The Open Source/Freeware Thread

[Lucifer]

I've just found some great software for making panoramic photos:

Hugin

I found this over at opensource living.com, (which if you've never been there, is a great list of open source software. I've been looking for some time for something decent and free, since Photoshop Elements does an unsatisfactory job of compiling the shots into a coherent image. This is a very easy system, basically load the images you want to compile and the program takes over, shows you a preview and then joins the images...and voila:



I then used GIMP photo software to crop the ragged edges of the panorama and compressed it for uploading to the net, cause it turned out to be a 92MB shot!

[boink]

hey that's a cool thing there ^^


I have an app for equilizing the volume levels of your mp3 collection. so the relative volumes is fairly close...so you don't need to constantly change the volume ya know.
MP3Gain Downloads

[biznatch]

Originally Posted by boink

hey that's a cool thing there ^^


I have an app for equilizing the volume levels of your mp3 collection. so the relative volumes is fairly close...so you don't need to constantly change the volume ya know.
MP3Gain Downloads

I'm wondering if batch editing the volume levels of MP3s would alter the sound quality at all. Of course, maybe I should look into it myself rather than just wonder aloud.
EDIT: yep, shoulda checked the FAQs. Apparently no harm is done to quality. Thanks for the app, boink.

[Halx]

Best Free Application for ____________

Some of these are open source, some of these are free, some of these have free versions. Either way, they're free and good and have my personal stamp of approval.

FTP: FileZilla
FileZilla - The free FTP solution
There is a free client and server application. I use both personally and professionally. Some applications that you have to pay for are absolutely crap compared to this. The live edit mode is great for modifying files directly on the server. Other applications make you upload a new file every time, this program will upload every time you save the file.

HTML/Coding: Notepad++
.:: NOTEPAD++ ::.
This application has code highlighting for a plethora of programs. The only one that it is missing is ColdFusion.

CD Ripping: CDex
CDex | Open Source Digital Audio CD Extractor with more than 37,000,000 downloads

DVD Ripping: Handbrake
HandBrake

Audio/MP3 Editing: Audacity
Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder

Video/Media Player: VLC Player
VideoLAN - Free and Open Source software and video streaming solutions for every OS!

MP3 Player: Winamp
Winamp Media Player - MP3, Multimedia, and Music Player

Image Viewing: IrfanView
IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide

Torrents: Vuse
Azureus, now called Vuze : Bittorrent Client
Java-based torrent application. It consumes very little memory and CPU time while allowing you to download specific files out of your torrents (as opposed to the whole chunk).

Video Editing: (TBA)

Email: Gmail
http://www.google.com/gmail
Web-based email with the BEST spam filtering and the BEST user interface of any mail system.

Web Browser: FireFox
Mozilla.org - Home of the Mozilla Project

Operating System: Ubuntu Linux
UBUNTU - World Forum of Civil Society Networks
These guys have busted their asses to make a desktop OS that rivals windows in usability and funtion. Some would argue that they've surpassed.

[tracyjump]

How to Find the Perfect Christmas Gift at convert-video-dvd site

[SecretMethod70]

Synergy

This is a great little app that allows one computer to act as a keyboard/mouse server for another. For example, I often use my laptop on the keyboard shelf for my desktop, thereby blocking the desktop keyboard. That used to mean that I couldn't really use my desktop at the same time as my laptop, but now my laptop acts as a keyboard/mouse server for my desktop. I just scroll the mouse up and the pointer switches over to the desktop screen which is above my laptop. The keyboard automatically switches over too. And I can even copy/paste text across computers!

[Jove]

WhoCrashed

Summary: Whenever a computer running Windows suddenly reboots without displaying any notice or blue screen of death, the first thing that is often though about is a hardware failure. In reality, most crashes are caused by malfunctioning device drivers and kernel modules. In case of a kernel error, most computers running Windows do not show a blue screen unless they are configured to do so. Instead these systems suddenly reboot without any notice.

WhoCrashed shows the drivers which have been crashing computer with a single click. Normally, debugging skills and a set of debugging tools are required to do post-mortem crash dump analysis. This program checks for available crash dump files and checks for reponsible modules. In most cases it can pinpoint the offending drivers which have been causing misery on your computer system in the past. It does post-mortem crashdump analysis and presents all gathered information in a comprehensible way.

[Hain]

I need to come back to TFP at some point and update my thread-jacks (posts). I have a lot of new toys.

