6 reasons why OnlyOffice is a great Microsoft Office alternative

OnlyOffice is a suite that is available as a paid enterprise version for broad deployments, but also works completely for free on desktop and mobile operating systems. It is fully cross-platform, including Linux.

While it’s not exactly the same, the OnlyOffice UI is very close to what Microsoft offers with its own Office suite. There’s a ribbon-style UI and all the tabs are very similar, with the same options generally being available in each tab and presented in a very similar way, too.

Another great thing about OnlyOffice is that it includes some PDF tools that you can use for free, too. Essentially, this allows you to create easily fillable PDF forms, which you can send to people when you need to collect some kind of information from them.

There is also online collaboration and an OnlyOffice account is available for free with 2 GB of cloud storage.

What I do like about the cross-platform support is that you can use and be familiar with one tool across all your operating systems.

Another plus is, apart from full Microsoft DOCX compatibility and some other formats as well, it also supports the open standards ODF format.

It is free to use for non-enterprise users, but is not open source.

See xda-developers.com/reasons-onl…
#Blog, #alternativeto, #crossplatform, #officesuite, #technology

YOURLS is an open source self-hosted alternative to Bitly or TinyURL

A link shortening service translates any web URL link into a custom, and typically shorter and more manageable link.

A link shortening service is useful for a number of reasons:

• A shorter link to share, especially if the target is a long complex one
• The short link can have a more intuitive name to remember
• Basic stats are provided on how often it is accessed and from which countries
• A self-hosted one could bypass Bitly being blocked
• No need to update social media posts if the backend is moved
• Brand consistency by using your own custom domain

My video goes over how YOURLS can be used, and includes a few tips that I picked up for installing php-zip for the download plugin, as well as how to deal with any plugins which break the service.

See youtube.com/watch?v=XQ0LUsbpDR…
#Blog, #alternativeto, #opensource, #selfhosting, #technology, #YOURLS

StoryGraph Is Goodreads for Readers Who Don’t Like Amazon

Like Goodreads, StoryGraph (available for iPhone, Android, and web) is a service for book recommendations and tracking reading habits. The basic idea is you add the books you’ve read, give them ratings, and StoryGraph can use the information to build recommendations.

There’s a lot more to it than that, though. When you finish a book, you’re greeted with a sort of mini questionnaire. It asks about the book’s mood, pace, plot, characters, etc. You don’t have to fill this out, but StoryGraph uses it to understand better the types of books you like. It’s much more than a simple star rating.

StoryGraph also provides detailed analytics on your reading habits, displayed in—you guessed it—graphs. It breaks down your reading by genre, pacing, length, mood, and more. This data-driven approach can give you insights into your reading patterns and help you make more informed choices about what to read next.

StoryGraph allows you to import your Goodreads data, so you don’t have to start from scratch. Whether you can export easily from StoryGraph one day to a different service, is another story.

Also of note is the decentralised Fediverse alternative called BookWyrm, which I’ve featured before.

See howtogeek.com/storygraph-is-go…
#Blog, #alternativeto, #GoodReads, #reading, #StoryGraph, #technology

Looking for a Google Workspace alternative? OnlyOffice DocSpace is ready for the job

Although this linked article mostly focusses on the hosted cloud side (I suppose that is the equivalent of Google Docs) there is actually a very good open source desktop app available called ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors which installs on Linux, Windows, and macOS, with apps also for Android and iOS.

The desktop app connects not only to ONLYOFFICE cloud, but optionally also to Nextcloud, ownCloud, Moodle, Liferay, Seafile, and infomaniak kDrive.

Although ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors do work in open document format (the international standard) it actually prides itself on having very good docx compatibility. It’s menu ribbon is probably also closer to MS Office than LibreOffice is.

What I also like about it, is it starts up in a few seconds.

See zdnet.com/home-and-office/work…
#Blog, #alternativeto, #officesuite, #opensource, #technology

LocalSend and SnapDrop can be used for universal AirDrop instead of pushing to Apple

Firstly, Airdop only works to other Apple devices, but there is a lot more to the world than just Apple devices! These open source (private and secure despite what Apple claims) apps will do universal file transfer between Apple, Linux, Windows, Android, etc devices.

They work on the same LAN so keep the traffic local. Snapdrop can even be self-hosted by you. Pairdrop (also .net address) is a fork of Snapdrop that offers a few extra bells and whistles like permanently pairing your devices (also Syncthing is better for this) as well as a temporary public room.

See https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/the-two-apps-i-use-when-i-need-airdrop-on-non-apple-devices/
#Blog, #alternativeto, #filetransfer, #opensource, #technology

The best Raspberry Pi alternatives – There is no exact alternative though

Raspberry Pi’s are no longer the cheap $35 single-board computers that they once were. There are however quite a few alternatives, but all lack or add some features. Of course, the Pi has also improved quite a bit.

