What is new in Joomla 1.7 vs Joomla 1.6?

The Joomla team  recentlyannounced Joomla 1.7 is now stable for live sites.  This new version fixes a variety of issues with Joomla 1.6 as well as introduces the ability to upgrade to future versions from within the Administrator panel.

No more uploading via FTP, hooray!

This marks the first step towards a upgrade system that is similar to WordPress, thus making your life as an administrator easier.  The Joomla 1.7 release does not bring a huge amount of changes, but it is a vital step in the right direction for Joomla and it’s new release schedule.  In this article I will cover what is new, if you need to upgrade, and why I used such an ugly graphic for this post.

What are the newest and biggest features?

• One click upgrades – Starting from Joomla 1.6 you can upgrade your install by going to:  Extensions -> Extension Manager -> Update -> Find updates.
• Faster release cycles - Short term releases will be changing every six months and only supported for one month after the next release.
• Multi-Language improvements – Associate menu items to different languages.

There are a variety of other minor changes that you can review on the officialJoomla 1.7 page.

Thank you Joomla

Do I really need to upgrade?

Depending on what version of Joomla your site(s) are on now, this may be the last time you have to do a “scary upgrade”.   Scary meaning doing it all via FTP and hoping you didn’t miss any upgrade instructions or caveats.  Upgrading is really easy since J1.6, so this shouldn’t be a huge deal.

It’s also important to note that Joomla 1.6 will go end of life in August 2011.   That means no more security updates or patches or fixes for vulnerabilities.  If your site get’s hacked 6 months from now due to some kid developing some obscure technique, you will only have yourself to blame–not Joomla.  Upgrade them sites!

I am on Joomla 1.5.  How do I do it?

There is no upgrade path from J1.5 to J1.6 or J1.7.   You will have to migrate.  There are a variety of changes from J1.5 to newer versions including changes to tables and the ACL (access control list) so a migration is the only way.  If you are comfortable with migrating from different Joomla releases you probably have a system in place.   If not, you can try out this extension.  I personally have not tried it, but it seems pretty straightforward.  Take all the usual precautions and backup your databases and files before doing something like this.   Try it on your development site first and test the process before doing it on a live site.

I am on Joomla 1.6.  How do I do it?

It’s easy peasy if you already made the leap to Joomla 1.6.   Just go to: Extensions -> Extension Manager -> Update -> Find updates.

What’s up with that ugly Joomla image you used in the beginning of the article?

Kids refrigerator magnets are cute, cheap and fun.  They also stick to anything metal.  Slapping some fridge magnets on a whiteboard or something metal or *gasp*, your actual fridge is a good way to nag yourself that this upgrade is very important and needs to be done soon.

Do I have to worry about extensions breaking?

As with any upgrade there is always the potential for things to break.  You should never do a upgrade or migration without some tested and proven way to revert back to a working site if it all goes pear shaped.   The changes from J1.6 to J1.7 are pretty minor, but ther are so many extensions that do so many things, it’s hard to make a blanket statement.

How about you?

Do you have any tips or tricks I didn’t cover? Let us know in the comments, we would love to hear from you.

Wordpress 3.0 : Out of the Box!

With the release of Wordpress 3.0, Everyone are excited to upgrade their blogs to this latest version and this post will let you know some cool features of this new flavor which is worth a try!

Here are some of the highlights of the Wordpress 3.0:

• WordPress and WordPress MU have merged, allowing the management of multiple sites (called Multisite) from one WordPress installation.
• New default theme "Twenty Ten" takes full advantage of the current features of WordPress.
• New custom menu management feature, allows creation of custom menus combining posts, pages, categories, tags, and links for use in theme menus or widgets.
• Custom header and background APIs.
• Contextual help text accessed under the Help tab of every screen in the WordPress administration.
• Ability to set the admin username and password during installation.
• Bulk updating of themes with an automatic maintenance mode during the process.
• Support for shortlinks.
• Improved Custom post types and custom taxonomies including hierarchical (category-style) support. (Try the Custom Post Type UI or GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools plugins to see the possibilities.)
• A lighter admin color scheme to increase accessibility and put the focus more squarely on your content.

