comparelinux.com–Linux and open source Blog

Didnt you ever want to have a easier way to download that favorite youtube video on your hard disk or that favorite  myspace Tv video on your harddisk and you had to use those complicated softwares which were often loaded with spywares and malwares. Well, thanks to get2pc.com we have a simpler alternative.

You can download the videos using get2pc.com. Just copy paste the URL into a textbox provided and you get a download link where in you can download the video. As simple as that, no software to download and hence no spywares and malwares.

The image of this website is as shown.

The service supports a variety of online video sharing services like youtube, Google Video, iFilm, myspace and Dailymotion.

Although this service is very handy the legality of this service is in doubt and I dont think its allowed to provide what this service provides. However, I am no law expert so I cant comment anything about that. But i certainly think that the copyright issues will certainly be more aggravated since more downloading by the users means more re-distribution and sharing.

So, I hope the users use this service sensibly and hence although this is one of those things on the internet which is great to have but should be used sensibly.

Tags: IT News, softwares, Security, Software Reviews by admin
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Sabeer Bhatia, Co-Founder of Hotmail, which later he sold to Microsoft has launched a office productivity online and offline software suite that rivals other big players in the business like Microsoft with its Microsoft Office Live and Google with Google Docs. Live document prides itself as a “suite of online office productivity applications offering functionality equivalent to Word, Excel and PowerPoint”. It also contains a “optional desktop client application that wraps around Microsoft Office and embeds collaborative capabilities into these hitherto standalone software applications - Live Documents converts Microsoft Office applications from static standalone software to smart clients that are connected to the Internet and facilitate in-context document sharing (multiple people can edit a document at the same time) and management (security, access control and revision control) without requiring users to give up their familiar user interfaces. The Live Documents desktop client also ensures offline access to documents - a key failing of current online Office applications.”

Thus, with the advent of live documents the overall online documents niche is getting hotter and lets hope that live documents reach up to its expectations. Currently live documents is available only to a limited people and I have applied to it and lets see if I get a login. You can also apply to live documents here.

You can visit the live documents website to know more about it!

Tags: softwares, Software Reviews by admin
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Orkut introduces new Privacy Features

Finally orkut has introduced a new set of privacy features that were much needed by the community especially in the wake of the latest crimes that we hear coming out of orkut! So, finally orkut has taken the initiative and has introduced privacy for scrapbook access, album(i.e Images) access as well as Video access. You can do this by going to the settings link in the left corner of your screen and then going to the “Privacy Tab”.

Another good thing that orkut has introduced is the Ask questions feature where in your friends can answer to questions that you have asked. Another thing that is noteworthy is the updates feature, where in you know the latest updates about your friends! This is very effective especially when your friends list goes into hundreds;)

I personally feel that orkut is standing up to the stiff competition from MySpace and Facebook as well as linkedIn when it comes to professional networking and the only thing that orkut should actively work upon is the  OpenSocial API which is still in Beta and takes limited developers. I hope they open it for public as soon as possible.

Tags: softwares, Google, Software Reviews by admin
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Best Communication software for Linux

Linux, for long has been thought to be a geeky affair and was widely believed that people with extra ordinary computer expertise can operate and work on Linux sufficiently. However, things are changing these days. Linux is getting strong support in the section of users who have stayed away from Linux for a long time-“The home users”. This has been made possible by very user friendly linux distributions like Ubuntu. Therefore, since a lot of users are working on Linux even at home it is essential that they should know the software that should be present on a linux based computer so that all its users can work with efficiently.

The good thing about linux is that many useful and essential and useful software come bundled with Linux and its large software repositories. These softwares are usually open source and therefore there is no licensing cost what so ever. However, I do feel that in order for users who need the similar set of softwares like they are accustomed to working on Windows, I think there is a need to explain a few softwares which I feel are essential to work efficiently and effectively on Linux. Hence I am giving a list of software that a user should download or have while using Linux. Remember, these software are for the “Layman” and doesn’t include any technical or development software.

• Yahoo Messenger: We all use Yahoo Messenger for chatting, Video conferencing and chat rooms. Yahoo Messenger can also be used on Linux based systems. Yahoo Messenger in Linux comes in three versions- For the REDHAT Linux, For the Debian Linux and the third one for the FreeBSD Linux. The redhat version of yahoo messenger works on Redhat versions 6.x, 7.x,8.0 and 9.
• Gtalk: We all also use gtalk quite a while and love to chat with friends who have gmail account especially the ones who are on Orkut because of Gtalk’s seemless integration with orkut. Howver, currently there is no GTalk implementation on Linux and therefore you can nevertheless use the GAIM client to text chat with your friends on Gtalk.
• Picasa Photo Organiser: Picasa is another product from google which is getting a strong customer base these days. Picasa is available in Linux. Picasa allows its uses to find all the photos on a computer as well as share the photos on the web. It also allows the users to make changes to photos with the help of few and simple clicks. Picasa is also bundled with google pack which includes all the required software in a computer.
• Skype: Skype is the world leader in voice communication over the internet with the customer base of 200 million users. It is a very popular service and people can use skype to freely talk when both the users are online over the internet, or using the subscription services like Skypein and skypeout as well as skype Pro. Skype is available in 7 linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora, opensuse, debian and Mandriva. you can download Skype here

The softwares discussed above describe the best communication software available on Linux and the best thing is yahoo messenger is integrated with MSN so you can chat with MSN users using Yahoo messenger from Linux. That’s interoperatibility in its true meaning.

Next up, we will discuss the best system software that we should have for linux. So, I would just say STAY TUNED.

Tags: softwares, Software Reviews by admin
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