Best 10 antivirus and antimalware free opensource applications

Contrary to what many people think, anti-malware programs do not end with Symantec, McAfee etc. The world of open source has quite a few options in the anti-malware and anti-spyware segment. Here are 10 of the best that you can use!

1. ClamWin Free Antivirus

This is an app that works only on the Windows platform and works on the well known ClamAV engine in order to detect spyware and viruses. It has a Microsoft Outlook plug-in, automatic downloads and other useful features.

2. ClamAV

This is an open source product that is based on the Clam Antivirus engine. It is specially designed in order to protect email gateways. It has features like command line scanners, automatic updates. It works on Linux, Unix and BSD platforms.

3. Moon Secure Antivirus

This open source app is based on ClamAV and works on the Windows platform. Although it is based on ClamAV, developers usually use an alternate antivirus engine.

4. Rootkit Hunter

This is an open source tool that is used for scanning the system for rootkits and unwanted tools. You can not use it for scheduled or live scanning but you can still run Rootkit hunter daily. It works on Linux and Unix platforms.

5. AMaVis

AMaVis is short for A Mail Virus Scanner. As the name suggests, this app stands between your anti-virus software and email client, scanning incoming emails for viruses. It is compatible with all platforms.

6. ClamMail

This is a free antivirus software that protects messages that you receive on Thunderbird, Outlook, Eudora dn other POP3-based applications. It operated on the Windows platform and is a combination of the POP3 email proxy and the ClamAV engine.

7. P3Scan

This is an email proxy serve that can be used for scanning both outgoing and incoming messages. It cans for malware, trojans, viruses, spam and worms. It operates on the Linux platform and is also based on the ClamAV engine.

8. Viralator

This is an open source app that works alongside your anti-virus and supplements you computer’s protection. It blocks malware, which may have evaded your anti virus. It is compatible with Linux and Unix platforms.

9. xpy

This is a tiny program, which is less than 60 KB in size. It adds to your computer’s performance and improves its security by closing vulnerabilities that may lead to spyware creeping across your Windows-based system.

10. Nixory

This is a open source app that has been designed for improving the protection for Firefox users. It blocks unwanted spyware and cookies and works along side other anti spyware programs.

 

If you have some suggestions of your own please let us know in comments!

 

 

 

18 Free Game Development tools for every game developer!

Game engines give developers the tools required to pull the several elements of a game together into one unit. With mobile gaming picking up, more developers are paying attention to Android and iOS platforms. Game development is an ever expanding universe with various free tools to get the job done.

 

1.PuzzleScript

PuzzleScript is a puzzle game engine created by Stephen Lavelle. Games are written in the PuzzleScript scripting language and can be compiled to a standalone HTML5 application.

2.GameMaker

GameMaker allows users to create a cross-platform video game using drag and drop or a scripting language known as Game Maker Language, which can be used to develop more advanced games that could not be created just by using the drag and drop features. GameMaker was designed to allow novice computer programmers to be able to make computer games without much programming knowledge by use of these actions.

3.Construct 2

Construct 2 is a powerful ground breaking HTML5 game creator designed specifically for 2D games. It allows anyone to build games— no coding required!

4.Stencyl

Stencyl is a game creation platform that allows users to create 2D video games for computers, mobile devices, and the web. The software is available for free, with select publishing options available for purchase.

5.Twine

Twine is a tool for making hypertext games in the form of webpages created by Chris Klimas.Twine is available as a free software download for Mac OS X and Windows, and there is also a command-line interface called twee.

6.Inform 7

Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-code or Glulx virtual machines.

7.Ren’Py

Ren’Py is a visual novel engine that helps you use words, images, and sounds to tell stories with the computer. These can be both visual novels and life simulation games. The easy to learn script language allows you to efficiently write large visual novels, while its Python scripting is enough for complex simulation games.

8.Adventure Game Studio

Adventure Game Studio is an open source development tool that is primarily used to create graphic adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an Integrated development environment (IDE) for setting up most aspects of the game with a scripting language based on the C language to process the game logic.

9.FlashPunk

FlashPunk is a free ActionScript 3 library designed for developing 2D Flash games. It provides you with a fast, clean framework to prototype and develop your games in. This means that most of the dirty work is already done, letting you concentrate on the design and testing of your game.

