Monthly Archives: July 2011

The 10 best open source apps you never heard of

Posted on July 18, 2011 by tuxcarla| Leave a comment

More of my favorites on IT World: The 10 best open source apps you never heard of

“There are thousands of excellent open source programs to choose from. Here are 10 of my favorites that rarely get breathless buzz or make top 10 lists, presented in no particular order, rhyme, or reason.

“Ardour Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

“The Ardour digital audio workstation is a first-rate multi-channel audio recorder, editor, and mixer. It runs on Mac OS X and Linux, which are both superior audio production platforms. It supports a wide range of audio file formats, has non-destructive editing with unlimited undo, and unlimited tracks and buses. (Limited only by your computer when it reaches its limits and keels over.)

“Ardour organizes a recording session by buses. An audio bus, whether hardware or software, is a grouping of tracks. Then any edits are applied to all tracks on the bus, as though it were a single track. For example you might route all the bassoon tracks to a single bus because you want to get editing the bassoons over with quickly…”

Posted in Linux Audio, Linux news, software

FOSS advocate who’s free, frank and fearless

Posted on July 18, 2011 by tuxcarla| Leave a comment

Here is Sam Varghese’s in-depth interview interview with me. Not bad if I say so myself: FOSS advocate who’s free, frank and fearless.

“Journalist, FOSS advocate, feminist – Carla Schroder is all these and more. But more than anything it is her straight talking that marks her out – when she takes a stand on issues she is driven by conviction.

“This means that often she is at the receiving end but it is something that she can more than handle. The good thing about dealing with her is that she never allows her personal and professional worlds to mix – even her worst enemy will be allowed to have his/her say on a site which she edits. This is indeed a rare trait.

“Schroder was recently in the news when her gig with Linux Today, one of the better-known FOSS news aggregation sites, ended in dismissal. Her readers liked what she was doing but the management apparently did not. The terms of her leaving do not permit her to say anything about it.

“But there is a lot more to Schroder than what she did at Linux Today. She has moved on and rejoined LXer where she was an editor before joining Linux Today. She took some time off to speak to iTWire about her present, her past and what she looks forward to…”

Posted in Business, Developer, Linux news, software, Work

Creating the Perfect Fluxbox Desktop on Linux

Posted on July 18, 2011 by tuxcarla| Leave a comment

Check out my Creating the Perfect Fluxbox Desktop on Linux on Linux.com:

“Fluxbox is a fast, lightweight, very customizable window manager for X. Fluxbox is a great choice for Linux users who favor speed and efficiency, and setting up their working environment just the way they like. Today we’ll look at some super-saver speed tricks such as grouping applications with tabs, tear-off menus, sticky buttons, the infamous slit, and more.

“I have this weird idea about computers. I think that we should control them, and that they should serve a higher purpose than being high-tech TVs feeding us a steady stream of drivel. We don’t even get good drivel anymore — it’s drivel lite. That is why I like Linux, and all of its power and flexibility. It does what I want it to do. And that is why I like that there are dozens of great window managers and desktop environments for Linux, such as XFCE, LXDE, Ratpoison, IceWM, FVWM, and Enlightenment. XFCE and Fluxbox are my daily workhorses.
First Run

“When you run Fluxbox for the first time there isn’t much to see, just a blank desktop and a bottom toolbar that displays a workspace switcher, a clock, an iconbar, and a system tray (systray)…”

Posted in software