Open-Source and Free Software

Looking for an open source support help disk with tickets

newp — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:20:22 GMT

Hi,

I work as a technical support, i really look for an open source tool to organize all cases .

The clients mostly will use emails ...

What you suggest on me to use???

Thanks

Nada

Fedora 10 installation hangs at post install

ravis007 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:49:16 GMT

Hi,

I am installing fedora 10 on my machine.

But the installation hangs out at the post install screen.

I can't understand why this happens.

Please help me to resolve this issue.

Thanks in advance

Better Source for OpenType Fonts

tm6148 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:14:06 GMT

Apologies in advance if this question has been answered before. The last post I could find on it in these forums was from two years ago and at that time you said that Adobe only donated applications, not individual font families.

Is there any way to get OpenType fonts at reduced non-profit pricing? These things appear to be ridiculously expensive; like $500 to purchase a single font family like Futura. And that only allows you to install them on up to 5 computers. I'm trying to explain this to my management and they look at me like I'm crazy. They can't believe they cost this much and that we can't just copy them from somebody.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Grassroots advocacy software - letting constituents contact their elected officials?

gregseitz — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:04:29 GMT

Hi!

Does anyone know of a free site where I can create an email campaign that I can send constituents to, letting them fill in their personal info and send a message to their elected officials about a specific issue? This is obviously something people pay a lot of money for, but I'd be fine with a hosted site, with ads and everything else...

Appreciate any input!

Cheers,

Greg

Help Selling Linux to our ED and Staff

pfashTCH — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:21:50 GMT

Hello All,

We are an NPO homeless service org that has a transitional housing community on campus. As it stands now, with the help of a consultant, I have set up the residents' network (just 9 computers) on linux (with linux proxy server)...but no staff are using linux on a regular basis.

I'd like to convert the whole campus to Linux (23 more computers) but I will have to convince my executive director and the staff that it will not screw up the work flow of the org. (If I get permission to do this I'd probably just do one computer at a time and wait a couple weeks then do another, etc.)

Here is my request: Where can I find convincing info to present to the ED and staff that shows:
-other large NPOs that have switched and their success stories
-evidence about how staff adjusts to new software or the success of the linux windows emulator if that's in use
-how much we'll save by going Linux (vs. staying with windows)
-why it will be more secure and less trouble to maintain.than windows

I know can push this thru if I can justify it.
Thanks very much for any help you can offer.

Volunteer organisation database

dreuby — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:57:39 GMT

We recently moved to a new town-centre location, which has brought us many new volunteers with a wide range of skills. We need to organise their information - their skills and interests, contact info, the team(s) they're allocated to, if they've had an induction/handbook/fire training etc etc. We also need to think about shift rotas.

A lot of the organising is done from our homes, so I also need something that's platform-independent or (possibly) web-based - I use Linux, but a new co-ordinator will probably be on Windows.

I've looked at Open Office Base, and some of the free CRM software - I think CRM is overkill for what we want to do, and I can't find a suitable template for Base. Are there any other solutions?

TIA

Easy to use online database similar to Access

jen@mtcorps.org — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:23:20 GMT

I looking for a basic online database with out a lot of bells and whistles. For far I have looked in to SalesForce, but it is a bit cumbersome for what I need. Any other suggestions? I know Access really well, so ideally, I'd like it to resemble that. Thank you

Donating refurbished computers with open source software

paddy1 — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:07:04 GMT

I am a sole operator/volunteer refurbishing older computers and donating "packages" to those children of disadvantaged families, through local schools and other charitable organizations, In Ontario, Canada. Each package consists of a CPU, monitor, keyboard and mouse, and in some cases, other equipment such as scanners, printers, speakers etc.

I have been loading these systems with open source software, Ubuntu, xubuntu, open office etc. Is it really necessary to form or register as a non profit to get Windows software, or am I better off to just continue with what I am doing?

The schools are always looking for windows software, but it seems like a long row to hoe to get it.

Monitoring internet usage

lcommodore — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:39:56 GMT

Hello All

We are thinking about using Safe Eyes software to monitor internet usage. If you have used this product what are your comments. If there are other products we should concider please let us know.

Thanks

Louis

Domain Level SPAM and Anti-Virus for Free

plalonde — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:45:45 GMT

Has anyone ever used or heard of MX GuardDog http://www.mxguarddog.com? They offer free services for placing a link on your web pages.

Simple yet professional creating brochures, flyers, invites software

12131213 — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:59:24 GMT

Can anyone recommend software that's not so detailed for making simple flyers, invites, etc.?

image converter

antoinette — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:24:53 GMT

hi all,

Does anyone have any experience with either Reasoft Image converter or Imageconverter. Both offer free downloads of their software. I am looking to convert some photos from TIFF files to JPEG for publishing.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Antoinette

Record Screen & Audio for training

jay4linux — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:18:21 GMT

Does anyone have any recommendations for free/opensource software that will allow us to record the screen and capture the audio for use as a training video? I would eventually want to dump them into .flv files for our members to view online.

A google search revealed camstudio which seem promising.

Thanks!

