Blender 3D Creation Suite

The project we are supporting this month is Blender, the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation. My husband has been using Blender for a while now. He has some personal projects he is working on, but many times he just plays around with it to learn how it works. On his blog Normal Vector he blogged about the first model that he made, which was a gun (more specifically a Colt 1911). You have to realize he is a gun collector and a gamer so if he ever does make a 3D game he is likely to need some guns for it. Anyway, here is a sample from his blog showing the gun in progress and the completed project. I think it is pretty true to life myself!





Since then he's learned more about making clean meshes and suggested this link for beginners from the Blender Artists Forum. He will probably tell you these were rather simple, and he is currently working on making human models now among various other things. While I think this was really cool there is so much more that you can do with Blender, It is an amazing piece of software if you ask me.

Blender is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and it runs on many operating systems including Windows. They also offer plenty of documentation for you on their Education and Help page which will enable you to learn how to use it. We think that this particular project is definitely worthy of our financial support and that is why this month we are donating to the Blender Foundation. To see some of the depth of what all you can do with this free and open 3D creation suite, check out this video. It was made using Blender!

Open Source is not just for Linux

When I began this blog I had no intentions of making it all about Linux, but since I started using Linux at that time it has sort of dominated my posting. There are, however, many open source projects that are available for Windows as well as Linux.

You may wonder why you would want to bother withan open source product if you are already running Windows. Well the answer is easy, it is still about freedom. These products are as good, if not better than their counterparts, and they are absolutely free which means they cost you nothing and they allow you to use them however you want. Why pay for products with licensing that restricts you (and your budget) when you can have these great products for free? If you are running Windows but still interested in Open Source Software here are my top ten recommendations.

Top Ten Open Source Software Products for Windows and Linux:

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.




Firefox - The award-winning Firefox Web browser has security, speed and new features that will change the way you use the Web. Don’t settle for anything less





GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.






Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.







Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.






FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.





VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.




Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once.






Dia is a GTK+ based diagram creation program for Linux, Unix and Windows released under the GPL license. Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio', though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use.




Thunderbird - Enjoy safe, fast and easy email, Mozilla-style. The Thunderbird email client includes intelligent spam filters, powerful search and customizable views

Creative Commons

The Open Source movement is about freedom and it relies on the willingness of creators to share their work so that others can build upon and improve it. Of course, not all content needs to be shared completely and the creator is and always should be in control of how much of their content is shared. Creative Commons is a way for creators to open up their work to the community under their own terms. On the Creative Commons licensing page we learn:

"The Creative Commons licenses enable people to easily change their copyright terms from the default of 'all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.'

Creators choose a set of conditions they wish to apply to their work.

Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.

No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work."

So when you see these symbols, know what they mean.

To learn more visit the Creative Commons Website and watch the video below.

Wine - Runnning Windows Apps Without Windows

There are so many great Open Source projects that it makes it difficult for us to contribute to them all on a regular basis. So for now, we are picking a different project each month to highlight and support. This month it is Wine.

Wine helps you run Windows Applications without having to run Windows. It works on Linux, Mac, BSD, Solaris and other platforms. For those of us who want to run Linux but would still like to use software and programs that require Windows, Wine is an essential tool.



I have already shared how Wine has helped me to install programs that would not initially run on Linux. From games for my kid such as Veggie Tales Dance, Dance, Dance, Bible Champions and Jumpstart Kindergarten, to desktop apps such as Clicktray Calendar, without the help of Wine these would not be up and running on my Linux OS right now.

Wine is also very simple to use. Most programs have an autorun script that pops up automatically when you place your cd in the drive. Since you are not running Windows this is usually not going to work. Do not worry, this does not mean the program will not run. You just have to start it manually. Go to your Home Folder (found under the Places heading in Gnome) and you will see a listing for the program that is in the drive. Click on it and then right click either on "autorun.exe" or "setup.exe" and then click on "Open with the Wine Windows Program Loader."


At this point it should start to install. Now some apps would install if I used the "setup.exe" and do nothing if I used the "autorun.exe" but in this case where I was installing Clifford Phonics, it was the opposite. Just try the other if one does not work. Once you click that the installation process continues just as it would on Windows. It really is that simple!



There is also a great program that we found after a comment was left on my last post by Dan Kegel, called winetricks. I will warn you that this is something I did not implement myself but my husband was able to use this to get a program to run that did not originally work after our initial installation with Wine! However, I did watch him and I am confident it is something that I can do as I learn to use the console more. What winetricks does is help you install some of the libraries that are required to run that particular program. It will find what library you are missing that is causing the program not to run and help you get it and install it. Then your program works.

As always, we must keep in mind that Wine is always in development so while it may not help you with all your needs, there are tools in place for you to report errors and submit your own findings. Hopefully that information will be grabbed by programmers who will fix those problems and get that app working one day. I will be addressing in my next post some of the programs that we have to live without or switch to Windows to use. Do note that I have an account at Wine and will be posting all the bugs that I come across and information on each app I try but fail to install with Wine. That is a great way to support the Wine project.

Of course another way is to financially support the work they do. Why not visit Wine at www.winehq.org and click on Donate and give to a project that is working hard to make Linux work best for you.

