Osalt.com now in Spanish
(read this announcement in Spanish below)

The popular Open source directory Osalt.com (Open Source as Alternative) is now available in Spanish

- How do you avoid paying for a Final Cut or Visio license and support the open source community all at once? Find a free open source alternative to expensive commercial software at Osalt.com, Lifehacker.com suggested its readers on 23 May last year.

Open source versus commercial software
Osalt.com is a quick guide to the best open source software. Hundreds of open source products are systematically listed in categories ranging from business to development, education and databases. Each product description contains pros and cons compared to similar commercial software as well as user ratings.

More than 200,000 visitors per month
- Since the launch of Osalt.com back in March 2006, approximately 2.8 million users have visited the site; 40% of these from the US, states Anders Ingeman Rasmussen, owner of Osalt.com. - This makes the site one of the world's most well-known open source sites, he continues, - and by translating the site into Spanish, we expect a factor two increase in the numbers of Spanish-speaking visitors.

Why open source?
By choosing an open source product, the user obtains a number of advantages compared to commercial products. Besides the fact that open source is always available for free, it is a transparent application, in that you are invited exclusively behind the scenes to view all source code and thereby to suggest improvements to the product. Furthermore, every product is covered by a large dedicated network, or community, who is more than willing to answer any questions, you may have.

Visit Osalt.com in Spanish

Osalt.com ahora en español

El popular directorio de software de código abierto Osalt.com (Código Abierto como Alternativa) está ahora disponible en español.

¿Cómo puedes evitar pagar una licencia de Final Cut o de Visio y apoyar a la comunidad de código abierto de inmediato? Busca una opción gratuita de código abierto en Osalt.com como alternativa a los caros software comerciales, Lifehacker.com les sugirió a sus lectores el 23 de mayo del año pasado.

Código abierto versus software comercial
Osalt.com es una guía rápida hacia el mejor software de código abierto. Cientos de productos de código abierto se encuentran sistemáticamente incluidos en nuestros listados, en categorías que comprenden desde el campo comercial hasta los de desarrollo, educación y bases de datos. Cada descripción del producto contiene sus pros y contras en comparación con el software comercial similar, como así también el puntaje de los usuarios.

Más de 200.000 visitas por mes
Desde el lanzamiento de Osalt.com, en marzo de 2006, han visitado el sitio aproximadamente 2.8 millones de usuarios. El 40 por ciento de ellos son de los Estados Unidos -comenta Anders Ingeman Rasmussen, propietario de Osalt.com-. Este dato hace que nuestro sitio sea uno de los más conocidos de código abierto del mundo –agrega-, y al traducirlo al español, esperamos duplicar ese número en la cantidad de visitas de hispano hablantes.

Por qué optar por el código abierto?
Al elegir un producto de código abierto, el usuario obtiene una serie de ventajas respecto de los productos comerciales. Además del hecho de que el código abierto siempre está disponible en forma gratuita, se trata de una aplicación transparente, en el sentido de que eres invitado a revisar entre bambalinas toda la codificación de la fuente y por lo tanto puedes sugerir mejoras al producto. Además, cada producto está respaldado por una red virtual de gran dedicación, cuyos miembros están dispuestos a contestar todas tus preguntas.

Visita Osalt.com/es

Sage added to osalt.com
SAGE is open source mathematics software that can be used to studying elementary to advanced number theory, algebra, cryptography, group theory and so much more. It includes interfaces to many other software applications, both commercial and open source, enabling you to use them together. Mathematica, GAP, Octave and MATLAB are just a few of the interfaces that SAGE provides its users.

The use of Python scripting instead of a less common language allows for the writing of programs that can combine mathematics with other elements limited only by the creativity and needs of the user. Therefore, anyone using SAGE should have knowledge of Python to fully appreciate all the functions and abilities of the software. New users who don't know Python can still use SAGE but will spend a little more time learning all the attributes and tools.

SAGE can be used from a web browser connected to a program on your computer or one running elsewhere and works with Windows, Mac and Linux with Mozilla Firefox as the optimum browser. The SAGE notebook can create mathematical formulae, embedded graphics and more. Visualizing formulas and other calculations is easy with SAGE.

Two very active email lists provide support should you need it. There is documentation and manuals to download and even a manual for newbies. SAGE is both simple to use and versatile, providing an open source product that equals the quality of commercial offerings such as Magma and Mathematica.

