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Ask Slashdot: Good, Useful Free Software For Gifts?
First time accepted submitter Jeng writes "I'm planning on sending flash drives to friends and family as stocking stuffers. Rather than just send a blank drive, I'm looking for what good useful free software that I can load on it — from system utilities and encryption software to fun little games." We've asked similar questions before, but software keeps getting better, and so do the prices on flash drives. So what would you give as a gift this holiday season?
Bootable BSD or Linux on USB.
*ducks*
Graphics:
Other stuff:
My blog
If you're arrogant enough to think that you're doing something for OTHERS by giving them things that represent your passion and "religious" devotion to open source, you're not likely to understand why, but this is a terrible idea. Give other people what THEY want, not what YOU think would be cool. This is an absurd idea.
well you can use a bootable USB of course, or you could use virtualization-on-a-stick, using qemu or portable virtual-box
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/using-a-portable-virtualbox-to-run-linux-from-usb/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/run-a-live-linux-cd-from-within-windows/
or you could use portable app's projects off of sourceforge.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Works off a CD, DVD or USB flash drive. live.linuX-gamers.net
How about a big collection of free music/ebooks/movies/art, etc? Maybe consider putting together a digital slideshow of photos and movies of family and friends, too.
If they are using Windows, I suggest the full collection of PortableApps from http://www.portableapps.com :-)
It will runs directly from your flash drive and is really useful!
I'd say add Ubuntu / Linux Mint (which people seem to really like, more so than Ubuntu it seems). Other software could be: TrueCrypt and KeePass for internet security, calibre for ebook management,Thunderbird for email and LibreOffice for office needs. While you're at it, Skype (full download) might be good as well - i always seem to need it at the most inopportune moment). This might be a bit of a cheat, but check out here. You know your friends, see for yourself what they might like from here and download accordingly.
http://portableapps.com/
Just get one of those free packages. They work wonders :)
If giving a cheap flash drive full of crap is your idea of a nice Christmas gift, then the best gift you can give to your family and friends is dying.
He did say stocking stuffer. I don't know about your family but when I was growing up sometimes our stocking stuffers weren't worth nearly the cost of a flash drive. They'd often be filled with candy or small yo-yo-like toys. I think a flash drive is perfectly in line with that.
On the other hand, if you are of the habit of sending out $100 bills as stocking stuffers, I'll happily send you my mailing address and you can send some of your extra money to me.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
You should fill it full of stuff from PortableApps. Tons of great programs there. Plus they don't have to install anything. No worry about messing up their computer.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
You can Buy/Donate in there name and give them some good games too. :(
Humble Bundle Games
Or you can be cheap and just buy for very little and give the games to all your friends.
baby! Once I got ahold of a copy of Nuclear War online and started playing it again, kids of all generations should get to play that!
uTorrent - the gift that keeps on giving.
Better known as 318230.
this is very similar to the conversation that marketing people have at Dell and Best Buy when figuring out what sort of useless garbage they can load on PCs they are selling to people.
Just give them usb sticks with copies of minecraft.
Seriously, no one wants an ubuntu usb stick that doesn't already know what ubuntu is.
Or not??
Are you just going to load the installers or do you want portable alps that will run directly off the drive itself?
FoxIt PDF reader
PC Wizard
KeyFinder
VLC
OpenOffice
IMGBurn
Spybot S&D
Firefox
Will all run straight off a USB stick
Inkscape
GIMP
Those were the first things that came to mind for me. I use Gimp at least once a week in my job, and Inkscape probably once a month. They are great tools for those who don't need the fanciest of plug-ins. I would bet that they are mature enough now that 90% of home users who think "I need photoshop and/or illustrator" could actually get by just fine with these tools instead.
And being as most home users know what they can do with the Adobe programs, but not specifically how to do it, they could be just as well off to learn these instead.
So indeed, save your relatives a few hundred dollars by giving them a flash drive with Inkscape and Gimp. Of course, they probably won't install them, but at least you tried.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
the penguin king demands it, justin!
Not free but close to it, and it goes to a worthy cause. Yes, software. Clothing. All sorts of mostly-free. If you plead poverty, I'm sure you can walk out with a few free things, to boot. And isn't that what you want, after all?
A few years ago, I gave my friends and family gifts like this. They each got a 256 MB USB stick with Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org and some other open source software I thought they might find useful. Well, they didn't appreciate it at all.
Right after getting it, one of my nieces threw it back at me, calling it useless, and then she called me a "nerd ass faggot". I found out later that her brothers deleted everything on theirs without even bothering to try them.
My older relatives had no idea at all what they were. Some of them thought they were supposed to put them on their keychains, as decorations!
I'm not sure who, but some of my relatives didn't even bother to bring them home with them after they left the Christmas gathering. I found several of them lying on the floor after everyone had left for the night.
I hoped it would be a learning experience for them, but it was really a learning experience for me. Most people don't give a fuck about open source software. They just don't care. And they surely don't want to receive it as a gift.
Lovely game (if a bit gimmicky), fits on a flash drive, and entirely free: http://www.netstormhq.com/news.php
I think the idea's a lil bland, I mean ... yay you put some free apps they could go get anyway.
But.... its' a stocking stuffer, let's have a little fun, right? Why not run around a few sites like Fail blog or LOLCats and find a big heap of funny pictures, and plunk em on the drive? That way they'll plug the drive in and have some fun zipping through those and having a few laughs. You could even throw in a folder family photos and give them something unique.
But if you're dead set on giving away apps, I can tell you I'd dig it if somebody took a flash drive and put Portable versions of Chrome, Opera, Firefox, a good mail client, and... well surprise me! I say 'portable' because if I don't have to install them, I'd definitely poke around and try them out.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Agreed. This is a ridiculous Ask Slashdot. Why give people FOSS crap they can download on their own for free? Leave the flash drive in its package....
Just include a text file telling your friends not to put random flash drives in their computers. If you can't find such a text file, I suggest making one and releasing it under the GPH. Since this will probably offend them, you'll also need to get new friends. But who wants to be friends with people that run random things they get on a flash drive, anyway?
Just give them uTorrent - the gift that keeps on giving!
Seriously, though, are we talking about freeware or Free Open Source Software? There's a lot of great freeware out there; applications like Picasa, utilities like Piriform's set, games like Cave Story (a.k.a. Doukutsu Monotogari). I hope you're not ruling out closed source, since your friends and family really won't care about the difference.
Also, you should probably start by looking for popular downloads on sites like FileHippo, SourceForge, and even (groan) Download.com. There are also quite a few commercial games that were later released as freeware or free-to-play; Team Fortress 2 is a prime example.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I have a USB key on my keychain that it split into two partitions:
Partition 1 is a fat32 partition with a bunch of portable windows apps on it. I can use it wherever there is a Windows machine
Partition 2 is also a fat32 partition and it has a bootable version of linux (Ubuntu) on it along with a persistence file.
This makes a really great tool that I can take anywhere and use on just about any machine I can find.
*Anonymous bro hug*.
Load 'em with as much as you can from wikileaks ;-)
Not quite free, but you can buy a handful of them at $1 a pop and explain that you're giving them away as gifts.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
"nerd ass faggot"
you have a family of cunts.