10.Unity

Unity is a cross-platform game engine with a built-in IDE developed by Unity Technologies. It is used to develop video games for web plugins, desktop platforms, consoles and mobile devices.

11.RPG Maker XP

RPG Maker XP gives you the power to create your own original RPG on Windows. Its popular and user-friendly interface has been carried over from RPG MAKER 2000, and its graphic capabilities, battle screen layout, and data packaging features are better than ever.

12.Blender

Blender is a free and open source 3D animation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. Advanced users employ Blender’s API for Python scripting to customise the application and write specialized tools; often these are included in Blender’s future releases.

13.Tiled

Tile map editor (TileME) is for design tile maps with a single tiled image and export map data as an array. this is a very good tool for J2ME game prgrammers and with a very little changes you can use it for any other languages.

14.Gamesalad

GameSalad Creator is an authoring tool developed by GameSalad, Inc aimed primarily at non-programmers for composing games in a drag-and-drop fashion, using visual editors and a behavior-based logic system.

15.Pygame

Pygame is a cross-platform set of Python modules designed for writing video games. It includes computer graphics and sound libraries designed to be used with the Python programming language. It is built over the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) library, with the intention of allowing real-time computer game development without the low-level mechanics of the C programming language and its derivatives.

16.Corona

Corona lets developers use integrated Lua, layered on top of C++/OpenGL, to build graphic applications. The SDK does not charge per-app royalty or impose any branding requirement, and has a subscription-based purchase model.

17.GL Basic

GLBasic is a commercial BASIC programming language, that can compile to various platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, as well as some handheld devices. The language is designed to be simple and intuitive.

18.RPG Maker VX

RPG Maker VX allows you to make the roleplaying games you’ve always dreamed of by being one of the easiest game engine software ever developed. With its enhanced autotile capabilities, quick event creation, and dungeon generator, you can have a game ready to play faster than ever before.

 

If you have some suggestions of your own please let us know in comments!

 

 

Best opensource encryption tools you need to keep

We are spending more and more time online with each passing day, so much so that internet has become an indispensable part of our daily existence. When online, various threats exist that could have some serious implications on the data you send/receive. It is therefore ideal that you make use of good safety tools that can prevent your data from falling into the wrong hands. Encryption tools come in handy here!

1.AxCrypt

Open source file encryption software for Windows that integrates seamlessly with the OS to compress, encrypt, decrypt, store, send and work with individual files.

2.Gnu Privacy Guard

GnuPG allows to encrypt and sign your data and communication, features a versatile key management system as well as access modules for all kinds of public key directories.

3.Mac GNU Privacy Guard

The goal of this project is to create a GnuPG front end for Mac OS X.

4.Gpg4win

Enables users to securely transport emails and files with the help of encryption and digital signatures. Encryption protects the contents against an unwanted party reading it. Digital signatures make sure that it was not modified and comes from a specific sender.

5.PeaZip

Free cross-platform file and archive manager utility that provides an unified portable GUI for many Open Source technologies like 7-Zip, FreeArc, PAQ, UPX.

6.Crypt

An open-source, ultra-fast light-weight encryption utility with no installation procedures.

7.NeoCrypt

Free, open-source File Protection Utility for Windows that helps you to protect your sensitive information easily by encrypting it with password(s).

 

If you have some suggestions of your own please let us know in comments!

 

 

Complete collection of linux os distros

New To Linux

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a Debian-based distro that uses Unity as a default desktop environment. It’s one of the most popular distros around, and it improves with every release. The latest releases have been quite polished, and have been optimized for desktops, and multi-touch devices such as trackpads and touchscreens.

Kubuntu

Kubuntu is an Ubuntu derivative that uses KDE instead of Unity as the default desktop environment. Beneath this, it is essentially the same as Ubuntu and is released on the same schedule.

Mint

Linux Mint was designed to be an elegant, modern distro that was easy to use, yet powerful. It’s based on Ubuntu and Debian, is reliably safe and comes with one of the best software managers. These days it’s one of the most popular Linux distributions around, claiming to be the most popular home operating system after Windows and Mac OS.

Deepin

Deepin is an Ubuntu based distro that has built the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) to appeal to newer Linux users. In fact, we highly recommend new users give Deepin a go. It’s stylish, simple and intuitive, featuring one of the best system settings panel displays of any distro. Deepin also features its own applications, like DMusic, DPlayer and the soon-to-be-released DTalk.

