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GNU On Windows

An operating system (OS) like Windows and Linux starts out as a program that runs other programs.  It manages access to memory, hard disks and USB ports but it doesn't do anything for the user, that is the role of application programs.  However all OS's need a set of basic utility programs that browse folders and copy or delete files.

When Linus Torvalds started developing the OS that we know as Linux. he was working on a program to run other programs - the kernel. On its own it would never have become the major force it now is without GNU. This was a separate initiative headed by Richard Stallman that also planned to develop a new operating system.  The GNU project was creating the utilities it would need when along came the Linux kernel.

GNU ApplicationsEver since the GNU tools have been part of any Linux system, and have developed into a sophisticated set of power tools.  They are command line tools and the output of one can be piped into another or saved as a file.  The GNU programs would be just as useful on Windows but until recently this meant running a Linux emulator which could then run the GNU tools.

Now around 130 GNU utilities have been compiled as native Windows programs and are available as the 'GNU On Windows' package (GOW).  GNU has always been open source software and the package is free to download from:    http://github.com/bmatzelle/gow/downloads . Double click the downloaded program (as at May 2012: Gow-0.5.0.exe), accept the default options and click 'Close' when the installation has finished

Read more: GNU On Windows

THE ANATOMY OF AN EMAIL MESSAGE

An email message is a string of text characters which on their own cannot hurt your computer. They can be used to trick you into doing things you may regret - like inadvertently wiping your hard disk. This article explains what you will find if you look inside an email and explains why you should be careful about multimedia emails and attachments.

You can view the raw text of the email you are reading by:

  • Outlook Express: Ctrl + F3
  • Mac OS X Mail: Option-Command-U
  • Thunderbird: Ctrl + U

it starts with 'headers' describing the message and how it arrived at your inbox:

Return-Path: somebody @ xyz.net
X-Original-To: you @ abc.com

Read more: The Anatomy of an Email

Bluefish - a free editor for programmers and webdesigners

High end web design packages cost money and usually want to manage your whole site.  If  you are familiar with HTML and are looking for an editor to create or edit a web page, then a good choice is the free opensource 'Bluefish' editor. This is can be downloaded from:  bluefish.openoffice.nl and is available for Windows, Mac OS-X, Linux and Solaris.

The Bluefish editor

Read more: The Bluefish Editor

 

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