//This page gathers some of my personal notes concerning a few tools I have tried out or use regularly.//

====== Articles ======

  * [[tools:openssl|OpenSSL]] is actually several things in one: a crypto library (see [[http://www.miscmag.com/fr/index.php?2007/07/15/32-misc-32-la-securite-selon-microsoft|my article in MISC]]), an SSL stack and a crypto tool.
  * [[tools:gpg|GPG]] is the open source alternative to PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). It's used to encrypt/decrypt/sign/verify documents.
  * [[tools:enigmail|Enigmail]] is Thunderbird's GPG plugin. It automatically encrypts/decrypts/signs/verifies your emails.
  * [[tools:dokuwiki|DokuWiki]] is this wiki ! I like it very much :)
  * [[tools:dotclear|DotClear]] is a blog. It's quite good too. 
  * [[tools:joomla|Joomla]] is a CMS. My [[http://axelle.apvrille.free.fr|personal home page]] uses Joomla. But I tend to find it a bit too big, slow, buggy etc.
  
====== Links to my favorite tools (or the ones I hate the less !) ======

===== My favorite tools =====

^ Agenda ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.google.com/calendar|Google Calendar]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | [[http://mobile.google.com/calendar/index.html|{{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}}]] | Web-based service |
| [[http://kurlo.com|Kurlo]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | Java-based address book. //I haven't tried it //. No synchronization with Plaxo, Thunderbird etc. |
| Lightning | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | Same as Sunbird, but integrated to Thunderbird |
| [[http://www.fonlow.com/OpenContacts/index.htm|Open Contacts]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | Absolutely ugly interface, but it works pretty well. Imports Thunderbird address books + said to be usable with SyncML |
| [[http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/|Sunbird]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | Standalone Mozilla application. There's a plugin to read/write to Google Calendars |
^ Backup ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm|Cobian Backup]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | |
| hand made scripts using tar, rsync... | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | |
| hand made scripts using xcopy... | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | |
| Sprite Backup | | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Performs an entire system backup. Commercial. |
| [[http://www.pocketpcfreeware.com/fr/index.php?soft=1543|WM5torage]] | | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Shows the storage card as an USB device. This device can then be parsed from Windows, Linux or Solaris. |
^ Blog ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.dotclear.net/|DotClear]] | | | | | Installs on a web server |
^ Bug Tracker ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.mantisbt.org/|Mantis]] | | | | | I've never installed it, only used it |
| [[http://www.bugzilla.org/|Bugzilla]] | | | | | I've never installed it, only used it |
^ CMS ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.joomla.org/|Joomla]] | | | | | Installs on a web server. Versions I have tried are heavy and bugged, but there's an active community and it's very customizable |
^ Compression ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.7-zip.org/|7Zip]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | Supports .gz, .bz2 etc |
| bzip, gzip, zip | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | 
^ Development in C ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/|Visual Studio Express]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | Actually quite handy |
| [[http://www.eclipse.org/|Eclipse]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | Very heavy but powerful. There's an extension for C |
| [[http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/|Emacs]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | On Windows, use Cygwin to get it. Of course, other text editors such as PSPad are possible too. |
| [[http://www.contexteditor.org|ConTEXT]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | |
^ Development in Java ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.eclipse.org/|Eclipse]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | Very heavy but powerful |
| [[http://www.jedit.org|jEdit]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | //Actually, I've never really used it for long.// |
^ Download Manager ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.downthemall.net/|DownThemAll]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | This is a Firefox add-on |
^ Disk encryption ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.truecrypt.org|TrueCrypt]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | Supports full disk encryption. On Linux, requires a recent kernel. |
| [[http://www.arg0.net/encfs|EncFS]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | Extremely handy to backup, but security level might not suit all situations + said to have issues concerning NFS |
| [[http://www.saout.de/misc/dm-crypt/|dm-crypt]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | |
| [[http://www.securitybox.net/eng/products/disk.php|Security Box Disk]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | Commercial but nice |
| [[http://www.pgp.com/products/desktop/professional/pgpwholedisk.html|PGP Disk]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | | | Commercial but nice |
| [[http://opensolaris.org/os/project/zfs-crypto/|ZFS Encryption]] | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | | Not mature |
^ Diagrams and flowcharts ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/|Dia]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | |
| [[http://www.koffice.org/kivio/|Kivio]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | KDE's Visio |