Elementary OS

Yet another Ubuntu-based distro, Elementary OS has differentiated itself superbly since the release of Elementary OS Luna. It features beautiful, simple default apps that follow the OS’s aesthetic appeal, such as Geary for email, Midori web browser, Maya calendar, Totem movie player, and the Noise music player. Some of the default apps were developed in-house in order to meet expectations.

Zorin OS

Zorin OS has been designed specifically for newcomers to Linux, with a look and feel that is all about making a good impression and easing the transition from Windows to Linux. The Ubuntu-based distro features, apps that will be familiar to Windows users, and makes it easy for users to run the Windows apps they still need. Zorin OS 9 has been built to be a lot like Windows 7, hoping to get some new Linux converts from those leaving Windows XP behind.

General

OpenSUSE

The OpenSUSE distribution is a general distro for Linux built by the OpenSUSE Project, aiming to be both a great beginner distro and something that appeals to experienced Linux users. OpenSUSE comes with YAST, an administration program that controls installations, package management and more.

Fedora

Fedora is an innovation-focused distribution, with a short life cycle that lends itself to leading-edge software. It uses the GNOME desktop environment by default, but users can easily switch to KDE, Xfce, LXDE, MATE and Cinnamon, among others. Custom variations of Fedora, known as Fedora spins, are available for users with particular needs.

Xubuntu

Xubuntu is an Ubuntu derivative that uses the Xfce (XForms Common Environment) desktop environment, meaning it is elegant and lightweight. It’s great for laptops and netbooks as well as desktops. Because it is light and uses few system resources, it is perfect for older computers.

Debian

Debian is an older Linux distribution which comes with the GNOME desktop environment by default, and it’s much-loved for both personal computers and for network servers. However, it’s also available for FreeBSD and work is in progress to support other kernels, such as the Hurd. Debian prides itself on coming preloaded with over 37500 packages, and with simple utilities that make it easy to get more.

Korora

Korora was originally based on Gentoo Linux, and evolved with the aim of making Linux easy for newcomers, but also useful for experts. It comes with a choice of desktop environments, including the Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE, MATE and Xfce desktops.

Slackware Linux

Slackware is a distro built specifically for security and simplicity, aiming to be the most UNIX-like Linux distribution. It’s particularly useful for server management, as it has FTP, email and web servers available to use immediately.

Mageia

The French Mageia began as a community-driven, non-profit fork of Mandriva Linux, and features all the major desktop environments. Primarily, KDE and GNOME are available as default desktops.

SparkyLinux

SparkyLinux is a distribution that has evolved from the “testing” branch of Debian. The main edition comes with a customized version of the lightweight LXDE desktop, with other customized desktops available.

Gentoo Linux

Gentoo Linux is a distribution optimized for configurability, and can be adapted to almost any need. Its versatility and performance are what sets it apart from other distros. Gentoo Linux also comes with an advanced package management system called Portage.

CentOS

CentOS (Community Enterprise Operating System) is a Linux distribution that is a community rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It’s designed for people who want to use an enterprise-worthy distribution for free.

PCLinuxOS

PCLinuxOS is designed with regular PC users in mind, and features the KDE Plasma Desktop by default. This distribution makes it easy to install drivers, get Office software, edit photos, get online and start using multimedia. It also makes it easy to do snapshot backups.

PinGuy OS

PinGuyOS is both beautiful and ready to use from the start. The Ubuntu-based distribution comes pre-packaged with all the best software for regular use and for network setup, making it perfect for beginners. It features a modified GNOME user interface.

Educational

DouDou

DouDou Linux is for young children, with the aim of teaching them how to explore computers and learn from them. It provides games and educational programs suitable for kids aged 2-12 and is a safe environment that parents won’t have to watch over.

Edubuntu

Edubuntu is a distro for education which is partnered with Ubuntu. It has been created to be as easy as possible for teachers to set up, and for kids of all ages to use. It comes pre-packaged with all the best free software for education.

Uberstudent

Uberstudent is a distribution specifically designed for tertiary and advanced secondary students. It comes pre-packaged with software that makes it easy to do assignments and manage tasks.

Lightweight/Minimal

Lubuntu

Lubuntu is a lightweight distro based on Ubuntu that’s perfect for laptop usage. It uses the minimal desktop LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) and comes with lightweight applications designed for energy-efficiency and speed. It’s great for most older computers, netbooks and mobile devices as it uses minimal RAM and has low system requirements.

Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux is a distribution that’s really small and can be run entirely from RAM. This means Puppy Linux is great for older computers, even without hard drives! It is also easy to use as a malware remover for any existing system.

Manjaro Linux

Manjaro Linux is a fast, easy-to-use, light-weight distribution based on Arch Linux. It aims to give all the benefits of Arch Linux, with more user-friendliness and accessibility, making it easier on newcomers. The Xfce desktop is the default, but other options are available.

Arch Linux

Arch Linux is a distribution designed with experienced users in mind. This light-weight minimalist distribution aims to keep things simple, and uses a rolling release model for updates. It features a custom-made package manager called “Pacman”, which makes it easy to build, modify and share packages.

Tiny Core

Tiny Core Linux is an extremely light, modular distribution noted specifically for its small size (currently 15 MB). It is build on the Linux kernel and uses BusyBox and FLTK (Fast, Light Toolkit).

CrunchBang

The Debian-based CrunchBang Linux distribution is minimalist and highly customizable, featuring the Openbox window manager instead of a desktop environment. It comes with a number of GTK+ applications preinstalled.

Bodhi

The Ubuntu-based Bodhi Linux distribution comes with the light-weight and beautiful Enlightenment desktop. Bodhi is extremely customizable, with themes and apps readily available to expand on the light beginnings.

Specialised:

ArtistX

ArtistX is specifically tailored to artists of all types, from music to graphic design. It’s based on Ubuntu and comes pre-packaged with all the best 2D and 3D graphic design, video production, and audio manufacturing software for GNU/Linux.

Hybryde Fusion

The main point of Hybryde Fusion is to allow you to test out which Linux desktop environment you like best. This distribution is considered a conceptual work, and not something you’d use daily.

Kali Linux

Formerly known as BackTrack, Kali Linux is focused on penetration testing. This Debian-based Linux distribution makes it easy to perform digital forensic tasks.

Parted Magic

Parted Magic is built as a disc management tool, with disc partitioning and copying as primary tools. It also makes it easy to perform disc recovery and erasing.

GParted

GParted is a single-purpose distribution, designed to make it easy to partition hard drives using a graphical interface.

Business:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a commercial derivative of Fedora, designed with enterprise customers in mind. There are a number of variants and addons, and certification is available for both administrators and applications.

SUSE Linux Enterprise

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is designed for business use and is therefore enterprise-ready from installation, making it easy to work with a variety of office programs. It’s flexible enough to run on a variety of devices, but is reliable enough for extremely critical processes. Also available is the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server edition.

Security:

TAILS

TAILS is a distribution that revolves wholly around the concept of privacy and security. It is a live operating system you can use from a DVD, USB stick or SD card, so that you can be safe using any computer and leave no trace of your activities. All Internet connections are routed through TOR (The Onion Router) for the best possible anonymity, and cryptographic tools are readily available to protect all your communication methods from prying eyes.

Add Your Favourite Distros

This is just a snapshot of our favourite distros today. Please feel free to tell us about your favourite Linux distribution and why you love it. Which distro is your favourite?

 

 

Pirate Bay is going to be back with code “I’ll Be Back”

While everyone knows it’s often used for shady purposes, there’s nothing inherently illegal about the act of torrenting itself. So when BitTorrent juggernaut The Pirate Bay was fully taken down by Swedish police last December after over a decade of occasionally interrupted service, you didn’t necessarily know who to root for. But it looks like the battle is far from over as an intrepid Redditor has finally cracked the mysterious code hinting at The Pirate Bay’s return, Terminator-style.

The code first appeared when the site itself returned two weeks after the raid. Instead of the plethora of torrents users were used to, all they found was a waving pirate flag and an “aes.png” image file containing an encrypted message. More hints appeared and users became would-be detectives obsessed with solving the case, perhaps because the sudden lack of terabytes of free media left them with a lot more free time.

 

Eventually, super sleuth Redditor “dakfy2000” discovered that the page’s source code contained strings of irrelevant HTML tags and made the connection between the “aes.png” image file clue and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) technology. With this new knowledge, he decrypted half of the message with password hashing algorithms, took a much needed sleep break, and returned fresh to finish the job. “I love a challenge and that hit the spot,” he said in an interview with TorrentFreak. And what was the result of all his hard work? A link to “The Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘I’ll Be Back’ Supercut” video on YouTube. Watch.