I used to have a zip file with a ton of free-use black and white cigarette/tabacco commercials. I'm sure they still exist on torrent sites. They're free and *legal*, and some will make your head spin in three different directions all at once. Then they can delete them and use your gift as a gift ;)
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
I don't believe you, but the story is plausible.
The portable apps suite is a powerful free toolbox useful for any user and admin alike.
You can also customize each flash drive to the recipient of the gift. There's tons of apps available including games.
www.portableapps.com
They're using their grammar skills there.
Well, they do say that a good gift should cost you a lot (to show how much you care about the recipient) while being of as little actual value as possible (because otherwise it could be a bribe).* Free software is pretty much the opposite.
* I confess that if people give me gifts like I prescribe, I usually get a bit cross. But I've experienced time and again that other people do tick the way I describe. It's a mystery.
Back in the 80s I did a Commodore 64 Christmas Disk for three years, one thing that was good about it is that I know everyone who I gave it to had a Commodore 64, and thus everything to use the disk. Now ids a different matter, you have people running potentially three platforms (Linux, Mac, Windows) with several versions as well as varying system specs. Not that FOSS software isn't a bad idea, I just hope you have time to support all those people you give it to as there will be issues depending on thier OS, and technical skills.
I have a better idea; A couple years ago I did that but included family photos, etc. stuff my family would be interested in regardless of the platform.
Besides photos, also think about video clips of the family and kids, and you can throw in PD or CC music , e-books, art, etc.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Load up the new launcher beta and load all the existing apps.
Linux Media Player and some CC music and movies.
Did this in '08 for my friends, still gets talked about - I still get voicemail with "Got any more of that free live music?"
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Ouch, what a nice niece. Should have loaded it up with SNES games.
I've always thought stocking stuffers should usually provide some instant gratification.
Since you're presumably giving these to less-tech literate people, there's a decent chance they won't immediately think the USB drives are awesome and wipe the disk without too much thought. Now if you tie some candy (like a candy cane) around the drive stick on a bow and make pretty, they will treat it more specially and might actually try out the software since they've already associated the USB drive as awesome, they'll see the FOSS on it as awesome too.
send them duku or stuxnet. Until you personally mentioned it I was going to say that I remember this exact same question last year around belial-mas time. I read slashdot pretty much every hour on the hour of everyday. The only regret I have had as of late is the slow pace at which news comes in, and further the low amount of linux news on the site nowadays.
Assuming that your family runs windows, I highly recommend including WSUS Offline Update along with pre-downloaded patch files for all versions of windows/office that you are likely to encounter in your family tree. IMHO, it's the first app they should run when they receive your present. Link: http://www.wsusoffline.net/
How about the Wikipedia database? Only 7GB (compressed) and will provide many hours of bedside reading.
Or, if you're feeling particularly generous, give them the full database including all revisions - only 28GB compressed with 7-Zip, so will fit nicely on a 32GB flash drive. This expands to over 5TB of data, so will provide many more hours of exciting reading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download#English-language_Wikipedia
Aside from Linux Mint, which I prefer over Ubuntu for a better out of the box experience (I just installed Lisa yesterday evening), I'd suggest these: VLC / SMplayer :)
LibreOffice
7zip (and *remove* Winzip/WinRAR/whatever).
Firefox / Google Chrome
Notepad++ (associate with everything)
Thunderbird
Foxit Reader (I know it's closed source, perhaps Sumatra instead? I use both)
Picasa
Pidgin
If the receiver is a student, tools for things like Latex (Miktex + Texmaker, perhaps?)
A print copy of the manual.
Whatever you like from Portable Apps.
Which is why you give them on CDs or not at all.
And really, this is a pretty self serving gift so it's probably best not given at all.
I don't think I believe him either; the general gist of the story sounds plausible, but the details make it seem fabricated, especially the bit about the "nerd ass faggot", people leaving them lying on the floor, etc. Unless this guy comes from an incredibly rude family, most people are polite enough to accept gifts as-is, and if they don't like them keep their mouth shut and dispose of the gift later. One kid not being polite is certainly believable (kids haven't learned all their manners yet), but multiple adults? Doubtful. Moreover, he didn't say what year this was, but I'd assume that at that time, 256MB USB drives were considered decently large. If someone gave me a 2GB USB drive (today considered fairly small) loaded with pirated Windows software, for instance, even though I have no use for Windows software I'd still take the USB drive and just erase it and use it for my own purposes. You can never have too many of those things.
Full of free Portable applications, so they can take their email inbox, firefox favourites and a whole lot of other tools and toys with them wherever they go. The best bit is, they are all FREE!!!
Photos of you and the person that is going to receive the gift, i think its the most logical, quit the OSS adventism.
Most people have no interest or even any idea about how the operating system works or even what they are doing when they access the internet. Don't bother with this idea, give them some idiotic thing that they will appreciate, such as a coupon for some junk food or something! :( Rob, Houston Texas
I heard about being cheap but that tops them all.
This is probably not a good idea. Not everybody cares about software even though almost everybody uses it in one way or the other. Unless your target audience is a geek/nerd crowd, this is a bad idea. It may seem a great idea to you but an average person would think it is a terrible gift. Give them what they like, not what you like.
OMG I wish I had mod points...literally 2 days after they expire and you do this! That was so perfect, anonymous or not!
So how do you sanitize the media you BUY for yourself?
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
This is a TERRIBLE idea, and I can already see that a previous poster has experienced just how terrible it is in person.
Nerds are widely known for their poor social skills, and this falls squarely into that squirm-inducingly unfortunate category.
If you're going to communicate with people (and yes, gift giving qualifies as a form of communication), then it's incumbent upon you, the communicator, to ensure that you're speaking in a language the communicatee understands.
I remember, as a child, getting things like socks for christmas and being very disappointed at what was inside of the brightly-colored wrapping paper. What you're proposing is, for a standard-issue human, exactly the same kind of thing.
Don't do it!
For image manipulation, The Gimp. To get it out of the camera, UFRaw. To get rid of duplicates, Clonespy. These are all rock solid maintained performers
All your database are belong to U.S.
Honestly they don't care, and it'll just make your gift sound shitty. Just say it's filled with games and other fun stuff.
Mostly people are going to find the games the most useful. Nobody except techno-geeks really gives a shit about encryption, or system utilities. How would you like to receive a pack of vitamins as a stocking stuffer, with some advice about how just 2000mg of Vitamin D a day can cut your cancer risk in half? It's true, but it still makes a shitty gift.
Focus on things EVERYONE likes. This means games, movies, etc. There's plenty of public domain movies available for anyone to download. Most of them suck ass, but some are decent.
For the younger ones with an interest in computers how about some simple hacking tools? Kids would think that was cool. "DOS your little sisters netbook of the wifi with this bad boy". Hehehe,
Give your parents Ubuntu - install it on their pc and they will be amazed at the speed, ease of use and lack of viruses. Its the gift that keeps on giving. They won't be able to pronounce it but that doesn't matter, it just works.
