Software Guide

[Andrew]

I thought about starting a new thread, but I figured I post in here first to see what, if any response I get.

I know someone who runs/owns a hair salon, and was wondering if anyone knew of any software which would be good for scheduling appointments, customer database, financial data/analysis, possibly accounting and some other stuff (selling hair products). I'm looking specifically for free opensource software. I've been looking around only a little.

The closest and best looking product I have found (and knew about for a month or two) is OpenERP, although I'm not completely sure of its capabilities (I'll probably run it in a virtual OS to see what it does). It is supposedly fully featured. Also noticed SugarCRM, and Compiere and its spinoffs.

Any suggestions?

Even finding software only relating to scheduling seems difficult (basically your day planner of when people are coming/going).

Currently everything is done with pen/paper, with financials only occurring about once a year. Someone else is also looking into finding appropriate software, but I'd figure I'd look as well since I am better with software than the other person.

[Andrew]

Hah, took me a while to find this thread since it is now stickied. Couldn't' find it where it should have been. :P

Answering my previous post:

It appears that Mozilla Sunbird is the most user friendly for scheduling appointments. And it is capable of exporting to .csv. With CSV I can use a spreadsheet to datamine the information that was inputted. Now I only need to figure out if possible to edit and add headers so more information can be accurately input to datamine. Me and my damned spreadsheets.

I did get tinyerp (openerp) to work on my windows OS. A bit too complicated for me.

Someone on another website recommended Joomla which I havn't looked into very much.

I also found WebCalendar which looks like a decent webcalendar.

EDIT:

And now I am looking at

http://www.gnucash.org/

http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/index-home.html

[Andrew]

Added 2 new sections:

Calendar

Accounting/Finance/Business

I basically added most of the software I was looking at recently.

If anyone has any suggestions for anything let us know :)

[Andrew]

New version of VLC was released. It is a big update. Stuff looks different and stuff.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

RC1 of openoffice was released a week or two ago. Next RC maybe out September 22, with final release probably first week of October. I installed openoffice rc1 on an old computer and at first glance didn't notice anything different. But the changelog is huge so must be better.

Added

VirtualBox

It had a major update two weeks ago. It's opensource and works on linux/windows/mac/etc

[Andrew]

Openoffice 3 will be officially released Monday.

The builds (installer) are already out. They can be found at betanews.com.

I installed openoffice 3 over my OOo2. No problems yet and easy to do.

In calc the first improvements you will notice are translucency selection (it looks a lot better than the black selection). Looks like some new icons in the menus and toolbars.

I'm sure there will be some better reviews next week with the list of improvements. I think I may try out the Openoffice quickstarter in the systray. I have 3gb of ram and rarely use more than 1gb. The quicker program startup time (instant) might be worth it.

Gimp 2.6.x has been released. Many improvements. I'm still going to use paint.net for now.

Opera 9.6 was released.

If you updated to VLC in my previous post there was another version released with bugfixes.

EDIT:

Openoffice new features list and changelog.

http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/'>http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

http://development.openoffice.org/releases/3.0.0.html

EDIT:

Openoffice officially released. Their website is down because of traffic. But they provide download links

http://www.openoffice.org/

[nemafakei]

Having found Notepad++ from Andrew's good work here and used it for what seems like years, I'd like to just emphasise how amazing it is. I tab between perl scripts, XML, and plaintext outputs; the text manipulation tools are amazing and it has wonderful touches like the ability to rename a file you're working on. With plugins, I'm able to use it as a hex editor, I'm able to run scripts from an inbuilt command line, I'm able to view a directory tree from the side... The find/replace has regexp functionality, which is amazing.

[Andrew]

Added

EclipseTrader - Open source online stock trading system

Sadly it relies on java.

If anyone knows of a better freeware/opensource software like that let me know.

[D2k Sardaukar]

Teamviewer http://www.teamviewer.com/nl/index.aspx

Very easily to install and than control another desktop. Free for personal use.

Wireshark

Haven't used that often, but you can record every detail that happens with your network connections and than repeat or copy it. Looks very handy anyway. :)

Hugin

Free program to make panorama's and to stitch other images together. Old version worked great, new one, I don't yet understand. :)

Speedfan

The program to control the PWM/speed of your fans in your PC/Motherbord.

FileZilla (Client)

Great FTP program.

They are all free to download.

edit: How can we forget Hamachi. Free program to create virtual LAN over internet. Works great!

[Andrew]

I added them all.

I knew of speedfan, filezilla, hamachi.

Heard of wireshark. Did not hear of teamviewer or hugin. hugin looks nice.

