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Monday, March 7, 2011

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We7 announces new offline radio app

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 04:01 PM PST

We7 has announced the arrival of its latest service - a mobile radio app which lets users create their own personal radio stations that can work anywhere, regardless of data signal.

The new We7 mobile app works with or without an internet connection, so you can listen to personalised radio without the fear that you are eating into your precious data bundle.

The way the app works is by using a sequence of buffering and caching mechanisms.

Essentially you pack your phone with tunes before you set off – this requires a wired connection but is said to take only 15 minutes or so for hours of content.

Like a proper radio station, you won't know what tunes are coming up next but you can tailor your content by genre, or even artist.

Cache rules everything around me

The app is free and will eventually be ad-funded. Currently it is in its beta stage, so you should be able to try it out ad-free for now.

TechRadar spoke to Steve Purdham, CEO of We7, who said about the app: "Using buffering technology already in place on the existing We7 app, we have created a radio app that isn't tied to a data connection.

"Data has always been a problem for modern smartphones and we have found a unique way round this problem."

Although the radio app is free, users who want to choose their own songs, albums and playlists can upgrade to an 'on-demand' subscription for just £9.99 a month.

Existing users who already pay for We7 will get this new feature as part of their service – although they will need to download the new app for the new services to work.

The We7 radio app is available now for free from the Android Market, with an iPhone version coming in April.

Hands on: Sony Cybershot DSC-HX100V review

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 09:24 AM PST

Before its UK unveiling at the Focus On Imaging show in Birmingham, TechRadar has managed to get its hands on the Sony HX100V – a superzoom camera that is the flagship of the Cybershot range.

Sony's latest range of Cybershot cameras were originally announced at CES 2011 in Las Vegas in January, so it has taken a few months for the cameras to make their way to the UK.

Although there are a range of models on offer - WX7, WX10, HX7, HX9 and HX100 - they all have one thing in common: at their heart is an Exmor R CMOS sensor, with chassis and feature changes made to suit different consumer needs.

There's a reason the HX100V is branded a superzoom – it offers a mighty 30x zoom capability, alongside a host of other top-end features.

Sony hx100 review

The highlight of these is Sweep Panorama mode in both 2D and 3D, and the capability of shooting 3D stills – for playback on 3D Ready TVs – all at 16MP resolution.

When it comes to Sweep Panorama, a number of changes have been made. It is now called Intelligent Sweep Panorama HR, and Sony is claiming that the quality you get is equivalent to 40MP resolution (10480x4096) – so you can effectively get poster-sized images out of the file.

Sony hx100 review

The Sony HX100V has prosumer looks, with a hand grip on the right-hand side of the chassis and a focus ring round the Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T lens for added manual control.

If you want to switch to manual focus, then you just need to flick the switch on the side of the lens.

The Mode dial has been kept the same across the range, and features two intelligent auto modes – one which will take multiple shots to help with things like blurring.

The zoom that the camera boasts was impressive in our tests, with no clarity lost even when used to the full 30x.

And there seems to be a number of features within the menu system that add to the HX100's prosumer slant, such as background defocus.

Sony hx100 review

At 525 grams, the camera is lighter than any DSLR you will use, but it may feel heavier in the hand for those who are used to compacts.

When shooting at awkward angles the 3.0-inch 921,000-dot XtraFine LCD, complete with a wide viewing angle, came into its own as you had the ability to tilt the viewfinder to your needs.

Sony hx100 review

When it comes to video shooting, the specs speak for themselves. Sony have moved on to progressive, so you can now capture 1920 x 1080 50p images. The test footage we shot seemed extremely smooth and clear, even though no tripod was used and there was very little setup of shots.

Although we would need to test the Sony HX100 fully – the sample we had was still pre-production – Sony has made a great camera for those not quite ready to go to a full DSLR, but want to maintain a modicum of manual control.

Sony hx100v review

The Sony HX100 UK release date is April, with pricing to be around £400.



Interview: Facebook and open source: 'we've come a long way'

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PST

With over 500 million users, Facebook is by far the world's biggest social networking site - and has also been making important contributions to the open source community.

David Recordon, the site's head of open source, talks us through the company's approach to free software.

LXF: What's your background in open source?

David Recordon: I really got started working with open source when I was a teenager. I was using YaBB SE (PHP forum software), and started helping others within the community.

At the time, I knew C++ and a bit of Perl, but really hadn't done much web programming. PHP was easy to pick up and I loved the immediacy of being able to just hit save and then refresh my browser. Over the next few years, I got more deeply involved in the project, helped launch the rewrite as Simple Machines Forum, and built a forum-hosting business with my friend Joshua Dickerson.

I guess this was really my first experience of being deeply involved in an open source project.

LXF: Did you continue working in the web business?

DR: A few years later, I interned at LiveJournal, really learned Perl, and was told to never admit that I used Nano (after switching to Emacs). Working at LiveJournal was also my first experience of using Linux on the desktop daily.

LXF: You're well known in the OpenID world. How did you get involved in the project?

DR: A number of people took advantage of the fact that LiveJournal's core was open source and ran clones. According to Wikipedia, there have been 30 different sites, with DeadJournal being the first in 2001. While spam was never a major problem within LiveJournal.com, commenting across blogging sites was still riddled with it, because there was no shared notion of identity.

OpenID was originally created at Six Apart to help tackle cross-site commenting in a decentralised manner. It's obviously evolved quite drastically since 2005, and I really got deeply involved in OpenID 2.0 while I was at VeriSign.

It's been implemented by just about every major web company, but we still have a long way to go. I see the next version of OpenID being built on top of OAuth 2.0. This will allow it to be a fairly small piece of technology that should work for applications outside of the browser.

LXF: How did you make the move to Facebook?

DR: I joined Facebook in 2009 to work on open source and standards. My team is focused on making it easy for anyone in the company to do a really great job of using, contributing to and releasing open source projects.

At times this means embedding ourselves within other engineering teams, such as with HipHop for PHP, which we released in early 2010. While HipHop had proven itself within Facebook, there was a lot of work still to do to make it a useful piece of infrastructure for others.

LXF: What exactly does HipHop do?

DR: HipHop really embodies how we create at Facebook. It started as a hackathon project by Haiping Zhao, who was later joined by Iain Proctor and Minghui Yang. Haiping noticed a number of similarities between the syntax of PHP and C++, and wondered if you could programmatically rewrite one into another.

Two-and-half years and a few other engineers later, HipHop was serving the vast majority of Facebook's production traffic. It takes our PHP source code, transforms it into C++, and compiles it into a self-contained binary that we deploy on production web servers.

This is a typical pattern of how projects get started at Facebook. One or two people just decide to try something. We refer to this as our "hacker culture".

LXF: Is your work on the OpenID and OAuth standards used at Facebook?

DR: Our platform engineering team did a lot of work on OAuth 2.0 this past year. OAuth was created to standardise an API design pattern where people could grant websites access to act on their behalf without having to share their password. While OAuth 1.0 was used in just about every new API over the past two years, it was too complex for many developers. We helped create OAuth 2.0 to fix that.

OAuth 2.0 relies on SSL to protect an access token when making API requests versus HMAC signatures, which were used in 1.0. This removes a great deal of complexity, because developers interacting with your API no longer needed to normalise, sort, and then sign all of their HTTP request parameters.

We were the first to ship OAuth 2.0 as a part of the Graph API announced at f8 in April after working within the IETF community to write a good deal of it. Also at f8, we introduced the Open Graph Protocol (http://ogp.me), which uses a very simple subset of the RDFa framework to represent any web page as a part of a social graph.

LXF: People think of Facebook as a closed-source site. How else do you contribute to open source?

DR: Facebook engineers actively contribute within the Apache Hadoop ecosystem and to MySQL and PHP, and have created a number of features that allow memcached to scale on modern hardware.

But we don't just contribute to other projects or release developer tools, we open source entire pieces of production infrastructure. HipHop, FlashCache, Apache Hive and Cassandra, Thrift, Scribe, and others were all created at Facebook. I don't think that there's another web company of our size that's done the same.

LXF: On the flip side, what's difficult about working on open source within a company?

DR: It's easy for companies to fall into believing the myth that open source doesn't take additional time and effort. It really does take time if you're going to do a good job. And it's important to properly set expectations around projects in terms of the spectrum between just sharing your source code under an open source licence and fully sharing control over the project itself.

I almost think the decision here is less important in comparison to companies appropriately setting expectations.

LXF: What's your view on Facebook clone Diaspora?

DR: I have a lot of respect for those guys. They're obviously passionate about what they're working on and are actually building a product. I think there are a lot of challenges in what they're trying to create.

An open source social network is about far more than status updates and sending messages between sites; it's also about having a global sense of identity and bringing both your friends and your content with you around the web, while keeping you in control over who can see what you've shared. It's about building a platform.

LXF: Do you feel that Facebook is currently embracing the open web?

DR: Yes, I think we've come a long way in the past year. Whether it's OAuth 2.0, HTML 5, or the Open Graph Protocol, we've used standards where they exist and worked with the community to create them in some of the areas they don't.

We'll often get criticised for not implementing a given technology, but the best standards are created following working implementations and not the other way around. As I wrote over the summer in reference to emerging standards: "Don't be afraid to rip them apart as needed if you'll end up with a better product, a better technology, and ultimately a better standard. We did this recently with OAuth 2.0 and the internet is better for it"



Related Stories

Interview: Facebook and open source: 'we've come a long way'

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PST

With over 500 million users, Facebook is by far the world's biggest social networking site - and has also been making important contributions to the open source community.

David Recordon, the site's head of open source, talks us through the company's approach to free software.

LXF: What's your background in open source?

David Recordon: I really got started working with open source when I was a teenager. I was using YaBB SE (PHP forum software), and started helping others within the community.

At the time, I knew C++ and a bit of Perl, but really hadn't done much web programming. PHP was easy to pick up and I loved the immediacy of being able to just hit save and then refresh my browser. Over the next few years, I got more deeply involved in the project, helped launch the rewrite as Simple Machines Forum, and built a forum-hosting business with my friend Joshua Dickerson.

I guess this was really my first experience of being deeply involved in an open source project.

LXF: Did you continue working in the web business?