Free Software Foundation - A Worthy Cause

Free software is not all about saving money. I certainly do not mind paying for the applications and games that I have purchased if they are good, but once I purchase them I believe they should actually be mine. I think it would be quite silly if I purchased a movie and was only allowed to use it on one DVD player, but no one seems to find it silly when I can only install a program or game on one computer or run it on only one operating system. Championing Open Source software is not just something I do to save money, rather it is a way to exercise my rights to use what belongs to me. If I pay good money for a product, I should be able to use it however I want. Open Source is about giving the user freedom to share, study, and modify what they own.

Since it is not all about the money my husband and I have decided to increase our financial support to more of the Open Source projects that we believe in. Once a month we will pick a project we think is worthy and give them our financial support. I will then highlight them here so that others can learn about what they are doing. Since I am just really beginning to seriously explore Open Source we thought we would start the year off by highlighting and donating to the Free Software Foundation. The main goal of the FSF to is fight for the freedoms of computer users like myself. Here are some excerpts from their website that explain exactly what they do.

"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)3 donor supported charity founded in 1985 and based in Boston, MA, USA. The FSF has a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users."

"The FSF maintains the Free Software Definition - to show clearly what must be true about a particular software program for it to be considered free software."

"The FSF sponsors the GNU project the ongoing effort to provide a complete operating system licensed as free software. "

"The FSF holds copyright on a large proportion of the GNU operating system, and other free software. We hold these assets to defend free software from efforts to turn free software proprietary... We do this to ensure that free software distributors respect their obligations to pass on the freedom to all users..."

"The FSF publishes the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), the worlds most popular free software license, and the only license written with the express purpose of promoting and preserving software freedom."

There are several ways you can support the Free Software Foundation, and of course financial support is always a great way to start. The FSF receives the bulk of their income from individual donors just like you and me. You can make a donation online or in the mail, or even become a member. Your membership can be paid in full or split up into monthly installments.

At the FSF website you can see this video from Stephen Fry as he announces the birthday of the GNU project. In it he explains the concept of "free" software in a manner in which I think you will understand and enjoy. I hope this will at least explain to you why I am so passionate about the Open Source movement.

You Don't Have To Be a Techie

I want to start this blog by specifying what my goal actually is. I am not a computer programmer, techie or even interested in the field. I am a work at home mother who uses the computer regularly, mostly to surf the net, do office work, play games, make photos and cards, and try organize my life. I am the type of person who is targeted in marketing by both Microsoft and Apple to use their products. If it were not for being married to a computer programmer I would probably have gone broke buying all the products I felt I needed to have in order to perform all the functions necessary on my computer. I would have Windows Vista on my PC, or even gotten a more expensive Mac thinking those were my best options. I would have purchased Microsoft Office not knowing that there was a free and compatible alternative program available. I would have also had to buy Adobe Photoshop (or other such product) to make my graphics and I would be using a slower, more vulnerable browser to surf the web. I am amazed at how much free software is out there and even more amazed that so few people know about it.

My goal is simply to help the average user begin to understand that "Open Source Software" is available to them and why it is in their best interest to use it. One very appealing reason to use it is the amount of money it will save you. Why would anyone want to pay $100+ for an office suite when you get one just as good (or even better) for FREE? It makes no sense to me. Yet still people either are not aware that they have the option or they are too afraid to try something new. If a person already knows how to use MSOffice they generally want to stick with what they know (that was my initial response), yet for the most part the Open Source products are not generally all that different from their expensive counterparts. They may appear to be different at first, but once you get used to the new product you often find that it is not only as good as what you were used to, but it is often superior in many ways.

Of course, my goal is not simply to save people money, I do have some ulterior motives as well. It is my personal desire to leave Windows all together. I wish I never had to use it, yet at this time it is all I have ever used. Not because it is the best system for my needs and not because it is the best value for my money or even because I just like it. I only use Windows because it is the only systems that some of my favorite games and programs will run on. The sad part is, it does not have to be that way. It really is not all that difficult for them to make games compatible with Linux or certain browser functions to work in Firefox. Companies simply choose not to do so. Since not very many people are using the Open Source projects they just do not bother taking the time to market to that small segment of the population. For the most part they know that most people will give in and did like I do and fork over the extra money for Windows because we really want that game, or service bad enough. Well, I am done giving in.

There are actually some positive changes going on. The market shares are starting to shift. Just last Month Microsoft's Internet Explorer dropped to 68% of the market while Firefox climbed to over 21%. If that trend keeps up more websites will be forced to make all of their applications compatible with Firefox. The trend for a change in Operating Systems is moving much slower. While Linux is the third leading operating system, it still has less than 1% of the market share. Remember, that is not because Linux is not as good as Windows, but because it requires the user to have more skill and knowledge (which can be easily obtained) and because most programs are not currently made to be compatible in it. These are obstacles that can be overcome, in time, and you can help us do it.

So that is why I am here. To prove to you that you can and should support the Open Source movement. Not only will Open Source save you money, but it will give you power too. See, Open Source is not just free in terms of money, but in terms of knowledge as well. With Open Source products you actually have control of your own computer in how it runs and operates. Once you experience that freedom you will never want to turn to back to anything else. I am here to prove to you that you have what it takes to do it. You do not have to be a techie, a geek or even go to class to learn how to use this stuff. With the sources of these products being open to the public, that also means that you can generally find help, advice and support for them too. You just have to know where and how to look.

That is what I plan to do, help you find and discover Open Source Software. I will share info about each program I use and either write my own or share other user guides for these products. I also plan on installing and running Linux, all by myself and I will be keeping you posted about my experience along the way. So please join me as I venture off into the world of Open Source Software and share with you just how literally free and easy it can be for all of us!