There exists such a project currently:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDisc
Couple this with the selection from OSS-WIN solves your dilemma significantly: http://osswin.sourceforge.net/
Make sure your Mom's computer has all the games that come with Windows 7 loaded. Those are located in Programs and Features control panel applet under "Turn Windows Features On or Off".
Make sure Telnet is activated (see above) and give them the address to the "Deeper Trouble" MUD at deepertrouble.org on port number 4242.
http://ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/index.htm
Put VNC server on it and attach a certificate for a free technical support session with you when they screw something up and need help.
Only other thing the non techies will appreciate would be if you put a ton of family photos on it.
and a friend of mine got, from his uncle, for christmas, an insulated mug from shoney's with his name added in black vinyl letter-stickers.
now, seriously, i think that getting a usb drive full of weird software that doesn't work with "the computer" i use (i.e. windows) would be even below that in terms of cool. i say this as a long-time linux user.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Ouch. Sucks to have family sometimes.. I would have loved that gift as a teenager.. But I guess I'm a Nerd.. :|
Bad idea for a gift. If people know what a USB drive is for they will wonder what all that crap is on it. Are they really going to look through it all and see what it is good for? They will probably think there is a virus or rootkit on there as well.
Also do you want to be supporting all the stuff on there?
In addition some people will think what they are getting isn't a USB drive, but a used USB drive.
Fill the drive with all the malware you can find.
They just don't care. And they surely don't want to receive it as a gift.
This says more about them (highly disrespectful and inconsiderate) than about you (thoughtful) and your gifts, to be honest. Dont be so quick to judge this as a bad idea - some families actually treat each other with kindness, courtesy and respect (something you may want to consider mentioning next time you talk to your niece) and thus will appreciate a custom-made gift - even if its something they dont like.
*Slightly* off topic, but let's face it: you'd do something like that because, deep down inside (if nothing else), you're hoping they'll fire up the software on that USB stick and say, "wow! And it's free??? Gimme some more o' dis!"
If you're trying to spread the news about Free Software, the only effective way to do it is to SHOW them. Most of the people whom I've converted to Linux did so after watching me use KDE (formerly) and Gnome (more recently). The multiple desktops are absolutely intriguing to a power user; it won't be long before he/she starts thinking, "hmmm ... I could use that." The fact that you're not playing "whack-a-mole" with a dozen pop ups each time you boot is impressive, too, as is the fact that, with a good distro, updates are centralized, controlled and politely done, with rarely a need to reboot.
Of course, I go one step further. If they want to see Windows, I've installed Windows in a Virtual Box. I can bring up Windows as a nice, well-behaved little application one one of my multiple desktops, where it stays out of the way until I really want or need it ..... the way it SHOULD BE. (Evil. Grin.)
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
Okay, I know some other people have mentioned this - and been voted down for it - but this has to be said: both free software and flash drives are terrible ideas for stocking stuffers on general principles.
Look, there are two reasons for this. The first is that any worthwhile gift has to be about the person you're giving it to. It has to be something THEY will appreciate. And, ideally, it should be something they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. When it comes to holiday shopping, even the friends of mine who are techies I wouldn't give free software or a data stick to. The ones who are into free software likely already have what I'd give them, and the ones who aren't would probably prefer something more non-technical, or more difficult to come by. It doesn't matter if you think it's cool - it's what THEY think.
The second is that, well, the gift should be something out of the ordinary. A flash drive is a basic computer accessory, and free software is, well, FREE. If it was software you created, then it would be worthwhile, as it was something you made. But otherwise, it would be like giving somebody a box of tissues.
If you're looking for gift ideas, be creative and stay away from the free software. If you've got a wine lover, give them a bottle of ice wine; if you've got somebody who loves the cute stuff, an interesting plush toy or the like. And if you absolutely have to give somebody software, make it something you created yourself or something that they would have to go shopping and pay for to get otherwise.
But if you go with flash drives and free software, the only thing you'll end up coming across as is some boring, thoughtless, self-obsessed cheapskate. Believe me, you don't want that.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
or you could just boot from a live cd and wipe it and not be a turd.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
I don't think this is a particularly good gift. Giving people free software on top of a cheap thumb drive (even giant ones are a dime a dozen now) feels little more than a silent push to free software from whatever they might be currently using.
If you want to give them a gift, give them something like a copy of Minecraft--something they can't just download for themselves.
First off, your relatives suck for not even having the common decency of feigning appreciation. Second, this was a learning experience. I was planning on doing this same thing this year for Christmas. Now it's off to buy giftcards: something I hate doing.
The game.
I second all the people that said PortableApps.com, but don't gear it to open source (nobody cares). Gear it to making their computer faster and fixing viruses/spyware. Get a defragger (Smart Defrag), anti-virus (ClamWin), anti-spyware (Spybot S&D). Then maybe some useful installable programs like Recuva (recover deleted files), CCleaner (registry cleaner/hard drive cleaner...I think there are portable cleaners, I just haven't used them), etc. Then if you were feeling sneaky, throw in a trojan somewhere so you can mess with them later (anybody remember NetBus?)
Porn!!
This actually sounds like a pretty typical American family event to me. I've seen the same stuff happen at my family's Christmas events in California, as well as at my wife's family's events in New Hampshire. Kids will be very vocal about gifts they don't like, especially the teenagers. They'll throw tantrums and cuss if they get something they don't really want. It isn't limited to the children, either. Some of the adults will exhibit similar behavior, although it's often more passive. Leaving unwanted gifts behind is just the kind of passive-aggressive attack that they'll perform. I know this can happen because my wife and I gave her adult sister and her sister's husband some wine last year, but apparently it wasn't expensive enough for them. They showed disappointment when they received it, and they left it behind, although they did keep some more expensive wine they were given by other relatives. We ended up taking it instead.
Games: FrozenBubble, Neverball, Vertigo, Zaz, Supertuxkart, Some form of tetris, Gweled, Blobby Volley 2, LBreakout 2, Frogatto, armagetron, xmoto, PokerTH, trackballs. Others: Cryptkeeper (hide directories), audacity(bundle mp3 support), openshot, desktop recorder, clementine-player(music), smplayer (if everyone has vlc), cherry--tree(note taking app, http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/), tasque, focuswriter and virtualbox to run ubuntu.
Your problem is that this is a selfish, smug, self-serving, "gift." It's the nerd equivalent of giving your Baptist neighbors copies of the Quran for Christmas in the hopes that they'll find it to be a learning experience. It's not a gift so much as an attempt to propagate your own ideological beliefs onto others in the way requiring the least actual pedagogy on your part. It's like asking your teacher how to spell a word, and they crassly tell you to look it up in the dictionary. Only worse. Your family aren't even asking. You're just giving them the dictionary and expecting them to have fun looking up words.
it's the gift that keeps on giving, literally...
Ask Me About... The 80's!
Like others, I'm having some trouble believing this is entirely true. However, in case it is it was not only a learning experience for you but a useful one. For example, you learned never to buy your niece anything ever again. I sure as hell wouldn't. I'd even go out of my way to blatantly give her absolutely nothing and if/when anyone in the family mentioned it, remind them how she treated you. Quote her word for word and say you refuse to ever reward such behavior. Saves you a few $ and is satisfying as hell.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
Are they under CC? Just wondering, who owns their copyright.
