There are hundreds if not thousands of sites that list free software, but there are some I have come to rely on when I am looking for something specific, or just browsing to see what is new and interesting (or old and interesting). Since this has become a bit of a loose science for me, I thought I would share with you the places I visit for my regular free software fix.

Nonags>>

A simple site with a single page listing of each category of software. Listings go from the latest entries to older software at the bottom of the page. The great thing here is that you can find some real old gems which might not have been updated for a while but are still great pieces of software. Best of all is that only software without spyware or nag screens are included in this repository. This is always my first stop when looking for a specific type of software.

Sourceforge>>

The mother lode of open source projects on the net, and therefore by default also one of the best repositories of free software. It is true that many of the projects here are not in a mature state of development, and it is also true that these pieces of software are not always as mass-market oriented as other places. But you can’t complain about the variety available or about some of the ambitious things people are pulling off under open source coding practices.

Freshmeat>>

Similar to Sourceforge, but Freshmeat is less of a host and more of a directory of Linux software. Once again most of this is open source and free, and a lot of these have Windows ports as well. Since Linux is commonly used as a server operating system, many of the projects are focused on server scripting rather than end-user utility, but it’s a great place to broaden your free software horizons.

Filehippo>>

Straight forward and geeky software download repository that keeps track of new versions and allows you to download older versions and newer betas of a lot of the packages. Good and simple organisation into categories makes it very easy to find what you are after. A great resource.

Freewarefiles>>

I generally avoid the major commercial free software download sites like the plague, because they are more focused on advertising and less on the utility of the software they offer. While Freewarefiles is one of the most ad-heavy sites on this list, what it lacks in uncluttered simplicity, it makes up for in variety and good organisation. You can truly come across things listed here when you have never heard of, so its always a good haunt when you are casually browsing or exploring your options.

Gamehippo>>

I don’t consider myself a “dull boy” and I am interested in games too. But my taste in games happens to be a bit old school, involving more point-and-click than strafe-and-shoot. No matter what your tastes, however, Gamehippo will have enough free gaming goodies to keep you busy. Nice listings with helpful descriptions and decent screenshots, make this site a great way to find out at leisure what your next time wasting digital pastime is going to be. There are some excellent games hidden in here so look carefully.

The Underdogs>>

Sticking to the gaming theme, and in keeping with my love for old-school gaming, I can’t pass up the opportunity to mention The Underdogs. Not only are these old games with reviews and descriptions and walkthroughs and even downloads in some cases, but these are games that were either unsuccessful at original release or games that have a cult following. Once again, you can browse here for hours reading up on games but do try out some of the well reviewed gems. They are well made, and ridiculously tiny compared to today’s huge downloads. Well worth the effort.

TinyApps>>

Last, and certainly the least, I would like to leave you with TinyApps. They are free, they are useful, they are tiny. Heck, forget tiny, some of the software linked on this small site is positively microscopic! Head over there and enjoy the nostalgia trip to a time when floppy drives were a viable storage medium, or just go there to find some really quick and useful software.

That covers my regular hot spots for free software. These are what I rely on for enjoyment and utility when I’m looking to tinker with some programmes. There are tons of other sites out there and I’m sure you have your favourites. Share your favourite sources of free software in a comment below and add to the list. The great sites in this list can always use some great company.

I occasionally flirt with the idea of being more organised. Don’t get me wrong, I am more organised than most people. The photograph above is of my todo lists and notes which regulate my day-to-day activities. That’s the way it’s been for a few years now and that is the only way I can maintain my sanity considering my do-it-all persuasion. But, there is always more that can be done. I’ve never gotten into the strict calendar scheduling and note-taking habit. When I started this blog, I thought maybe a bit of more structured scheduling of posts to be written and tasks to be done on the administrative end might do me some good. So I set off down the internet stream in search of the right calendaring software.

When I look for software I stick to all free and mostly open source choices. It’s a bit of a lifestyle choice and it works for me. But I also have other exacting specifications for the software I use. I don’t have the newest and fastest of computers so application size, speed and efficiency are major issues, and things that I’m always taking into consideration. These are what I found on my search.

OpenPIM
I found OpenPIM very early in my search. The download is only around 250kb, which is exactly the kind of form factor I enjoy working with. But then I got to the download page and realised it required the Microsoft .NET runtimes. Unfortunately I don’t have those installed on any of my systems nor do I plan on installing it anytime soon. The .NET install is a 22Mb download, and the only programmes I have come across that required it were small little utilities such as this one. Not worth the trouble I say, because I like to run a very lean Windows install. So I passed on OpenPIM.