But even with the Raspberry Pi itself, it is worth buying for what you need to get done. Sometimes something smaller does the job just as well. A Raspberry Pi can be a complete overkill for many tasks.

For benchmarking purposes, the Pi Zero 2 W costs $15 and the Pi 4 Model B with 2 GB of RAM is $45, and the newest Pi 5 with 4GB of RAM is $60. Then usually a case and power supply are also needed with it (another $24).

See https://www.xda-developers.com/best-raspberry-pi-alternatives/
#Blog, #alternativeto, #raspberrypi, #technology

Free and Open Source Inkscape Vector Graphics Editor is 20 Years Old with a Big Update

The latest point release, Inkscape 1.3.1, has grown into one of the biggest bug fix packages they’ve ever shared with the community. Update to benefit from more than 70 bug fixes, 16 improved user interface translations, and even two small, new features!

Inkscape has proved itself to be a good alternative to Adobe Illustrator. It is a free and open-source vector graphics editor that is similar to Illustrator in many ways. Inkscape can be used to create a wide variety of graphic designs, including illustrations, logos, icons, and website graphics. It also has a variety of features that are similar to Illustrator, such as layers, paths, and filters. I’ve also found my drawing tablet on Linux to work very well with it.

It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

See https://inkscape.org/news/2023/11/18/big-small-release-inkscape-131-is-out/
#Blog, #alternativeto, #opensource, #technology

My video overview of Nostr: A simple, open protocol that enables global, decentralized, and censorship-resistant social media

Nostr is unique in that it has a global public key ID that replicates posts (notes) via relays, so it is scalable, resistant to censorship, and the user fully owns their identity profile. There are only two parts to the network, namely relays and clients, with the Nostr protocol linking them. Every post is signed, and every client validates these signatures.

In this video I explain more about Nostr is, why it is probably one of the easiest networks to get registered and going on, I compare it with some other protocols, and I demonstrate a few of the web as well as Android mobile apps. There are no servers at all needing to be chosen, and it is truly irrelevant which client app is used. I’ll also explain where cryptocurrency may come in, but why you need not worry about it all, or even use it at all.

Watch https://youtu.be/8mSyMCJlSwA
#Blog, #alternativeto, #decentralised, #Nostr, #socialnetworks, #technology

Even Nostr has a Reddit type alternative called Nvote

Nvote is a decentralized, vote-driven community similar to services like Reddit and HackerNews. Nvote is powered by Nostr (yes Nostr is more than just posting short or long-form social media text posts).

Why should I want to use this instead of a centralized service like Reddit?

• It’s lightweight. No ads, no JavaScript. No images except in posts. (inline images can be disabled in settings)
• Full feature compatibility with privacy browsers like TorBrowser with JavaScript disabled.
• Community-based spam prevention with no centralized moderators.
• Publicly available activity data to help the community identify vote manipulation and astroturfing.
• Anyone can host a Nostr relay and mirror the data.
• Relays and clients can be run locally or be made public for other people to share.
• Ability to disable spam filters or even modify the client with custom filters.
• You don’t have to rely on a single relay for content. You can configure the client to use other relays as data providers.
• Backend data is owned by nobody and can be digested by alternative clients without the need for special API permissions.

Yes, the service does need some love as it is mostly autoposting from Reddit by the looks of it, but there are a few users commenting I see.

See https://nvote.co/
#Blog, #alternativeto, #Nostr, #opensource, #reddit, #technology

If Lemmy is not your cup of tea as an alternative to Reddit, maybe try open-source federated Kbin instead

Yes, Reddit is going through its own API pains right now, and of course it is anyway a centralised social network much like Facebook and Twitter. So the discussion around alternatives has been coming up again.

Lemmy has been around for a while, its technology is good, and it federates via ActivityPub to the rest of the Fediverse. You can also host your own instance and set your own terms and conditions. Sounds ideal? Well, there has also been quite an under current of issues raised about Lemmy’s devs (something political I gather, but I had more of an ongoing issue with one or two users doing on-topic trolling, so I left).

Well there is now Kbin. It has “magazines” which are similar to subreddits, or you can just post to the main feed. Other users can vote up or down, and comment etc. It also federates via ActivityPub, and I love the fact it can be self-hosted using Docker.

Kbin is a decentralized content aggregator and microblogging platform running on the Fediverse network. It can communicate with many other ActivityPub services, including Mastodon, Lemmy, Pleroma, Peertube. The initiative aims to promote a free and open internet.

