Starting with e-mails, for long time I was using web-based e-mail services including great Gmail. But it became kind of difficult to maintain several different e-mail boxes so I started looking for solution more similar to Microsoft’s Outlook. After trying several e-mail client applications I found the best to be Thunderbird from Mozilla, creators of Firefox web-browser.

Browsing e-mails in Thunderbird

Thunderbird offers everything I need. Setting up multiple e-mail accounts was a breeze, working with and managing emails is flawless, searching feature was pushed to another level since version 3 release. The application really looks and feels good and if you find some functionality missing, there is most likely an add-on for it. Like, for example, a calendar add-on I can’t be without – Lightning (which is Mozilla Sunbird ported into Thunderbird) and Google Calendar integration.

Calendar add-on for Thunderbird

So everything related to e-mails and calendar under one roof – perfect. You can get Thunderbird free of charge from Mozilla’s website.

Gmail Notifier

If you, for example, still prefer accessing your e-mail account using web-browser and happen to use (the best) Gmail, a little application called Gmail Notifier can alert you about new e-mail messages without being logged into the service right at the time.

Skype

Moving from e-mails to Internet telephony, or often referred as VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) applications. Probably the best one, most popular (over 21 million people were using Skype at time the screenshot was taken…) and known is Skype. Offers free Internet phone calls, video calls and chatting for registered users, even with possibility of conference and cheaper (not completely free) calls to land-line or mobile numbers. An advantage for Skype is its multilingual interface with wide range of languages to choose from. The newest version supporting HD video calls can be downloaded from www.skype.com.

Skype communicator

Google Talk

Like its name suggests, this app is suitable for owners of Google account (although I have never used it…). Google Talk is instant messaging, VOIP and video communication program that is easy to manipulate and looks pretty indeed. Download Google Talk

Pidgin

Complete instant messaging client in this article is represented with open-source program mostly known from Linux platform called Pidgin. The program supports majority of main instant messaging protocols including AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, Bonjour, MSN, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu and others. Except standard chatting feature it can transfer files, communicate with a number of different users at a time, and current version integrates even voice and video conversation possibilities. If you want to give Pidgin a try, download it from www.pidgin.im.

I’ve tried so many different disk burning tools that it took me quite a long time to find the replacement for my (very very old version of) Nero, which surely wasn’t free. And just when I found this replacement, I bought Dell Studio 1737 laptop and problems started again… ;) During my search I was looking for this functionality:

1. Burning standard formats like CD, CD RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW (option to burn double layer disks, DVD-RAM, Blu-ray and HD DVD would be just a plus)
2. Possibility to create disk copies and disk images (ISO files)
3. Burned data verification and buffer underrun protection
4. Ability to create multisession disks, audio, video and DVD disks
5. Friendly and easy-to-use interface, preferably with some wizard and support for different languages
6. Has to be free software

At the end, I put together following software list.

Ashampoo Burning Studio [UPDATE 15.3.2010]

Thanks to commenters Peter and Idaho I decided to add another software to the list. It is Ashampoo Burning Studio I was using in the past but left it due to couple of reasons. First, the free-to-download was just old version 6 and also the way how program works wasn’t really for me (I prefer more 2 pane view – both with file manager and CD/DVD view). That’s why the app didn’t even make it into the list …and also because I forgot about it.

But after the guys pointed me to free current version Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010, I decided to give it another try. And what a good move it was! The software is perfect. It offers everything I need, even overcomes my expectations with integration of audio CD ripper, file backup system, it’s free and works on my Dell laptop! What more can I ask for? So my current best choice for burning program is Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 (you need to get free serial number directly from Ashampoo website).

CDBurnerXP

Multilingual application CDBurnerXP complies all my criteria and even surprises with possibility to burn Blu-ray and HD DVD besides other standard formats. It creates also bootable disks, which I’ve never tried, though.

When creating audio CD, you can import several the most used audio file types and playlists and CDBurnerXP will take care of them. If you happen to have two disk drives, and insert audio CD into one of them, you can even add tracks from that disk to one you are creating in CDBurnerXP without previous audio ripping. Just add those CDA files to new compilation. Very cool feature.

Surely, you can create also video disk, which is basically just data disk with video file(s) ;) If you are wondering how to create DVD, here is the little tip on creating Video-DVD: There is no option to create video DVD disk directly from wizard appearing when program is started, so you have to choose to create data disk first and then go to File → DVD Video layout.

CDBurnerXP is capable of creating ISO disk image file from your CD or DVD, burning the ISO image and also converting BIN and NRG images into ISO format (again can be found in File menu).

The biggest minus for this program is that I can’t make it work with Dell Studio’s slot load DVD drive. That being said, it is possible CDBurnerXP might not work for some other drives either. Otherwise, this is almost perfect burning software. Download current version from CDBurnerXP website.

InfraRecorder

In my burning software list the open source community is represented by InfraRecorder. I can guarantee, this free program will nothing but totally impress you. Again, I was able to check my whole requirements list, so just few more words about its functions.