10 Technology Twitter Feeds You Should Be Following

If you just joined Twitter, you need to know the top techies worth following. Below is a list (organized in alphabetical order by last name) of technology thought leaders who post useful information, including links, news, tips, inside information and perspectives on current events.

	Chris Anderson Editor in Chief Wired @chr1sa		David Pogue Tech columnist The New York Times @pogue
	Ryan Block Co-Founder gdgt @RyanBlock		TechCrunch @TechCrunch
	Hank Green Founder EcoGeek @EcoGeek		Joshua Topolsky Editor in Chief Engadget @JoshuaTopolsky
	Jason Hiner Editor in Chief TechRepublic @JasonHiner		Lance Ulanoff Editor in Chief PCMag @LanceUlanoff
	Tim O’Reilly Founder and CEO O’Reilly Media @TimOReilly		Alex Wolfe Editor In Chief InformationWeek @AWolfe58

Who would you put in your list of top technology Twitter feeds?

 

Biggest Event for StartUps - StartUpCity 2010: Bangalore

Hey,

Just wanted to let you know about an exciting event siliconindia is organizing on May 29 & 30, 2010 in Bangalore.

Limited seats. Register FREE: http://www.siliconindia.com/startupcity2010

Roll up your Sleeves. Meet over 100 cool startups. Learn new Technologies; Watch live product demonstrations; Get a peek into cutting edge technologies; Lay hands on the best-of-breed solutions; Meet young, energetic, passionate geeks; Experience the culture of innovation in small companies; Listen to Visionary Keynotes and In-depth Panel Discussions

Come. Meet the Startups that will become tomorrow's industry leaders.

Here's you chance to meet and hear inspiring entrepreneurial story from Krishnakumar Natarajan, co-founder, CEO & MD of Mindtree and Bharat Goenka, Co-Founder & MD of Tally Solutions

Heads of Dell India, Sage India, Mphasis will talk about building next generation technology companies from India.

Founders of startup companies like SMSCountry, 123 Greetings.com, Manthan Systems, Ittiam, Jade Magnet will talk about concept to success and idea to revenue.

You also get to hear interesting discussions on Mistakes entrepreneurs make when approaching VCs and Best Opportunities for Entrepreneurs in 2010, Angel Money and many others from leading venture capitalists like IDG Ventures, Intel Capital, Helion, Clearstone, NEA-IndoUS Ventures.

This is undoubtedly the biggest event for startups.

There are limited seats. You can register yourself for FREE at: http://www.siliconindia.com/startupcity_09/index.html

Thanks
V.Santhosh

{DAY-2}- FSF, TN Conf @ SSN : Take the Plunge....Breath Free!!!

{Day-2} @ SSN started with Ajax followed by most exciting Linux Distribution Making and Hands-On lab on making Linux distros. After the lunch, we had sessions on Patents and then came the most awaited project session where each team were assigned a project under FSF and brief timelines where given to us on project submission. What's more than these fabulous sessions, we had our refreshments and concluded FSF Conf.

I really enjoyed these two days and I thank all those who were behind this initative. HariShankar (my jnr) and I had a really log drive in his Passion+ and finally he dropped me @ Guindy while other 3 guys had SSN Route Buses to drop them home.

Working Technologies into projects is more important than learing them through Workshops and Conference. In this context, FSF and SSN has helped us to work on technology rather than just learning them. I have no words explaining these days in my life rather than start working on projects told to me on these two days, which I feel is the real way in which I can thank SSN Engg college and FSF Team.

FSF Rockzz!!!

