VirtualBox is a multi-purpose full virtualizer which is designed for x86 hardware and AMD64/Intel64. It main target is server, desktop and other embedded use. It is an Open Source that will come as a major relief for users who are need of a complete professional-quality virtualization solution. VirtualBox comes with very rich features, high performance and it is also freely available.

VirtualBox runs quite efficiently on Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, and Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.

VirtualBox has fixed superfluous resize-event on powering-on VM for X11, fixed guest-to-guest communication over wireless (3.2.0 regression; bug #6855), more improved storage that has fixed a potential guest disk corruption with growing images, fixed shared modules detection for Win64 guest, 3D support which allows for the use of CR_SYSTEM_GL_PATH and fixed host assertion for some multi-threaded guest applications.

VirtualBox is very handy for both professional and non professional making it highly unique in every sense of the word. There is hardly any software in this category that offers what it does in its features both professional and non-professional alike for free.

Want to check it out? Visit Virtualbox.org

GNU Solfege is a very comprehensive ear training program.

The interface is a little rough and ready, but gets the job done. While it may not be the prettiest piece of software out there, it certainly is thorough at doing what it sets out to do.

It helps you improve your musical ability with an impressively detailed amount of “musical ear” training such as recognizing and identifying chord progressions, intervals, rhythms and scales. It’s sure to be of use to anyone studying music or musical theory. It also has statistics, so you can track your progress, and tests are included so you can see just exactly how much its helping you to improve your musical proficiency and understanding.

It’s a free and open-source program available for Windows and also comes in a Linux version. Go to the website here for more information and the free download.

Chandler is an interesting piece of software that is intended for personal information management.  In that vein, it has a number of different things that people will like about it that are typical of all PIM programs.   For example, you can use Chandler to store your e-mail and manipulate them in different ways to ensure that you are able to have quick access to the important e-mails that are still active in your inbox.   In addition to that however, it is also something that you can use to plan your day out; almost like a digital version of a daily planner and something that you can easily structure your life around without changing a great deal.
 
Additionally, you can also use Chandler for Windows to store contacts and create different task lists for yourself that you can then adjust as the day goes on and you are able to finish different tasks.   Another cool part of the program is your ability to create notes for yourself in different ways.  All in all, there is nothing particularly innovative about this software packages except for the fact that it is very convenient in that it combines all of the things that you might need access to for managing your personal information.
 
More information is available at http://www.osafoundation.org/

If you are interested in a piece of software that allows you to download torrent files for free and one that is easy to use, then BitComet is definitely the piece of software for you. This is a particularly full featured and powerful bittorrent client that allows you to download any torrent file.  It allows for easy multiple downloads that you can track at the same time and even allows you to queue dozens if not hundreds of different files all for your downloading pleasure.

The latest version of BitComet is version 0.97 and it was released on December 7, 2007.  The main changes that were made in this version are primarily changes to the graphical user interface in which different GUI bugs were fixed and functionality overall was improved and extended to different areas such as link support for downloads that are currently going on within the dialogue box.   There were also core patches added on that fixed different issues that affected the core of the actual programming and therefore different crashes that people might have experienced before have now been fixed by the BitComet creator.

More information is available at http://www.bitcomet.com/

There are a number of different software programs required in today’s world for a good computer experience and of course arguably the most important piece of software that you need on your computer is an operating system. Operating systems not only help you organize and distribute your computer resources in an optimal fashion, but they also allow you to use them as a base from which to run other software programs such as applications, games and internet-related software packages. All in all, it would be much harder to use your computer in certain tasks without the use of an operating system.

The main problem with operating systems however is that they are very expensive to purchase. Whether you go for Windows, Linux or anything in between, you are going to end up paying a lot of money for the privilege of using their operating system software. Well, if you don’t have that money but you still need an operating system, why not give ReactOS a try? ReactOS is an operating system that is commonly referred to as open source; meaning that it is completely free to use. As it becomes more functional and is able to challenge the big boys, we can expect to see more and more people turning over and using ReactOS.