If they use Internet Explorer... don't try to get them to switch to Firefox by putting it on there.
If they use WinZip, don't try to switch them to 7-Zip.
If they use Windows Media Player, don't try to switch them to VLC.
In short, don't put stuff on it that duplicates functionality their computer probably already does.
That basically leaves games. Games are probably okay.
Converting someone to OSS requires convincing them that they should switch. It's not something you give them for Christmas.
I found out later that her brothers deleted everything on theirs without even bothering to try them.
yeah, well I don't run software given to me on a USB drive either.
besides, were you really disappointed? did you intend to give a gift, or to convert them to your ideology?
Why not load a bunch of old family photos that they may not have.
Portable Tor for the young'uns. It is invalueble for punching through school web filters.
Wow, that's weird. I guess good manners and politeness are just a thing of the past for America now.
As for the wine, I'd be perfectly happy with cheaper wine. I've tried many cheap and expensive wines, and have found an inverse relationship between the cost and how much I like it. I guess I don't have enough of an "acquired taste". :-P
I'd buy them copies of programs like cat, shut, yes, and xeyes (which is a game). If you have them on your system you could copy them but I'm not sure if that's ethical.
I really want GIMP to be a a good alternative to Photoshop, but it's not. In fact it's terrible. It's like photoshop from 15 years ago, except with an unusable UI.
I know it's not open source, but it's worth to bend the rules on this one and include Paint.net instead of GIMP.
wine: Something that appreciates in value as your willingness to say "Oh, now that's interesting!" increases.
Kid-proof tablet..
Anything that you can get for free, they can get for free. If they can get it for free, it's automatically unsuitable as a gift.
Even if the software is just a bonus for the flash drives, and you're also giving them a real gift and the flash drive is just the equivalent of a candy cane, it's still a bad idea. Free software is something you're interested in. You don't give people gifts that you're interested in, or that are meant to convince them to do things that you approve of. That kind of gift is self-serving and arrogant no matter how good the cause; just giving them actual candy canes would probably be received better.
It's nothing like your anaology. People could use the software without becoming zealots.
An office suite is generally useful, and not everybody wants to/can afford to pay Microsoft,
or feels uncomfortable stealing.
And in the case of the question at hand, what difference does it make to the brat if nerds
have more than one reason for liking the games they are being given?
Another layer of framing that might help a project like this would be to explain that the
productivity software is "bullet-proofof", but in the event assistance is needed *with it*
you'd be happy to help. If you're likelyto beroped into providing support anyhow, why
not make it easy on yourself/
Were that I say, pancakes?
Right after getting it, one of my nieces threw it back at me, calling it useless, and then she called me a "nerd ass faggot".
Wait, wait, wait...
Did your niece call you a "nerd-ass faggot"... or a "nerd ass-faggot", because the hyphen really changes the dynamics of the entire story :)
http://xkcd.com/37/
Man,
I wish my family would treat me like that.
Then I wouldn't feel guilty saying "It's your computer, learn to fix it yourself!"
Sorry but not only are you trying to "convert" them to your FOSS beliefs but it is the software equivalent of giving last year's calendar as gifts. It makes you look like you could not think of buying them a real gift or actually making something original so you just shoved some "free" software onto USB sticks. Because you opened and installed the software on them they were already "used" by the time they got them.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Gift certificate for MW3 you cheap bastard!
Pick two.
Don't be an arse and try to "convert" people to your FOSS leanings by giving them a trojan "gift horse". Seriously, either give a gift that you actually think they would like or don't bother. That gift does not have to be expensive or even bought but if it is the latter, then you actually have to have created it yourself. Taking a USB stick and copying over FOSS is not creative or a real gift. You are basically giving out a FOSS tract.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
next year... malware
Good thing you said "literally" or I would have mistaken what you said for a figure of speech or metaphor. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
"nerd ass faggot"
you have a family of cunts.
You don't get to choose your family.
Wow, that's weird. I guess good manners and politeness are just a thing of the past for America now.
Not all of America, but, yes, there are some exceptionally rude pockets here and there.
After having received from someone a gift that took their time and money to buy and wrap, and maybe make themselves, the last thing I would want to give in return is something that didn't cost me anything. Okay, so maybe you're also getting them a real gift. But who would install something they just found on a USB stick?
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
I just bought four SanDisk USB drives, in original packaging, at Costco. I had to clean them of junk before using them. They even had autorun files and some kind of installer.
Send the guy an empty drive that's really empty. That's a real gift today.
You don't get to choose your family.
But you do get to choose which ones live :D
Stick OO.o on there of course. And Firefox, Chrome, etc. And why not Gimp, Blender, and friends. All run Windows, why not spread em around. Will everyone use them? Probably not, but a few might and those that don't can just hit delete.
They have a browser.
The odds are very good they also have an office suite with which they are comfortable.
The learning curve for GIMP and Blender is alpine.
Don't give them *BSD. After all, BSD is dying.
It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a cockeyed miracle could save *BSD from its fate at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
either give a gift that you actually think they would like or don't bother
Which is why you should probably stick to FOSS games. Most people love casual games, so why not give them the gift of Frozen Bubble? Just make sure to package it for easy installation on Windows -- that would even count as a small DIY project.
Extrapolating two very personal anecdotes to 300 million people might be a little presumptuous.
Be it adult or child, behavior like any of that would put you on my families shit-list for a good long time. Were I to say something like that to my family when I was a kid, I've have felt the repercussions immediately... and painfully.
I posted the following to this same exact post that Jeng did:
http://slashdot.org/submission/1854046/good-useful-free-software
For some reason, this post was posted again, and edited, not sure why. But here was my answser to the original question:
You have many different portable application suites to choose from:
PortableApps.com (seems to be the most popular):
http://portableapps.com/
LiberKey (is somewhat new, and hasn't been around all that long, but it's catching up to PortableApps.com):
http://liberkey.com/en.html
I've never heard of the following two, so you may want to check them out anyway:
Pendriveapps:
http://www.pendriveapps.com/
winPenPack:
http://www.winpenpack.com/main/news.php
Michael
http://s1.sfgame.us/index.php?rec=58163
I think that the analogy was very apt. Your response to this is exactly the same as the religious zealots who get genuinely suprised when people don't react well to their helpful teachings. "But surely everyone wants to know they are loved by God!"
Like it or not, open source software is as much a philosophy as it is a collection of useful software. It certainly feels to the recipient like you are proselytising even if it seems to the giver as providing useful software. Then you have the big problem for ordinary people that giving away free software as presents is like coming in with plastic bags full of air.
That is an excellent link. You should be modded up. TTCS++
Back in the day of screeching phone lines, I trawled through mound and mounds of freeware games. As Sturgeon's Law dictated, 95% of them were crap, however I found a fair few gems in the steaming piles of software. First stop should be vertigogaming.net, where you will find the most delightful puzzler Acidbomb - all of his other free stuff is good, but that is by far the best. Also, have a search for a brilliant game-maker called Darthlupi at http://db.tigsource.com/developers/darthlupi Then stop by fullyramblomatic.com and download 5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Sacrifice, Trilby's Notes and 6 Days a Sacrifice - best adventure series I have ever played. Also there is the delightful stealth platformer The Art of Theft on that site as well. THIS also. http://www.reloaded.org/download/A-Blurred-Line/269/ There are more but I will stop here. Happy gaming!