FSF Conference @ SSN {DAY-1} - An Splendid Start

It was 6:15AM, 5th December, 2009 when I started from my home to take the Route Bus to SSN. I reached the college @ 8:15AM and the Greens and aesthetic beauty of the campus greeted me as I entered. I was joined by 4 of my college guys (my jrs) and we made ourself present at Mini-Auditorium for the sessions.

Previewing Big-Bucks Bunny Movie the session began by a fabulous talk from Mr.Siddharth (Core FSF Member, Cognizant Employee). His talk helped us to know better what Free S/w is and what Open Source software is. He explained how important not to patent our innovation, as it prevents development of Science for the next 20 years from our date of patent. His talk made us to visualize the generations of human development from primitive-industrial-modern.

Next we had a talk from Mr.Praveen Chandrahas, IITian aand FSF Promoter, where he briefed out Filesystem and their implementation and steped down Ubuntu Installation process.

We had an Community person from Tamil Computing Team, Ubuntu Mr.Thangamani Arun briefing us on Android Architecture and its SDK's. He showcased a demo on how to work on Android Development Toolkit in Eclipse IDE and to use a Emulator.

Android session was followed by Shell Scripting by Mr.Bharathi Subramanian, FOSS Evangelist, ILUG Team. This session was really gr8 as I explored the basics of SHELL programming. I will surely work on this scripting a lot more than just listening to it.

We were served with refreshments in-between the sessions and {DAY-1} was really excellent. Tomorrow {DAY-2}, I am waiting for even more exciting stuffs @ FSF.

FSF RockZZZ!!!

All you wanted to know about hacking!!!

Hacking has always inspired me from my schooling, and knowing on it from an Computer Security Consultant Ankit Fadia, who at the age 15 wrote his book on 'Ethical Hacking' is still more awakening..Here are the questions put to Ankit and his views on them...

When did you realise that you could hack?

I got interested in hacking at 12, but it took a while before I figured out how to do it. My first hack was quite interesting. I defaced a magazine site and put my own profile, pictures and e-mail id on it. But then I thought I might get into trouble, so I sent a mail to the editor with the solution on how to prevent hacking the website. He got back to me with a job offer but when he learnt that I was 13, he asked me to wait till I turned 18. I learnt my lesson. I never did an illegal hack after that.

Is hacking cool because it allows entry into forbidden territory?

It is. It gives you the power to do something that most people can't do, that too in the confines of your room. It gives a false sense of security.

What exactly is 'ethical hacking'?

You need to have the same knowledge as cyber criminals, but you put that knowledge to positive use. You go to sites, find out their flaws and correct them. I coined the term when I wrote my first book, Ethical Hacking, at 15.

You have worked with the FBI too. Isn't that a heady feeling?

I started working with them at 16, when a Pakistani group was planning to attack an Indian site. I traced the chat transcript and the site was saved. Then, this was like a game for me. But now I realise that there's a lot of responsibility involved in what I do.

Why did you take up the show, What The Hack?

Last year, I won the MTV Youth Icon award and was introduced to the programming head of the channel. I asked him if they wanted to do a show on hacking. They agreed. There are lots of channels which air tech shows that review technology and gadgets. But this show stands out because we teach people cool things that they can do in the virtual world.

Give us some tips on how to become good hackers?

You have to know the programming well and also think like a criminal. You have to get into the criminal's mind to become a security system expert.

-An Interview by Yahoo India

Joomla User Group- Welcome Chennai, Fabulous Start-Up Meet

Today 3rd December, 2009, I prepared Slides for my JUG presentation @ 3:00 PM and headed straight to Mary Brown @ Anna Nagar. It was 4:30 PM when Gokoul and JayaPrakash from P.M.R.I.T , Bro Rajesh, Swamy from Jaya Engineering College and his friend accompanied me at the venue for the meet. We were 6 , started with  FOSS talk , CMS , then I presented my ideas on JUG and its purpose and activities to be conducted. Everyone shared their ideas which helped us to better plan JUG Activities.