The program supports recording on dual (or double) layer DVD disks, burning ISO, CUE, IMG, BIN and RAW image filetypes, creating multisession disks, saving audio CD in WAV, WMA, OGG or MP3 (process called ripping), and, InfraRecorder is also available in portable version! Great, isn’t it?

By the way, when you see a smoke coming from burning progress window, don’t rush for extinguisher! I must admit I felt a bit uneasy when I first saw this nice effect. But it’s really just an effect. ;)

InfraRecorder (download it) is such a great software, equally like CDBurnerXP, or maybe a bit further because I can use it on a Dell Studio. Although I have some problems with it, mainly when burning rewritable media. But again, it can be related to my optical drive.

So, all those problems directed me to Spartan, but very functional last burning software in my list and my last chance to be able to burn something on Dell Sudio laptop – ImgBurn.

ImgBurn

Well, how to begin? Very carefully, but it needs to be brought to light …the application interface is not really suitable for normal, ordinary casual computer user. I’m not considering myself as normal computer user, despite I had a harsh time to understand what and how to do.

ImgBurn also doesn’t offer all the functionality compared to the programs I’ve mentioned before, but looking at its name, who would expect that? Indeed, what it does excellently is burning wide variety of different CD/DVD disk image types (BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG just to mention a few).

Actually, looking at the list of my requirements, ImgBurn just doesn’t have that friendly interface, doesn’t support multisession and can’t burn audio disk. Everything else works perfectly fine, though. And if you become familiar with the application you will find that it contains more advanced settings that any other burning software.

I definitely recommend this program especially when you deal with different types of CD or DVD images. But definitely as complement to some other burning software (I’m using InfraRecorder besides it currently). It’s completely free and also portable so go and get one.

Optical disk image handling programs

Special software category creates programs focused on work with disk image files. Namely virtual drives, which allows you to create illusional optical drive where you can mount a disk image and use it as it would be normal CD or DVD, and image file converters, used in case the burning software doesn’t support specific image format.

The easiest way to browse and use CD or DVD disk images without burning them on physical media is mounting them to virtual optical drives. A software providing this functionality can be MagicDisc or popular DAEMON Tools Lite.

When you find yourself stuck with DAA or UIF image files, you can try single-purpose converters DAA2ISO and UIF2ISO that convert those filetypes to standard ISO images which you can then burn or mount to virtual drive. You have to use them through command line but they both are easy to use and works great.

Last word

At the end it’s up to you which program you will choose to burn your CD and DVD disks and surely you will try other similar software and find similar software lists on internet, but believe me, you will end up with one of aforementioned burners when recording the pictures from New Year’s Eve party ;)

Linux offers countless possibilities of customizing how it looks and feels. Ubuntu is no exception and I am sure you will enjoy applying different themes and be amazed by the effects and animations.

As Windows user I always felt limited somehow in terms of watching still the same themes. Surely it is possible to customize Windows and even apply new themes, but the procedure is much more complicated, whereas in Ubuntu it is pure fun. When you get into it, you will be able even to create your very own themes like I did myself. Don’t hesitate and feel free to download and use the Emerald themes I’ve created.

In the video I’m explaining how to change preinstalled themes (also called Metacity themes) and customize panels. Then I move to more advanced customization replacing Ubuntu’s default theming manager with Emerald. You will also need to install CompizConfig Settings Manager (Compiz is Ubuntu’s compositing window managers that uses 3D graphics) to be able to apply new settings and you can play with it and change the effects and animations of windows or desktop.

You can download very nice Ubuntu theme packages from Bisigi Project

Simply enjoy and leave comments!

(The best you’ll enjoy the video in HD.)

Start with – for many people mysterious – codecs. These coder-decoder programs take care about decoding (or encoding) all those different media file types out there. Codecs are fundamental to playback of your multimedia files. They are usually included with good multimedia player software (and more codecs a player has, the more different multimedia files it can handle) or it is possible to download them in a codec pack or separately.

So, if you’ve ever wondered why you can’t watch certain videos on your computer but your friend’s machine plays them perfectly, all the magic can be just in codecs your friend has installed. I recommend using codec packs as they will install all codecs you will ever need (but also the ones you will never use) and prevent you from searching the new specific codec each time you are unable to play back some multimedia file. I was using All In 1 and K-Lite Codec Pack which were very good but every now and then I needed to play some strange file format that these codecs couldn’t handle.

Rescue came with CCCP codec pack which is great piece of software. Since I got it, I haven’t had a problem with playback or creation of any multimedia file. I definitely recommend visiting CCCP (website) and download the codec pack! Also download QuickTime Alternative to play back QuickTime files (.mov, .3gp, …) without having to install the official Apple’s QuickTime Player.

But now, lets talk about players finally…

Audio player

AIMP player

Searching for the best audio player and not wanting to use resource hungry Winamp? AIMP player is for you. This little application is pure genius you can use for playback of audio files and CDs, ripping audio CDs (making .mp3 files (and other) from your CD collection), conversion between different audio formats, editing ID tags of MP3 files or recording from microphone.

AIMP audio player

Intuitive interface and keyboard control, 18-band equalizer, sound effects, support for different playlist formats, recording online radio, multilingual support, customizable skins, simple minimized version of the player… all that and for free!