DR: A few years later, I interned at LiveJournal, really learned Perl, and was told to never admit that I used Nano (after switching to Emacs). Working at LiveJournal was also my first experience of using Linux on the desktop daily.

LXF: You're well known in the OpenID world. How did you get involved in the project?

DR: A number of people took advantage of the fact that LiveJournal's core was open source and ran clones. According to Wikipedia, there have been 30 different sites, with DeadJournal being the first in 2001. While spam was never a major problem within LiveJournal.com, commenting across blogging sites was still riddled with it, because there was no shared notion of identity.

OpenID was originally created at Six Apart to help tackle cross-site commenting in a decentralised manner. It's obviously evolved quite drastically since 2005, and I really got deeply involved in OpenID 2.0 while I was at VeriSign.

It's been implemented by just about every major web company, but we still have a long way to go. I see the next version of OpenID being built on top of OAuth 2.0. This will allow it to be a fairly small piece of technology that should work for applications outside of the browser.

LXF: How did you make the move to Facebook?

DR: I joined Facebook in 2009 to work on open source and standards. My team is focused on making it easy for anyone in the company to do a really great job of using, contributing to and releasing open source projects.

At times this means embedding ourselves within other engineering teams, such as with HipHop for PHP, which we released in early 2010. While HipHop had proven itself within Facebook, there was a lot of work still to do to make it a useful piece of infrastructure for others.

LXF: What exactly does HipHop do?

DR: HipHop really embodies how we create at Facebook. It started as a hackathon project by Haiping Zhao, who was later joined by Iain Proctor and Minghui Yang. Haiping noticed a number of similarities between the syntax of PHP and C++, and wondered if you could programmatically rewrite one into another.

Two-and-half years and a few other engineers later, HipHop was serving the vast majority of Facebook's production traffic. It takes our PHP source code, transforms it into C++, and compiles it into a self-contained binary that we deploy on production web servers.

This is a typical pattern of how projects get started at Facebook. One or two people just decide to try something. We refer to this as our "hacker culture".

LXF: Is your work on the OpenID and OAuth standards used at Facebook?

DR: Our platform engineering team did a lot of work on OAuth 2.0 this past year. OAuth was created to standardise an API design pattern where people could grant websites access to act on their behalf without having to share their password. While OAuth 1.0 was used in just about every new API over the past two years, it was too complex for many developers. We helped create OAuth 2.0 to fix that.

OAuth 2.0 relies on SSL to protect an access token when making API requests versus HMAC signatures, which were used in 1.0. This removes a great deal of complexity, because developers interacting with your API no longer needed to normalise, sort, and then sign all of their HTTP request parameters.

We were the first to ship OAuth 2.0 as a part of the Graph API announced at f8 in April after working within the IETF community to write a good deal of it. Also at f8, we introduced the Open Graph Protocol (http://ogp.me), which uses a very simple subset of the RDFa framework to represent any web page as a part of a social graph.

LXF: People think of Facebook as a closed-source site. How else do you contribute to open source?

DR: Facebook engineers actively contribute within the Apache Hadoop ecosystem and to MySQL and PHP, and have created a number of features that allow memcached to scale on modern hardware.

But we don't just contribute to other projects or release developer tools, we open source entire pieces of production infrastructure. HipHop, FlashCache, Apache Hive and Cassandra, Thrift, Scribe, and others were all created at Facebook. I don't think that there's another web company of our size that's done the same.

LXF: On the flip side, what's difficult about working on open source within a company?

DR: It's easy for companies to fall into believing the myth that open source doesn't take additional time and effort. It really does take time if you're going to do a good job. And it's important to properly set expectations around projects in terms of the spectrum between just sharing your source code under an open source licence and fully sharing control over the project itself.

I almost think the decision here is less important in comparison to companies appropriately setting expectations.

LXF: What's your view on Facebook clone Diaspora?

DR: I have a lot of respect for those guys. They're obviously passionate about what they're working on and are actually building a product. I think there are a lot of challenges in what they're trying to create.

An open source social network is about far more than status updates and sending messages between sites; it's also about having a global sense of identity and bringing both your friends and your content with you around the web, while keeping you in control over who can see what you've shared. It's about building a platform.

LXF: Do you feel that Facebook is currently embracing the open web?

DR: Yes, I think we've come a long way in the past year. Whether it's OAuth 2.0, HTML 5, or the Open Graph Protocol, we've used standards where they exist and worked with the community to create them in some of the areas they don't.

We'll often get criticised for not implementing a given technology, but the best standards are created following working implementations and not the other way around. As I wrote over the summer in reference to emerging standards: "Don't be afraid to rip them apart as needed if you'll end up with a better product, a better technology, and ultimately a better standard. We did this recently with OAuth 2.0 and the internet is better for it"

Related Stories

Review: Ecamm Network PhoneView

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

Most of the time, you can rely on iTunes and iPhoto to get data from an iOS device, but that's not always the case. If something goes badly wrong with your iTunes library and you have no back-up, a fresh iTunes install may want to wipe your device and start from scratch; also, iTunes and iPhoto occasionally screw up, not syncing properly, thereby denying access to your data.

In such situations, PhoneView enables you to view, access and copy data to and from your device.

Unlike competing products, PhoneView doesn't merely provide access to an iOS device's file-system— it also makes sense of it. For example, click Photos and you see the photos (including dates and dimensions) on your device, rather than a list of cryptically named folders.

And along with copy options, there's an option to send selections directly to iPhoto. PhoneView also provides access to your music, books, podcasts, notes, call log, messages and apps.

The last of those things is particularly interesting: by default, you view apps where iTunes enables file sharing, but you can also access other app packages. For the former kind, PhoneView's system is better than iTunes for copying data to and from a device. With the latter, you can extract /Documents and /Library files, safeguarding or backing up videogame high-scores and the like.

Much faster since we looked at the app two years ago, PhoneView is, bar the occasional non-destructive crash, now near-perfect and recommended for anybody who has an iOS device.

Related Links

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Tutorial: Linux backup: the complete guide

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

There are two kinds of data in computing: the sort that's already lost and the stuff that isn't - yet.

You can spend a fortune on a storage medium that's anti-scratch, dust-resistant, heat-proof and contains no moving parts, but it'll all come to naught eventually if you haven't also invested effort in backing your data up.

Although it isn't particularly time consuming, backing up data requires careful thought and preparation, and involves more than just zipping files into a tarball. This means it's often neglected.

Note that an archive isn't a backup and it's important to know the difference between the two. An archive is a primary copy of data that's put away for future use. A backup, on the other hand, is a secondary copy that you call upon to recover your important files and information from data loss disasters.

So no matter what kind of user you are, or how you use your Linux distribution, this article has got something for you. Most of the backup tools discussed here only require a bit of thought and a little time to set up. Best of all, unless you've got terabytes of data, you can safely file it for little or no cost both on and offline.

We'll also discuss ways to organise and store your data more efficiently so that it's easily accessible and simple to back up. You need never lose data again.

A primer to the thought process behind making your data safe

Preparing for a backup involves careful consideration. For starters, where do you store your data? Keeping it on another partition of the same disk isn't advisable - what if the whole disk fails? A copy on another disk is one solution.

To protect your data against physical disasters, such as fires, foods and theft, keep the backup as far away from the original as possible, perhaps on the cloud.

Each method has it's advantages: hard disks offer the best price-to-space ratio and are also a convenient and readily available option, Flash drives offer portability, optical media's easily distributable, and online storage is globally accessible.

The kind of data also influences the choice of storage medium. A DVD might be useful for holiday snapshots, but is of limited use to a pro photographer. If you'll be backing up large quantities of data, it's advisable to get multiple, high-capacity hard disks. Or you might want to invest in a NAS (network attached storage) box.

Another option would be to create your own cloud by attaching USB disks to network accessible devices such the PogoPlug or TonidoPlug. Figure out which of these options best suits your needs.

What to backup?

Depending on the size of your home directory, backing it up completely could be overkill. Here are the essentials:

Your documents and files
~/Documents, ~/Downloads, ~/Desktop

Most modern distros keep the files you've created or downloaded under these directories. Don't forget to check /home for any important documents.

Your email data (Evolution/Thunderbird/Kmail)
~/.evolution, ~/.thunderbird, ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail

Depending on your client, one of these should contain your emails, plus their attachments, your address book and so on.

Other apps' data

Other apps create their own data repositories to store files. Most prompt you for the location, while some create their own. Check under their Preferences to search these out.

Installed software
/var/cache/apt, /var/cache/yum

If there's a piece of software that's crucial to you and you don't want to spend time downloading it again, back it up.

Personal settings
.bashrc, .profile, .gnupg/, .local/, .openoffice/, .mozilla/

These are some of the essential hidden directories that store user settings. Back them up for every user in your installation. Be vigilant, though. Some contain Cache directories, such as Firefox (under ~/.mozilla/firefox/whvmajqx.default/Cache for us), which needlessly add to the backup's size.

System settings
/etc, /var/spool/cron/, /var/spool/mail, /boot,

Pay close attention to these directories if you're backing up your entire installation. You'll find system settings in /etc. Although it's got a large number of files, it isn't very bulky. This is unlike /var. It contains cache directories for several apps you can miss out, plus /var/spool/mail, which houses the user mail files, and /var/spool/cron, which has the settings for cron, both of which you should back up.

If you've made changes elsewhere in the system, consider backing up those files under /usr/ and /usr/local/.

Data considerations

Now we know what to back up, so let's consider how to go about it. Do you want to back up manually or automatically based on a schedule? The correct frequency varies based on the kind and value of data being safeguarded.

Depending on the size of the files, it might not be a good idea to back them up completely every day either. Many backup tools enable you to do incremental backups - only creating copies of files that have changed since the last backup.

Will you manipulate the data before safeguarding it? If you're backing up large quantities of data, it's advisable to compress it. If the data's sensitive, you can encrypt it too. Remember that both add to backup overheads.

Finally, to ensure the data's integrity, checksum and validate it regularly.

Step-by-step: Crontab entries from a GUI

1. Create your crontab

Corntab 1

Despite its simplicity, automating tasks with Cron can be a tricky task if you are not used to it. Corntab (www.corntab.com) is a browser-based visual front-end that helps you cook up an appropriate crontab entry.

