My 7 Favorite Open Source Software Number 4: ImgBurn / Brasero

Number 4: ImgBurn / Brasero

I have two programs down for my 4th favorite app for I use them both to burn images onto dvds.  I use ImgBurn if I have the misfortune of using a computer running Windows on it which is only when I’m at work. Although I don’t like Windows I do like ImgBurn.  If more programs worked as well on Windows as ImgBurn I might have less contempt for the operating system. I use Brasero when running a computer with Linux Installed on it. Both are free and very easy to use. I personally like Brasero a little better and of course it runs on Linux!

Number 5: Open Broadcaster Software

Number 5: Open Broadcaster Software

Open Broadcaster Software, or OBS for short, is free and open source program for video recording and live streaming.  Available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, OBS is completely free.  OBS allows users to stream / record video from their computer a game they are playing, a webcam, or all or part of a window or desktop.

Video files can be saved in a variety of formats. Unlike FLV, MP4 is a popular format that works on almost any device and maintain quality in the same time with a reasonable file size. I recommend you to save your recordings as MP4.

I use OBS at home and at work.  At home OBS is great for recording youtube videos, or streaming video games to www.twitch.tv.  At work, OBS is a great platform for capturing screencasts for creating training videos.  OBS is easy to use with a small learning curve.  

My 7 Favorite Open Source Software Number 6: Clonezilla

Number 6: Clonezilla

Clonezilla is a free disk imaging and cloning program. It helps you backup and restore a single machine, or do system deployment. Minimum System Requirements for Clonezilla live is an X86 or x86-64 processor, 196 MB of system memory (RAM), and either a usb, cd-rom or hard drive to use as a Boot device. Clonezilla is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2.

I only use Clonezilla at my job at the Westhampton Free Library where I’m the Head of Computers & Digital Services.  I use Clonezilla to make images of computer hard drives for our library’s online catalogs, self checkouts stations, and public computers.  Whenever I have to re-install a hard drive all I have to do is clone one of the images I have already made. Although I don’t use the program often, there are not many others that perform better or can compare to the price.  Plus it’s open source!

My 7 Favorite Open Source Programs

Beginning today I will be counting down my seven favorite open source software. I will discuss one program each day ending next Saturday with my all-time favorite. Each day I will discuss how I use it, and whether I use it at home, work, or both.

Number 7: Audacity.

Audacity is a multi-track audio recording and editing program that is very popular with beginning podcasters. Available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.  Audacity is free software, developed by a group of volunteers and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Wikipedia states Audacity was started in the fall of 1999 by Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg at Carnegie Mellon University. The program was released on May 28, 2000.  Audacity won the SourceForge 2007 and 2009 Community Choice Award for Best Project for Multimedia.

Audacity. In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 2, 2015, from

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity_(audio_editor)

I have used Audacity both at work and home.  I find it is an excellent tool for improving the audio tracks for any movie you are making.  Especially if it is something, you are going to upload to the Internet. 

Trying to Find a permanent Linux Distribution

As a lover of free and open source technology (and just a plain hater of Windows & OSX) I feel compelled to have a linux distribution installed on each of my computers.  Problem is that I have never truly found a distro that I truly love. I’ll admit, I’m no linux expert, but I have used linux enough, that I’m beginning to learn it’s not so much the distro, but the desktop environment that really separates one from another.  However, I still find myself constantly “distro hopping” as I still try to find that one perfect linux OS.  

Currently I’ve been switching between Ubuntu Mate 14.04 and Fedora 22 with the Mate desktop environment.  I'm running the lts (long term support) of Ubuntu Mate, so I get the benefit of a stable operating system, but I find myself constantly drawn to the bleeding edge that Fedora provides.  Therefore, I think I’ll keep doing what I’ve been for the past couple of months.  I have Ubuntu Mate installed on both my gaming desktop and my plex server, and I’ll keep Fedora 22 on my HP620 laptop.

I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have!

Welcome to Einstein's Saloon, Your Genius Bar for the Free and Opensource Community!

Hello Everyone!