You can’t go wrong with AIMP installed on you computer!

Video and DVD players

The KMPlayer

Video, DVD and audio player – that’s a short description of The KMPlayer (don’t confuse it with KMPlayer for Linux). Simply a complete multimedia player. If you don’t need advanced audio playback, this can be the only multimedia player you will use. I actually used it that way for some time, but as I need to play back my recorded material which is in better audio quality format than usual audio files, I left audio playback for AIMP and set up The KMPlayer to take care just about video files.

But for video playback I am using exclusively The KMPlayer as it handles everything I throw at it. There is no problem for the player with displaying subtitles, playing back damaged AVI videos, making screenshots from video, applying audio and video effects, changing playback speed, looping sections of videos, using remote or keyboard control, changing skin of the application and many others due to extensive possibility of configuration. And, of course, it supports a lot of different video and audio formats.

KMPlayer

Visit The KMPlayer’s homepage and download this amazing program.

Just to mention an alternative to The KMPlayer, you can use fantastic open-source cross-platform application called VLC media player which doesn’t look that nice out of the box, but you can always change it by applying different skins.

Miro

The last amazing multimedia player I’d like to tell you about is Miro. The difference here is that Miro is Internet television application and I doubt anybody uses it for standard multimedia playback as it is really huge (for multimedia player) and resource eater.

Miro offers large amount of video and audio RSS channels divided to different categories. You just simply find the channel you are interested in and subscribe to it. Miro will download new videos from the channel as soon as they are available. Don’t have to remember you need Internet connection, do I? The videos will be deleted from your computer after some time if you don’t choose otherwise.

Miro Internet television

Miro is completely free and can be installed also on Mac or Linux. Just grab it and try it out.

That’s all for today, next time we will have a look at free picture viewers and organizers.

Using the steps below (or in video) you will be able to install Ubuntu on at least 2GB flash drive and than boot to the system on computers or laptops supporting booting from USB drive. So first of all go and check if the computer you want to run Ubuntu on supports this feature (you will find it in documentation to your PC or you can have a look at BIOS or booting menu during the first few seconds of computer’s start up).

As you could see in video, it really is nothing complicated. For the ones who prefer reading manuals ;) here is the procedure written in steps (you can find simplified instructions also on Pendrivelinux.com). You will need to do this procedure on computer running Windows.

1. In first step I suggest to start with creating a folder (lets say on the Desktop) with name “Ubuntu on USB”. After this you need to download  ISO CD image of Ubuntu from Ubuntu’s website (this tutorial is for version 9.04 9.10 (both 32bit and 64bit) but will be updated as soon as new version is available) and installation file U904p.exe U910p.exe from the Pendrivelinux.com article and save both of them to the folder.
2. Open the folder “Ubuntu on USB” with downloaded files and run U904p.exe U910p.exe. File will decompress and create a folder of the same name.
3. Now move Ubuntu ISO file to “U904p” “U910p” folder.
4. Connect your USB flash drive (repeating: minimal capacity needs to be 2GB) to the computer and note the drive letter that Windows assign to it (you can check it in My Computer). As you can see in video, on my laptop it was drive “i”.
5. Now run file U904.bat U910.bat (or just U904 U910 when you can’t see the extention). Note that when you are on Windows Vista, you will need to run the file as administrator (right click on file and choose to run as administrator).
   
6. When installation starts it will ask you to enter the USB flash drive letter (in my case it is “i”, remember?) to process and copy files to the drive. So type in the letter (just one letter, and be careful to type in the right one!!!) and press [ENTER]. Quite long installation process will start so go and make yourself a coffee or something…
7. After installation is over the process will need to make the USB drive bootable. So just press any key when message appears on the screen.
8. By now your USB Ubuntu flash drive is ready to be used, although just in case you have large capacity drive (more than 2GB), you can increase the persistent space of Ubuntu. It will make possible to install more software and save more data than.If you want that, just go to Pendrivelinux.com website and scroll down to section “Persistent size” where you can download casper-rw loop files of 3 sizes (2, 3 and 4GB as original casper-rw file is 1GB large). You just need to unpack the file to your USB flash drive overwriting the old one.There is new simple procedure on how to resize the casper-rw file responsible for the size of persistent partition.
9. Now the last thing left is to test if your USB Ubuntu works. Leave the USB flash drive connected and restart your computer. During the start up go to boot menu or BIOS and choose the option to boot from USB.
10. If everything goes right, Ubuntu Install Boot Menu appears. Here just choose “Run Ubuntu Persistently” (should be the first option) and wait for Ubuntu to boot up. And now just enjoy and play with it!

You are ready to take your system and files virtually anywhere! Just plug it in the computer (supporting booting from USB…) and you can rock ;) All the settings you will edit in the system will be saved. Including appearance. This is also good way to have backup system in case something happened to your Windows for example. I dealt with a problem that Windows crashed totaly and its reinstallation was needed. The problem was that user wanted his data back. I used this USB system to boot and copied his data to connected external harddrive. So, don’t hesitate, try this and leave comments!

Software used in video: Opera web browser and FreeCommander file manager.