2. Email it

Corntab 2

The Corntab interface has sliders and check boxes to help you pick both the time (in minutes, hours, days of the month, months and days of the week) and command that you wish to schedule with Cron.

3. Paste into crontab

Corntab 3

When you're done, copy or email the crontab entry, and paste it into crontab from the command line with the crontab -e command. When you save and exit the crontab editor, the new entry will be activated.

Protect your data easily with these no-fuss tools for beginners

Déjà Dup

DejaDup

Aren't yet used to the ways of a backup tool? Then Déjà Dup is for you. It has a minimal interface so as to not overwhelm new users, yet it's based on the powerful command linebased Duplicity and integrates nicely with Gnome.

Pulled from the repositories, Déjà Dup installs under Applications > System Tools. Before you use it, you'll need to set its Preferences. Start by pointing it towards the location where you want to house your backups. This can be a local hard disk, a remote location via SSH, or Amazon's S3 web storage.

Then specify the list of directories you want to include in and exclude from the backup. By separating these two, Déjà Dup gives you the flexibility to include a large directory - for instance, /home - in your backup, while specifying parts to leave out, such as .cache/.

By default, Déjà Dup encrypts your backups, but you can ask it not to do so by unchecking the Encrypt Backup Files box. Next to it is a pull-down menu that enables you schedule regular backups.

When you're done, click the Backup icon to invoke the process. If you've opted to encrypt the data, Déjà Dup now prompts you for a password. It then provides a summary list of the directories involved and begins.

This initial backup may take some time, but subsequent backups are incremental - dealing only with what's changed - and thus much faster.

When restoring backups, Déjà Dup enables you to restore them to their original location or under a specific directory. Since the backup's directory contains encrypted material, you'll be prompted for your password again.

Finally, you're presented with a time-stamped list of backups to restore. That's all there's to it.

Déjà Dup is ideal for backing up files under a user's /home directory, but you might run into authorisation issues with system files. Also Déjà Dup doesn't allow you to create backup sets. So if you wish to back up a different directory, you'll have to modify the Preferences.

Similarly, in order to restore from different locations, you'll have to change the location first under Preferences.

LuckyBackup

LuckyBackup

While Déjà Dup is suitable for most users, if you want something that's able to handle multiple backup schemes, then use LuckyBackup.

Among its strong points is that it supports multiple profiles, enabling you to manage different backup sets. A default profile is created when you first launch the app and, like all profiles, must have a task attached - either to perform a backup or restore data from one.

Tasks can be one of three types: you can select to back up just the contents of a directory, replicate the entire source directory as is, or you can synchronise the source and destination, which is handy when you need to keep files found under two directories in sync.

When the synchronisation task is executed, LuckyBackup checks for the newest version of a file under both the source and destination directories and copies them to the other. So newly created files in one location are replicated in the other. The only drawback is that if you have deliberately deleted a file/folder in one location but not its counterpart, these will be automatically recreated.

Elsewhere, the Advanced button expands the New Task dialogue to give you fine control over the files to include in, and exclude from, the backup. If you'll be backing up to a remote directory, specify your connection details under the Remote tab.

Power users will appreciate the convenience of the Also Execute tab, which enables you to specify a list of commands to execute before and after the backup.

When you're done creating a backup, click the Validate button to ensure your settings are good to go. With all your tasks for multiple locations set up, it's time to schedule them. Head over to Profile > Schedule, and click Add. Now select the profile to schedule and customise its run time.

Finally, click the CrontIT! button, which automatically creates a Cron job for the backup. To manually run a backup, select the task to execute and click Start. You might also want to check the Simulator box to simulate the backup and ensure it will run properly.

The process of restoring a backup in LuckyBackup is just a backup task with the directories reversed. Also remember to uncheck the Skip Newer Destination Files box under the Command Options tab in the Advanced view.

Finally, execute the restore task as usual and your backed up data will be reinstated in its original place.

Enterprise solutions

BackupPC

BackupPC

If you manage a computer lab or work in an enterprise setting, backing up individual computers using the tools we've covered so far would be a chore. When you have a bunch of machines to take care of, it's best to rely on BackupPC. Be warned, however, that it's not for the faint of heart, despite its web-based interface and extensive documentation.

While it can be used on individual machines, it's best called upon when you want to safeguard data on multiple computers. Not only that, but it will work across Linux, Mac, or Windows, and is well suited for environments that have a mix of different OSes.

It has impressive features too, including pooling. This reduces backup sizes by saving only one copy of identical files that exist on many computers. For example, if you have the same distro running on all computers, BackupPC will only keep one copy of the system files.

Install and configure

You can install BackupPC from your distro's repository, or get the latest version via the tarball.

Before you extract and install it, make sure you have the following Perl modules: Compress::Zlib, Archive::Zip, XML::RSS, Net::FTP and File::RsyncP.

You can install them using CPAN a la: perl -MCPAN -e 'install Compress::Zlib

With the various libraries in place, you should download the tarball, untar it and then enter the following: perl configure.pl

When you run configure.pl, you'll be prompted for the full paths of various executables and for configuration information such as the BackupPC user, the data directory and so on. By default, the configuration files will be stored in /etc/backuppc.

Once it's set up, you can start the program with /etc/init.d/backuppc start

The basic BackupPC configuration can be edited via the app's web interface, which you'll find by pointing your browser towards localhost/backuppc. Use the username and password you specified when configuring BackupPC to login to this.

The interface also lets you browse the various hosts as well as initiate backup and restore operations. You can edit basic configuration settings from the Edit Config menu. Use the Add button under the Edit Hosts section to include a client to back up.

In order to set up individual clients, you'll have to manually edit their configuration files, and provide details depending on the method used for backing up (BackupPC supports SMB, TAR, Rsync and FTP).

An /etc example

For example, the following backs up the /etc directory on localhost using TAR: $Conf{XferMethod} = 'tar'; $Conf{TarShareName} = ['/etc']; $Conf{TarClientCmd} = '/usr/bin/env LC_ALL=C $tarPath -c -v -f - -C $shareName'

To begin the back up, head to the web interface, select a host and then click Start Full Backup. The Status page will show you which backups are running. Alternatively, you could also perform an incremental backup if you have previously archived files to add to.

With backup data in place, BackupPC enables you to view and restore individual files, or complete filesystems. You can either download the backed up files as zipped archives, or directly restore them into their original computer.

There's far more to BackupPC than we can touch on here; it's the most comprehensive program in this feature. As such, you'll need to spend time browsing its documentation and adapting it to your network to make full use of it. Our in-depth tutorial in LXF125 may also help if you have access to it.

MondoRescue

Mondo rescue

MondoRescue isn't your everyday backup program, but rather specialises in recovery after catastrophic data loss. It's ideal for backing up the core filesystem, say once a month. It can also be used to clone an installation on larger partitions.

While your distro might include MondoRescue in its repositories, it's best to grab packages for the app from ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org. You'll also need Mindi, Mondo's companion tool that packages backups into bootable distros, and mindi-busybox, which contains the tools Mindi needs.

When you're all set, launch MondoRescue as root with sudo mondoarchive You'll see the tool's crude-but-effective Ncurses-based interface. You're asked for your choice of backup medium, how much compression you'd like to use, and whether it should divide the backups to fit CDs or DVDs.

Then you'll be asked what to back up. By default, the app backs up everything under the root directory. MondoRescue can also back up Windows partitions if it detects them on your disk. You should let MondoRescue verify the archives it creates too - this takes time but is well worth it.

When it's ready to copy data, MondoRescue creates a catalogue of files, divides them into sets, then calls Mindi and finally begins backing up, which can take several hours. If you've asked MondoRescue to back up to a hard disk, when it's done you'll find one or several ISO images inside the directory you specified. Boot from the first image and enter compare at the boot prompt to check the archived copies against your filesystem.

At the end of the process, this prints the non-matching files. There might be some immediately after backing up, but these are often just cache files, which can be safely ignored. To format and restore all files, type nuke, or interactive.

If you're restoring to a blank hard disk, MondoRescue will also partition it and adjust the backed up partitions to suit. It'll also regenerate the bootloader, which you can then fine tune.

Tonido

Tonido

Back in LXF 122, we looked at a piece of software called Tonido to help you create your own personal cloud server. It's a wonderful tool for sharing your files over an internal network as well as the internet. It might not be open source, but it gets the job done without you having to mess with your router and firewall settings.

Tonido is available as a binary for both Deb and RPM-based distros, or you can download it from www.tonido.com.

The only bit of setting up it requires is a username, which becomes part of your tonido web address. So if you choose Fluffy as your user name, you can access your files from anywhere by pointing your browser at fluffy.tonodoid.com.

Note that your data is still stored on your computer, not external servers, and is simply served over the internet, which may help qualm any fears you have about the security of what you store.

Tonido also includes an application to back up data to a local disk or remote computer. To perform a backup, log into Tonido's web interface and click the Backup app. This then opens another interface that enables you to add and schedule backups. Click on the New button to add a new backup record.

The process involves selecting the device and the backup source and destination folders if you want to backup to a local disk. If you want to back up to a remote computer, you'll be presented with a list of peers. You can only back up to remote machines that are in your group.

Tonido identifies machines with their globally addressable peer ID. So you can back up to any machine on the internet, as long as it's in your group.

Once the backup is good to go, you can schedule it to run at periodic intervals, or run it manually. If you're particularly paranoid, you'll also be glad to know that Tonido encrypts data using AES encryption and transfers it directly from the source computer to the remote computer.

Tonido has many other features too. It enables you to collaborate, share, and sync files with others on the internet via Group Workspaces. To sync content through Tonido Groups, other users will need to have Tonido installed.

Since the software runs and functions the same way on both Windows and Mac OSX, however, you can share your data with them regardless of their chosen operating system.

How to make crash-proof discs

DVDisaster

DVD disaster

Optical discs are the commonly preferred media for keeping backups. However, even when stored carefully, they'll go bad over time. One option is to make new copies of the backup discs. Depending on your backup catalogue, this could be an exhaustive and expensive exercise.

A better option is to use DVDisaster. The tool creates an error correction code (ECC) file from a healthy disk, which can be used later to recover data when the media is damaged.