 It was a wonderful day, where the meet had everything from Joomla to Nuggets and Burgers. Soon a new web-portal for Joomla User Group, chennai will be hosted (http://jug-chennai.co.cc will be our temporary webspace) We shared many issues on Joomla and our user group activities @ the meet. I hope JUG always stays active and contribute for Joomla in all possible ways it can, becoz Open Source Matters...

 

From Left: Gokoul (P.M.R.I.T), JayaPrakash(P.M.R.I.T), Santhosh.V (Arunai Engg), Mr.Rajesh(E-ndicusInfo Tech), Swamy(Jaya Engg), Swamy Friend(Jaya Engg),

Installing and Using Java on Ubuntu....

Installing and switching between versions of Java on Ubuntu is a relatively simple process (with a couple of caveats), you just need to know the right commands. Considering that there was a time when I didn’t know this either I thought I’d share what I know (shouldn’t take long :)).

Anyways, first thing first. When we talk about installing Java on Ubuntu we are of course talking about Sun Java. You can also install Open JDK if you want, but most people will use the Sun version for their Java development. Of course these days there are several versions of Sun Java that are in mainstream use; well basically 2, Java1.5 and Java6 (I am sure things will be even more interesting when Java 7 comes out). Regardless of which version of the JDK you want to install the process to do this on Ubuntu is the same. You need to know what package you want to install and then you need to use our old friend apt-get.

Installing Java

In the case of the Sun JDK you will want to install either (or both) of:

sun-java5-jdk
sun-java6-jdk

Linux Alternative Project - Unlock the Open Possibilities

Windows Software	Linux Equivalent/Alternative
3D Home Architect	Sweet Home 3D ( http://sweethome3d.sourceforge.net/index.html )
3D Studio Max	K-3D ( http://www.k-3d.org/ ) Wings 3D ( http://www.wings3d.com/ ) Art of Illusion ( http://www.artofillusion.org/ ) Blender ( http://www.blender.org/ )
ACDSee	KuickShow ( http://kuickshow.sourceforge.net/ ) ShowImg ( http://www.jalix.org/projects/showimg/ ) Gwenview ( http://gwenview.sourceforge.net/ ) GQview ( http://gqview.sourceforge.net/ ) Eye of GNOME ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/eog/ )
Adobe Acrobat Reader	okular ( http://kpdf.kde.org/okular/ ) Xpdf ( http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/ ) Evince ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/evince/ ) ePDFView ( http://trac.emma-soft.com/epdfview/ ) KPDF ( http://kpdf.kde.org/ )
Adobe Audition	Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ )
Adobe Illustrator	Skencil ( http://www.skencil.org/ ) Inkscape ( http://www.inkscape.org/ ) Karbon14 ( http://www.koffice.org/karbon/ ) Xara Xtreme for Linux ( http://www.xaraxtreme.org/ )
Adobe PageMaker	Scribus ( http://www.scribus.net/ )
Adobe PhotoAlbum	F-Spot ( http://f-spot.org/Main_Page ) KPhotoAlbum ( http://www.kphotoalbum.org/ ) digiKam ( http://www.digikam.org/ )
Adobe Photoshop	CinePaint ( http://www.cinepaint.org/ ) Krita ( http://www.koffice.org/krita/ ) GIMP ( http://www.gimp.org/ )
Adobe Premiere	PiTiVi ( http://www.pitivi.org/wiki/Main_Page ) LiVES ( http://lives.sourceforge.net/ ) Kino ( http://www.kinodv.org/ ) Cinelerra ( http://cvs.cinelerra.org/ ) kdenlive ( http://kdenlive.sourceforge.net/ ) Jahshaka ( http://www.jahshaka.org/ )
Ant Movie Catalog	Moviefly ( https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/lmc/ )
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)	Kopete ( http://kopete.kde.org/ ) Pidgin ( http://pidgin.im )
APC PowerChute	Network UPS Tools ( http://www.networkupstools.org/ ) Apcupsd ( http://www.apcupsd.com/ ) PowerD ( http://power.sourceforge.net/ )
CDex	Sound Juicer ( http://www.burtonini.com/blog/computers/sound-juicer ) Rubyripper ( http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Rubyripper ) ripperX ( http://ripperx.sourceforge.net/ ) Grip ( http://nostatic.org/grip/ ) KAudioCreator ( http://www.icefox.net/programs/?program=KAudioCreator )
Collectorz	aviManager ( http://avimanager.sourceforge.net/ ) GCstar ( http://www.gcstar.org/ ) Tellico ( http://periapsis.org/tellico/ ) Alexandria ( http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/ ) Griffith ( http://griffith.vasconunes.net/ ) vMovieDB ( http://vmoviedb.sourceforge.net/ ) Katalog ( http://salvaste.altervista.org/ )
Dreamweaver	Quanta Plus ( http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/ ) Geany ( http://geany.uvena.de ) Nvu ( http://www.nvu.com/index.php ) Screem ( http://www.screem.org/ ) KompoZer ( http://www.kompozer.net/ ) Bluefish ( http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html )
DVDShrink	k9copy ( http://k9copy.sourceforge.net/ ) OGMRip ( http://ogmrip.sourceforge.net/ ) Thoggen ( http://thoggen.net/ ) xdvdshrink ( http://dvdshrink.sourceforge.net/ ) DVD Rip-O-Matic ( http://dvdripomatic.sourceforge.net ) qVamps ( http://vamps.sourceforge.net/ ) dvd::rip ( http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/ ) AcidRip ( http://untrepid.com/acidrip/ )
Everest	HardInfo ( http://hardinfo.berlios.de/web/HomePage )
Finale	Lilypond ( http://www.lilypond.org ) Denemo ( http://denemo.sourceforge.net/index.html ) Rosegarden ( http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/ ) NoteEdit ( http://noteedit.berlios.de/ ) Brahms ( http://brahms.sourceforge.net/ )
Flash	F4L ( http://f4l.sourceforge.net/ )
Fontographer	FontForge ( http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/ )
Forte Agent	Pan ( http://pan.rebelbase.com/ )
FruityLoops	LMMS ( http://lmms.sourceforge.net/ ) Hydrogen ( http://www.hydrogen-music.org/ )
Google Desktop Search	Google Desktop ( http://desktop.google.com/linux/index.html ) Beagle ( http://beagle-project.org/ )