Sunbird
Then I moved on to something more established and something I already knew about. Sunbird is the calendar and organizer sibling of the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email software. This one was a good bet and might still be but I have my reservations. I still like Firefox but it has bloated to great and slow proportions over the past few years. This is the reason I do a lot of my browsing using Kmeleon, and only switch to Firefox when I need some of its excellent extension functionality. No, Internet Explorer is not even a valid option in my book … besides I don’t like it for making my life as a CSS+XHTML web designer hard and frustrating. Sunbird is a calendaring application that weighs in at a huge(for what it is) 7Mb download. That combined with the Firefox legacy means that I will leave it alone for now.

Chandler
It was now time to check out the maverick on the block, which led me to Chandler. Chandler is purported to be a next generation Personal Information Manager par excellence. That is of course not really true yet because the software is still very much a work-in-progress. It’s an ambitious project with high ideals, and it was the subject of a recent popular non-fiction book called Dreaming in Code. But, ideals aside, Chandler is still in an alpha state with a lot of missing functionality. Also, as part of their philosophy of rapid prototyping, it is developed in the Python (interpreted) programming language. One possible side effect might be the 16Mb installer which I found on their download page. Not for me at the moment, thank you. But something to keep an eye on.

The others
There are many smaller solutions. BORG calendar looks quite complete but uses JAVA — yet another programming API/runtime for me to download and install which I’m not enthusiastic about. The Pimlico project seems to be producing nice little purpose-built tools mainly for mobiles and handhelds. They also have binaries for Linux which gives hope for wider functionality in the future. Speaking of Linux, someone has made a Windows port of the famous Linux email and PIM software Evolution. Remember, this is supposed to be in the league of Outlook as an enterprise solution, which of course also means it is huge. At 66Mb, this thing nears OpenOffice.org proportions (but that I do use because of some unbeatable features). Ajour PIM looks ok and adequate, but not the most awe inspiring solution.

There is absolutely not shortage of online solutions of course. There are probably millions of freely available hosted solutions in the form of PHP scripts and mini groupware CMSs which can do the whole calendar and scheduling thing, but that’s not what I want. Why does everything have to be online now? I love online, but really, some practical perspective here please.

It would also seem everything is huge now, and in the admirable spirit of collaboration and not wanting to re-invent the wheel, everything is dependent on everything else. Unfortunately, the “everything else” in this case are large and cumbersome programming APIs which seem like over kill for a simple calendar utility. I think that is the main issue here. I still think of these as small utilities, but the popular paradigm is increasingly of large conglomerations of functionality that some marketing person down the line decided to call “suites”. Sometimes you don’t want a swiss army knife, you just want a toothpick. I’ve looked through whatever I could find in the realm of calendaring software, but none of the above meet my needs at the moment.

If anyone has any favourites or great finds to suggest, please share them in a comment below. I would love to hear of them. Until then, I’m going to play the great waiting game and stick to my little bits of paper.

Did you know that March used to be the first month of the year?

It’s true. In fact, January and February didn’t even exist until they were invented by the Romans around 700BC. And it was a whole 650 years later that Julius Caesar declared January to be the first month of the year. He really liked pushing people around, that guy. But some people refused to be pushed. You’ll be surprised to learn that January didn’t become the official beginning of the year in France until the 1500s. And the British colonies didn’t accept the January New Year until the mid 1700s.

Now put yourself into March’s shoes. It must be the most disgruntled month of them all. How would you like to have enjoyed the limelight for so long and then to be cast aside as simply that calendar month that appears between that very short month of the year and April fools day, and everyone was told to beware of your ‘ides’? Not very glamorous is it?

Purely to make it up to our much loved and very hard working month of March, I present to you this table calendar that you can print out and put together. I hope you enjoy it and I encourage you to forward it to everyone you know who would appreciate the chance for a fresh start.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year. It’s never too late for new beginnings …

Download PDF (483 kb)

For all you wallpaper enthusiasts, here are large versions of the illustration from the calendar for your desktop:

Resolutions:

1024X768 (75 kb)
1152X864 (88 kb)
1280X960 (103 kb)
1280X1024 (106 kb)
1600X1200 (161 kb)

1280X800 (92 kb)
1440X900 (112 kb)
1680X1050 (141 kb)
1920X1200 (189 kb)