Best Downloads for Linux

As a follower of the very popular productivity website Lifehacker.com, today I just stumbled on one of their most recent posts. The post, titled Lifehacker Pack for Linux: Our List of the Best Linux Downloads lists and describes a number of free/open source software products that can be downloaded and installed on Linux. The post mentions that these are mostly for the Ubuntu distribution, but many of these applications have releases for other Linux distributions as well.

I personally find this list to be very useful, since it includes many applications that one would need in everyday's work/life, and many of them are not included by default with Linux. These include: web browser (Firefox, Chrome), email client (Thunderbird), office suite (OpenOffice.org), text editor (gedit), and many more. The list even provides direct links to download these applications or to directly install them in Ubuntu.

Fantistic Contraption...When Physics can be Fun!!!

While skimming through various blogs, I came across a very interesting post on the How-to Geek. The post was about yet another online flash game, but this time it is based on physics and puzzle solving, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Fantastic Contraption turned out to be an extremely fun game to play. The objective of the game is to move the red object (usually a circular object, but sometimes other shapes) to the red area (called the "goal"). Sometimes there are some obstacles in the way. To achieve the goal, you have to build a "contraption" using the tools at the top of the screen, and use this contraption to move the red object to the goal area. To make things even harder, you can only build your contraption within the light blue area (the workshop).



The games with a large number of levels, each of which has a different arrangement of objects. One good thing about this game is that you don't have to proceed through the level sequentially. If you find yourself stuck at a particular level, you can go to the main menu, and play a different level of your choosing.

You can also save your contraptions (in mid-level, or after you've solved the level), but you have to create an account in order to do this (which is free). You will be given a link that you can share with others so they can directly see your contraption in action. You can also upload your contraptions to the server. Once you solve a level, you can view contraptions built by other users for that particular level. Here are some of the contraptions I've built (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O). I am not listing them in level order, or even including the level, so that I don't spoil your experience with the game.

Warning: The game is very addictive, so make sure you don't lose track of time while playing it.
Have fun!!

The Best Freeware List

For those, like me, who love free software (who doesn't?), it can be hard sometimes finding a good piece of software that does a certain task, especially since these freeware products appear and disappear all the time. This is one scenario that has happened to me personally too many times: I find a nice freeware program, and I use it for a long time. Then at some point, I recommend it to someone, only to find that it has now become a commercial software (and not free anymore), so I have to go and try to find a good freeware product to replace it. If this has ever happened to you, then you know what I mean.

That's why I was very glad when I found Gizmo's Tech Support Alert. This site offers a list of the top freeware products out there. It is classified into categories like:

• Security / Privacy / Encryption


• Internet: Email / IM / FTP / File sharing / Download managements


• Enhancements to Windows / Desktop


• Computer maintenance / Performance


• System utilities / Backup / Data recovery


• Audio / Video / CD / DVD


• ... and more.

Each category is further divided into subcategories for easy navigation. Each sub-category usually features 3 or 4 products, with a full review showing the pros and cons of each product, so that the reader can make an informed decision of which product to use. The list is also updated constantly, removing products that are not freeware anymore, and adding new software that just proved itself to be worth mentioning. The website also provides a free monthly newsletter (with a paid version that has more stuff in it), and a forum where visitors discuss freeware programs and computer problems.

This site used to be a lone effort by Ian "Gizmo" Richards, who created and maintained a highly popular list of the "46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities", but over time that list grew well beyond 46 and reached the point where it could not be maintained by one person. So, now the website has changed to wiki-style, where it relies on the contribution of dozens of volunteer editors who edit and moderate suggestions from thousands of site visitors. As a result the range of software covered is ever increasing and quality of the reviews ever improving. In some sense, some might think of it as a Wikipedia for Freeware.

At this point, whenever I am looking for a software product in a certain category, this is the first place to check. I wonder how many others do the same. Again, the URL of the website is http://www.techsupportalert.com