DVDisaster works on ISO images. To create one, insert the disc into the drive and launch DVDisaster after it's spun down. Now click on the Image File Selection icon, type in a name for the ISO image and select a directory for it to be stored in, then click the Read button. The app will read the disk sector by sector, then create the image as per the name and location you specified earlier.

Correction corner

Now it's time to create an ECC file. DVDisaster supports two types: RS01 and RS02. The former stores the ECC file in a remote location, while the latter bundles it along with the ISO image.

To make your selection, head over to Preferences > Error Correction, and select the storage method from the drop-down menu. We'd advise you to stick to the default RS01 method and store the ECC file using a separate medium.

Using the default settings, the ECC file is about 15% the size of the ISO file. For better protection, head back over to Preferences > Error Correction and select the High option. This balloons the ECC file to about 35% the size of the image, but gives you a better chance of restoring badly damaged media.

With an ECC in place, it's now a good idea to regularly check backup media with DVDisaster. Just insert the media in the drive, and click on the Scan button. If the scan detects bad sectors in the media, it's time to recover the lost data.

For that, first create an ISO image of the damaged media using the same procedure as before. Then find the ECC file you created earlier for the damaged media and point to it using the button for ECC file selection. With the image and ECC file in place, click on the Fix button, which reads and repairs the damaged image.

The success rate of the recovery depends on the state of the damaged disk, which is why it is necessary to scan the media regularly and repair it as soon as bad blocks show up.

Step-by-step: Back up a disk or partitions

1. Where to save?

clone 1

With a Clonezilla Live CD you can back up your entire disk. After booting the CD and opting to create a clone, select where the images are saved, which can be on a local device or over the network.

2. Disk or partitions

clone 2

Now you'll need to choose your mode. The Save disk option clones whole disks, and will later prompt you to select a disk on the computer. To save individual partitions, select the Saveparts option instead.

3. Back up selection

clone 3

Depending on your previous selection, you're shown a list of disks or partitions. Use the Spacebar to mark multiple partitions to back up. Once done, follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

Store your files online

SpiderOak

SpiderOak

The most convenient place to back up is online. There are plenty of services that enable you to store files online and access them from anywhere you want. In fact, newer versions of Ubuntu bundle clients for the Ubuntu One service, but this isn't as cross-platform as Dropbox.

In turn, Dropbox has the drawback of restricting you to a single directory for backups and synchronisation. SpiderOak, on the other hand, has a consistent interface across Linux, Windows, and Mac, and enables you to back up any file or folder.

The service offers 2GB of free space, or 100GB for $10 per month. When you install the client and register for the service, the installer generates encryption keys that it then uses to encrypt the data before transmission.

The app's interface is divided into tabs. To back up files, simply head to the Backup tab and select your files or directories. Switch to the Advanced view to fine tune your file selection. When you're done, click on the Save Settings button. That's it.

Now SpiderOak compares the contents of the local folder with the one it keeps online. Whenever there's a change, it automatically starts the backup. Moreover, the service keeps track of changes to the files using version control with a date stamp, which lets you roll back to previous versions of a file.

This makes SpiderOak ideal for keeping copies of important documents you're working on, or photos you've transferred from your camera. Your files are kept on the server unless you explicitly ask SpiderOak to remove them.

In addition to its backup features, the service can help you share files with others via virtual isolated silos. Others can subscribe to these silos via RSS, which keeps them updated of any new additions.

JungleDisk

JungleDisk

Although it's proprietary, JungleDisk works across platforms, and enables you to keep data in Amazon's S3 service or the Rackspace storage equivalent. The Desktop Edition costs $3 per month with 5GB of free storage. You can get additional storage for $0.15 per GB per month - find out more at https://www.jungledisk.com.

What sets JungleDisk apart from other online solutions is that it lets you mount your online storage as a network device in your filesystem, so you can directly save files to the cloud. To restore the files, just mount your drive and copy them onto your desktop.

Besides the network drive, JungleDisk also enables you to schedule automatic backups, which are kept separate from the network drive. The data is encrypted and compressed using data de-duplication. So although it keeps multiple timestamped copies of your data, it minimises online disk space usage by avoiding backing up redundant data.

What's more, when you upload a file, JungleDisk automatically creates a public URL with an expiry date one week in the future in order to help you share this file with anyone.

Once installed, the JungleDisk client sits in your taskbar. Use it to configure backup settings, such as selecting files and folders to back up. You can also use it to change the schedule of an automatic backup or run one manually.

What's more, you can set up JungleDisk to keep certain files and folders on your local disk in sync with the online disk. Any changes to files locally will be automatically copied to your online storage.

Step-by-step: Back up browser data

1. Download

Xmarks 1

Head to www.xmarks.com to get hold of XMarks. It works with Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari; is cross-platform; and even works on mobile devices.

2. Configure

xmarks 2

From the Addons window, click Preferences and then run the Setup Wizard to configure XMarks to back up your browser's collection of bookmarks and passwords.

3. Restore

xmarks 3

Now when you install XMarks on a new computer, you can download and sync your bookmarks from the server. You may also manually restore them.

This is the real world of backing up - here's how to deal with it

With your hard disk's contents now more secure than a locked box in a reinforced vault that's buried in concrete at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, you might imagine you're done, but think beyond your hard disks for a moment.

Do you blog? Run a website? Use a web-based email service that also holds your calendars and contacts? Then you'll want to keep that safe too.

Back up blogs

Most blogging software and content management systems, such as Wordpress and Drupal, have plugins or modules to help you download and save your content offline, which you can then file away with your favourite backup tool. If your web host runs PhpMyAdmin, you can also use its Export feature to download entire databases - or selected tables inside them - in a variety of formats.

Alternatively, if you have shell or telnet access to your database server, you can back up the database from the command line with mysqldump, as in the following example: mysqldump -u [username] -p [password] [databasename] > [backupfile.sql]

The backupfile.sql file will contain all the SQL statements needed to create and populate the tables in a new database server.

Some web hosting control panels, such as cPanel, also enable you to back up your entire website with a single click.

Back up online email

Then there's web-based email services such as Yahoo and Gmail. Yahoo lets you archive messages via POP, but you'll have to sign up for Yahoo Mail Plus, which costs $19.99 a year. Once subscribed, however, you can configure offline email clients such as Evolution and Thunderbird to fetch messages from the Yahoo servers, and keep them on your hard disk.

Gmail uses the IMAP protocol to synchronise your online mailbox with the one on your disk. In your Gmail account, make sure IMAP access is enabled under Settings > Forwarding And POP/IMAP.

Thunderbird will automatically configure itself for sending and receiving emails once you've pointed it towards your Gmail account, and the setup procedure isn't much different with Evolution. Once it's been prepared, right-click on a folder and select the Copy Folder Content Locally For Offline Operation option. Then head to File > Download Messages For Offline Usage to download messages.

Evolution also enables you to save individual messages with the File > Save As Mbox option. To make your emails easy to back up, Evolution will also compress them in a single tarball. Head to File > Backup Settings and specify the location where you want to keep this.

To restore your email, head to File > Restore settings, and point it towards the compressed tarball.

Backupify

There's a lot of other data you already have online on Facebook, Twitter and other such services. Like your blog and email, it's a good idea to take occasional snapshots of this data and back it up locally, which is where Backupify comes in.

Backupify

It's a web-based service that backs up data on other internet services and enables you to download it all to your local disk. It can even handle your blog and email if you want an all-in-one solution. It requires no installation either; just register on its website and authorise the service to back up your accounts.

It currently works with over a dozen different services, including the ever-popular Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google Docs, Gmail, Blogger and Hotmail, but check the website for a full list.

The basic service is free, offers 2GB of free storage, and backs up data from your online accounts weekly. There are also paid-for plans that offer more storage and let you adjust the backup frequency.

Backupify backs up data it receives from the services as is, which is generally in XML. However, for some services, such as Twitter, it can also generate a PDF.

Currently, the service doesn't enable you to download emails in bulk and the ability to search backed up messages is under beta testing. You do have the option to download individual messages in the EML format, though, and Backupify can also restore backed up messages to Gmail directly.

Related Stories



Related Stories

Tutorial: Linux backup: the complete guide

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

There are two kinds of data in computing: the sort that's already lost and the stuff that isn't - yet.

You can spend a fortune on a storage medium that's anti-scratch, dust-resistant, heat-proof and contains no moving parts, but it'll all come to naught eventually if you haven't also invested effort in backing your data up.

Although it isn't particularly time consuming, backing up data requires careful thought and preparation, and involves more than just zipping files into a tarball. This means it's often neglected.

Note that an archive isn't a backup and it's important to know the difference between the two. An archive is a primary copy of data that's put away for future use. A backup, on the other hand, is a secondary copy that you call upon to recover your important files and information from data loss disasters.

So no matter what kind of user you are, or how you use your Linux distribution, this article has got something for you. Most of the backup tools discussed here only require a bit of thought and a little time to set up. Best of all, unless you've got terabytes of data, you can safely file it for little or no cost both on and offline.

We'll also discuss ways to organise and store your data more efficiently so that it's easily accessible and simple to back up. You need never lose data again.

A primer to the thought process behind making your data safe

Preparing for a backup involves careful consideration. For starters, where do you store your data? Keeping it on another partition of the same disk isn't advisable - what if the whole disk fails? A copy on another disk is one solution.

To protect your data against physical disasters, such as fires, foods and theft, keep the backup as far away from the original as possible, perhaps on the cloud.

Each method has it's advantages: hard disks offer the best price-to-space ratio and are also a convenient and readily available option, Flash drives offer portability, optical media's easily distributable, and online storage is globally accessible.

The kind of data also influences the choice of storage medium. A DVD might be useful for holiday snapshots, but is of limited use to a pro photographer. If you'll be backing up large quantities of data, it's advisable to get multiple, high-capacity hard disks. Or you might want to invest in a NAS (network attached storage) box.

Another option would be to create your own cloud by attaching USB disks to network accessible devices such the PogoPlug or TonidoPlug. Figure out which of these options best suits your needs.

What to backup?

Depending on the size of your home directory, backing it up completely could be overkill. Here are the essentials:

Your documents and files
~/Documents, ~/Downloads, ~/Desktop

Most modern distros keep the files you've created or downloaded under these directories. Don't forget to check /home for any important documents.