I write professional videogame reviews! http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/
either give a gift that you actually think they would like or don't bother
Which is why you should probably stick to FOSS games. Most people love casual games, so why not give them the gift of Frozen Bubble? Just make sure to package it for easy installation on Windows -- that would even count as a small DIY project.
Sorry but no, that does not count as a DYI project. Frozen Bubble does not have a high degree of replay value for someone who is not a FOSS Zealot. It is not even an original game but rather a penguin themed cheap knock off of the Bust-a-Move (Puzzle Bobble) arcade game from 1994. Even the original game does not have a lot of replay value today.
The gift is supposed to be for the "other" person, not the gift giver. So with that in mind, the giver should try to please the recipient rather than themselves.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
... is free.
Available for free download from Hesperian in many different languages, it's an excellently thought-out medical guide that anyone can get benefit from.
http://weblife.org/pdf/where_there_is_no_doctor.pdf
Linux Multi-Media Studio (LMMS) - Not just a Linux version despite the name, but also in Win32. A semi-kludged OS-X version can also be found if you look hard enough. Very easy to learn & use. (Also includes ZynAddSubFX, which is amazing in its own right.)
Audacity - Recording and editing audio tracks. I'd be surprised if they didn't have this already though. All major OSs supported.
Lame MP3 (for Audacity) - So you can export to MP3 from Audacity. Thus you can share with friends w/o huge audio files.
Ardour - Not as easy as to learn from the start as LMMS, but perhaps much more in-depth given the current stage of development. Linux, BSD, OS-X. Still no Windows though.
Traverso - Multi-track editor similar to Audacity.
There's also a whole bunch of free soundfonts and VSTis for the digital audio workstations, but I'll leave those up to you.
And everyone hates receiving... You've spent $20 to give them $20, but you've tied their hands about where they can spend it. There's nothing more infuriating than a giftcard for a store which doesn't sell anything you want.
(upshot: give cash)
FGD 135
Most people are suggesting open source apps and games, but there are some really good closed source ones as well:
Spelunky(okay this one's open source)
Cave Story Fantastic platform game.
Trackmania Nations Great multiplayer and single player racing game.
Urban Terror The graphics are a little dated, but the gameplay is still really, really good. Online multiplayer team based FPS.
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
Careful though. Most decent open-source software is actually a clone of some proprietary software (the proprietary software often being better anyway), and hence if you show off something like LibreOffice, GIMP, SuperTuxKart or anything else that is clearly a knock-off of a well-known proprietary package, you're going to have that pointed out to you. Once this happens you cannot really get away from that, because it then suggests to the person the idea that open-source software is just a series of copycats of the "real" stuff... which I have to admit is a very common truth.
As for multiple desktops, I can think of three free virtual desktop programs for Windows (two of which integrated nicely with Windows 7) such that a person does not need to give up the wide range of premium software you'd find in Windows and can still enjoy Linux-style desktops. Better to stay where the software is, learn how to empower yourself and fill in the gaps when possible, than give it all up for a 1% OS.
To all newcomers - people here are very close-minded and can't handle complaints about Linux. Keep this in mind.
If they're into games, Iji and Cave Story.
Here's my list:
http://user.interface.org.nz/~gringer/iopencd/browser/home.html
Which reminds me... I should update that CD and replace OpenOffice with Libreoffice.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
First off, your relatives suck for not even having the common decency of feigning appreciation. Second, this was a learning experience. I was planning on doing this same thing this year for Christmas. Now it's off to buy giftcards: something I hate doing.
I refuse to buy gift cards. Fuck that. If they want a gift card I'll give them cash with one I printed myself and a suggestion on where they MIGHT use it if they so choose. Do you have any idea how many of those things end up not being used before they expire!? And how many more because companies file for bankruptcy or get bought out. Fuck that shit. Giving the gift of becoming an unsecured creditor I may as well flush the money.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
You might want to send them some open music as well
http://www.jamendo.com/
while many people are familiar with the open software, many are surprised to find a similar concept in music
If you are giving more than one person a flash drive like this then the thing to do is to pick software according to their tastes and then enhance it with some extras appropriate for the software.
Are they a budding graphic designer, or are they someone who likes doodling? If that was the case i would support the idea of getting them Inkscape, but I would add some extras to go with it. Download a sequence of tutorials or worked example videos for example, so they can start using it and have fun at the same time.
Have they commented about wanting to learn to program? Python, plus downloads or the examples and exercises from a tutorial course so that they don't have to do all that themselves.
In essence I would take a single program for each recipient and "boost" it with some selected extras.
Those who do not learn from Dilbert are doomed to repeat it.
Tuxguitar is good for tablature.
"Lupo PenSuite v6.75 Full"
might be a good choice as it has many, many, useful utilities in a compact grouping.
If you're trying to spread the news about Free Software, the only effective way to do it is to SHOW them. Most of the people whom I've converted to Linux did so after watching me use KDE (formerly) and Gnome (more recently).
I second this, the few people that show me some interest about linux had done this for little things of interest after watching my desktop. For example, a coworker tried linux after he saw some of my xfce screensavers (cow bouncing, pacman played by the computer, etc). Came for the screensaver, stayed for the free stuff.
Hey dude you answer is in here:
http://portableapps.com/
All portable applications that can be copied on a pendrive!
Regards!
You can look at that project:
http://www.theopendisc.com/latest-version/
If you're trying to spread the news about Free Software, the only effective way to do it is to SHOW them. Most of the people whom I've converted to Linux did so after watching me use KDE (formerly) and Gnome (more recently). The multiple desktops are absolutely intriguing to a power user; it won't be long before he/she starts thinking, "hmmm ... I could use that." The fact that you're not playing "whack-a-mole" with a dozen pop ups each time you boot is impressive, too, as is the fact that, with a good distro, updates are centralized, controlled and politely done, with rarely a need to reboot.
This is exactly how I became interested in Linux. Then, I tried it, and none of my plug-and-play devices worked, and I was expected to write my own drivers or stop complaining, and I went back to Windows. Windows 7 is the best Windows so far. I am fully satisfied with it. I run Debian in VirtualBox as a coding environment.
My piano album at http://www.geometricvisions.com/music/
It has the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license as well as the scores to two of the songs if they play themselves.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
The point about giving is that the recipient should actually (ideally) want the item they receive. It shouldn't be used as a platform for promoting your own opinions of what you think that person should have, and presuming that you know better than they do what software they should use.
While giving tech is never the best gift if the individual in question is not technically orientated (and if they are, they're perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what free stuff to d/l), the OP should at least demonstrate some degree of sensitivity and make the gift relevant to each of the recipients. Otherwise you might as well just give each of them a box of batteries as a socking filler - utilitarian, completely impersonal, cheap and more likely to get used than any strange software.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
This might be one of the best choices if he really wants to give software. It may also open up a nice side discussion about exotic Trinidad & Tobago. :)
I typically give people concerts or music from my collection recorded on dvd+r.