As it turns out, not all fans were satisfied that the solution was merely a funny little teaser for future news. Some had speculated that the answer might involve a secret backup of Pirate Bay files hidden beneath the deep web, or maybe the site’s new strategy to spread and store files locally using its PirateBrowser P2P network making it much harder for outside forces to crack down on copyright infringement.

However, we may now know exactly when more news is on the way. After the mystery was solved, The Pirate Bay homepage added a timer counting down to February 1, so whatever the next step for the site is, we should hear about it next month. The Pirate Bay has bounced back from takedowns in the past, and it looks like this time will be no different. If they can make a riddle that stumped its diehard users for this long, they can probably stay a few steps ahead of law enforcement.

 

If you have some suggestions of your own please let us know in comments!

 

 

Best 6 OpenStack Distros For Enterprises

OpenStack has picked up in a big way in the past year or so. With the increase in cloud computing, more and more enterprises are embracing this technology and service providers oblige.

1) Red Hat Distribution of OpenStack

RDO is a community of people using and deploying OpenStack on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora and distributions derived from these (such as CentOS, Scientific Linux and others).

2) Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, you get all the benefits you’ve come to expect from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, plus the fastest-growing cloud infrastructure platform from OpenStack. This means you have a wide selection of hardware partners to choose from to power your cloud. And your customers have a familiar and widely supported application environment for their cloud workloads.

3) Fuel

Fuel is an open source deployment and management tool for OpenStack. Developed as an OpenStack community effort, it provides an intuitive, GUI-driven experience for deployment and management of a variety of OpenStack distributions and plug-ins.

4) Rackspace

This company hosts the biggest open cloud in the world alongisde a number of smaller private clouds. A private cloud is a scalable cloud environment—providing the agility and efficiency of a public cloud—built on infrastructure dedicated exclusively for your organisation. It can be hosted in your own data center, in a partner data center, or at Rackspace.

5) Ubuntu OpenStack

According to the website, “Ubuntu is the world’s most popular operating system for OpenStack. There’s no faster or more reliable way to build an enterprise‐scale cloud, from provisioning to deployment and management.”

6) Open Cloud System

Open Cloud System 2.6 is a complete Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution powered by OpenStack technology. OCS is designed to meet the requirements of next-generation cloud-based, scale-out applications such as social apps, mobile apps, SaaS/PaaS deployments and Big Data analytics.

If you have some suggestions of your own please let us know in comments!

 

 

 

Top 8 Data Recovery Tools For Linux

Data recovery is an essential part of computer usage. Data recovery tools come very handy while helping you out with your system files and resources. Data backup and recovery are very important if you’re looking to maintain the sanctity of your files. Because. anything could happen, your hard drive may crash, malware attack may erase your important data, anything! Therefore it’s ideal your data is properly backed. Here are 8 open source tools to recover your data.

1. Knoppix

Knoppix is one of the most poular recovery software available for Linux platform. It comes as bootable CD version with list of GNU/Linux software. Knoppix can auto detect the hardware and optimize the recovery tool by itself. Since it comes as bootable CD, you can use it as Linux demo, educational CD, rescue software or even a platform for commercial software product demos.

2. Trinity Rescue Kit

This is a free live Linux distribution that helps user to recovery and repair operations on Windows PCs. However it can be used as it is on Linux systems also. Trinity Rescue Kit v3.4 and later have user friendly interface with scrollable text menu. Anybody can easily use TRK to perform system maintenance and repair tasks such as password reset, disk cleanup to virus scanning on PC.

3. Avira Rescue System

This open source application can access the computer data of a damaged hard drive. It is possible to repair a damaged system, to rescue data or scan the system for viruses using Avira Rescue System. You can burn the software package on CD/DVD and use it to boot the computer.

4. GParted Live

This is a small Linux distribution designed for x86 based computers. It packs all the features of latest GParted apps. You can create a bootable CD, USB or PXE Server to boot GParted Live. GParted Live supports array of filesystem hence, it can be used to recover the damaged partition.

5. System RescueCd

This is a Linux system rescue disk with number of bootable recovery software. You can easily carry out most admin tasks on computer like creating and editing hard disk partitions, clearing memory cache etc. RescueCd packs number of Linux software, system tools, basic tools etc. It can be booted from CD/DVD or USB stick. RescueCd kernel supports all major file systems for Linux.

