Software for All

Earlier this year the developers of online office suite ThinkFree launched a free desktop version of their software designed to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. ThinkFree Office includes a word processor, spreadheet app and presentations program. ThinkFree users can also synchronize their documents with the online version of ThinkFree Office where registered users will get up to 1GB of storage space for free.

But like most office applications, ThinkFree Office is designed around the assumption that you have have a fairly modern computer with a 1024 x 768 pixel or higher resolution display. Today ThinkFree released a new version designed for netbooks and MIDs, or mobile internet devices, which often have smaller, lower resolution displays.

ThinkFree Mobile has a few features that set it apart from ThinkFree Office. First, it has a simplified start screen for launching applications, opening documents, or syncrhonizing with ThinkFree online. Second, the interface ahs been designed for small screens. When you open an office document, the default interface is a stripped down document viewer without all the toolbars and bells and whistles. In other words, most of what you see on the screen is the document, not the application. If you need to edit the document, just click the edit button and all those extra toolbars will appear.

ThinkFree Mobile is available as a free download, but the software is described as a trial version. You can try to snag a free license by filling out an online survey. But it’s not at all clear what exactly a license will get you. I can’t find any way to actually purchase a copy of ThinkFree Mobile at the moment, and I don’t see a price anywhere.

Like ThinkFree Office, ThinkFree Mobile is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. The Windows version eats up about 110MB of disk space, which is less than OpenOffice.org, but not exactly light weight. If you’ve got a netbook or MID with a small amount of storage space, you might want to check out open source, cross-platform office applications like AbiWord for word processing or Gnumeric for spreadsheets.

Original Post: DownloadSquad.

The evolution of the Windows client, involving both Windows Vista (now with Service Pack 1) and Windows 7, appears to be closer than Microsoft is ready to acknowledge officially. Of course, Windows XP, even with Service Pack 3, is the past, with the exception of customers abandoning Windows Vista by exercising their downgrade rights. Windows Vista, even with SP1, is a present that makes the future seem to not get here fast enough. And Vista SP2 along with Windows 7 and Windows Cloud (Strata) are the future. But at the same time, both Vista SP2 and Windows 7 are nothing more than the evolution of Vista, to a lesser, and respectively a larger degree.

Come the end of October 2008, and the start of November, Microsoft will deliver a rather consistent taste of where it is heading with Windows, not only Windows 7, but also Windows 7 Server and Windows Strata (the label continues to be unconfirmed by the company). Events such as the Professional Developer Conference 2008, Windows Hardware Conference 2008 and TechEd EMEA will be focused on Windows 7 and Windows Cloud, although less on Windows Vista.

While at TechEd Brasil, at the start of this week, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer indicated that the company planned to unveil a range of new products by July 2009. Microsoft’s CEO mentioned that, by the end of June 2009, the software giant would offer “client operating system releases.” Microsoft is, of course, already cooking Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7.

Ballmer stated that “Microsoft technologies: Windows, Windows Server, .NET, Visual Studio, Silverlight, SharePoint, Office (…) over the course of the 12 month period that ends June of next year, [are] just a subset of all of the exciting new innovations Microsoft will bring to market: client operating system releases, information management tools, security, gaming products and systems. The range of new technologies in some senses is growing and growing quickly.” (emphasis added)

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Microsoft released Windows Vista RTM at the end of January 2007, not counting the business launch of the operating system in November 2006. Vista SP1 was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008 concomitantly with Windows Server 2008, but was only made available for download starting March 18. Now the Redmond company has already moved onward to Service Pack 2.

In fact Vista SP2 invites to the Beta program have already started to be sent out, according to Neowin. It is not Windows Vista SP2 that Microsoft is cooking, but also Windows Server 2008 SP2, Beta invites for which have also been sent out. Microsoft has yet to confirm anything officially, but the first Beta bits for Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 are reportedly going to testers in just four weeks.

Still, while Service Pack 1 was the catalyst that took Vista RTM out of coma, making the operating system worthy of a long forgotten and discarded Wow label, SP2 is bound to be nothing more than a standard service pack release. At best, SP2 will take Vista forward just as much as SP1.

The equation is rather simple for Microsoft. The company will end up with a repeat of the Windows XP SP2 – Windows Vista scenario in which both operating systems are available at the same time on the market, although this situation would involve Vista SP2 and Windows 7 RTM. The last thing that Microsoft needs is to evolve Vista with SP2 sufficiently enough that it will be capable to rival Windows 7. In this context, the answer is rather simple. The Redmond giant needs to keep Vista at a relative stand-still even with SP2, and focus all innovation on Windows 7.