Electric Sheep screen saver - bad ass

Sandboxie - condom for your computer.

FixVTS - repairs DVD information in VOBs. Many of my backed up DVDs' menus no longer play correctly with the latest VLC. I have had to run FixVTS on all of them so that it recognizes the buttons on the menus. Stupid new VLC.

And everything I use is from Portable Apps now.

[Hain]

• [ANCHOR]Sandboxie[/ANCHOR] (Homepage)(Filehippo)(5/5)(W) - "Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer." - Think of it as a condom for your computer. You get to do all that dirty stuff while still able to tie of that sandbox and throw it away--squeeky clean. I always run my browsers sandboxed. ([ANCHORLINK=Sandboxie]link here[/ANCHORLINK])
  
• [ANCHOR]KeePass Password Safe Portable[/ANCHOR] (Homepage)(5/5)(W) - "the popular KeePass Password Safe packaged as a portable app, so you can securely carry your email, internet and other passwords with you. You can place it on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive or a CD and use it on any computer, without leaving any personal information behind." - Even better than the original! Portable Keepass is the sweetest since I never need worry about Keepass leaving anything behind on a system. ([ANCHORLINK=KeePass Password Safe Portable]link here[/ANCHORLINK])

[biznatch]

Cool, I got pointed to this app: Adobe Consulting | User Experience Hub: New Flex Style Explorer: Jam-Packed with New Features
It can run in browser from the adobe site, or you can download it to run it offline. This app allows you to edit the CSS attributes directly, with a great GUI; I'm extremely impressed with how easy this app is to use.
This works on all platforms. This tool is amazing for web developpers and webdesigners.

[dippin]

a couple of free security programs:

Comodo firewall- Free Firewall Antivirus Software Download by Comodo easier to maintain and lighter to use than ZA

and second the avast recommendation:

avast - Download FREE antivirus software - avast! Home Edition
I switched to this one on my laptop because for some reason it would always crash when AVG was trying to apply certain updates.

[dippin]

2 additional freeware programs, one which might interest more people, and the other is pretty specific:

Stellarium Stellarium
A planetarium freeware program. Plug in your coordinates, it gets hour/date from your computer, and voila, you can see the stars, nebulas and planets outside, complete with names, constellations, coordinates, distance and other interesting info for the amateur astronomer.

Deep sky stacker: DeepSkyStacker - Free
For those interested in astro photography, this program automatically aligns multiple pictures if you are doing the multiple exposure/stacking thing

[Hain]

I tried out Stellarium since I am in an astronomy class, and it is really cool. There is a version of it at portableapps, too ( Stellarium Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives ).

I have some BAT scripts that make ImgBurn and Skype portable. Both have command switches to engage them as portable but it is a shame that they can't be set permanently (yet).

Portable Skype Instructions   click to show 

Create a directory structure that is "\<PATH>\Skype\Phone\Data". Take the skype.exe from an installation (from the installed Skype's "Phone" directory) and copy it into the new Phone directory. Change the path (at the CD line) to the new Phone directory without specifying the drive letter. This is the BAT script:

@ECHO OFF
TITLE Starting Portable Skype
ECHO Skype will start in Removable Mode
ECHO skype.exe /datapath:"Data" /removable
ECHO -  -  -  -  - 
ECHO It is safe to close this command dialog once Skype has started
ECHO For further information, go to
ECHO http://www.von-phone.com/portable-skype.php
ECHO or Google search 'portable skype'
CD "\<PATH>\Skype\Phone"
START skype.exe /datapath:"Data" /removable
EXIT

Portable Skype Example   click to show 

1. My USB flash drive is drive F (in Windows). I have PortableApps on this drive as well. The Skype folder is

   F:\PortableApps\Skype

   The full directory tree, as outlined in the instructions, is

   F:\PortableApps\Skype\Phone\Data\

2. With an existing installation of Skype, I copied the skype.exe from the Phone directory of the installation and put it into the new Phone directory on my flash drive.
3. You can use Notepad to create a BAT file by saving it as "PortableSkype.BAT". My BAT script looks like:
   

   @ECHO OFF
   TITLE Starting Portable Skype
   ECHO Skype is starting in Removable Mode
   ECHO skype.exe /datapath:"Data" /removable
   ECHO -  -  -  -  - 
   ECHO It is safe to close this command dialog once Skype has started
   ECHO For further information, go to
   ECHO http://www.von-phone.com/portable-skype.php
   ECHO or Google search 'portable skype'
   CD "\PortableApps\Skype\Phone"
   START skype.exe /datapath:"Data" /removable
   EXIT

4. I keep this BAT script on the root of the USB flash drive so that I can start Skype quickly. I also keep a copy in the Skype folder, but it is unnecessary to do so.