Open Office counterfeit site

Sasha — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:21:35 GMT

While looking over OpenOffice recently, I got waylaid by an OpenOffice counterfeit site.

I was evaluating PowerPoint alternatives, and I used Google to locate Impress by OpenOffice. High in Google rankings was the site OpenOfficeDownload. Following the Google link, I found a site with the OpenOffice logo, and info on all the programs. Going to download I was surprised to find that they were requesting a fee (not donation) for OpenOiffice.

Inquiring further I discovered that the correct site was OpenOffice.org

For those who are familiar with the genuine OpenOffice site, there would probably be no confusion. The two sites do look different. For others, who are less familiar with the authentic site, the counterfeit was good enough.

Sasha

PowerPoint alternative

Sasha — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:06:41 GMT

Does anyone know how well Impress (the Open Office PowerPoint alternative) works?

Is there another OS/FOS alternative to PowerPoint that works well?

Thanks,

Sasha

Anyone using VMWare ESXi 3.5?

glamontagne — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:34:27 GMT

Hello all, I have been researching VMWare ESX 3.5 and stumbled upon the free version ESXi 3.5. Is anyone using the free version for virtualization. We you able to put it on a glorified computer or did you need to put it on an actual server? Thanks for any information you may have.

Wavemaker for easy web development

MeganKeane — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:20:00 GMT

I just heard about the release of Wavemaker 4.0, an open source web development platform for AJAX applications. Wavemaker makes the claim that this is an easy way to create an AJAX application in just 9 steps. This post demonstrates how.

Anyone using Wavemaker? Is it as easy as the claims? And how easy is easy (i.e. what tech knowledge do you need before you start to use it?)

Best,

Megan

knoppix

petercheer — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:22:49 GMT

One way to secure an empty table in a crowded bar unless you are with your techie pals is to start a discussion about the relative merits of different Linux distros but I have to sing the praises of Knoppix 6.0.

I am currently in Nairobi on a VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) placement as Adaptive Technology Trainer with the Kenyan Society for the Blind and collaborating with the RIK (Rural Internet Kiosk) project (http://www.ruralinternetkiosks.com/). I have been looking into developing a Linux based kiosk setup suitable for people with visual impairments. Knoppix 6.0 (www.knoppix.net/) is a very nice clean light weight distro with ADRIANE a text based, voice enabled front end and the Orca screen reader if you choose to start a graphical X Windows session. It is very impressive.

Pete

Open Source Alternative to VISIO

sacredroad — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:34:00 GMT

Does anybody know a good alternative diagraming program? I think the standard is MS Visio. Anybody have experience using something else?

Thanks,

Adam

Free or Inexpensive Software for Helping to Generate Picture-Friendly Product Catalogs

MOKWard — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:51:40 GMT

I've been doing searches for several days, trying to find free or inexpensive software packages that facilitate assembling product catalogs for various uses. Data to be input would be Quickbooks and/or Excel data + photos in various formats; would like to be able to dump it out in a pdf format or into indesign to do editing on graphics or put up online or into DVD formats, etc. I've found a number that produce only unappealing list-type catalogs; the ones that are friendly to indesign or quark seem to be much more costly & also not designed for small operations. Does anyone have any ideas?

Fog Cloning Software HELP

dbarlamas — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:05:20 GMT

Just deploying fog and trying to upload an image. Can not get that to work. ANY HELP out there?

Firefox not browser of choice for long?

MeganKeane — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:17:22 GMT

I almost exclusively use Firefox as my browser of choice these days, except for certain applications that can only run in Internet Explorer (IE). I recently saw this post about how Firefox may not be the mainstream browser for very long.

The state of the browser market pretty much proves that it’s impossible for an open source project to remain a popular front-end application for too long.

What do you think? I'm not sure that I agree with the above conclusion, but there's definitely stiff competition among browser options and more to come ahead as new features roll out.

Errors with older mailer program (POSTFIX)

BenW — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:09:03 GMT

Hey there, thought I would try this forum to see if anyone has any experience with either sendmail or postfix (very similar to sendmail, actually uses the sendmail file to execute).

I have postfix installed on this Mac OS X machine that we run as a webserver with php installed. We have webforms that I created using php that send information to our database server, when the application is completed it sends the data and then sends the person mail through this php script and the postfix applicaiton. Most emails go through but some are giving me errors like #451 4.1.3 "sender address does not resolve" and #450 4.7.1 "client host rejected: cannot find your reverse hostname".

I figure it has something to do with DNS and the client side being unable to find out host name.

If anyone has any suggestions that would be ever so wonderful.

Thanks!

Ben.

Free Digital Signage Software, V2.95 released

MichaelMMM — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:10:00 GMT

Digital Recall has just released version 2.95 of their free digital signage software.

The new version has multiple improvements, as well as the ability to use Windows Media files, and incorporate RSS feeds into the scrolling text bar.

Full details of the new release are available on the "Version Notes" link of their home page.

www.digitalrecall.com.au

100 Open Source Apps for Windows

Rog — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:12:33 GMT

Here is a list of free open source applications that might be of use to nonprofits.

(If you find one you like, do share!)