Read more.

In ten days, Canonical will officially launch Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, the next version of the popular operating system. But you don’t have to wait until October 30th to take it for a spin. The beta version of Ubuntu 8.10 is available today, and for all intents and purposes, it’s pretty close to the version that will be available in a week and a half, and you can always install it now and update files and settings as necessary when the time comes.

But what if you’re not ready to devote valuable hard drive space to a new operating system? Fortunately, you can download the Ubuntu 8.10 LiveCD today and try the operating system out without making any changes to your hard disk. But you also can’t make any changes to the CD. In other words, you can’t install any applications or alter any settings and expect them to be there next time you boot from a CD.

But you can install Ubuntu 8.10 (and a number of other Linux distributions) on a USB flash drive which will allow you to save any changes. Pen Drive Linux has a set of instructions, but in a nutshell what you need to do is download the Ubuntu LiveCD, burn it to a disc and reboot your computer from the CD. Then you follow a set of instructions to copy the files you need from the CD to your 1GB or larger flash drive, tweak a few settings, and voila! You can run Ubuntu from your USB stick.

This can come in handy if you want to try out the operating system without committing to it. But it can also be useful if you tend to wander back and forth between a number of computers, because you can carry your entire operating system with all of your preferred programs and settings in your pocket.

Free Download

While manually sorting your start menu using Explorer isn’t the most annoying task confronting a Windows user, it’s not all that fun, either.

Winstep Start Menu Organizer makes the process much simpler. Install it, fire it up, and you’re presented with three panes to help sort things out easily: categories, items in the current category, and uncategorized items. Within about 20 seconds I managed to drag my folders into Winstep’s default categories and streamline my previously chaotic menu.

Also included is a handy start menu backup and restore feature, which makes rolling back to your intial Windows default setup a painless procedure.

The free version does have some serious limitations: you can’t create your own categories or subcategories, which could be a major inconvenience for some users. Still, the included default catgories are general enough to help just about anyone compact and bring order to their start menu quickly and easily.

Original Post: Life Rock 2.0

Whether you’ve been sent a simple ZIP archive, you need to create and share your own compressed files, or you’re staring down the barrel of some obscure archive format you’ve never seen before, having the right file compression application in your corner is a must.

7-Zip (Windows/Linux)

7-Zip is a free, open-source file archive utility with a spare interface but powerful feature set. With support for most popular compression formats (and quite a few not-so-popular), this lightweight, open source option does the job quickly and without fuss. While some 7-Zip users complain about its spare interface, others are happy with 7-Zip’s no-nonsense approach and fast operation.

IZArc (Windows)

IZArc is the compression tool that may take home the prize for most-supported read and write formats for this Hive Five. IZArc is also the only featured archiver apart from PeaZip that distributes a portable version on their web site (though third parties have made other apps portable—like 7-Zip Portable). Users go for IZArc for its attractive interface and its low pricetag. IZArc is freeware, but donations are accepted.

WinRAR (Windows)

WinRAR is a powerful file compression and decompression tool that’s been around since 1993. As the first result in a Google search for RAR, it’s probably the first option most of us stumbled onto when we ran into our first RAR file. That said, WinRAR supports a wide range of formats. It’s also one of the few archivers capable of writing RAR archives—though overall it’s limited to creating only RARs or ZIPs. WinRAR costs a pretty steep $29 for a license, but several users are happy to suffer through the nag screens to avoid the cost.

PeaZip (Windows/Linux)

PeaZip is a free and open-source archive manager that supports a boatload of formats. Unlike its open-source sister, 7-Zip, PeaZip also has a very attractive interface, from the main application interface down to the desktop icons it uses when you set it as your default compression tool. Like IZArc, it’s also available in a portable version—so even if you don’t go with it for your default, it’s worth tossing on your thumb drive just in case you need a little compression on the road.

The Unarchiver (MacOS X)

The Unarchiver is the built-in default file compression utility for Mac OS X. Unlike Windows, which only supports the ZIP format out-of-the-box, The Unarchiver handles most major formats. The catch: The Unarchiver is a read-only application, so if you’re on a Mac and you want to write to more obscure archive types than ZIP, you may need to add an extra tool to your arsenal. Most OS X users, however, are happy to stick with The Unarchiver for all their decompression needs.