6. Ubuntu Rescue Remix

This is a robust yet lean system for recovery software, data recovery and forensics. Ubuntu Rescue Remix uses terminal commands UI for operations. This is the best bet for systems with low hardware configuration. The command line environment features all the functions of powerful data recovery software. It has a unique tool called ddrutility, which identifies files affected by unrecoverable blocks on disk image.

7. F-Secure Rescue CD

This data recovery tool is based on Knnopix derivative of Linux OS, which lets user run the software completely from a CD and check integrity of installed applications. It is possible to perform advance data repair and recovery using F-Secure Rescue CD. This tool is capable of recovering the system from malware infections. However, this tool cannot scan the encrypted hard drive.

8. Ddrescue

This data recovery tool from GPU comes very handy in copying data from one file or block device to another. Ddrescue can detect the memory errors, dead blocks, log file as well as rescue the good part of it. It operates automatically. If read error occurs, it automatically rescues the data. You can always terminate any automatically triggered operation in Ddrescue. The basic operation of Ddrescue remains fully automatic.

 

If you have some suggestions of your own please let us know in comments!

 

 

Best beautiful apps of 2014

It’s that time of year again, folks, when list posts reign supreme and reflective 2014 musings clog your feeds. Although this post meets that description, rest assured it will provide at least one thing to brighten your day: eye candy.

Here’s our list of the 14 most impressively designed apps — for mobile, desktop, and the web — released or updated this year. From simple utilities to immersive experiences, we’re sure you’ll find something on this list worth downloading on your brand new smartphone, tablet, or [insert hot new gadget here]. Enjoy.

1. Manual: Take charge of your iPhone’s camera

Built for the camera nut (and the hopelessly nostalgic), Manual strikes a balance between the simplicity of your average photo app and the difficulty of traditional photography (think: ISO levels and shutter speed).

Get it: iOS ($0.99)

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2. Wire: A visual messenger

Wire only recently launched, but the app instantly made waves for its crisp, graphic take on the traditional messaging app.

Get it: iOS / Android / Mac (Free)

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3. Yahoo News Digest: Surprisingly good

We feel as weird about including a Yahoo app on this list as you do, but Apple design award winner Yahoo News Digest is too good to miss.

Get it: iOS / Android (Free)

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4. Evernote for the Web: Distraction-free note-taking

Although its desktop and mobile apps lag behind, Evernote’s new web app shows how beautiful the company’s namesake note-taking service can be.

Get it: Web (Free)

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5. Monument Valley: It’s a game, but we’re including it anyway

We’re still not sure if games technically count as apps, but Monument Valley is far too beautiful to ignore. And since it ships in Apple’s App Store we’re making an exception.

Get it: iOS / Android / Amazon ($3.99)

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6. Facebook Paper: A strong attempt to rethink Facebook

Facebook’s Paper didn’t take off, but let’s ignore practicality for a moment. Facebook managed to turn the often clunky experience of its namesake app into a unique and highly editorial experience. Hopefully we’ll see elements of Paper built into the core Facebook app soon.

Get it: iOS (Free)

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7. Foursquare: Split in two, and way easier to use

By cutting out the check-ins, Foursquare (controversially) turned its flagship app into a far better restaurant discovery engine (even if we don’t use Swarm all that much). Before the split, Foursquare was bursting with functionality, but all we wanted was a simple recommendation: Where should I brunch? The new Foursquare now spits out recommendations quicker and more elegantly than ever before.

Get it: iOS / Android / Windows Phone (Free)

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8. Google Inbox: Let’s make Gmail less ugly

In order to understand Inbox, you have to understand Material Design, Google’s new design framework, which mixes simple, bright shapes with shadows and contextual animations. Inbox shows us what happens when an app embraces Google’s design language completely, and the results aren’t half bad. Android, once far uglier than iOS, is clearly heading in the right direction.

Get it: iOS / Android / web (Free, but invite-only)

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9. Acorns: Simplify investing

Acorns aims to significantly lower the barrier to investing. The app lets you “invest spare change automatically from everyday purchases into a diversified portfolio.” It’s a bit like Bank of America’s “keep the change” program, except you’re doing something with your change. Despite its entry-level focus, Acorns gets major points for being the best-designed investing app on the market.