Your email data (Evolution/Thunderbird/Kmail)
~/.evolution, ~/.thunderbird, ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail

Depending on your client, one of these should contain your emails, plus their attachments, your address book and so on.

Other apps' data

Other apps create their own data repositories to store files. Most prompt you for the location, while some create their own. Check under their Preferences to search these out.

Installed software
/var/cache/apt, /var/cache/yum

If there's a piece of software that's crucial to you and you don't want to spend time downloading it again, back it up.

Personal settings
.bashrc, .profile, .gnupg/, .local/, .openoffice/, .mozilla/

These are some of the essential hidden directories that store user settings. Back them up for every user in your installation. Be vigilant, though. Some contain Cache directories, such as Firefox (under ~/.mozilla/firefox/whvmajqx.default/Cache for us), which needlessly add to the backup's size.

System settings
/etc, /var/spool/cron/, /var/spool/mail, /boot,

Pay close attention to these directories if you're backing up your entire installation. You'll find system settings in /etc. Although it's got a large number of files, it isn't very bulky. This is unlike /var. It contains cache directories for several apps you can miss out, plus /var/spool/mail, which houses the user mail files, and /var/spool/cron, which has the settings for cron, both of which you should back up.

If you've made changes elsewhere in the system, consider backing up those files under /usr/ and /usr/local/.

Data considerations

Now we know what to back up, so let's consider how to go about it. Do you want to back up manually or automatically based on a schedule? The correct frequency varies based on the kind and value of data being safeguarded.

Depending on the size of the files, it might not be a good idea to back them up completely every day either. Many backup tools enable you to do incremental backups - only creating copies of files that have changed since the last backup.

Will you manipulate the data before safeguarding it? If you're backing up large quantities of data, it's advisable to compress it. If the data's sensitive, you can encrypt it too. Remember that both add to backup overheads.

Finally, to ensure the data's integrity, checksum and validate it regularly.

Step-by-step: Crontab entries from a GUI

1. Create your crontab

Corntab 1

Despite its simplicity, automating tasks with Cron can be a tricky task if you are not used to it. Corntab (www.corntab.com) is a browser-based visual front-end that helps you cook up an appropriate crontab entry.

2. Email it

Corntab 2

The Corntab interface has sliders and check boxes to help you pick both the time (in minutes, hours, days of the month, months and days of the week) and command that you wish to schedule with Cron.

3. Paste into crontab

Corntab 3

When you're done, copy or email the crontab entry, and paste it into crontab from the command line with the crontab -e command. When you save and exit the crontab editor, the new entry will be activated.

Protect your data easily with these no-fuss tools for beginners

Déjà Dup

DejaDup

Aren't yet used to the ways of a backup tool? Then Déjà Dup is for you. It has a minimal interface so as to not overwhelm new users, yet it's based on the powerful command linebased Duplicity and integrates nicely with Gnome.

Pulled from the repositories, Déjà Dup installs under Applications > System Tools. Before you use it, you'll need to set its Preferences. Start by pointing it towards the location where you want to house your backups. This can be a local hard disk, a remote location via SSH, or Amazon's S3 web storage.

Then specify the list of directories you want to include in and exclude from the backup. By separating these two, Déjà Dup gives you the flexibility to include a large directory - for instance, /home - in your backup, while specifying parts to leave out, such as .cache/.

By default, Déjà Dup encrypts your backups, but you can ask it not to do so by unchecking the Encrypt Backup Files box. Next to it is a pull-down menu that enables you schedule regular backups.

When you're done, click the Backup icon to invoke the process. If you've opted to encrypt the data, Déjà Dup now prompts you for a password. It then provides a summary list of the directories involved and begins.

This initial backup may take some time, but subsequent backups are incremental - dealing only with what's changed - and thus much faster.

When restoring backups, Déjà Dup enables you to restore them to their original location or under a specific directory. Since the backup's directory contains encrypted material, you'll be prompted for your password again.

Finally, you're presented with a time-stamped list of backups to restore. That's all there's to it.

Déjà Dup is ideal for backing up files under a user's /home directory, but you might run into authorisation issues with system files. Also Déjà Dup doesn't allow you to create backup sets. So if you wish to back up a different directory, you'll have to modify the Preferences.

Similarly, in order to restore from different locations, you'll have to change the location first under Preferences.

LuckyBackup

LuckyBackup

While Déjà Dup is suitable for most users, if you want something that's able to handle multiple backup schemes, then use LuckyBackup.

Among its strong points is that it supports multiple profiles, enabling you to manage different backup sets. A default profile is created when you first launch the app and, like all profiles, must have a task attached - either to perform a backup or restore data from one.

Tasks can be one of three types: you can select to back up just the contents of a directory, replicate the entire source directory as is, or you can synchronise the source and destination, which is handy when you need to keep files found under two directories in sync.

When the synchronisation task is executed, LuckyBackup checks for the newest version of a file under both the source and destination directories and copies them to the other. So newly created files in one location are replicated in the other. The only drawback is that if you have deliberately deleted a file/folder in one location but not its counterpart, these will be automatically recreated.

Elsewhere, the Advanced button expands the New Task dialogue to give you fine control over the files to include in, and exclude from, the backup. If you'll be backing up to a remote directory, specify your connection details under the Remote tab.

Power users will appreciate the convenience of the Also Execute tab, which enables you to specify a list of commands to execute before and after the backup.

When you're done creating a backup, click the Validate button to ensure your settings are good to go. With all your tasks for multiple locations set up, it's time to schedule them. Head over to Profile > Schedule, and click Add. Now select the profile to schedule and customise its run time.

Finally, click the CrontIT! button, which automatically creates a Cron job for the backup. To manually run a backup, select the task to execute and click Start. You might also want to check the Simulator box to simulate the backup and ensure it will run properly.

The process of restoring a backup in LuckyBackup is just a backup task with the directories reversed. Also remember to uncheck the Skip Newer Destination Files box under the Command Options tab in the Advanced view.

Finally, execute the restore task as usual and your backed up data will be reinstated in its original place.

Enterprise solutions

BackupPC

BackupPC

If you manage a computer lab or work in an enterprise setting, backing up individual computers using the tools we've covered so far would be a chore. When you have a bunch of machines to take care of, it's best to rely on BackupPC. Be warned, however, that it's not for the faint of heart, despite its web-based interface and extensive documentation.

While it can be used on individual machines, it's best called upon when you want to safeguard data on multiple computers. Not only that, but it will work across Linux, Mac, or Windows, and is well suited for environments that have a mix of different OSes.

It has impressive features too, including pooling. This reduces backup sizes by saving only one copy of identical files that exist on many computers. For example, if you have the same distro running on all computers, BackupPC will only keep one copy of the system files.

Install and configure

You can install BackupPC from your distro's repository, or get the latest version via the tarball.

Before you extract and install it, make sure you have the following Perl modules: Compress::Zlib, Archive::Zip, XML::RSS, Net::FTP and File::RsyncP.

You can install them using CPAN a la: perl -MCPAN -e 'install Compress::Zlib

With the various libraries in place, you should download the tarball, untar it and then enter the following: perl configure.pl

When you run configure.pl, you'll be prompted for the full paths of various executables and for configuration information such as the BackupPC user, the data directory and so on. By default, the configuration files will be stored in /etc/backuppc.

Once it's set up, you can start the program with /etc/init.d/backuppc start

The basic BackupPC configuration can be edited via the app's web interface, which you'll find by pointing your browser towards localhost/backuppc. Use the username and password you specified when configuring BackupPC to login to this.

The interface also lets you browse the various hosts as well as initiate backup and restore operations. You can edit basic configuration settings from the Edit Config menu. Use the Add button under the Edit Hosts section to include a client to back up.

In order to set up individual clients, you'll have to manually edit their configuration files, and provide details depending on the method used for backing up (BackupPC supports SMB, TAR, Rsync and FTP).

An /etc example

For example, the following backs up the /etc directory on localhost using TAR: $Conf{XferMethod} = 'tar'; $Conf{TarShareName} = ['/etc']; $Conf{TarClientCmd} = '/usr/bin/env LC_ALL=C $tarPath -c -v -f - -C $shareName'

To begin the back up, head to the web interface, select a host and then click Start Full Backup. The Status page will show you which backups are running. Alternatively, you could also perform an incremental backup if you have previously archived files to add to.

With backup data in place, BackupPC enables you to view and restore individual files, or complete filesystems. You can either download the backed up files as zipped archives, or directly restore them into their original computer.

There's far more to BackupPC than we can touch on here; it's the most comprehensive program in this feature. As such, you'll need to spend time browsing its documentation and adapting it to your network to make full use of it. Our in-depth tutorial in LXF125 may also help if you have access to it.

MondoRescue

Mondo rescue

MondoRescue isn't your everyday backup program, but rather specialises in recovery after catastrophic data loss. It's ideal for backing up the core filesystem, say once a month. It can also be used to clone an installation on larger partitions.

While your distro might include MondoRescue in its repositories, it's best to grab packages for the app from ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org. You'll also need Mindi, Mondo's companion tool that packages backups into bootable distros, and mindi-busybox, which contains the tools Mindi needs.

When you're all set, launch MondoRescue as root with sudo mondoarchive You'll see the tool's crude-but-effective Ncurses-based interface. You're asked for your choice of backup medium, how much compression you'd like to use, and whether it should divide the backups to fit CDs or DVDs.

Then you'll be asked what to back up. By default, the app backs up everything under the root directory. MondoRescue can also back up Windows partitions if it detects them on your disk. You should let MondoRescue verify the archives it creates too - this takes time but is well worth it.

When it's ready to copy data, MondoRescue creates a catalogue of files, divides them into sets, then calls Mindi and finally begins backing up, which can take several hours. If you've asked MondoRescue to back up to a hard disk, when it's done you'll find one or several ISO images inside the directory you specified. Boot from the first image and enter compare at the boot prompt to check the archived copies against your filesystem.

At the end of the process, this prints the non-matching files. There might be some immediately after backing up, but these are often just cache files, which can be safely ignored. To format and restore all files, type nuke, or interactive.

If you're restoring to a blank hard disk, MondoRescue will also partition it and adjust the backed up partitions to suit. It'll also regenerate the bootloader, which you can then fine tune.