Guitar Pro	TuxGuitar ( http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/home.html ) DGuitar ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/dguitar/ ) kguitar ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/kguitar/ )
iTunes	Banshee ( http://banshee-project.org/Main_Page ) aTunes ( http://www.atunes.org/ ) Quod Libet ( http://www.sacredchao.net/quodlibet ) SongBird ( http://www.songbirdnest.com ) Exaile ( http://www.exaile.org/ ) Amarok ( http://amarok.kde.org/ ) Listen ( http://listengnome.free.fr/ ) Rhythmbox ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/rhythmbox/ ) gtkpod ( http://www.gtkpod.org/ )
Legacy Family Tree	GRAMPS ( http://gramps-project.org/ )
LimeWire	FrostWire ( http://www.frostwire.com/ )
Meal Master	krecipe ( http://krecipes.sourceforge.net/ ) Gourmet Recipe Manager ( http://grecipe-manager.sourceforge.net/ )
Microsoft Access	Kexi ( http://www.koffice.org/kexi/ ) knoda ( http://www.knoda.org ) GNOME-DB ( http://www.gnome-db.org/ )
Microsoft Excel	KSpread ( http://www.koffice.org/kspread/ ) Open Calc ( http://www.openoffice.org/product/calc.html ) Gnumeric ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/ )
Microsoft Frontpage	Quanta Plus ( http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/ ) Nvu ( http://www.nvu.com/index.php ) KompoZer ( http://www.kompozer.net/ ) Bluefish ( http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html )
Microsoft HyperTerminal	minicom ( http://alioth.debian.org/projects/minicom/ ) GtkTerm ( http://freshmeat.net/projects/gtkterm/ )
Microsoft Internet Explorer	Epiphany ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/epiphany/ ) Opera ( http://www.opera.com/download/ ) Firefox ( http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ ) Konqueror ( http://www.konqueror.org/ )
Microsoft Money	KMyMoney ( http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/ ) GNUcash ( http://www.gnucash.org/ ) Gnofin ( http://gnofin.sourceforge.net/ ) Grisbi ( http://www.grisbi.org/ )
Microsoft Office	GNOME Office ( http://www.gnome.org/gnome-office/ ) KOffice ( http://www.koffice.org/ ) OpenOffice ( http://www.openoffice.org/ )
Microsoft OneNote	BasKet ( http://basket.kde.org/ )
Microsoft Outlook (Express)	Thunderbird ( http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ ) Evolution ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/ )
Microsoft Powerpoint	Open Office Impress ( http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html ) KPresenter ( http://www.koffice.org/kpresenter/ )
Microsoft Project	KPlato ( http://www.koffice.org/kplato/ ) OpenProj ( http://openproj.org/openproj ) GanttProject ( http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/ ) Planner ( http://live.gnome.org/Planner ) TaskJuggler ( http://www.taskjuggler.org/ )
Microsoft Visio	Dia ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/ ) Kivio ( http://www.koffice.org/kivio/ )
Microsoft Windows Media Center	Freevo ( http://freevo.sourceforge.net/ ) Elisa Media Center ( http://www.fluendo.com/elisa/ ) XBMC Media Center ( http://xbmc.org/ ) MythTV ( http://www.mythtv.org ) LinuxMCE ( http://www.linuxmce.com/ )
Microsoft Word	Open Office Writer ( http://www.openoffice.org/product/writer.html ) AbiWord ( http://www.abisource.com/ ) Kword ( http://www.koffice.org/kword/ )
mIRC	Konversation ( http://konversation.kde.org/ ) KVIrc ( http://www.kvirc.net/ ) BitchX ( http://www.bitchx.org/ ) Xchat ( http://www.xchat.org/ ) ChatZilla! ( http://chatzilla.hacksrus.com/ ) irssi ( http://www.irssi.org/ ) Pidgin ( http://pidgin.im )
Mp3tag	Kid3 ( http://kid3.sourceforge.net/ ) Pinkytagger ( http://pinkytagger.sourceforge.net/ ) EasyTAG ( http://easytag.sourceforge.net/ ) Cowbell ( http://more-cowbell.org/ ) Audio Tag Tool ( http://pwp.netcabo.pt/paol/tagtool/ )
MSN messenger	Mercury Messenger ( http://www.mercury.to/ ) Kopete ( http://kopete.kde.org/ ) aMSN ( http://amsn-project.net/ ) Pidgin ( http://pidgin.im )
Mudbox	SharpConstruct ( http://sharp3d.sourceforge.net )