I couldn't reccomend this more.
I actually have a portable apps pen drive attached to my key chain, so it's always with me.
Also, I could suggest making the drive bootable with Kaspersky Rescue Disk, while not exactly open source, it's free to use and very good (for the price).
This way, every time they call you for "OMFGBBQ I HAVE A VIRUS!!11!!1" (you're the tech guy, right?), you just explain how to boot it and you'll be as awesome, spending much less time ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoLiWin
And everyone hates receiving... You've spent $20 to give them $20, but you've tied their hands about where they can spend it. There's nothing more infuriating than a giftcard for a store which doesn't sell anything you want.
(upshot: give cash)
I don't have that many relatives left, but they know that an Amazon.com gift card is always appreciated by me, so that's what I usually get. Frankly, that's probably the perfect gift for me.
This is a good idea, I don't understand giving away a usb stick. They tend to be secondary things e.g. giving someone a digital photo frame with some family photo's on it.
The gift of a USB stick with OSS on it seems very generic and not really very thoughtful. I always thought the point of Christmas was to show you care about someone by taking the time to think up a gift/gifts tailored to them. For example one of my little sisters never used to read recreationally and I would tease her about it. This year she hasn't been able to put a book down and is also a huge fan of Harry Potter so I'm getting her the Harry Potter Special Edition book set.
I appreciate people have budgets, heck of all the things I gave my Dad last Christmas the £5 survival kit is one of the things he goes on about the most. It doesn't have to be expensive just bought with that person in mind.
Just, for God's sake, don't turn it into one of those "what I did last year and why my little darling is so perfect" letters you always seem to get during the holidays.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Right, because wine and virtualbox are somehow not good enough to run windows software.
Better to stay where the viruses are, where the system takes twice the resources it needs, where the providing company has a history of illegal activity, where bugs take years to get fixed, where if you don't like OS-feature-X too bad.
You'd be amazed at how many people are using linux. And if you are in the server world, Unix is pretty much where it's at.
I see all software (open source included) as a tool. You have it to do something. If it does something a person wants, they'll like it.
My parents' old desktop PC recently died an electrical death. They own a laptop, but my mum in particular says she prefers a desktop PC for doing proper office work on. So we rifled through our collective back catalogue of computing odds and sods, and I built them a new Frankenstein's computer. It being of very old pedigree, and them already owning a Windows 7 laptop, I decided to pop Xubuntu on it (which is of course loaded full of open source software). My parents love it for what it is; not because they're suddenly Linux enthusiasts, but because it works a treat, is free, and they find it satisfying to reuse hardware that would barely run XP. They like it because it's a tool that works.
I wouldn't want open source software as a Xmas gift. I like Open Office (or Libre Office nowadays) because it works for me. I like sparkplugs- I own a bunch of sparkplugs (inside my car). I am pleased with the existence of these sparkplugs, and will buy them again if ever I need to. But that doesn't mean I want sparkplugs as a stocking filler this year...
Wow seems your family is really ungrateful, but honestly I rarely use my usb drive. Only time I use the drive is when I'm trying to fix someone's PC that doesn't have internet because if they had Internet I'd just download whatever files I needed.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
That actually makes sense, sorry someone labeled you as troll
Trying to explain the social aspects of gift-giving to Aspies is nigh impossible. To top it off, you are insinuating that the object of their systemizing perseverations is not generally considered a welcomed gift.
Better to just leave them to their own devices. They won't notice the weird/puzzled/disgusted facial expressions on the recipients' faces anyway; they will thus conclude that their gift + 15 minute rant about OSS philosophy was The Best Gift *evar*! They will then return here to report "success" to their echo chamber.
So, while I appreciate your valiant effort, I'm afraid it's inevitably a futile exercise.
has lot of good stuff done up to run off the usb stick instead of having to be installed.
sysinternals has nice system tools
No. Marking them as a thing of the past would be if I was so uncouth as to tell you to go F-off, you xenophobic turd. Or to point out the sheer volume of places I've been on many continents with people who either made overly broad statements about how Americans no longer have manners or the populace seemed to have rudeness and/or a lack of tact embedded in their culture. Either of those would indicate good manners and politeness were a thing of the past. I'm just glad my parents raised me better than that.
Bark less. Wag more.
Filling the drive with select data (free music, pictures and videos) would be much more tasteful than filling it with free software. Especially during the holidays, people would have trouble appreciating utilities because utilities basically equate to work. Give them something they can relax to that you don't have to worry about crashing (such as a poorly maintained program).
The ones that they own? Yeah, likely. The ones that they don't own? Likely they'll see value in a free program that does basically what they'd have used the pay-for one to do. Photoshop ain't cheap.
A few years ago, I gave my friends and family gifts like this. They each got a 256 MB USB stick with Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org and some other open source software I thought they might find useful. Well, they didn't appreciate it at all.
Right after getting it, one of my nieces threw it back at me, calling it useless, and then she called me a "nerd ass faggot". I found out later that her brothers deleted everything on theirs without even bothering to try them.
My older relatives had no idea at all what they were. Some of them thought they were supposed to put them on their keychains, as decorations!
I'm not sure who, but some of my relatives didn't even bother to bring them home with them after they left the Christmas gathering. I found several of them lying on the floor after everyone had left for the night.
I hoped it would be a learning experience for them, but it was really a learning experience for me. Most people don't give a fuck about open source software. They just don't care. And they surely don't want to receive it as a gift.
the problem is you were trying to give a gift that you liked, not one they liked.
Any normal person would see this. We don't.
This is how far slashdot is disconnected from the real world.
Which destroys all of the "thoughtful touches" the OP wanted to add. Anyway, you miss the point. It isn't that wiping is hard. It's that the value of the assumed gift (minus all thoughtful touches) is less than the value of my time in putting it to use.
There is a difference between a device of known providence, purchased through commercial channels with at least some possibility of accountability, and something received from a person who has already displayed what I consider questionable technical judgment by giving me untrustworthy crapware on a potentially malware infested flash drive.
Anyway, the point I raised was really more about the economics of the situation rather than technical issues in wiping media.
The flash drive and software may be of very little cost, but the combined time and effort of all of these replies would be quite expensive even at a minimum wage. The amount of value would be questionable.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society offers their open source Windows CD in an ISO image for free. You could burn a copy to a disc then just copy it all to a USB stick since the menu is just HTML and it links to the various programs. They built installers for the programs that didn't have a regular Windows installer. It has enough information to help the newbie install any of the programs in the collection.
Yes, it's in English. Here's where you get it:
http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/
Here's what's in the collection (forgive the formatting issues):
âDesktop Applications
â--¦OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 free office productivity suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentations) compatible with all major office suites
â--¦AbiWord 2.8.6 Free Word processing program similiar to commercial products
â--¦GanttProject 2.0.10 Gantt chart based project scheduling and management tool
â--¦Grisbi 0.6.0 personal finance manager
â--¦7-Zip 9.20 file archiver with high compression ratio.