Tonido

Tonido

Back in LXF 122, we looked at a piece of software called Tonido to help you create your own personal cloud server. It's a wonderful tool for sharing your files over an internal network as well as the internet. It might not be open source, but it gets the job done without you having to mess with your router and firewall settings.

Tonido is available as a binary for both Deb and RPM-based distros, or you can download it from www.tonido.com.

The only bit of setting up it requires is a username, which becomes part of your tonido web address. So if you choose Fluffy as your user name, you can access your files from anywhere by pointing your browser at fluffy.tonodoid.com.

Note that your data is still stored on your computer, not external servers, and is simply served over the internet, which may help qualm any fears you have about the security of what you store.

Tonido also includes an application to back up data to a local disk or remote computer. To perform a backup, log into Tonido's web interface and click the Backup app. This then opens another interface that enables you to add and schedule backups. Click on the New button to add a new backup record.

The process involves selecting the device and the backup source and destination folders if you want to backup to a local disk. If you want to back up to a remote computer, you'll be presented with a list of peers. You can only back up to remote machines that are in your group.

Tonido identifies machines with their globally addressable peer ID. So you can back up to any machine on the internet, as long as it's in your group.

Once the backup is good to go, you can schedule it to run at periodic intervals, or run it manually. If you're particularly paranoid, you'll also be glad to know that Tonido encrypts data using AES encryption and transfers it directly from the source computer to the remote computer.

Tonido has many other features too. It enables you to collaborate, share, and sync files with others on the internet via Group Workspaces. To sync content through Tonido Groups, other users will need to have Tonido installed.

Since the software runs and functions the same way on both Windows and Mac OSX, however, you can share your data with them regardless of their chosen operating system.

How to make crash-proof discs

DVDisaster

DVD disaster

Optical discs are the commonly preferred media for keeping backups. However, even when stored carefully, they'll go bad over time. One option is to make new copies of the backup discs. Depending on your backup catalogue, this could be an exhaustive and expensive exercise.

A better option is to use DVDisaster. The tool creates an error correction code (ECC) file from a healthy disk, which can be used later to recover data when the media is damaged.

DVDisaster works on ISO images. To create one, insert the disc into the drive and launch DVDisaster after it's spun down. Now click on the Image File Selection icon, type in a name for the ISO image and select a directory for it to be stored in, then click the Read button. The app will read the disk sector by sector, then create the image as per the name and location you specified earlier.

Correction corner

Now it's time to create an ECC file. DVDisaster supports two types: RS01 and RS02. The former stores the ECC file in a remote location, while the latter bundles it along with the ISO image.

To make your selection, head over to Preferences > Error Correction, and select the storage method from the drop-down menu. We'd advise you to stick to the default RS01 method and store the ECC file using a separate medium.

Using the default settings, the ECC file is about 15% the size of the ISO file. For better protection, head back over to Preferences > Error Correction and select the High option. This balloons the ECC file to about 35% the size of the image, but gives you a better chance of restoring badly damaged media.

With an ECC in place, it's now a good idea to regularly check backup media with DVDisaster. Just insert the media in the drive, and click on the Scan button. If the scan detects bad sectors in the media, it's time to recover the lost data.

For that, first create an ISO image of the damaged media using the same procedure as before. Then find the ECC file you created earlier for the damaged media and point to it using the button for ECC file selection. With the image and ECC file in place, click on the Fix button, which reads and repairs the damaged image.

The success rate of the recovery depends on the state of the damaged disk, which is why it is necessary to scan the media regularly and repair it as soon as bad blocks show up.

Step-by-step: Back up a disk or partitions

1. Where to save?

clone 1

With a Clonezilla Live CD you can back up your entire disk. After booting the CD and opting to create a clone, select where the images are saved, which can be on a local device or over the network.

2. Disk or partitions

clone 2

Now you'll need to choose your mode. The Save disk option clones whole disks, and will later prompt you to select a disk on the computer. To save individual partitions, select the Saveparts option instead.

3. Back up selection

clone 3

Depending on your previous selection, you're shown a list of disks or partitions. Use the Spacebar to mark multiple partitions to back up. Once done, follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

Store your files online

SpiderOak

SpiderOak

The most convenient place to back up is online. There are plenty of services that enable you to store files online and access them from anywhere you want. In fact, newer versions of Ubuntu bundle clients for the Ubuntu One service, but this isn't as cross-platform as Dropbox.

In turn, Dropbox has the drawback of restricting you to a single directory for backups and synchronisation. SpiderOak, on the other hand, has a consistent interface across Linux, Windows, and Mac, and enables you to back up any file or folder.

The service offers 2GB of free space, or 100GB for $10 per month. When you install the client and register for the service, the installer generates encryption keys that it then uses to encrypt the data before transmission.

The app's interface is divided into tabs. To back up files, simply head to the Backup tab and select your files or directories. Switch to the Advanced view to fine tune your file selection. When you're done, click on the Save Settings button. That's it.

Now SpiderOak compares the contents of the local folder with the one it keeps online. Whenever there's a change, it automatically starts the backup. Moreover, the service keeps track of changes to the files using version control with a date stamp, which lets you roll back to previous versions of a file.

This makes SpiderOak ideal for keeping copies of important documents you're working on, or photos you've transferred from your camera. Your files are kept on the server unless you explicitly ask SpiderOak to remove them.

In addition to its backup features, the service can help you share files with others via virtual isolated silos. Others can subscribe to these silos via RSS, which keeps them updated of any new additions.

JungleDisk

JungleDisk

Although it's proprietary, JungleDisk works across platforms, and enables you to keep data in Amazon's S3 service or the Rackspace storage equivalent. The Desktop Edition costs $3 per month with 5GB of free storage. You can get additional storage for $0.15 per GB per month - find out more at https://www.jungledisk.com.

What sets JungleDisk apart from other online solutions is that it lets you mount your online storage as a network device in your filesystem, so you can directly save files to the cloud. To restore the files, just mount your drive and copy them onto your desktop.

Besides the network drive, JungleDisk also enables you to schedule automatic backups, which are kept separate from the network drive. The data is encrypted and compressed using data de-duplication. So although it keeps multiple timestamped copies of your data, it minimises online disk space usage by avoiding backing up redundant data.

What's more, when you upload a file, JungleDisk automatically creates a public URL with an expiry date one week in the future in order to help you share this file with anyone.

Once installed, the JungleDisk client sits in your taskbar. Use it to configure backup settings, such as selecting files and folders to back up. You can also use it to change the schedule of an automatic backup or run one manually.

What's more, you can set up JungleDisk to keep certain files and folders on your local disk in sync with the online disk. Any changes to files locally will be automatically copied to your online storage.

Step-by-step: Back up browser data

1. Download

Xmarks 1

Head to www.xmarks.com to get hold of XMarks. It works with Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari; is cross-platform; and even works on mobile devices.

2. Configure

xmarks 2

From the Addons window, click Preferences and then run the Setup Wizard to configure XMarks to back up your browser's collection of bookmarks and passwords.

3. Restore

xmarks 3

Now when you install XMarks on a new computer, you can download and sync your bookmarks from the server. You may also manually restore them.

This is the real world of backing up - here's how to deal with it

With your hard disk's contents now more secure than a locked box in a reinforced vault that's buried in concrete at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, you might imagine you're done, but think beyond your hard disks for a moment.

Do you blog? Run a website? Use a web-based email service that also holds your calendars and contacts? Then you'll want to keep that safe too.

Back up blogs

Most blogging software and content management systems, such as Wordpress and Drupal, have plugins or modules to help you download and save your content offline, which you can then file away with your favourite backup tool. If your web host runs PhpMyAdmin, you can also use its Export feature to download entire databases - or selected tables inside them - in a variety of formats.

Alternatively, if you have shell or telnet access to your database server, you can back up the database from the command line with mysqldump, as in the following example: mysqldump -u [username] -p [password] [databasename] > [backupfile.sql]

The backupfile.sql file will contain all the SQL statements needed to create and populate the tables in a new database server.

Some web hosting control panels, such as cPanel, also enable you to back up your entire website with a single click.

Back up online email

Then there's web-based email services such as Yahoo and Gmail. Yahoo lets you archive messages via POP, but you'll have to sign up for Yahoo Mail Plus, which costs $19.99 a year. Once subscribed, however, you can configure offline email clients such as Evolution and Thunderbird to fetch messages from the Yahoo servers, and keep them on your hard disk.

Gmail uses the IMAP protocol to synchronise your online mailbox with the one on your disk. In your Gmail account, make sure IMAP access is enabled under Settings > Forwarding And POP/IMAP.

Thunderbird will automatically configure itself for sending and receiving emails once you've pointed it towards your Gmail account, and the setup procedure isn't much different with Evolution. Once it's been prepared, right-click on a folder and select the Copy Folder Content Locally For Offline Operation option. Then head to File > Download Messages For Offline Usage to download messages.

Evolution also enables you to save individual messages with the File > Save As Mbox option. To make your emails easy to back up, Evolution will also compress them in a single tarball. Head to File > Backup Settings and specify the location where you want to keep this.

To restore your email, head to File > Restore settings, and point it towards the compressed tarball.

Backupify

There's a lot of other data you already have online on Facebook, Twitter and other such services. Like your blog and email, it's a good idea to take occasional snapshots of this data and back it up locally, which is where Backupify comes in.

Backupify

It's a web-based service that backs up data on other internet services and enables you to download it all to your local disk. It can even handle your blog and email if you want an all-in-one solution. It requires no installation either; just register on its website and authorise the service to back up your accounts.

It currently works with over a dozen different services, including the ever-popular Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google Docs, Gmail, Blogger and Hotmail, but check the website for a full list.

The basic service is free, offers 2GB of free storage, and backs up data from your online accounts weekly. There are also paid-for plans that offer more storage and let you adjust the backup frequency.

Backupify backs up data it receives from the services as is, which is generally in XML. However, for some services, such as Twitter, it can also generate a PDF.

Currently, the service doesn't enable you to download emails in bulk and the ability to search backed up messages is under beta testing. You do have the option to download individual messages in the EML format, though, and Backupify can also restore backed up messages to Gmail directly.