^ File encryption ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.gnupg.org|GnuPG]] | [[http://www.gpg4win.org/|{{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}}]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} |  [[http://www.blastwave.org/packages.php/gnupg|{{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}}]] | | On Windows, the WinPT front-end is quite convenient (though buggy) + GPGee |
| [[http://www.pgp.com/products/desktop/professional/pgpwholedisk.html|PGP Disk]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Commercial but nice |
^ File Explorer ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm|Total Commander]] | | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Allows edition of files in EEPROM. |
^ FTP Client ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.filezilla.fr/|FileZilla]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | |
| [[http://fireftp.mozdev.org/|FireFTP]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Firefox add-on | 
| [[http://gftp.seul.org/|Gftp]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | |
^ Groupware ^^^^^^
| [[http://obm.org|OBM]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | //I haven't tried it yet// |
^ Image Editor ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.gimp.org/|The GIMP]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}}  | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Supports Wacom Tablets. This is //the// alternative to Photoshop. |
^ Image Viewer ^^^^^^
| [[http://pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/frdownload.html|XnView]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Light, and works well. |
| NikonView | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Free with my camera. Quite good, and not too heavy. | 
^ Instant Messaging ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.google.com/talk/|Google talk]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | |
| [[http://www.netvibes.com|Netvibes]] google talk widget | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | A bit buggy |
| [[http://www.gmail.com|Gmail]]'s widget | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | |
| [[http://www.gotalkmobile.com/|GoTalkMobile]] 3 | | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Google Talk for Pocket PC |
| [[http://www.pidgin.im/|Pidgin]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Multi-protocol IM. Supports Google Talk. //I've only tried it on Solaris, where it works fine.// |
^ Mail Client ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/|Thunderbird]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | On Linux, the name's //Icedove// (I'm not getting into the details, there is a slight difference with Thunderbird). |
^ Mail Encryption ^^^^^^
| [[http://enigmail.mozdev.org/|Enigmail]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} |  {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | This is a Thunderbird add-on. It requires GnuPG. |
^ Mobile synchronization ^^^^^^
| ActiveSync | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Actually, I hate it, but I haven't found any open source alternative... |
| [[http://www.finchsync.com/|FinchSync]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Java/HTTP based. It will only synchronize a few things such as address books |
| [[http://rareedge.com/gmobilesync/|GMobileSync]] | | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Synchronizes Google Calendar <-> Mobile |
^ Music player ^^^^^^
| Amarok | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | |
| iTunes | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Honestly, I barely know how to use it. I don't play music on my PC very often. |
| Windows Media Player | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | I don't use it much either. Synchronization with mobile devices is a bit complicated. |
^ Network sniffer ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.wireshark.org/|Wireshark]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Ex Ethereal |
^ Password safe ^^^^^^
| Bruce Schneier's [[http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/|Password Safe]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | The interface is very basic, but it works well. And it's safe :=) |
| [[http://keepass.info/|KeePass Password Safe]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | It's possible to import/export Password Safe databases using an extension. |
| [[http://www.keepassx.org/|KeePassX]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | Actually, if you really try, there's a chance this works on Solaris too, but you have to compile it yourself, with Qt etc :-( |
| [[http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/Gorilla/|Password Gorilla]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | The Tcl/Tk interface is just plain ugly, and the application is slow, but it reads/writes Password Safe databases without problem. |
| [[http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=1163|Password Safe]] | | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | A Password Safe port to Pocket PC |
^ PDF Viewer ^^^^^^
| Acrobat Reader | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | Heavy |
| [[http://www.blastwave.org/packages.php/evince|evince]] | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Also able to view PS files | 
| [[http://www.foxitsoftware.com/|Foxit Reader]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Smaller than Acrobat Reader |
| gpdf | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Basic. |
^ Project Management ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.openworkbench.org|Open Workbench]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | //I haven't tried it yet, but it's meant to be an open source alternative to Microsoft Project// |
^ Remote Desktop Control ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.tightvnc.com/|Tight VNC]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | Free. A few lags. |
| [[http://www.radmin.fr/|Radmin]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Commercial, but good. |
^ Social Network ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.plaxo.com|Plaxo]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Web service. Integrates both personal and professional profiles. Synchronizes contacts with Gmail (free), Yahoo (free) and Pocket PCs (pay) |