â--¦Rainlendar 0.22.1 displays skinnable calendar on your desktop
â--¦Notepad++ 5.8.7 text editor with special features for coders
â--¦Notepad2 3.0.21 text editor with the look and feel of Notepad but with more features
â--¦Sumatra PDF 1.3 slim, portable, Free and Open Source Software PDF viewer for Windows.
â--¦WinMerge 2.12.4 WinMerge is a Win32 tool for visual difference display and merging, for both files and directories.
â--¦ConvertAll 0.5.0 Unit Conversion program
â--¦GTD TiddlyWiki Plus 2.1.3 complete wiki contained in a single HTML file.
â--¦Wikidpad 2.0 Wiki-like notebook for storing anything you can think of to write down
â--¦TreeLine 1.2.4 store your data in a tree structure to keep things organised
âEducational
â--¦GraphCalc 4.0.1 an enhanced calculator application that can solve equations
â--¦Tux Paint 0.9.21c Tux Paint is a free drawing program designed for children
â--¦Tux Typing 2 1.8.1 "Tux Typing" is an educational typing tutor for children
â--¦TuxMath 1.9.0 "Tux, of Math Command" is an educational typing tutor for children
â--¦Celestia 1.6.0 space simulation to explore the universe in any direction
â--¦Stellarium 0.10.6.1 Map the night sky on your computer
â--¦Maxima 5.23.2 A sophisticated computer algebra system
â--¦Childsplay 1.5.1 a 'suite' of educational games for young children
â--¦The Babbleback Machine 1.0 Records and Playback voice game
âGames
â--¦Kobo Deluxe 0.5.1 space ship "shoot-them-up" style game
â--¦FloboPuyo 0.20 Clone of the famous PuyoPuyo
â--¦Anagramarama 0.2 Create as many words from the given letters
â--¦Portable Puzzle Collection r9083 collection of small one-player puzzle games
â--¦Sokoban YASC 1.554 Yet Another Sokoban Clone - for Windows
â--¦Pang Zero 1.3 fast paced action game that involves popping balloons with a harpoon.
â--¦Armagetron Advanced 0.2.8.3.1 action game modeled after the lightcycle sequence of the movie Tron ; supports multiplayer over LAN
â--¦pouetChess 0.1.1 3D chess
â--¦Space Invaders OpenGL 0.6.1 An OpenGL version of the classic arcade game
â--¦FooBillard 3.0 OpenGL-based billiards (pool) game with realistic physics, AI-player and many gametypes such as pool carambol or snooker.
âGraphics
â--¦GIMP 2.6.11 bitmap editor suitable for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
â--¦Pinta 0.6 Simple image and photo editing tool for Windows
â--¦Blender 2.49b 3D modeling, animation, rendering application
â--¦Dia 0.97.1-1 A diagram creation program program similiar to "Visio"
â--¦My Photo Index 1.24.35
I'm not sure that I get it. At least you didn't call it an emulator ;)
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"
This is a great idea, especially for older people. My parents (who at their age don't really need anything) got a single photograph from a long-moved-away neighbor in the mail recently. It was of my sister and I in their backyard, playing with their kids. My mom was over the moon. I've heard about that photo like 5 times in the last month.
If you've got an old picture of somebody else, that you suspect they don't have, make a nice copy of it and give it to them this Christmas/Hanukkah. It'll restore your faith in "it's the thought that counts" which will be as big a gift to you as to them.
How about a copy of DOSBox and a load of old DOS games? There are numerous sites where you can get abandonware or shareware games.
My only suggestion would be to choose your apps carefully. After all, you are going to be supporting them for the next five years!
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
Eh, I very much doubt the author cares to admit it.
The I think are most useful for windows users would be 7-zip libre office exact audio copy / lame And maybe VLC too. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned EAC before. It's incredibly useful for those of us who still have some old, scratched CDs around.
I occasionally work with a "public service" office that makes little flyers and similar things for families that need them. They get sporadic grant money and have a few old Macs that they do their word processing on, but they need to communicate with families outside the office that mostly don't have Macs, and usually don't have the money for MS Word, either. I introduced them to Open Office as a solution to their copy-pasting of stuff in and out of e-mails. It was a hard sell, they were worried it would hurt their computer, etc. etc. and, they would never presume to ask any of the families outside to install such a thing on their own computer.
Even when you "spread the word for good," and not just idealogical reasons, there is resistance.
If you are going to employ the referential term "nigger" please balance your sentiment by also using the referential term "cracker." Cultural pluralism in our day-to-day lexicon is a community effort.
Let me know when Mother and its sequel Earthbound are on VC.
Or maybe the gap between Photoshop and Paint-replacement is large enough for a program to fit in-between them...
I'm a GIMP fan, but I know there are GIMP haters out there who might claim that Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro fits in this gap better than GIMP does.
What is the difference between giving a drive with free software and giving some nice jars with food you poured in? I can't believe the naysayers here. 'What? You made that jam yourself and it took hours? I can get that on sale for a few bucks.' If the nice container - of data or food - is reusable whether you care about the contents is less important than whether you could get it free/cheaper elsewhere. I don't dis my grandmother for taking cheap yarn and making a sweater that I can get at goodwil for cheap. Someone thought of me- liked me enough to give a gift - and thought eough about me to think 'they can use this' Go nuts I say. Just because someone CAN get something for free doesn't mean any less if they didn't know it existed or had never knew which ones might be worthwhile without your advice. Sheesh.
I wonder how many people didn't read the "stocking stuffers" part and just decided to bash this guy.
The lyx word processor, because everybody writes now and then - and lyx provides better-looking output than the alternatives.
Works for any os, mac/windows/linux. It is a big install because it uses latex as a backend, so texlive is needed too.
www.lyx.org
*Slightly* off topic, but let's face it: you'd do something like that because, deep down inside (if nothing else), you're hoping they'll fire up the software on that USB stick and say, "wow! And it's free??? Gimme some more o' dis!"
More likely deep down inside he's too cheap or lazy to actually go buy a gift.
Three Squirrels
Gimp and some great plugins like layer effects, gmic, and maybe mathmap. This makes the program as powerful as most commercial paint programs.
Rockbox. It's custom firmware for a variety of mp3 players. Check if your relatives have compatible players first. It makes most players much better than their native firmware supporting formats like flac, ogg, nsf, and many others. It also has games, utilities, and fully customizable ui.
OpenOffice or equivalent favorite "open" office suite.
Monsterz is a bejeweled clone and it's pretty good.
Don't worry about the naysayers. Anyone complaining about open-source software nowadays probably lacks the ability to plug in a usb stick.
I don't think it's self-serving insofar as it's still a USB key. If one of my friends gave me something like this, I'd probably already be using half the software and I'd have a newer version, too. But so what? I don't mind getting another USB key.
Besides, he said it was a "stocking stuffer"... he didn't say he was going to put it in a ten-by-ten box with a bow on it and leave it in the driveway like he was giving them a car.
Breakfast served all day!
Don't be ridiculous. No member of a nigger family is smart enough to post on Slashdot, and no one outside of a nigger family cares about niggers enough to try to improve their lives.
You are basically giving the person a list of software. This is a stupid idea for a gift. A gift needs time and thought. If you want to give free software as a gift, then why not arrange a time with the recipient to meet with them and install it for them, then show them how to work it.