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Review: Ecamm Network PhoneView

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

Most of the time, you can rely on iTunes and iPhoto to get data from an iOS device, but that's not always the case. If something goes badly wrong with your iTunes library and you have no back-up, a fresh iTunes install may want to wipe your device and start from scratch; also, iTunes and iPhoto occasionally screw up, not syncing properly, thereby denying access to your data.

In such situations, PhoneView enables you to view, access and copy data to and from your device.

Unlike competing products, PhoneView doesn't merely provide access to an iOS device's file-system— it also makes sense of it. For example, click Photos and you see the photos (including dates and dimensions) on your device, rather than a list of cryptically named folders.

And along with copy options, there's an option to send selections directly to iPhoto. PhoneView also provides access to your music, books, podcasts, notes, call log, messages and apps.

The last of those things is particularly interesting: by default, you view apps where iTunes enables file sharing, but you can also access other app packages. For the former kind, PhoneView's system is better than iTunes for copying data to and from a device. With the latter, you can extract /Documents and /Library files, safeguarding or backing up videogame high-scores and the like.

Much faster since we looked at the app two years ago, PhoneView is, bar the occasional non-destructive crash, now near-perfect and recommended for anybody who has an iOS device.

Related Links

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Review: Avanquest Family Tree Maker for Mac

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 01:30 AM PST

The folks at Ancestry.com have finally ported their much-improved Family Tree Maker package to Mac OS X. This new release is tailored for UK users, and comes with a six-month UK Premium subscription to Ancestry, which gives you unlimited access to its UK records.

This bumps up the asking price, but also provides exceptional value (it would cost £54 if bought separately).

Why is it here? To showcase Family Tree Maker's best feature: its ability to quickly and easily merge records from Ancestry's archives into your tree. As your tree is built, flashing green leaves appear next to individuals' names, indicating possible matches on Ancestry; click to view these in the Web Search window.

If you find a definite match, click Merge and follow the simple wizard through to integrate the record, its source and an image of the original document into your file. Better still, if other family members are listed on the same record, you can incorporate those details too.

It's possible to build an entire tree this way, although the program does include all the tools you need to manually add individuals. This handy feature showcases Family Tree Maker's major advantage over its rivals: user-friendliness.

It boasts a similar feature set to MacFamilyTree, for example, but everything is presented in a more logical, easy-to-navigate interface. The program lays its features out as a series of buttons: Plan, People, Places, Media, Sources, Publish and Web Search. In other words, everything you need to put together your family tree.

Family tree maker places

Getting started is simple. Start from scratch, convert a file from the PC version of Family Tree Maker using the migration tool supplied, or import from a GEDCOM file or existing tree hosted on Ancestry. You can also merge another file or incorporate records from other trees hosted on Ancestry via the Web Search tool.

You'll spend most of your time in the People section, which is divided into two tabs: Family and Person. The Family tab is designed for getting around your tree – it's split into four panes providing tools for navigation and selecting of individuals, which can then be viewed and edited in detail from the Person tab.

Explore the other sections and you'll see more evidence of Family Tree Maker's blend of useful features and accessibility: the Media and Sources sections don't just provide a decent overview of your images and sources, for example, they also make it easy to view and enter precise details about individual entries.

The Places component is also superior to MacFamilyTree, making it easy to pin even unrecognised locations (such as typically precise addresses such as house numbers and street names) precisely on the map.

Rounding things off is the Publish section, where you'll find a bigger selection of reports and charts than offered by other package on the market, and again it's all easy to set up and implement.

One year behind

There is one irritation with Family Tree Maker for Mac: it's based on last year's PC release, so lots of subtle improvements and one or two major features (specifically the Smart Stories component for quickly and easily generating narrative histories of selected family members) aren't present.

But even without these tweaks, the program still manages to effortlessly take the Mac genealogy crown and set a new benchmark for others to follow.

Related Links

Related Stories



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Review: Avanquest Family Tree Maker for Mac

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 01:30 AM PST

The folks at Ancestry.com have finally ported their much-improved Family Tree Maker package to Mac OS X. This new release is tailored for UK users, and comes with a six-month UK Premium subscription to Ancestry, which gives you unlimited access to its UK records.

This bumps up the asking price, but also provides exceptional value (it would cost £54 if bought separately).

Why is it here? To showcase Family Tree Maker's best feature: its ability to quickly and easily merge records from Ancestry's archives into your tree. As your tree is built, flashing green leaves appear next to individuals' names, indicating possible matches on Ancestry; click to view these in the Web Search window.

If you find a definite match, click Merge and follow the simple wizard through to integrate the record, its source and an image of the original document into your file. Better still, if other family members are listed on the same record, you can incorporate those details too.

It's possible to build an entire tree this way, although the program does include all the tools you need to manually add individuals. This handy feature showcases Family Tree Maker's major advantage over its rivals: user-friendliness.

It boasts a similar feature set to MacFamilyTree, for example, but everything is presented in a more logical, easy-to-navigate interface. The program lays its features out as a series of buttons: Plan, People, Places, Media, Sources, Publish and Web Search. In other words, everything you need to put together your family tree.

Family tree maker places

Getting started is simple. Start from scratch, convert a file from the PC version of Family Tree Maker using the migration tool supplied, or import from a GEDCOM file or existing tree hosted on Ancestry. You can also merge another file or incorporate records from other trees hosted on Ancestry via the Web Search tool.

You'll spend most of your time in the People section, which is divided into two tabs: Family and Person. The Family tab is designed for getting around your tree – it's split into four panes providing tools for navigation and selecting of individuals, which can then be viewed and edited in detail from the Person tab.

Explore the other sections and you'll see more evidence of Family Tree Maker's blend of useful features and accessibility: the Media and Sources sections don't just provide a decent overview of your images and sources, for example, they also make it easy to view and enter precise details about individual entries.

The Places component is also superior to MacFamilyTree, making it easy to pin even unrecognised locations (such as typically precise addresses such as house numbers and street names) precisely on the map.

Rounding things off is the Publish section, where you'll find a bigger selection of reports and charts than offered by other package on the market, and again it's all easy to set up and implement.

One year behind

There is one irritation with Family Tree Maker for Mac: it's based on last year's PC release, so lots of subtle improvements and one or two major features (specifically the Smart Stories component for quickly and easily generating narrative histories of selected family members) aren't present.

But even without these tweaks, the program still manages to effortlessly take the Mac genealogy crown and set a new benchmark for others to follow.

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In Depth: 30 best free Mac programs to download

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 12:00 AM PST

There's something exciting about buying a new piece of software, unwrapping the packaging and slipping the disc into your Mac ready to install your new goodies. And, of course, the new Mac App Store has made the process of obtaining new software by a digital download just a few simple mouse clicks.

Whichever method you prefer, the biggest drawback is the money you have to hand over. Forking out for your goods is a necessary evil, and the price of things is usually a good indicator of its quality. But the good news is it's not always that way, especially when it comes to Mac software.

As we will show you, there are many apps available for free that have all the polish and advanced features you would expect from a premium paid-for version, but without the nasty price tag. There are apps that will clean up your hard drive or organise your day-to-day activities. Some even work on your iPhone and iPad, too.

We've presented the best ones below – they're all really fantastic and, best of all, they're all free.

A number of these applications, while still great as a free version, also have more fully featured pro versions. So if you really enjoy one, you can consider spending the extra money.

Best free Mac media tools

1. Boxee Online

Boxee

TV channels put a lot of their content online for free, but you usually have to go to their websites to find out what's available. Not with Boxee.

This app lets you browse through episodes of shows from sources such as YouTube, among many others. It also pulls in media from your Mac. The interface can be controlled via the keyboard, an Apple remote or the free Boxee app available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

It's a doddle to navigate, enabling you to quickly find sports, movies, music or photos to enjoy on your computer. For entertainment on your Mac, Boxee is hard to beat.

2. Vuze

Vuze

BitTorrent clients have received a bad rap over the years for enabling users to download copyrighted material for free. Vuze is no different in this respect. That said, downloading via BitTorrent is not illegal and, should you be accessing legal material, you're fine.

Even better than that, Vuze will act as a media player for most formats and even convert files for playback on your devices, including iPads and games consoles. You can even stream video from Vuze via Wi-Fi to compatible devices such as the Xbox 360, making it more of an ideal media viewing solution than a nuisance to society.

3. Flip4Mac

There's been little love lost between Apple and Microsoft over the years, and the same extends to their media formats. The dreaded .WMV (Windows Media Video) file is the scourge of the Mac OS X operating system and will not run natively in QuickTime.

Fortunately, the free Flip4Mac software will eradicate this headache and, once installed, lets you forget about formats and enjoy the video you are after. The WMV player also allows for Windows Media files to play back in Safari as well to help you enjoy a more complete browsing experience. A must-have install to alleviate format folly.

4. HandBrake

Handbrake

Those looking to bring their movie collection into the modern world should certainly consider HandBrake for all their ripping needs. This simple app can grab a movie from DVD and encode it into a variety of formats for playback on your Mac, iPhone or iPad.

Those with the new Apple TV will also be able to create compatible files from their movie discs and add them to iTunes without having to fiddle around with DVD players and tons of cases. The app can even retain the chapter selection features and subtitles of your original disc.

While ripping a DVD to your Mac can take some time (and please respect copyright) if handled right, the outcome makes accessing your entertainment a great deal easier. The latest version of HandBrake introduces a live preview feature that allows you to check the quality of your rip before committing to hours of encoding too. You can also use HandBrake to convert video files into different formats.

5. Spotify

Spotify

Spotify came from out of nowhere and took the music lovers of Europe by storm. This is streaming music done right. This service is free to those who can handle an advert every three songs or so. It offers a catalogue of more than 10 million songs of all genres, which stream instantly through the Spotify app.

It can also link to your iTunes library so all of your favourite tracks are in one place. You can log in from multiple Macs using your Spotify account, create playlists, share music with friends and more.

One of our favourite features is the innovative collaborative playlist, where your friends can add tracks over the internet for you to listen to. If you wish, you can pay to upgrade Spotify to a premium account, at which point you become ad-free.

And for £9.99 per month you can even have the same service on your iPhone with music stored for offline playback.