Portable Skype, ''How to Run Skype from a USB Flash Memory Drive'' (website)   click to show 

From Run Skype from a USB Flash Memory Drive

How to Run Skype from a USB Flash Memory Drive

Skype is a portable application, which means it can be run from a USB flash drive, on any PC (even if Skype is not installed on the PC). This is useful when you are traveling and want to use Skype on a publicly available computer, for example, at a hotel, Internet cafe, library, etc.



How to set up Skype to run from a USB flash drive:

1. Download Skype and install it on your computer. (or, if you have already installed Skype on your computer, continue to step 2)
2. Find skype.exe file where it was installed. (Normally found at C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\skype.exe)
3. On your USB drive create a folder and name it "Skype" and copy skype.exe into this folder
4. Create another folder in this Skype folder on the USB drive and name it "Data"
5. Create a new file in Notepad and name it "skype.bat"
6. Open the "skype.bat" file and add the following text:
skype.exe /datapath:"Data" /removable

That's all! Now you are ready to run Skype from your USB drive. Just plug it into any PC and click on the skype.bat file. This will run Skype from your USB drive.



When you're done, exit the Skype program, unplug the USB flash drive and go. Your call history, account settings and other personal Skype settings stay on your USB flash drive, not on the computer. This is a portable, "clean" and secure way to run Skype on any PC, without installing Skype.



Note: The first time you run Skype from your USB drive you will need to log into Skype with your ID and password. On subsequent uses, you will be logged in automatically when you run "skype.bat.

Portable ImgBurn Instructions   click to show 

Create a directory structure like this: "\<PATH>\ImgBurn\App". Copy an existing ImgBurn installation into the App directory. If one does not exist, create an empty INI file named "ImgBurn.INI" in the App directory. The BAT file is:

@ECHO OFF
TITLE Portable ImgBurn
ECHO Starting ImgBurn in Portable Mode
ECHO ImgBurn.exe /PORTABLE /SETTINGS "ImgBurn.ini"
ECHO -  -  -  -  - 
ECHO It is safe to close this command dialog once ImgBurn has started
ECHO For further information, go to
ECHO http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=4725
ECHO or Google search 'portable imgburn'
CD "\<PATH>\Imgburn\App\"
START ImgBurn.exe /PORTABLE /SETTINGS "ImgBurn.ini"
EXIT

Portable ImgBurn Example   click to show 

1. My USB flash drive is drive F (in Windows). I have PortableApps on this drive as well. The new ImgBurn folder is

   F:\PortableApps\ImgBurn

   The full directory tree, as outlined in the instructions, is

   F:\PortableApps\ImgBurn\App\

2. I copied an existing installation of ImgBurn into the App folder on my flash drive.
3. You can use Notepad to create a BAT file by saving it as "PortableImgBurn.BAT". My BAT script looks like:
   

   @ECHO OFF
   TITLE Portable ImgBurn
   ECHO Starting ImgBurn in Portable Mode
   ECHO ImgBurn.exe /PORTABLE /SETTINGS "ImgBurn.ini"
   ECHO -  -  -  -  - 
   ECHO It is safe to close this command dialog once ImgBurn has started
   ECHO For further information, go to
   ECHO http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=4725
   ECHO or Google search 'portable imgburn'
   CD "\PortableApps\Imgburn\App\"
   START ImgBurn.exe /PORTABLE /SETTINGS "ImgBurn.ini"
   EXIT

4. I keep this BAT script on the root of the USB flash drive so that I can start ImgBurn quickly. I also keep a copy in the ImgBurn folder, but it is unnecessary to do so.

Portable ImgBurn, ''Portable ImgBurn - ImgBurn Support Forum'' (website)   click to show 

From Portable ImgBurn - ImgBurn Support Forum

Posted by: mmalves Aug 25 2007, 04:04 AM

There are 2 CLI switches that do what you want:
QUOTE (ImgBurn Read Me)
/SETTINGS "<File Name>"
Used to override loading the settings from the registry, and instead load from / save to the specified file.
If the file does not exist, default settings will be used and the program will attempt to save to the specified file when it's closed.

