downloading the decrypter as we speak...i'll compare it with dvd
decrypter and dvd shrink...and maybe let you know my personal
experience.

so far, i've come across two movies that i can't back up with the
others...regardless of how hard i tried, lol.

Avast is running the top of the charts over AVG...

there are some bloating, and resource issues with AVG now. Will find the
link for ya.

My laptop has the ability to use the TV as either extended screen or
other... so, I got a cable.
Now I just pop in the data movie, or program saves instead of converting
to all dvds. I love it!

got a kit that plugs into the front of the laptop for sound, and have a
very small but powerful sound system and video play.

ET (or anyone), do you have a recommendation for a free photo editor
which is somewhat powerful by -very- easy/intuitive to use?

the pc suite has one...how it compares to others, i wouldn't know...as i
don't use too many.

that, and irfanview, and i'm all happy.

also use and like picasa...it's a snap, and it finds and organizes all
of the pics on your computer.

"ET (or anyone), do you have a recommendation for a free photo editor
which is somewhat powerful by -very- easy/intuitive to use?"
************************************************************

I downloaded Serif's Free photo editing software..It is good, nearly as
good as the Adobe I have, and much simpler to use..

It is called Photo Plus 6

I use paint shop pro, kinda pricey but cheaper than photosho I no longer
do any downloading but when i did i used newsgroups rather than these
peer to peer applications, never got the 1st virus. I probably averaged
downloading 40 gigs per month

Lulu, Bobby, and Steve - thank you!

I just came across this list of useful free programs, which included
some I've not heard of before.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/top-20-free-applications-to-increase-your-productivity.html

Great thread. I use Open Office and Avast. Avast rocks. I have the
Ubuntu CD just haven't gotten around to setting up a partition for it.

When at home, I dual boot or drive swap via disk trays. I'm writing this
particular post while running an older variant of Linux that's been up
and running on this machine since September of 2002. It's never locked
up or crashed even once.

I've found Open Office to work great on Linux, but its Windows
counterpart takes forever to load on my Windows XP Pro workstation at
work. Also, since there are little incompatabilities with MS Office
files, and I have to be able to share files I generate with other
people, I have to run MS Office at work.

Has anyone else noticed this, too? I haven't tried versions above 1.1,
so maybe this has been taken care of.

I've been running Photoshope since version 3, so although I've tried the
GIMP (even v. 2.2), I keep going back to Photoshop because I just know
it so well.

I REALLY wish there were an open source version of AutoCAD, though. The
3D stuff costs the world, crashes and locks up all the time, and it's
file aren't even compatible between different versions only a year
newer. Ugh.

Then there's always Knoppix, too... but that's another post for another
day. :)

-Kerry O.

Kerry,

I highly recommend upgrading to the latest OpenOffice on windows -
dramatic improvements have been made.

Hey Guys anyone has any good free sw for converting wave to mp3?

gr8pal,

Sorry I can't recommend anything from personal experience, as the
last time I needed to do audio conversion it was easier to use Linux
tools than find a windows program for it.

Perhaps this link will help you?

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-Convertors/Wave-to-mp3.shtml

Here's another request - anyone have any recommendations for a quality
freeware program which controls your start-up programs?

In the past I used "start up cop", which I found randomly using google.

What do you use?

(This is for a friend who has memory issues on her machine.)

gr8pal thier are many mp3 plugins for multipal front in progs in linux
that are free naturally. KAudioCreator is a pretty good ripper/encoder
that will do MP3 format with the 'plugin'. But the only reason that I
ever encode into mp3 format now adays is when I need alot of songs to
play on an MP3 player. There are much better formats such as OGG, flac,
lame, or wav. Any of these can be burnt (using K3B) to a regular cdr in
cdda format.

My favorite site for freeware and shareware is majorgeeks dot com. You can get free virus protection for Windows, firewalls, anti spyware, plus tons of other things. Check out Leaktest, from the Firewalls menu. It checks to see if your firewall is working properly. Frequently, a person only has a one way and not a two way firewall.