More information can be found at http://www.reactos.com/

Abisoft is an open source, freeware word processing program that works in a similar fashion to Microsoft Word. It’s actually multi platform (currently available for Windows, Linux, QNX, FreeBSD or Solaris).

This program is able to both read and write OpenOffice.org documents, Microsoft Word documents, WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, HTML web pages and much more.

What i like about it is the smallness of it and it doesn’t require a whole lot of resources to run it, which is a good thing at anytime, but especially if you’re on a somewhat older computer. This has all the features most people use and non of the unnecessary ones.

It’s worth checking out if you need the basic functions of this kind of software but without all the bloat of similar programs and without having to pay a penny!

Go to the homepage here.

OpenDNS is a free service that claims to speed up your internet page load times,along with protecting you from phishing sites. In addition to this,it can also optionally block adult sites.

DNS stands for Domain name system (or service or servers) and while not being a household phrase like many of todays computer technology terms are becoming, it is still an integral part to how the internet works. Everytime you click a link or type an address into your browser address bar such as blahblahblah.com, DNS servers (usually at your ISP) translate that into the ip for the site (a bunch of numbers) and load the page, the alternative to that would be typing in a bunch of numbers for every website, so we all should be thankful for DNS!

OpenDNS claims to be organized in such a way that makes it much faster than most regular DNS servers.Also if you type in a slightly misspelled address into your browser address bar, it will automatically fix this and take you to the correct site.

So far it does seem to be speeding up my page load times and it doesn’t even require a download, just a minor setting change! For more information, go to the OpenDNS site.

Here is a cool design instrument for your use. Blender is an extremely fast and versatile design instrument.  The fact that this software has a personal touch, offering a unique approach to the world of Three Dimensions makes it a must have.

What can Blender be used for? Use it to create TV commercials, to make technical visualizations, business graphics, to do some morphing, or design user interfaces.  One thing you will love about this software is the fact that you can easy build and manage complex environments. The renderer is versatile and extremely fast and all basic animation principles are well implemented.

It doesn’t matter what OS you are using, Blender has an edition that is perfect for you. There is Blender for Windows, Blender for Mac OS X, Blender for Linux and Blender for FreeBSD.

Want to check it out? Go to http://www.blender.org/

One of the most important things in today’s world has to be without a doubt the idea of programming.  It’s all around us in today’s world and object oriented programming in particular has definitely become a very useful skill to have. Of all of the different object oriented languages around, C++ is perhaps the most used one. Along with its sister languages of C# and C (the original one of the series), it has been a great help to a lot of programmers to build the software of their dreams.

Few things in the realm of computer science are more satisfying than putting the finishing touches on a piece of programming and with the Code::Blocks Studio you can have that satisfaction again and again in a way that is much easier than what those old time program compilers would have you do.

Gone are the days of looking at the blue screen with the yellow text; gone are the days where you had no functionality whatsoever! This program allows you to write and compile your C++ software in a method that provides you exceptional functionality in a package that is exceptionally user friendly. Programmers sometimes fear user friendliness because they fear it cuts back on functionality; but this software is the exception to that rule.  

Give it a try and you’ll see why! More information can be found at http://www.codeblocks.org/ 

More and more nowadays, it is getting more important for people that want to be in on the full pleasure of the Internet to have a way to convert from one audio format to another.  Whether you are just an interested bystander that is recording stuff on your computer or alternatively a very tech savvy person that wants to expand your knowledge of digital sound, then the HarddiskOgg 2.51 is definitely the piece of software that you absolutely can not afford to be without.

What’s so great about HarddiskOgg 2.51?  Well, what it does is it takes a wave format input stream, such as the one that you might generate from talking from your microphone into the computer, and it converts that wave input stream into an actual format stream different from the wave file you originally started with.

The best part about this is that it actually has the ability to do this in real time so you can actually get some excellent Ogg Vorbis hard disk recordings in real time as you generate the wave file and have that file changed to the Ogg Vorbis format.  The spectacular nature of the program combined with its very easy to use interface prompted one person that was reviewing it to simply just say “I love it” and leave it at that.

More information can be found at its website at http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php