Even if this switch is not specified, the program will attempt to load from 'ImgBurn.ini' in the application exe's directory BEFORE it loads from the registry.

/NOSAVESETTINGS
Used to tell the program not to save ANY settings when it's closed.

Posted by: LIGHTNING UK! Aug 25 2007, 10:05 AM

I've also added a '/PORTABLE' CLI command (and reg setting) for the next version so it will save settings (to an ini file or whatever it's configured to do) but won't touch the file extension stuff (which it normally would regardless) that is always registry based.

So now there are combinations to suit everyone's needs.

---------- Post added at 12:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 AM ----------

Sometimes I feel like a five-year old...

"Look what I did mommy!"
"Wow sweetie! Let's put that on the fridge so everyone can see."

[Willravel]

Does anyone have experience with using Ubuntu via Boot Camp on a mac? I've done a bit of research and it seems fairly straightforward, but it'd be nice if someone had done it and had any tips.

[tiltedreader]

Have you tried PDF995? I've tried several document to PDF applications, and this one works best for me. It will translate webpages, image files and word files to PDF. You can save the created PDF under a user-specified filename or just print it.[/COLOR]

[Hain]

I have found a Windows application that will format any size drive to FAT32. Other programs have limitations in them which are unacceptable. The software is h2format, and I have a separate thread dedicated to this program.

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/tilted-...ml#post2634492

[Runningwater]

Another very nice open-source/freeware program that runs across multiple OS/Platforms is X-Box Media Center. It's what I use for my media center on an XP box. I have put all my DVD's in an ISO format and XBMC picks them up and uses different scrapers to find Poster art, cast and crew, synopsis, etc. You can also use it for your music and it will also scrap for album covers, etc.

[freeload]

Originally Posted by Runningwater

Another very nice open-source/freeware program that runs across multiple OS/Platforms is X-Box Media Center...

Even better: If you have your ISO image split into like 50 rar files it still shows as just one ISO. No need to un-rar stuff you have...eh...created a nice backup of

[Hain]

I had been experiencing a ton of errors on a set of laptop computers recently where the .NET 3.5 assistant and Silverlight were corrupted on install. The corruption prevented any kind of update or uninstall. After a few Google searches I came across these:

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

When you are working on your computer and installing a new program, the installation suddenly fails. Now you are left with a partly installed program. You try to install the program again, but you are unsuccessful. Or, maybe you have problems trying to remove an old program because the installation files are corrupted.

Do not worry. Windows Installer CleanUp Utility might be able to help. You can use the utility to remove installation information for programs that were installed by using Windows Installer. Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer. However, it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation, upgrade, or uninstall over.

Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

That solved the Silverlight problem.

This solved the .NET problem

Automated cleanup tool to remove the .NET Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5

I have posted an updated version of the .NET Framework cleanup tool that now contains support for automatically cleaning up the .NET Framework 1.0, the .NET Framework 1.1, the .NET Framework 2.0, the .NET Framework 3.0 and the .NET Framework 3.5.

This tool automates the manual cleanup steps for the .NET Framework 2.0 that I posted a while ago. These steps have helped solve most of the known .NET Framework 2.0 beta uninstall issues that I know of. In addition, the tool can be useful to return your system to a known (relatively clean) state in case you run into any .NET Framework 2.0 installation failures so that you can try to install again.

The updated version of the cleanup tool contains options to clean up the .NET Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 separately and all versions simultaneously in a single step. The cleanup tool contains logic so that if it is run on an OS version that includes the .NET Framework as an OS component, it will not offer the option to clean it up. This means that running the cleanup tool on Windows XP Media Center Edition or Tablet PC Edition will not offer the option to clean up the .NET Framework 1.0, running it on Windows Server 2003 will not offer the option to clean up the .NET Framework 1.1 and running it on Windows Vista will not offer the option to clean up the .NET Framework 2.0 or the .NET Framework 3.0.

Aaron Stebner's WebLog : Automated cleanup tool to remove the .NET Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5

[Zweiblumen]

Here is a website that lists open software alternatives to commercial software.
Find Open Source Alternatives to commercial software | Open Source Alternative - osalt.com

[aphrodisiac]

so; is this the technology of the future, or just flashy gimicks?

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology | Video on TED.com

what do you think?