Get it: iOS / Android / Amazon (Free)

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10. Overcast: A smart and simple podcast player

Not everyone loves podcasts, but the genre appears to be more popular now than ever before. In just five months since its release, Overcast has become the definitive iOS podcast app — surely it helped that Overcast creator Marco Arment also created a mega-popular app called Instapaper.

Get it: iOS (Free)

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11. Airbnb: Ignore the sexualized logo for a minute, okay?

We get it, you still hate the new logo. Let’s ignore the sexual connotations for a moment. Airbnb, which stuck by its web 2.0 bubble letter logo for years, is finally moving on. And with the new identity came a handsome app refresh.

Get it: iOS / Android

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12. Stacks 2: Currency conversion never looked this good

Treat your inner nomad with Stacks 2. Yes, it’s strange that a $2 currency app can leave such a strong impression, but trust us: It’s as thoughtfully designed as it is handy. Technically, the app should lose some usability points for all its hidden gestures, but we’re going to turn a blind eye this time — those gestures are kind of fun to stumble upon anyways.

Get it: iOS ($1.99)

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13. Lush: The cocktail lovers’ companion

Although Lush’s large database of drinks is a bit jarring, the app’s whimsical illustrations make it an absolute joy to use. ‘Nuff said.

Get it: iOS ($1.99)

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14. Miranda: Somehow tracking time zones just got beautiful

If you work with a distributed team, learning to manage multiple time zones is part of the job. Miranda somehow (with what magic, we don’t know) found a way to build an absolutely beautiful time zone converter, despite the obviously boring subject matter. Bonus: We also recommend Clocks for Mac if you’re time-zone challenged.

Get it: iOS (free)

This unordered list is just a starting point; if we missed one of your favorites, please let us know in the comments below.

12 best applications to start with Linux-Ubuntu Os

 

The Ubuntu paltform is like a make your own meal buffet at a restaurant. You can choose what software you will run in order to unleash its true power. The control over your own system is a lot more and you quite literally have the power. Here are some apps that will make your Ubuntu experience a rather enjoyable one.

1) Firefox

The Firefox web browser by Mozilla is one of the open source world’s most prized possessions. The non-profit organisation (Mozilla) has developed a fast, easy-to-use browser, which is the chosen one for development purposes.

2) Parcelite

Parcellite is a lightweight GTK+ clipboard manager. It is a stripped down, basic-features-only clipboard manager with a small memory footprint for those who like simplicity.

3) Bittorrent Sync

This is arguably the best syncing app that is available today. It’s graphical user interface makes it extremely easy to use and you can transfer files without having to constantly sync them with the cloud.

4) System Monitor

GNOME’s System Monitor presents a graphical user interface solution for the Top utility in Linux. In addition, it provides a solution for many of Top’s limitations and provides a real-time perspective of the user’s CPU through graphs. It is also easy-to-use.

5) PulseAudioControl

PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) is a simple GTK based volume control tool (“mixer”) for the PulseAudio sound server. In contrast to classic mixer tools this one allows you to control both the volume of hardware devices and of each playback stream separately.

6) Skype

You can use Skype for Linux as long as you have version 4.2 of Linux and a webcam. The features it offers are,

– Free Skype to Skype calls.
– Low cost calls and text messages to mobiles and landlines.
– Video call your contacts.
– Free instant messages to your friends, family and colleagues.

7) Kdenlive

Kdenlive is an intuitive and powerful multi-track video editor, including most recent video technologies. The software is completely free, as defined by the GNU foundation.

8) OpenShot

OpenShot Video Editor is a free, open-source video editor for Linux licensed under the GPL version 3.0. It’s features include trimming and arranging videos, adjusting audio levels, transitions between videos, compositing multiple layers of video, chroma-key/green screen effect, and support for most formats and codecs.

9) SpiderOak

SpiderOak makes it possible for you to privately store, sync, share & access your data from everywhere. It provides the ability to utilise cloud technologies while retaining that precious right we call privacy. It has a ‘zero-knowledge’ privacy environment ensures that only you can see your data.

10) Dropbox

One of the best known and most trusted cloud storage and sharing options that are available today, Dropbox has a huge user base and is used all over the world.

11) Writer

Writer has all the features you need from a modern, full-featured word processing and desktop publishing tool. It’s simple enough for a quick memo, but powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, and more. You’re free to concentrate on your message, while Writer will make it look great.