[gryphon]

WireShark is just Ethereal from the good old days. And TeamViewer is one of the first applications that is trying to make an easy to use program for remote desktop support. Just a shame they still lack a few basic features. Give those Germans a few extra months and I think they have it.

[Andrew]

Well I was looking for a replacement for AVG since general consensus is that it now sucks (deleted installer off my usb stick).

I downloaded/installed avira anitvirus and remembered why I won't be using that. When it updates its definitions is opens up a popup advertisement. I'm not sure if that is to make people stop using their software, or to make a person think that they should pay money for the premium version to stop the stupid and useless popup.

From what I read avast! antivirus requires free registration in order to work (which only lasts 1 year). Without registration it only works 60 days. I don't think non-geeks want to register a product every year (won't know how).

So far it seems clamwin is the only suitable antivirus that does not nag (other than when a new version is released). But it is probably the least safest one (no realtime scanning, but that makes it fast ;)). I've been using clamwin on XP for a while with not many problems (since it last detected stuff this spring).

I've also taken the opinion that VLC is superior to k-lite codec. It is a simpler/easier install, and it works on all operating systems. Thus if you switch between OS, you only have to get used to one application. VLC 0.9.x is very nice. I have removed all other video players in ubuntu, in an attempt to have vlc play everything (by default, except for music). I still have k-lite installed on windows along with VLC. But sometime I will probably get rid of k-lite. Nothing wrong with the minimal video player, just not much sense in having two video players (3 if you include windows media player I have never used or updated).

Firefox quietly updated itself while browsing. A small notification came up in bottom right corner. I shutdown firefox when I was done browsing, then started it again and it updated (installed new version) within 10 seconds. Quick and painless.

[Gobalopper]

If you want a good anti-virus program I would recommend Kaspersky. It may cost money but its the best I've ever used. You can find it on sale at Futureshop sometimes.

[Andrew]

Yah, but bad thing about kaspersky is I cannot install it on lots of machines, especially if I am fixing friends computers.

If bought, how long does it last before you have to buy again? Is there a yearly fee like mcafee/norton?

[Gobalopper]

You get 30 days free but you have to pay for it any longer then that. I would never pay for McAfee or Norton but in my opinion Kaspersky is worth it.

I've used it before on friends computers to just get rid of viruses that have messed up their McAfee or Norton installs. And then just remove it and reinstall the old virus scanner they paid for.

[Andrew]

I downloaded and installed comodo antivirus/firewall.

It installed, updated definitions. Complained about sygate firewall and killed it, seemed to ignore or not notice clamwin.

Then it froze the computer and killed my internet connection. I rebooted and internet was still not working (but it didn't complain about sygate running). So I promptly uninstalled it and rebooted and now my internet is working again along with everything else.

Do not use comodo. I'm removing it from the list.

apparently nod32 is decent, but you have to pay to use it as well.

Now I'm back to clamwin only. So I have found no suitable freeware antivirus for other people to use.

[D2k Sardaukar]

I think that investing in something that learns people that ""installing 100 (unknown) programma's, clicking on all ads, downloading all addons and clicking on all links posted in the chat/social websites that lead to strange websites"" are BAD, will have better effect on getting no viruses than the best (free) anti-virus program. So AVG messed up once (i didn't even notice it), I'm sure they learned from it and will not happen again. You don't need an extra firewall because Windows has one built in (Vista I know for sure has one).

[Andrew]

Foxit pdf reader 3.0 was released last week.

Unfortunately they now include adware with the installer.

Here is what I put on their forums which describes the problems:

I notice with the installer, you now include a foxit toolbar. Is this for the foxit pdf reader or is it a web toolbar? This will mislead users into thinking it is a legitimate foxit product.

I installed it. It looks like this toolbar is actually an internet explorer ask.com toolbar, disguised as foxit toolbar (it goes to ask.com). In add/remove programs it is called "Ask Toolbar". This toolbar is installed for internet explorer and firefox.

If I uninstal the toolbar after I install foxit, will I still get the typewriter and other features, or will they be disabled?

You also include ask.com search checkmarked by default

I notice you include eBay one click checkmarked by default. This adds a file/link on the desktop and in start menu. The link in the shortcut is [link removed] (which redirects to ebay).

Is the reason for the larger installer because of the inclusion of the toolbar?

Foxit 3.0 installer: 3.68 mb

Foxit 2.3 installer: 2.56mb

I am sorry, but I cannot support foxit at this time. Foxit 2.3 installer did not have the toolbar, nor the ask.com or ebay advertisements in it. Having these checkmarked by default is misleading your foxit users into installing software they did not ask for.

I will be informing my peers about this new information, and recommending them to use alternative programs and warning them about the adware. I have used and recommended foxit since late 2005.

