicator - Send SMS messages from PHP script [php]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/smscomm

Cellular Manager - Manage your phone via SMS. [Win32]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cellularmgr

Mobile Planetarium - [Java, MIDP 1.0/2.0]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mobilestarchart

MIDP Calculator - scientifc calculator [Java, MIDP]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/midp-calc

Wireless IRC Client - IRC for Cell phones [Java, J2ME, MIDP 1.0] 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wirelessirc

Poor Man's GPS for Nokia 60 phones [SymbianOS]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/anorak

MDictionary - Dictionary for Mobile Phones [SimbianOS]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mdictionary

DictonaryForMIDs - Dictonary for Cell/PDA [Java, MIDP]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dictionarymid


*** Misc

Books - organize your book collection [MacOS X]
http://books.aetherial.net/

BookLib - Library Manager [Java]
http://sourceforge.net/projects/booklib/

EBookCollector (library management) [Java]
http://ebookcollector.sourceforge.net/

Barbecue - Barcodes [Java]
http://barbecue.sourceforge.net/

wcalc - calculator [MacOS X]
http://w-calc.sourceforge.net/

Comic Viewer [Java 1.5]
http://lokoen.org/comicviewer/

OSXNews - NNTP Newsreader [MacOS X]
http://osxnews.sourceforge.net/new2/

TV Show Project (listings, etc.) [Java]
http://tvshow.sourceforge.net/