12) SimpleScreenRecorder

SimpleScreenRecorder is a Linux program that was created to record programs and games. Its features include,

– Graphical user interface (Qt-based).
– Faster than VLC and ffmpeg/avconv.
– Records the entire screen or part of it, or records OpenGL applications directly (similar to Fraps on Windows).
– Synchronises audio and video properly (a common issue with VLC and ffmpeg/avconv).
– Reduces the video frame rate if your computer is too slow (rather than using up all your RAM like VLC does).
– Fully multithreaded: small delays in any of the components will never block the other components, resulting is smoother video and better performance on computers with multiple processors.
– Pause and resume recording at any time (either by clicking a button or by pressing a hotkey).
– Shows statistics during recording (file size, bit rate, total recording time, actual frame rate)
– Can show a preview during recording, so you don’t waste time recording something only to figure out afterwards that some setting was wrong.
– Uses libav/ffmpeg libraries for encoding, so it supports many different codecs and file formats (adding more is trivial).
– Can also do live streaming (experimental).
– Sensible default settings: no need to change anything if you don’t want to.
– Tooltips for almost everything: no need to read the documentation to find out what something does.

 

 

10 Linux-Ubuntu like OS distros you need to know

 

If you look at the OS market, the name following Windows as Linux is the Ubuntu OS. While Windows rules the roost, Ubuntu has over the years, gone on to become the third most used OS in the world. With a tagline that says, “Linux for humans,” Ubuntu is easy to use, powerful and an apt replacement for Windows. So, naturally, developers got together and built on top of this OS, bringing new distros. It is worth taking a look at these.

1. Mint

The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use. Started in 2006, Linux Mint is now the 4th most widely used home operating system behind Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS and Canonical’s Ubuntu.

2. Kubuntu

This is an open source alternative to Windows and MS Office. Kubuntu is an operating system built by a worldwide team of expert developers. It contains all the applications you need: a web browser, an office suite, media apps, an instant messaging client and many more.

3. Edubuntu

Edubuntu is a grassroots movement that aims to get Ubuntu into schools, homes and communities and make it easy for users to install and maintain their systems. It is built by a team of hacker, students, teachers etc.

4. Xubuntu

Xubuntu is an easy-to-use operating system. It comes with Xfce, which is a stable, light and configurable desktop environment. It is perfect for those who want the most out of their desktops, laptops and netbooks with a modern look and enough features for efficient, daily usage. Moreover, it works on older hardware as well.

5. Gobuntu

Gobuntu 8.04.1 is the final release of Gobuntu. The project has merged back to mainline Ubuntu, so there is no need for a separate distribution. It tries to provide the Free Software Foundation’s four freedoms and tries to lay a platform for other free software.

6. Ubuntu Studio

Ubuntu Studio is a free and open source operative system, and an official flavor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu Studio is the most widely used multimedia orientated GNU/Linux distribution in the world. It comes preinstalled with a selection of the most common free multimedia applications available, and is configured for best performance for the Ubuntu Studio defined workflows: Audio, Graphics, Video, Photography and Publishing.

7. Mythbuntu

Mythbuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor focused upon setting up a standalone MythTV based PVR system. It can be used to prepare a standalone system or for integration with an existing MythTV network. Unlike similar projects, Mythbuntu keeps close ties with Ubuntu and all development is given back to Ubuntu. This architecture allows simple conversions from a standard desktop to a Mythbuntu machine and vice versa. The development cycle of Mythbuntu mirrors that of Ubuntu.

8. Ubuntu Server Edition

The Ubuntu Server Edition is a platform for scale-out computing. It helps you make the most of your infrastructure. Whether you want to deploy an OpenStack cloud, a Hadoop cluster or a 50,000-node render farm.

9. Eeebuntu

Now known as the Aurora project, this Ubuntu flavour started life originally in 2008 as the Eeebuntu project. This was a customised redistribution of Ubuntu, which was modified specifically for the Eeepc range of netbooks. What was originally a simple collection of scripts and hacks to get Ubuntu 8.04 onto an EeePC it has grown into a distribution of its own.

10. Ubuntu Mini Remix

Ubuntu Mini Remix is a fully working Ubuntu live-CD containing only the minimal set of software to make the system work. Ubuntu Mini Remix ISO image is around 200MB.