Nero Burning Rom	X-CD-Roast ( http://www.xcdroast.org/ ) Brasero ( http://perso.orange.fr/bonfire/index.htm ) GnomeBaker ( http://gnomebaker.sourceforge.net/ ) Graveman! ( http://graveman.tuxfamily.org/ ) K3b ( http://www.k3b.org/ )
NetMeeting	Ekiga ( http://www.gnomemeeting.org/ )
NetStumbler	Kismet ( http://www.kismetwireless.net/ ) SWScanner ( http://www.swscanner.org/ )
NewzCrawler	RSSOwl ( http://www.rssowl.org/ ) Liferea ( http://liferea.sourceforge.net/ ) BasKet ( http://basket.kde.org/ ) Akregator ( http://akregator.kde.org/ ) Blam ( http://www.cmartin.tk/blam.html ) Straw ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/straw/ )
Notepad	leafpad ( http://tarot.freeshell.org/leafpad/ ) NEdit ( http://www.nedit.org/ ) jEdit ( http://www.jedit.org/ ) Kate ( http://kate-editor.org/ ) gedit ( http://www.gnome.org/projects/gedit/ ) Scribes ( http://scribes.sourceforge.net/ ) tpad ( http://tclpad.sourceforge.net/ )
OrangeCD Catalog	GWhere ( http://www.gwhere.org )
Origin	SciGraphica ( http://scigraphica.sourceforge.net/ )
Partition Magic	Partimage ( http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page ) GParted ( http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ ) QtParted ( http://qtparted.sourceforge.net )
Picasa	F-Spot ( http://f-spot.org/Main_Page ) KPhotoAlbum ( http://www.kphotoalbum.org/ ) digiKam ( http://www.digikam.org/ )
Pro Tools	Ardour ( http://www.ardour.org )
Quicken	KMyMoney ( http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/ ) GNUcash ( http://www.gnucash.org/ ) Gnofin ( http://gnofin.sourceforge.net/ ) Grisbi ( http://www.grisbi.org/ )
SoulSeek	Nicotine ( http://nicotine.thegraveyard.org/ ) Nicotine-Plus ( http://nicotine-plus.sourceforge.net/ )
SoundForge	ReZound ( http://rezound.sourceforge.net/ )
TexnicCenter
Total Commander	GNOME Commander ( http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd/ ) xfe ( http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/ ) Tux Commander ( http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/ ) Midnight Commander ( http://www.ibiblio.org/mc/ ) Krusader ( http://krusader.sourceforge.net/ )
Traktor DJ	Mixxx ( http://mixxx.sourceforge.net/ ) terminatorX ( http://www.terminatorx.org/ )
Videora	thin liquid film ( http://thinliquidfilm.org/ )
Winamp	Audacious ( http://audacious-media-player.org/Main_Page ) Amarok ( http://amarok.kde.org/ ) XMMS ( http://www.xmms.org/ )
Windows Media Player	KPlayer ( http://kplayer.sourceforge.net/ ) VideoLAN ( http://www.videolan.org/ ) xine ( http://xinehq.de/ ) mplayer ( http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html )
Windows Movie Maker	PiTiVi ( http://www.pitivi.org/wiki/Main_Page ) LiVES ( http://lives.sourceforge.net/ ) Open Movie Editor ( http://openmovieeditor.sourceforge.net/HomePage ) Avidemux ( http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ ) Cinelerra ( http://cvs.cinelerra.org/ ) kdenlive ( http://kdenlive.sourceforge.net/ )
WinIso	ISO Master ( http://littlesvr.ca/isomaster/ ) KIso ( http://kiso.sourceforge.net/ )
WinMerge	KDiff3 ( http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/ ) Meld ( http://meld.sourceforge.net/ ) xxdiff ( http://furius.ca/xxdiff/ ) Kile ( http://kile.sourceforge.net/ )
WinTV	XdTV ( http://xawdecode.sourceforge.net/ ) tvtime ( http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/ )
WS_FTP	gFTP ( http://gftp.seul.org/ ) FireFTP ( http://fireftp.mozdev.org/ )
Zbrush	SharpConstruct ( http://sharp3d.sourceforge.net )
ZoneAlarm	Guarddog ( http://www.simonzone.com/software/guarddog/ ) Firestarter ( http://www.fs-security.com/ )

Linux Alternative Project aims in establishing awareness to all users and developers on windows equivalent Open Source tools, which you can deploy for better productivity and service. There are plenty of forums and community which will help you in installing and maintaining these open source software. Students can download the source code repositories in the host websites and through sourceforge.net for learning purposes. If any one finds it difficult to install and use the above said software tools, you can feel free to post your queries to me and I'll help you in troubleshooting them.

Use Open Source....Unlock the Open Possibilities.....