[boink]

I'm looking for a bandwidth monitor...something like bitmeter that can hang out next to the clock. I'm sure most of us know about Comcast 250gb limit. well I got an email about their new bandwidth usage tool, a tab on my account page. so far this month I've racked up 380+ gb and last month clocked in at 512gb !

the email I got was not a warning pointed at me personally, it was a mass email about the tool. the rep on the phone said if they were warning me personally it would be via snail mail. (she thought) since alot of people use other email services their primary email and also change phone numbers w/o notifying Comcast.

but she also said flagrant abuse could lead to a years suspension of internet. :shock:

so anyway, looking for a free tool to monitor useage.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by boink

I'm looking for a bandwidth monitor

I was looking for one of these a little bit back... Never found a free one sadly, and there were too many projects on SourceForge to try them all out. Doing a quick search shows all new projects on SF that I'd never seen.

While it feels like tilting at windmills, I'd recommend using Google to search SF projects: "network usage monitor Windows site:sourceforge.net".

[boink]

I was told uTorrent has a tool in the new version, but I haven't updated it yet. it won't reflect total bandwidth use though.

[Vigilante]

I use samurize. With the right plugins, it gives me drive status, network usage and config, memory usage, temperatures, etc.

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by boink

I'm looking for a bandwidth monitor

This is probably a long shot for your situation, but the Tomato firmware (Tomato Firmware | polarcloud.com) will track all bandwidth through it and it is free; however, you need a router that can have its firmware updated with 3rd party firmware. Tomato can do a whole bunch of other cool stuff as well.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by boink

I was told uTorrent has a tool in the new version, but I haven't updated it yet. it won't reflect total bandwidth use though.

You can set it so that download+upload is only 7GB/day (~210GB/month), leaving that 40GB for regular browsing (those program updates add up!).

Also set your downloads to STOP (i.e. upload = 0kbps) after they reach a certain ratio. Just remember that 7GB/(1+r) ~ Max Download for the day.

[Xerxys]

Rich-Text Editors, inline content editors, WYSIWYG editors – or whatever you want to call them – are web applications that enable users to enter, edit and manipulate alphanumeric characters while visiting your website. Wherever you have a <textarea> form input on your site, chances are good that its usability could be improved with a Rich-Text Editor.
For example, your comment form is a great place to provide users with the ability to customize their responses with a few clicks of the mouse. RTEs help your visitors format and edit their web-based content by transforming an ordinary input field into a fully functional HTML editor.


By making it easy to markup and format content, Rich Text Editors provide an excellent way to improve the usability and "coolness" factor of your website. Even better is the fact that there are many RTEs available, each with their own features, strengths and weaknesses.
To help you sort through the many choices, here are 22 of the best Rich-Text Editors for 2010 and beyond.
1. TinyMCE


TinyMCE is a free, open-source Rich Text Editor (RTE) from Moxiecode Systems AB. It is lightweight and easy to customize via themes, plugins, and its own API. As a platform-independent web-based WYSIWYG editor, TinyMCE is easy to integrate into virtually any Content Management System.
Bottom line: TinyMCE is browser-friendly, lightweight, highly customizable and features tons of great community support.
2. FCKEditor


FCKeditor is a free, open-source RTE that has been around forever. It features image uploading, layout templates, valid code, Adobe AIR, custom styles, and much more. FCKeditor is perfect for table creation and can even clean up text pasted from Microsoft Word.
Bottom line: FCKeditor is highly customizable, fully accessible, well supported and very popular.
3. YUI Editor


The YUI Editor is included as part of the extensive Yahoo User-Interface Library (YUI). YUI Editor features valid XHTML, a growing number of plugins, decent documentation, great support for mobile devices, and even drag-n-drop inclusion and sizing of images. Plus, the YUI Editor’s toolbar is easily extensible for advanced and highly customized implementations.
Bottom line: the perfect RTE solution if you are already using the YUI Library.
4. NicEdit


NicEdit is a lightweight, cross-platform Inline Content Editor (ICE) that focuses on usability and simplicity. The file size is extremely small, less than 10KB compressed, and can be served directly from the NicEdit website. Although the code may need some scrubbing to validate, the sheer compactness and ease of NicEdit makes it perfect for smaller projects and simple implementations.
Bottom line: NicEdit is a lightweight, good-looking RTE that makes it easy to convert any <textarea> or <div> into a robust Inline Content Editor.
5. Kupu


