but thought I'd drop in and share some Xmas spirit.Happy Holidays to All!!!
I feel the need to share Holiday wishes like I do on other boards and sites with some free stuff.
First up a very fun item: Elfyourself from jibab (or well me Elfin my family)
Soon as my cousin sent me this I had to make one. jibjab has 4 free Xmas dance movies which use your photo's. If you decide to make one plan on multi tasking getting something else done at the same time. It took me about 30 mins to make, most of which was waiting for the uploading, cropping and then 1st run of movie. I got one error part way through and it still worked.
I've built up a Open Source Free software list for a networking site I'm building called MyShowNetwork.com. Excuse the plug... it's a members only networking site for "Talent" and "Talent Resellers" who work with "small shows".
Here's a copy and paste of my list (so far) which I used Cool HTML to BBCode Converter for FREE to translate
It was not a perfect translate but saved me a lot of time.------------------------------------------------
What better to give on the holidays then FREE stuff.
Below is a list of Open Source Software that I make use of or is recommended by geeks and geeky blogs I follow like LifeHacker.com
If you have some useful open source or free software you'd like to share, please post it to the comment section below.
For myself the word internet always has gone with the word free. Since my 1st computer in the 90's I've always sought free applications to get things done. In 2008 I've made a point to start swapping out software I use to get things done to alternative Open Source Software.
- Free and open-source software is good for you and for the world. No adware, no spyware, just good software.
- Open Source License's usually look like the GNU General Public License Wikipedia definition of GNU
- In other words, Open Source is FREE and guaranteed to be free in writing.
- In general a group of developers work together on the software. Some open source now rivals or out does many pay for apps, development generally takes place quicker in regard to responding to security (developers are usually heavy users of the software) and IMO it's a very green thing to support.
Mozilla Firefox
The premier free, open-source browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, themes, and extensions. Considered by many to be the world's best browser.
* This may be a hard switch for long time IE users, IMO it's worth getting used to the switch.
Audacity
Simple sound recording tool.
LAME
one of the best MP3 encoders in the world, producing excellent quality MP3s. It is used by many CD rippers, combopacks and so on and its popularity is increasing almost daily. Also, in great quality DivX encoding, people tend to use LAME over other MP3 encoders.
Moffsoft FreeCalc
is a great replacement for your existing Windows® calculator. * I don't touch the standard Windows calculator anymore
Filezilla
Excellent FTP program.
7-Zip
File archiver.
Notepad ++
Open Source programmers notepad for Windows. * I don't touch windows notepad anymore.
PeaZip
Fantastic archiving utility to extract and pack archives of an extensive amount of formats. PeaZip also features password protecting archives, keyfile support, system integration, a lovely interface, and much more.
Baby Smash
* I'm a dad and this is an easy way to let a toddler play on a computer without deleting files or quitting programs. Start up Baby Smash! and let the little one go to town on your keyboard.
AVG
AVG Free provides you with basic antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows and is available to download for free. "The most downloaded software on CNET's Download."
* Are you still paying for antivirus software?
Miro
Beautiful interface. Plays any video type (much more than windows media player). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
Pidgin
Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, MSN, and Jabber.
Mozilla Thunderbird
Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.
RSSOwl
Solid cross-platform RSS client.
* My personal choice for email is Gmail (partially open source) as my center application and MS Outlook as my archive.I'm kind of stuck with MS Office because of my Windows Cell Phone.
FeedReader
A news aggregation solution that provides robust, state-of-the-art features in an intuitive, user-friendly environment. FeedBurner offers advanced, cutting-edge capabilities, including the most comprehensive podcasting support available today, as well as unique smart feed technology that puts the information you need right at your fingertips.
*Google Reader may not be considered open source but it is free and my personal choice for RSS reading becuase of it's portability from computer to mobile reading. 
VLC
Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
MPlayer
Similar to VLC-- plays loads of video formats.
Media Coder
Great tool for ripping CDs, DVDs, etc and converting between tons of video formats.
OpenOffice.org
Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with and a free replacement for Microsoft Word documents. Also supports OpenDocument Format. * Because of my personal setup and since I own MS Office, I don't use Open Office. However I've set it up for a few seniors and it works for them. It should work for you.
Handbrake
DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter.
GIMP
Photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features.
Paint.NET
Graphics editor with a very nice interface.
Joomla!
is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.
Drupal
an open source content management platform. Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites.
Wordpress
is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
* Google may not be considered Open Source as a whole BUT google helps develop a ton of Open Source projects and has even purchased software applications turning them into open source or free applications. I use Google for every thing I can.
yeah it kinda pisses me off to to not say Merry Christmas and follow the politically correct Happy Holiday Slogan. MC'n events I try to give a middle of the road presentation. Actually I think more times then not at Xmas parties this season once a crowd has warmed up I'll go into my "Why can't we just say Merry Christmas speech" 
KILLER!!!