| [[http://www.linkedin.com|LinkedIn]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Dedicated to professional contacts |
^ VoIP ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.skype.com|Skype]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Free but closed source. |
| [[http://www.go-sip.com/|GoSIP]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | Slow on my HTC Touch |
^ Slides ^^^^^^
| LaTeX | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | I've seen very nice results using the [[http://prosper.sourceforge.net/|Prosper]] package |
| PowerPoint | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | PowerPoint Mobile for Pocket PCs |
| [[http://www.openoffice.org/|Open Office]] Impress{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}}  | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | The open source alternative to Power Point. Able to read/write .ppt |
| Star Office | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Typically installed on Solaris. Able to read/write .ppt |
^ SSH Client ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html|PuTTY]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | |
| ssh | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Use Cygwin to get ssh on Windows |
| [[http://www.pocketputty.net/|Pocket PuTTY]] | | |  | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | A port of PuTTY for Pocket PC. |
^ System cloning ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.clonezilla.org/|Clonezilla]] (LiveCD) | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | A free alternative to Norton Ghost. I must be dumb: I never managed to re-use the clones :-( |
^ System rescue ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.sysresccd.org/|System Rescue CD]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} (Live CD) |{{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Even offers a graphic environment. Useful to check, repair partitions. |
^ Text editors ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.pspad.com|PSPad]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Light, works well. I had a few crashes though. Usable for development. |
| [[http://www.gena01.com/win32pad/|Win32Pad]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | A replacement to Windows' notepad. Light, works well, but not meant to be used for development |
| [[http://www.contexteditor.org|ConTEXT]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Okay. Usable for development. I was a bit disappointed. |
| Emacs{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Emacs really is more than a //simple text editor//. I {{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} it ! On Windows, use emacs over [[http://www.cygwin.com|Cygwin]] |
^ Versioning system ^^^^^^
| [[http://subversion.tigris.org/|Subversion]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | An alternative to CVS. Simpler to use. The [[http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/|TortoiseSVN]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} extension for Windows is great. |
| CVS | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Complicated but reliable |
^ Virtual machine ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.virtualbox.org/|VirtualBox]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Open source. Nice, but several limitations and bugs. |
| [[http://www.vmware.com|VMWare]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | //The// reference. But commercial (yet, the VMWare Player is free) |
^ Video Editor ^^^^^^
| [[http://videospin.com/fr/|Video Spin]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | Very intuitive, but crashes from time to time (fortunately, the recovery procedure works !) and commercial |
| [[http://bellard.org/qemu/|Qemu]] | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | //I haven't tried it.// |
^ Web browser ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.mozilla.com|Firefox]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} |{{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Firefox is certainly not perfect, but it's the best (to my opinion) ! For Linux, actually, it's Iceweasel. Crashes from time to time. Memory consuming. |
| Internet Explorer | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | On Windows, I simply hate it DELETEME. On Pocket PC, it's okay. |
| [[http://www.opera.com/|Opera]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | [[http://www.operamini.com/|{{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}}]] | Opera is a famous browser, but without any special reason, I'm not enthusiastic. Opera Mini is an adaptation of Opera for Pocket PC. There's a nice feature to zoom in/out of pages. |
| Lynx | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | This is a text-based browser. Handy when you don't have any windowing system. |
^ Web editor ^^^^^^
^ Description ^ Windows ^ Linux ^ Solaris ^ WinCE ^ Comments ^
| [[http://www.kompozer.net/|KompoZer]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | Ex N-Vu |
^ Wiki ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.dokuwiki.org|DokuWiki]]{{:tools:16-heart-red-m.png|}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Does not require a MySQL database |
^ Word editor ^^^^^^
| [[http://www.jarte.com/|Jarte]] | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | //I've just tried it, but it seems very promising, particularly if you just want to edit a few nicely set notes. It reads Word (.doc or .docx) documents if they're not too complicated (no embedded objects). It does not support the Open Office format.// |
| [[http://www.openoffice.org/|Open Office]] Writer | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | Open Source alternative to Word.  Able to read/write .doc |
| Word | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | On Pocket PC, it's called Word Mobile |
^ X server ^^^^^^
| [[http://x.cygwin.com/|Cygwin-X]] (open source) | {{:tools:16-circle-green-check.png}} | | | | |