Kupu is an open-source RTE provided by OSCOM. Designed for easy integration into CMSs such as Silva and Plone, Kupu features Ajax content saving, clean cross-browser XHTML code, easy customization, and good extensibility. Unfortunately, the Kupu site seems to be down at the moment so we’ve linked to its Wikipedia page, but will hopefully be back online soon.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for a good "document-centric" RTE for your next project, Kupu may be the ideal choice.
6. Free Rich Text Editor


Free Rich Text Editor is a JavaScript-based HTML WYSIWYG editor that provides robust rich-text editing, enabling users to format, preview and publish text, code, tables, images, and more. Free Rich Text Editor is ridiculously easy to use, requiring only three lines of code to integrate into any CMS or web application. Free Rich Text Editor enjoys a growing number of users and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 General License.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for drop-dead easy implementation, compliant (X)HTML source-code, and plenty of robust features, Free Rich Text Editor is an excellent choice.
7. WebWiz RichTextEditor


WebWiz RichTextEditor is a "try-before-you-buy" RTE that’s written in ASP, JavaScript, and DHTML. Despite its commercial aspect, WebWiz RichTextEditor has a lot going for it, including image/file uploading, built-in file browser, source-code editing, custom skins, and easy implementation.
Bottom line: if you’re running a Windows server and need a heavy-duty WYSIWYG editor with all the trimmings, WebWiz RichTextEditor may be well worth the price.
8. XStandard


XStandard focuses on generation of squeaky-clean XHTML and delivers the goods via clean separation of structure, behavior, and presentation. Features of XStandard include great accessibility support, drag-&-drop file uploads, spell-checking, customizable image library, and much more. There are two versions available: XStandard Lite is free for commercial use, and XStandard Pro ranges in price but is available as a 30-day trial. Available in 21 different languages.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for a clean, standards-compliant RTE, check out XStandard.
9. Damn Small Rich Text Editor


Damn Small Rich Text Editor is a jQuery-based RTE with a PHP backend. This free, lightweight text-editor features Ajax-powered image-uploading functionality, automatic HTML-cleanup, and robust extensibility via plugins and add-ons.
Bottom line: Damn Small Rich Text Editor is extremely small (~18KB), but manages to include tons of great features, making it an excellent choice for your next project.
10. WidgEditor


WidgEditor is an open-source RTE by the Man in Blue, Cameron Adams. WidgEditor is a clean and simple RTE that degrades gracefully when JavaScript is not available on the browsing device. This means that your <textarea> will remain useful and beautiful for users without JavaScript.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for a simple, standards-based RTE for your web application or web page, WidgEditor may be just the ticket.
11. Kevin Roth’s Cross Browser Rich Text Editor


Cross Browser Rich Text Editor is a free yet basic RTE that offers a few skinning choices and features XHTML-compliant code. Features include table support and good cross-browser compatibility. The "compressed-code" version of Cross Browser Rich Text Editor is released under a Creative Commons License, and the uncompressed source code is available for around $40.
Bottom line: styling this RTE has been reported to be a bit of a pain, but otherwise a solid RTE that is worth checking out.
12. OpenWYSIWYG


OpenWYSIWYG is a free, open-source RTE that comes equipped with many awesome features, including robust HTML content-editing, user-friendly table creation, and great cross-browser compatibility. OpenWYSIWYG is easy to implement, loads extremely fast, and requires no server-side code.
Bottom line: OpenWYSIWYG is an excellent choice for many CMS-based applications. Highly recommended.
13. CodePlex Rich Text Editor


CodePlex Rich Text Editor is an ASP.NET-based RTE that is designed to simplify and consolidate the implementation process as much as possible, requiring the developer to simply place a single dll file into the bin directory. Even though the code output is far from standards-compliant, CodePlex is cross-browser compatible and features numerous styles, commands, text-views, and multiple language support.
Bottom line: the UI is a little funky and only supports Internet Explorer and Firefox, but even so, the CodePlex RTE seems like a good choice for simple, pain-free ASP.NET-based implementations.
14. FreeTextBox


FreeTextBox is a highly popular ASP.NET-based RTE that is packed with great features, including a robust, easily customized JavaScript API, integrated image gallery, spell-checking, and complete control over the creation of tables, lists and other complex markup elements.
Bottom line: for ASP.NET projects, it just doesn’t get any better than FreeTextBox.
15. Silverlight Rich Text Editor


