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Replace the bloats and speed up your computer

Posted: 19 Dec 2009 04:32 AM PST

We come across a huge number of software nowadays to fulfill our daily needs. The amount of softwares are increasing very fast today. All of them provide different type of customization and features.

But not all the softwares are really essential or our need. Today, with increasing version numbers the size of these softwares in increasing also. And some of these are nightmares for old-aged PCs like Photoshop CS4, winamp, Adobe reader. And that’s the point I want to raise here.

Do we really need these software?

Most of the softwares available offers lots of features which are of no need to most of the people. And this is because softwares codes are written by large number of peoples and this increase in size due to bug fixes and updates.

If we need a basic editor which can crop, retouch, apply basic effects then why we need a bloat like Photoshop which is out of reach to many due to its big price-tag. Even a mainstream popular media player like winamp is also becoming a bloat these days with forced Net-Based services. And the most popular PDF reader ADOBE READER which sends usage information to its server, do we need it?

SO, WHAT CAN WE DO?

We should opt for free and small-in-disk alternatives. Because they will fulfill your needs and won't interfere with your system performance. And most of these are free or open-source softwares. There are some recommendations.

Image Editor: Some the basic image fixes can be done by Picasa and it support face and geo-tagging now. Paint.net can also do the same

Media Player: VLC player is everything, you don't need to install any other players since it plays almost everything you can think of. For audio players try Foobar2000, its gaining popularity rapidly.

Being Onling: Use pidgin if you have more than one IM accounts. Eudora for E-mail client. Free Download Manager has inbuilt torrent support so no need of separate torrent client.

Image of Pidgin

Office Software: As MS-Office is an expensive investment. The alternative is Open-Office which can also be a resource hog. If you only need basic editing then try Abiword, its tiny word processor. Foxit Reader is good for handling PDF files being small in size.

Another good thing is that, Google offers web-based services. If you have internet connection then some basic things can be done online and there is also good things that user can work with their files anywhere in world

Remember, the listed softwares are alternatives to the behemoth ones and will not do everything you want. MS-office and Photoshop are huge because they offer lots of feature to work with. Foxit Reader does not support everything like Adobe Reader and VLC is a not good in Library managing.

Different people, different opinions. I just want to know what you think about it?

[Editor's Note: This is a post written by our Guest Blogger Umesh Mahato. He is a student from Jamshedpur and passionate about opensource.

If you too like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programsare here.]

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Download ZooZoo calendar for 2010

Posted: 19 Dec 2009 02:23 AM PST

Zoo Zoos the small round headed creatures from the Vodafone advertisements are back and now they have a calendar released.

Initially released as a campaign during IPL 09 on television it captured the imagination of people immediately.

Thought to be animation it was later revealed that the ZooZoos were not animated but were actors with specially designed costumes. The craze for ZooZoos reached at its zenith I guess when it received a PETA award.

Now here is a calendar for 2010 featuring Zoo zoos available in .pdf file format. If you want to check it out, click here to download Zoo Calendar.

So if you are a fan of these strange but funny Vodafone brand ambassadors, let me know what you think about the calendar.