Better than giving them a flash drive with a bunch of things that they will probably delete before using the drive to store mp3s.
Celestia is a great program - it is an astronomy program that lets you view all kinds of objects from many perspectives in great detail and with many options....
There is another program called WINSTARS - which is also good.
What we use our beloved Personal Computer For ?
.Net Framework, Java Runtime Environment, Visual C++ Runtime, and DirectX.
:)
1) Net Surfing, Chatting, E-Mail, Downloads/Uploads, Torrents.
2) Viewing/Managing Archive/PDF files and Pictures.
3) Listening/Viewing Audio/Video, Burning CD/DVD.
4) General Office Applications like Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation Graphics, Database, Drawing, etc.
5) Managing Calendar, Contacts, To Do list, Notes and Schedules.
6) We also use utilities for cleaning repairing Windows registry and file system, Anti-Virus, and Anti-Spyware.
Here is my answer. These are free software one should get after a fresh install of Windows or anytime for that matter...
1) Net Surfing, Chatting, E-Mail, Downloads/Uploads, Torrents.
Net Surfing : Firefox. Install NoScript and AdBlock Plus for increased security in Firefox. (Others Chrome, and Opera).
Chatting/IM : Gtalk, and Meebo (Others Pidgin, Skype, and Google Wave).
E-Mail : Thunderbird With Lightning. (Others Edora ).
Downloads : Orbit Downloader. (Others GigaGet and Free Download Manager).
Uploads : Core FTP LE. (Others FileZilla ).
Torrents : uTorrent. (Others Vuze ).
Plug-in/Add-on/Extension : Flash(IE), Flash (Non IE), Silverlight, Shockwave Player, Google Toolbar,
2) Viewing/Managing Archive/PDF/E-Book files, Pictures and CD/DVD burning.
Managing PDF : Adobe Reader. (Others Foxit Reader )
E-Book Reader : FBREader And Amazon Kindle for PC.
Archive Manager : 7-Zip. ( Others PeaZip).
Picture Manager : Irfanview (With PlugIns). (Others XnView and Picassa).
CD/DVD burning : CDBurnerXP. (Others ImgBurn, Deep Burner, and Explore&Burn)
3) Listening/Viewing Audio/Video. VLC Player
(Others The KM Player, QuickTime Player, RealPlayer, Winamp, DivX Play, and Audacity). You can also use K-Lite Codec Pack which will enable Windows Media Player to play every kind of Audio & Video file.
4) General Office Applications. LibreOffice From Document Foundation.
(Others OpenOffice.org, Google Docs, and Lotus Symphony ).
5) Managing Calendar, Contacts, To Do list, Notes and Schedules : Thunderbird With Lightning.
6) Utilities :
Cleaner/Optimizer : CCleaner, Defraggler, and Advanced SystemCare .
Anti-Virus : Avast. (Others AntiVir Personal, and Comodo Internet Security).
Anti-Spyware : SuperAntiSpyware. (Others SpyBot).
Automatic Update Checking : Update Notifier, (Others Filehippo Update Checker.)
Details with download links in this site - http://sites.google.com/site/shirshasin/
Not free, but why not put a bitcoin wallet on each one with a few bitcoins. Give them the link to the Trade page on the wiki and let them buy what they want. www.bitcoin.org www.weusecoins.com https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade
Well, the stocking stuffer would be the USB keys and teh stuff on them is just a bonus (or something to be deleted).
Wow - I'd say I'd be spanked if we had tantrums like that, but more likely we'd have been made to feel stupid by having a five-year-old put in charge of us with the parents making sure we toed the line and did everything we were told to by an obviously more mature member of the family - {G}.
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
I'm not sure what is supposed to be Funny about this. I'll second the bro hug, and without being an anonymous coward.
Our family is who we choose. Blood is an accident.
:::The Spear in the heart of the Other is the Spear in the heart of You; You are He - Surak of Vulcan:::
[blockquote]Right, because wine and virtualbox are somehow not good enough to run windows software.[blockquote]
Well, they aren't. WINE introduces regressions with each new version, so who in their right mind would want to rely on WINE to run either necessary software or games without fiddling/troubleshooting? As for Virtualbox, it's slow.
[blockquote]Better to stay where the viruses are, where the system takes twice the resources it needs, where the providing company has a history of illegal activity, where bugs take years to get fixed, where if you don't like OS-feature-X too bad.[/blockquote]
If you're getting viruses in Windows, maybe you just don't know how to use computers properly. It's funny how the Linux zealots seem to talk about viruses the most, even though they aren't actually a concern if you employ some basic security habits. As for the rest, I find Windows 7 faster than Ubuntu 11.10, far less buggy and much more pleasant to use as a desktop OS. Illegal activity? Sure that bugs me, but using Linux is such a bad experience these days that Microsoft's behavior isn't enough to pull up with the shit that is Linux on the desktop.
[blockquote]You'd be amazed at how many people are using linux. And if you are in the server world, Unix is pretty much where it's at.[/blockquote]
Sure. We use Linux at work in embedded systems as well as servers. That's where Linux is strongest in - not on the desktop. But desktop software is what this fucking thread is all about moron, which is why I'm not mentioning anything else.
To all newcomers - people here are very close-minded and can't handle complaints about Linux. Keep this in mind.
You're right, Photoshop ain't cheap. But it is however very easy to pirate - just download the Master Collection trial from the Adobe web site, find a key on TPB and grab a "host file" blocking script that will redirect all known Adobe activation servers to 127.0.0.1. Heck I'd do that for them and package it nicely with a series of easy instructions to follow. In the end they'll get the best tools available, they'll be part of the crowd that can "Photoshop" images rather than "GIMP" them, and they'll be none the wiser because no-one gives a shit if you give them pirated software.
To all newcomers - people here are very close-minded and can't handle complaints about Linux. Keep this in mind.
thanks for sharing that with us. I'll keep this in mind.
Maybe what should be put on those usb keys is data more than software.
open source books.
pictures of family event.
videos of family events.
software only for the guy you know is a nerve, and especially if he does not have a good Internet connection. Eclipse for your nephew starting to program, Gimp for the one into pictures and special effects. AND OFFER YOUR TIME TO INSTALL AND EXPLAIN THE SOFTWARE, THAT'S THE TRUE GIFT!
Also, I would fill each key with things targeted to the person you're giving it to. Make it feel personal.
I'm not sure what you two are on about, but wine is something you install to run windows software.
It is?
Kid-proof tablet..
Hmm, gives me an idea to either turn a flash drive into a Christmas ornament and load it with this year's memory photos, or get one of those keychain mini photo viewers loaded with the same. Each year, add a new flash drive or photo keychain to the tree.
I'll just declare this version of a patentable idea to be in the Public Domain now.
Have fun.
Here's a link to a short article about podcasts which has a long list of web sites at the bottom with excellent podcasts where can find enough material to easily fill most flash drives and customize the material to the recipient: https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/speed-your-hearing.htm . (Full disclosure: I wrote the article.)
there is so much to choose from. what else could anyone possibly want on a usb stick?