Silverlight Rich Text Editor is a highly useful RTE designed to work with Microsoft’s Silverlight. Although the project is currently orphaned by the original developer, Silverlight Rich Text Editor provides many excellent features, including <sup>/<sub> formatting, homogeneous underlining of multi-font-selections, blockquotes, unordered lists, block alignment, insertion of custom framework elements, secure content serialization, find-&-replace with regular expressions, clipboard support for formatted text, integrated scroll viewer, custom design, macros and much more.
Bottom line: if you’re using Silverlight and need a robust RTE, look no further!
16. BXE (Bitflux Editor)


BXE (Bitflux Editor) is an open-source (since 2002!) XML-based WYSIWYG that enables users to edit entire web pages. BXE is strongly supported by a loyal community of designers and developers who help make BXE one of the best content editors available on the Web. BXE uses XML, XSLT, and CSS for rendering, and features support for tables, lists, images, special characters, clipboard, undo/redo, and more. Note that the BXE site provides several "demo" links, but none seem to be working at this time – hopefully this will be resolved soon.
Bottom line: reportedly one of the finest WYSIWYG editors available – definitely worth checking out.
17. MarkItUp!


markItUp! is a free, open-source RTE built on the jQuery JavaScript library. markItUp! makes it easy to transform any (X)HTML <textarea> into a robust, fully-functional WYSIWYG content editor. Features include lightweight file size, keyboard shortcuts, Ajax-powered live-preview, standards-based code output, and great cross-browser compatibility. Supports many different markup systems, including HTML, Textile, Wiki Syntax, Markdown, BBcode or even your own custom markup system.
Bottom line: markItUp! is a lightweight, customizable, and flexible universal markup editor that is perfect for blogs, CMSs, forums, websites, and just about everything in-between.
18. Dijit Editor for Dojo


Dojo’s Dijit Editor is a robust, full-featured RTE built on the popular Dojo JavaScript framework. Referred to as a "text box on steroids," the Dijit Editor is designed to look and function like a typical word processor. The Dijit Editor features a toolbar, clean HTML output, plugin architecture, fresh buttons, and plenty of other great features.
Bottom line: with all of the other Rich-Text Editors available these days, the Dijit Editor may not be enough to justify adoption of Dojo, but for those already using it, the Dijit Editor should be at the top of your list.
19. EditArea


EditArea is a free, open-source code editor that makes it easy for your users to share and format virtually any type of code from within the comfort of your website’s submission form. Features include easy integration, clean source-code output, real-time syntax highlighting, auto-indentation, multilanguage support, multiple instances, full-screen mode, and much more.
Bottom line: EditArea is easy to implement and customize and provides all you need for beautiful, well-formatted source code.
20. WYMeditor


WYMeditor is a free, open-source, web-based (X)HTML WYSIWYM editor that boasts strong adherence of Web Standards and valid markup. Everything outputted by WYMeditor is clean and valid (X)HTML Strict, so you can be rest assured that your source code is squeaky clean. As it says on the website, "WYMeditor’s main concept is to leave details of the document’s visual layout, and to concentrate on its structure and meaning, while trying to give the user as much comfort as possible (at least as WYSIWYG editors)."
Bottom line: WYMeditor is widely supported, easy to use, and the best solution for "perfectly structured" (X)HTML source code.
21. Whizzywig


Whizzywig is another free, open-source, JavaScript-based RTE that features easy implementation and configuration, multiple languages, text-color modification, customized user-interface, and much more. Features include cross-browser support, web-safe color picker, table support, image support, MS-Word clean-up, code editor, spell-checker, plus tons more.
Bottom line: Whizzywig is a lightweight yet powerful RTE that looks decent in just about any browser.
22. Xinha


Last but not least, Xinha is a free, community-developed open-source HTML editor available under BSD license. Built with JavaScript, Xinha is easy to implement, feature-rich, and highly extensible. Xinha functions properly in all modern browsers and its extensibility makes it perfectly suited for virtually any project.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for a solid, community-supported RTE that is highly flexible and extensible, Xinha is an excellent choice.
What’s your favorite RTE?

With so many excellent Rich-Text Editors available on the Web today, designers and developers have everything they need to setup the best possible RTE for virtually any project. There are indeed many to choose from, but you can help others by sharing your experiences and opinions about the various RTEs reviewed in the article. Which one is your favorite? Any bad or good experiences with any particular RTE? Know of any good editors that weren’t mentioned in the article? Chime in!

[Shadowex3]

At the risk of linking to another forum's thread the single best and largest freeware list I've ever found is the periodically resurrected Neowin Freeware Alternative list. Freaking HUGE.