The project page is at https://kbin.pub/, and it looks like kbin.social is one of their main instances.
#Blog, #alternativeto, #Kbin, #opensource, #reddit, #technology

Best Free (not all open source) Microsoft Office alternatives in 2023

LibreOffice probably still remains the most complete set of features and a pure open source option, but I can see why the free SoftMaker FreeOffice is also given a lot of credit: It opens very quickly, has a pretty slick more modern user interface, it has excellent MS Office compatibility, and it already has usable mobile apps for both Android and iOS (apart from Windows, macOS and Linux too).

So yes, on all of these fronts, LibreOffice does lag a bit. But LibreOffice is open source, and all advanced features are completely free. FreeOffice also does not open or edit existing PDFs.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/
#Blog, ##msoffice, #alternativeto, #productivity, #technology

Odysee video platform seems to have sorted out their buffering problem, and livestreaming is available to all

This is really great news as the service was becoming fairly unusable for me for the last few months. Tested it now and seems buttery smooth. I also see more resolution options, which in the past had some dependency on what was uploaded.

You don’t know about Odysee…? Well, it is used by many YouTubers as a safe backup for their videos in case they get a ban on YouTube, and many use it as their primary video sharing platform to escape the YouTube tracking. So in many cases you will find a lot of YouTuber’s content there just as it appears on YouTube (Odysee can be configured to actually automatically republish any public video that you have uploaded to YouTube). But it has it’s own vibe and culture, and many also see it as having a lot more freedoms.

And yes it does have a cryptocurrency that you can earn or spend there, but that is totally by the way and can be ignored if you’re not interested.

See https://odysee.com/@Odysee:8/mayroundup:4

#technology #odysee #videos #alternativeto
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##odysee, ##technology, ##videos

ONLYOFFICE 7.1 is Out With New PDF Viewer, Slideshow Animations + More, as an open source alternative to MS Office and LibreOffice for Windows, macOS and Linux

ONLYOFFICE offers a high-performance, well-featured, and fully-functional alternative to LibreOffice (which, though awesome, is a bit ‘old-school’ for some folks’ UI tastes). It’s also the next-best thing to that stalwart of the productivity software scene: Microsoft Office.

ONLYOFFICE 7.1 inherits a swathe of improvements recently deposited in the cloud-side version of the suite, such as improved performance, better Microsoft Office compatibility, and a handy new print preview mode in all of the suite’s respective components.

See https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/05/onlyoffice-desktop-editors-7-1-released

#technology #opensource #alternativeto #onlyoffice #officesuite
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##officesuite, ##onlyoffice, ##opensource, ##technology

ADS-B Exchange is the World’s largest source of unfiltered crowdsourced flight data (similar to FlightRadar24) running on open source software

Around 7000 people all over the world have installed a small SDR (usually a Raspberry Pi with a low cost Software Defined Radio receiver) and an antenna to receive 1090 MHz and feed the data into their project. The received data is collected (ADS-B) and correlated to create MLAT positions. As they need to see an aircraft with 4 feeders to be able to find its location with MLAT the best way to expand coverage is to install your own feeder, even if there are already some in your area, or help them arrange to place one in the area of bad coverage.

ADSBexchange started as (and still is) a group of aviation enthusiasts pooling their feeder data to provide the most complete picture of air traffic possible without the censorship present on the “large, commercial networks”. ADSBx prefers to allow “free” access to as many features as possible. They don’t put features behind a “paywall”, then hold them ransom to encourage/force people to feed.

Their primary goal though is to answer the question of “what’s up there” rather than “is grandma’s flight on-time”. The photos shown on ADS-B Exchange are not provided by ADS-B Exchange, rather they are hosted and provided by planespotters.net. So there are certainly differences from FlightRadar24, but as ADS-B Exchange says, they are not trying to tell you if grandma’s plane is on time.

See https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

#technology #opensource #alternativeto #flightdata #flights
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##flightdata, ##flights, ##opensource, ##technology, #flightradar24

Get started with EGroupware, an open source alternative to Microsoft 365 that runs in your favourite web browser

A groupware solution is a must-have, whether you’re working in a small organization, a medium-sized company, or a large enterprise. It promotes collaboration and glues teams together. Are you looking for an open source alternative to the big players? Maybe EGroupware can replace Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace in your team soon.

Apart from its own modules, EGroupware integrates other well-known open source applications, including Collabora Online, Rocket.Chat, Guacamole, Jitsi, and BigBlueButton. The groupware also supports computer telephony integration (CTI) with Asterisk/Placetel.

EGroupware offers two editions:
* The free Community Edition (CE) is developed under the GPLv2 and contains basic functions without limitations.
* The Enterprise Line (EPL) offers additional features and applications, especially for companies or large organizations, and extended vendor support.

This article shows how to install EGroupware on your own server and how to set up the groupware solution for your organization. If you’re not too keen on hosting the software yourself, EGroupware provides a SaaS solution hosted in German data centers.