Sincerely

Andrew

link to the thread.

I will use sumatrapdf. Although I have almost converted to ubuntu completely, so the default pdf viewer on there is fine.

I did not like windows XP firewall. It would not warn me when programs are connecting to the internet, or that they had changed .exe, which is implemented in sygate firewall which was released in 2005.

As for not needing antivirus, not all people are smart enough to not click on crap that pops up. Sometimes they are disguised as legitimate popups.

AVG screwed up a couple times. There browser plugins checked all urls (effectively denial of service websites), and then they deleted a windows file. But the worst thing about AVG 8 is that it is slower than 7.5 series. They took something that worked fine and made it worse.

EDIT:

Apparently the foxit .zip download does not contain the adware. So download that.

[Andrew]

added:

HandBrake - Opensource DVD -> MPEG-4 video converter

A new version was released Yesterday. Many improvements, and now supports a linux GUI. It works on windows, macs, and linux. Apparently is can also convert any video to another version as well (not limited to DVD only).

I've used to to convert a DVD to a small video to fit on my mp3 player. Worked great. Soon time to convert my Dune DVDs and see how they look on a 2.8" screen. :D

Can someone download the foxit pdf reader .zip file and upload to fedk?

Download Foxit Reader 3.0 (ZIP Package: .zip, 3.12 MB)

My ISP blocks keyword 'llwnd' for some reason. And the version uploaded at other websites is the installer.

[gryphon]

Does this link help you in any way ?

[Andrew]

Thank you that worked great!

[nemafakei]

Hm. Foxit is now slow and buggy.

Comodo gets on my nerves, but there's a new version out, so I'll see what that's like.

[Andrew]

Hm. Foxit is now slow and buggy.

Comodo gets on my nerves, but there's a new version out, so I'll see what that's like.

Yep, lots of complaints on foxit forum. Some are switching to other pdf readers such as PDFXchange. But it looks like bloatware (20mb installer, 5mb portable version). Havn't tried it yet.

If you are on windows and only need to read/print pdf files, sumatra pdf is really small and fast (1 executable file and one .ini preferences file). I've been using it for a couple months because older foxit would crash when attempting to get updates (which would happen a lot, but doesn't happen with 3.0). With foxit 3.0 shipping with adware in the installer that is another reason to not use it.

Also foxit now has pdf plugins for firefox which I didn't like. I'm used to downloading pdfs. I know it can be turned off in firefox preferences, but I don't like the idea of integrating software to run inside of other software. More chance of crashes etc. Like when adobe reader would do bad things when running inside web browser, which I then used pdfdownload firefox extension.

I might donate to sumatra pdf in the future, although I don't see a donation page. I'm sure he could get some money by having one.

[Andrew]

added:

Redmine - an open source flexible project management web application

The website looked clean, and the demo was decent and easy to use/understand.

New version will be released at end of December.

I've been hearing/seeing SugarCRM a lot recently. Microsoft wouldn't allow them at a conference because they are competition. Microsoft and Salesforce bounce open-source competitors from events.

[MrFlibble]

Speaking of antivirus programs, what do you think of avast?

[Andrew]

Speaking of antivirus programs, what do you think of avast?

I think it is decent, but I havn't used it in several years. Having to register every year to use it is a small turnoff. Although I guess spending 30 minutes to enable a years use is not bad. But then if I am fixing a friends/neighbours computer, I might not be there every year to renew registration so it would not get latest definitions I presume.

Having used linux, I like not having antivirus software slowing my computer down. On my windows XP partition I am still using clamwin, which is not intrusive, and only useful to scan files that are downloaded, or to do random hard drive scans when I am not using computer.

I can't remember having problematic viruses in the past 5 years (stuff that would damage OS), so having a dedicated virus scanner scan everything all the time is a waste for me (I did like AVG 7.5 since it was fast, but avg 8 introduced too many problems).

I'm going to fix an old computer that has a 2006 version of MEPIS linux. So I'll probably look into installing a newer lightweight linux version (puppy). Hopefully some old ram I have sitting around will work too. They don't have to worry about viruses crashing the computer, and I don't have to deal with updating antivirus or having antivirus slowing the already slow computer down. It's just an email computer and internet browsing.

Another neighbour has winxp, but I am going to have to install linux, since they have virus problems, and the windows that came with the computer will not install, and they will not be spending $150 for winxp. It's very easy to install viruses/spyware on windows even with an antivirus program running (I don't know how they do it, but antivirus software doesn't prevent it). So only solution is to remove the user, or remove windows. Linux will do everything they want on windows, except install random software that comes with viruses/spyware, which is a good thing ;)