Please note that the Windows version is actually a VMWare image.

Deki Wiki added to osalt.com
MindTouch Deki Wiki is the Web's most popular commercially supported wiki platform for creating content and mashups using a wiki interface. The free, open source application is an easy to use program for authoring, aggregating, organizing, and sharing almost any kind of content. Enterprises can build online communities and in-house Intranets, create collaborative applications, or add wiki capabilities to existing applications. Deki Wiki includes a state-of-the-art WYSIWYG editor, integration with the LDAP, and open source providers like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Mambo. Deki Wiki is also a platform for building collaborative Web applications that access functionality or data from anywhere on the Internet. Its flexible architecture even allows wiki capabilities to be added to existing applications regardless of the underlying language or technology.

Additionally, Deki Wiki comes with an enterprise strength search engine; Lucene. Which is used to index all pages and most common file types. Finding what you're looking for in pages, files or tags is just a simple search away.

Also available with Deki Wiki are two powerful desktop tools; the Desktop connector allows you to upload/download files to/from your wiki via an intuitive drag-drop, client side application. Plus, the Outlook Connector provides one-click publishing of emails and email file attachments to Deki Wiki where they can be versioned, searched, shared. Both of these tools and dramatically improve your efficiency by bridging your email inbox and Deki Wiki.

More Importantly, Deki wiki is the only multilingual Polyglot wiki/web application in the world. Specifically, Deki Wiki supports multiple languages in a single instance. Languages can be specified by sections and pages thereby automatically adapting the user interface of Deki Wiki to the appropriate language. Also, users may search across all languages and search results are prioritized by the user's default language.

MindTouch Deki Wiki, is built with a Web Oriented Architecture (WOA), it enables users to connect teams, enterprise systems, Web services and Web 2.0 applications with IT governance. Users easily access and organize data and systems efficiently to achieve their business objectives.

Editra added to osalt.com
Editra is an open source text editor that supports a variety of features, including syntax highlighting, for over sixty programming languages. Since it is built using wxWidgets, it can run on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Style sheets (used for highlighting) are easily written using the built-in style editor, which lets you test your code on the fly. It allows customization of text controls styles and you can export all setting in an Editra Style Sheet format. Among the other features are file history, tabbed windows, language keyword helper, line edit commands and transparency support. In the latest edition, it has a Perspectives manager to let you save as many custom workspace views as you need that can be used from session to session. It contains a new CodeBrowser plugin for browsing functions, classes, variables and other attributes of a document. The Projects plugin has support for the use of the Bazaar source control system along with some other minor feature additions.

Editra allows you to navigate menus without mousing with its menu mnemonics, automatically checks for updates during startup and allows you to set preferred fonts in your preferences. Launch lets you run scripts from within Editra and allows for custom output parsing and filtering for languages including perl, lua and python. Editra has a growing developer community around the globe.

Translations of Editra include Dutch, Chinese, Russian, Japanese and German. Editra is a very efficient editor that just keeps getting better.

Pencil added to osalt.com
Pencil is a program of creating of hand-drawn animation. When creating animations it uses four types of layers: vector graphics, bitmap, sound and camera. These layers and be added or removed dynamically and you can change each layer as it has a track that lets you change it as a function of time by inserting keys at certain frames in the track. These keys create the sequence that enables animation.

Pencil can also be used as a simple drawing program with standard design tools like pen, brush, paint bucket and more with an unlimited canvas space. The options palatte lets you choose the size or color of each tool. If you select a vector image layer, you can use those same tools but all your strokes are converted to geometrical shapes. That way, you can enlarge your drawings without any aliasing effect. The color is automatically changed in the vector image when you change it in the colors palette. This makes the vector images perfect for clear-cut drawings as in a character animation while bitmap images are ideal for backgrounds or quick drafts.

Pencil even lets you import existing drawings on real paper into the program, creating a key for each image. This is very useful if you have a lot of paper images to work on. You can also copy and paste images from other applications. Pencil also has simple sound support should you want to add a sound layer and choose where you want it to begin playing.

Pencil saves your work in an SML format with a folder containing the bitmap data. You can export your work as a series of PNG images, a Flash or a Quicktime movie. Pencil is a versatile drawing program that is easy to learn and produces superb results.