See https://opensource.com/article/22/3/open-source-egroupware

#technology #opensource #alternativeto #office365 #egroupware
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##egroupware, ##office365, ##opensource, ##technology

Healthchecks.io is an open source online service for monitoring regularly running tasks such as cron jobs, or monitoring sites without public websites

It uses the Dead man’s switch technique: the monitored system must “check in” with Healthchecks.io at regular, configurable time intervals. When Healthchecks.io detects a missed check-in, it sends out alerts. Similarly, you can use this service too, to monitor a remote location that is not publicly accessible across the Internet because it does it’s check outbound, and not inbound such as say UptimeRobot does. In this way, if the job has not checked in after a predetermined period, you’ll receive a notification.

It is fully open source, so you can either self-host the monitoring service yourself, or their cloud service is free to use for up to 20 job monitors with e-mail alerts or 5 SMS / WhatsApp credits. If you are using the Dead Man’s Switch service (open source clients), this is certainly an alternative to consider.

See https://github.com/healthchecks/healthchecks

#technology #opensource #healthchecks #alternativeto #deadmansswitch #monitoring
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##deadmansswitch, ##healthchecks, ##monitoring, ##opensource, ##technology

Free Cron Job Monitoring - Healthchecks.io

Healthchecks.io alerts you when your cron jobs don't run on time.

Experimental WebAssembly port of LibreOffice released: Try it in your browser

An experimental version of LibreOffice compiled to WebAssembly (nicknamed LOWA) has appeared. Be warned, it’s about 300MB, so it takes a while to load, but you can try it here in your browser.

It’s based on the still-prototype LibreOffice 7.4 codebase and is not yet ready for production use. Given that LibreOffice is a large codebase, parts of which are decades old, this is a significant vindication of WebAssembly.

See https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/19/webassembly_port_libreoffice/

#technology #libreoffice #opensource #alternativeto #cloud
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##cloud, ##libreoffice, ##opensource, ##technology

Files – a free and open source modern file explorer that pushes the boundaries of Windows OS

Files is a file manager for Windows with a powerful yet intuitive design. Cloud files integration? Tabs and multiple layouts? Rich file previews? Files has it covered with robust features you expect from a modern file manager.

Have it your way. Files features a fully customizable user interface, right down to the colours and materials. Try custom themes that are built into Files, or dive right into the docs and create your own.

See https://files.community/

#technology #windows #fileexplorer #alternativeto #opensource
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##fileexplorer, ##opensource, ##technology, ##windows

The Best 3rd Party Apps and Extensions You Should Install If You Use Reddit

Reddit is one of the few social media websites that allows you to develop full-fledged apps for the service. That’s why you’ll find lots of high-quality Reddit apps on the App Store and the Google Play Store. And in many ways, these third-party apps are better than the official Reddit experience.

There are many things Reddit doesn’t do well. The video player is a mess because it often takes ages to load; it hides URL previews, so you never know what you’re clicking on (maybe it’s funny when you get rickrolled for the 5,000th time, but you won’t be cackling if you click an NSFW link at work); Reddit is big on GIFs, but you can’t scrub through GIFs to pause at the right moment; and don’t even get me started about the shitty ads and the useless search box on the site.

Of late, Reddit’s focus has been more towards adding Facebook-style features, including infinite scrolling, showing you who else is online, and how many people are commenting in real time. If you are uncomfortable with all this, you should consider using the best third-party apps and browser extensions for Reddit.

They cover:
* Apollo
* Narwhal
* Reddit Enhancement Suite (desktop browser plugin)
* Boost
* Joey
* Infinity
* RIF is Fun
* Relay
* Slide

See https://lifehacker.com/the-best-apps-and-extensions-you-should-install-if-you-1848459916

#technology #reddit #3rdpartyapps #alternativeto
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##reddit, ##technology

FLOSS alternatives to Visual Basic – Notable that many non-Windows specific apps run across Windows, Linux and macOS

Visual Basic is a fully proprietary software programming platform, that means, the language, the IDE, the resulting programs, and the OS where it can run, are all proprietary. This makes programs created with VB proprietary, and can only run on Windows.

This is a list of free/libre open source software (FLOSS) alternatives to Visual Basic (part of Microsoft Visual Studio) computer programming platform. If your school is still teaching VB 6, or if you now use Ubuntu for programming classroom, we strongly suggest you to switch to either one of these alternatives. With these, one can create computer programs visually by drag and drop as well as coding just like what one can do with VB.

I’m a big fan of open source software, but along with that, also cross-platform applications as they do not lock you into one OS or a single vendor. This just keeps all your options open, maximises competition (innovation), and covers the broadest possible potential user base.

See https://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2022/01/alternatives-to-visual-basic.html

#technology #opensource #alternativeto #programming #crossplatform
#Blog, ##alternativeto, ##crossplatform, ##opensource, ##programming, ##technology