6. VLC

VLC

VLC is one of those apps you can turn to if QuickTime and other media-playing apps won't work with a media format you want to use. Initially, you might wonder why you'll ever need this app, but if you ever stray beyond the bounds of the iTunes Store and download video from another online source, you're more than likely to encounter a problem – that is, it's not playing properly in iTunes or QuickTime.

Converting the video with HandBrake is always an option, but, to be honest, using VLC is simply quicker. The app can handle DVD playback as well as more obscure formats that crop up from time to time.

Files that are missing pieces or broken can still be played in VLC to the best of its ability and it provides a wealth of codecs to help your Mac handle all kinds of media file formats.

VLC is an application that every Mac user should have installed for when their media won't behave.

Social apps for Mac

7. AddressBookSync

The Address Book app on your Mac is great for organising contacts and syncing them to your iPhone. However, the problem is with so many contacts held, continually adding information and profile pictures can become a time-consuming task.

AddressBookSync is an ingenious tool that connects to your Facebook account to pull in your friends' birthday info as well as images from their accounts into your Mac's Address Book. This is particularly handy for iPhone users with images appearing on screen when a contact is calling.

8. Adium

Adium

The chances are you have an account for more than one instant messaging client. With so many available from iChat to Windows Messenger through Google Chat and Yahoo! it's not surprising.

So, do you leave all of these clients open and consuming memory or do you find an all-in-one solution? If you want the latter, Adium is your app.

Compatible with more IM clients than you probably knew existed, Adium combines all your accounts into one easy-to-use solution so you can keep in touch with all your contacts regardless of the service they are using.

9. Twitter

This is the official Twitter app for Mac. It was launched at the same time as the new Mac App Store, and quickly became the most popular download there. To get it you'll need to have the Mac App Store installed (which means you'll need to be running OS X 10.6 and have installed the latest system updates).

Unlike other Twitter clients, Twitter offers a very OS X-friendly environment without skimping on the features you need to enjoy your 140-character fix.

A particularly great feature is that you can view all tweets in a conversation simply by double-clicking on the main tweet. You can also search for trending topics and use multiple accounts within the same app.

Composing a new tweet is now made far easier with the Compose window that floats outside the interface, ready for you to type your thoughts. If you want to add an image to your tweet simply drag and drop it into the new tweet window.

You can select which image hosting service you use from the Preferences pane, and also which URL-shortening service the Twitter app will use. You can also get the official Twitter app for iPad and iPhone to complete your Twitter experience wherever you are in the world.

10. Skype

Skype isn't a new service but the way it has developed over the years keeps it incredibly useful. The premise is simple, with an internet connection and a copy of the free software installed, you can talk to anyone on Skype via audio or video chat. And you can even swap files, create conference calls or simply chat via instant messaging.

For an additional fee, you can add voicemail to your account and even call mobiles and landlines if you wish.

Handy utilities

11. Evernote

Evernote

Whatever you're doing in life there are things you need to remember, be they pictures, notes, websites or sounds. Evernote provides a place to store your ideas, plans and reminders.

Using cloud-based storage, the Mac app syncs with your iPhone and iPad, as well as any other computer to keep your notes close to hand whenever you need them. Unique search features allow you to dig out anything you've stored and it can even recognise handwritten docs.

This app not only organises your notes, photos, screenshots and more, but you can add custom tags to make things easier to search.

12. r-name

Have you ever had a bunch of files in a folder and then discovered you need to rename each one? For a renaming task that comprises more than ten files or more it can become a very dull and repetitive task.

And that's where r-name comes in. It's a simple, free app that allows files and folders to be dropped in and renamed in any way you require. Ideal for photos or television series, this app will save a great deal of time.

13. Burn

While it's easy to burn a CD or DVD from within Mac OS X, Burn brings simplicity, as well as advanced options to the task. For example, it allows you to set which file system your disc will use so Windows owners can access files.

It can create audio CDs and MP3 discs, and caters for DVD, VideoCD and DivX discs. An Inspector tool allows you to change settings on your disc such as file permissions, dates and the icon.

14. Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon copy cloner

Everyone talks about backing up their computer files, but how many of us are committed to doing it properly?

Carbon Copy Cloner makes it easy to back up your system but to move it to another Mac or larger hard drive without having to reinstall the OS. It even offers incremental backups, which only updates files that have changed since you last ran the software.

Considering this is a free application, it's an absolute powerhouse for any Mac user who wants security for their system and flexibility for their hardware.

15. SketchUp

SketchUp

If you've never used a design app or 3D-modelling tool before, fear not. SketchUp makes the entire process simple.

Using a range of tools, draw the shapes you want and then drag them out to create 3D objects. Ideal for decoration planning, basic design work or providing mockups of home improvements, SketchUp is the ultimate design tool for beginners.

As well as creating designs for your home or office, you can create 3D models and add them to Google Maps. Once you've installed SketchUp you're guaranteed to spend hours playing with the infinite possibilities it affords.

16. OpenOffice

OpenOffice

So you need an office suite that can handle spreadsheets, word processing, design and presentations. Do you go for Apple's iWork or Microsoft's Office? Both cost at least £50 and offer many pros and cons.

Or you could opt for OpenOffice that costs… well, nothing. Unbelievably, OpenOffice is a complete set of office tools compatible with most formats of office file and available for Mac that won't cost you a penny.

Ideal for students, home users or businesses not ready to take the plunge on a full site licence for commercial software, Open-Office is a great alternative to iWork and Office.

17. GIMP

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program. That's the official title of this app, which makes you realise why the creators opted for GIMP as the name for this powerful graphics suite.

It's like Photoshop for free, and is a true labour of love for its developers who have carefully crafted it over time to produce one of the most fully featured pieces of free software available for Mac OS X.

Whether you want to retouch photos, create graphic designs or experiment with 3D, GIMP offers it all and more. Before you fork out for an expensive graphics app, spare the time for this 78MB powerhouse to download.

18. Audacity

Audacity

While GarageBand handles the creative aspects of Mac audio-editing, Audacity is a free option for recording, editing and adjusting audio files.

If you want to quickly split an MP3, convert the format of an audio file or digitise tape or records, Audacity is really easy to use and it's also capable of a number of additional tricks too. If you are after more advanced techniques, Audacity can even offer tools to speed up and slow down audio, work with multiple tracks at once and clean up audio files with a variety of effects.

Those who are serious about their audio editing can even add VST plug-ins to Audacity, in order to further enhance its already brilliant feature set.

Considering the fact it's a free application, Audacity offers some very professional tools and is an ideal choice for those who need a fast and effective editing option when GarageBand isn't the best solution.

19. SketchBox

There are built-in Sticky Notes in Mac OS X but they don't offer nearly as many features as those found in SketchBox. This app's simple interface allows you to create multiple notes, sketch on them with a pen, add text and even set alarms for individual sticky notes.

The main screen shows all of your available notes and, if you wish, you can even build storyboards from sketches you have drawn. The app is free but is no longer updated by the developer. It is also known to have incompatibilities with Snow Leopard, however we're yet to find any.

We've found SketchBox to be a great way of jotting down our creative ideas – it's small and lightweight, so you don't have to wait ages for it to load and risk losing that precious moment of inspiration.

Being able to do a quick sketch and add text at the same time is the digital equivalent of jotting things down on a table napkin – the traditional first step of every great idea in the world!

20. Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety's intent is to produce the opposite emotion to its name, when used correctly. Working with Mail to-do lists and your iCal schedule, Anxiety provides a small floating window for you to quickly add reminders to and check off when you're done.

These are then added to your Mail and iCal lists so you can access them on all of your synced devices and cross them off as you go.

One of the main advantages of Anxiety is that unlike many list managers, it's very lightweight. Easier than a sticky note and far more accessible, Anxiety shrinks into the background when not in use.

So why is this app in the Creativity section, you ask? Well, how can you be creative if your mind is full of all the things you have to do? By removing the little niggles of life you'll find you have more time to dream up more imaginative solutions. So, take the first steps to a more organised you and install Anxiety today.

Best free Mac system tools

21. AppFresh

AppFresh scans your system for installed applications and then lets you know which of them have a pending update. You can then choose those you would like to install and those to leave be.

It sounds simple but this extremely easy process can be a real time saver that allows you to take control of the update process when you have the time rather than be dictated to by your software.

You can also switch off common and infuriating update checkers like Microsoft's AutoUpdate software. More time, less annoying messages and pop ups. Now that's fresh!

22. AppCleaner

AppCleaner

A lot of apps throw a ton of files across your system, taking up space. Even when you remove an app, these files remain.

AppCleaner hunts down these lurking files and removes them along with the app. You can even set AppCleaner to watch out for when you next drag an app to the Trash and hunt down all of its associated files for removal as well.

To avoid accidents, you can tell AppCleaner to protect certain apps from deletion, plus every deleted file is kept in a log so you can see exactly what you got rid of.

23. Growl

Growl

Growl is a notification tool that can alert you to all sorts of happenings on your Mac, from new emails to software downloads. Notifications can be customised and appear discreetly at chosen positions on your Desktop with a small amount of information included.

A wide range of apps support Growl notifications including Twitter clients, Dropbox and many more. Custom plugins are also available for Mail and Safari to notify you of new messages and completed downloads.

When you don't have time to launch an app to check things, Growl is a great solution for quick updates.

24. iStatPro

iStatPro

Sometimes it just feels like there's something wrong with your Mac. Maybe websites are loading slower, apps are being sluggish or the fans keep turning on. It's at this point where you will need to follow that nagging feeling and check that everything is in order. And iStatPro is the perfect way to do this.

This handy Dashboard widget monitors all sorts of information on your Mac, from CPU usage to temperature, and should help you pinpoint where things are amiss. The interface is customisable via simple drag and drop, and you can set exactly which reports are shown on the screen and which are not.

Easy to understand graphs and charts explain network use and memory assignments, and there's even an iPhone app that displays live stats for your Mac on your phone's screen. For peace of mind or some serious system analysis, your Dashboard and iStatPro should be your first port of call.

25. Sophos

As Mac users, we don't really need to worry about viruses on our platform. Sure, there have been a few pieces of malware that have presented a risk, but they're the exception, rather than the norm.

However, it pays to make sure you're protected. Sophos knows this and, alongside its commercial offerings, provides Sophos Anti- Virus for Mac Home Edition as a free download.

The unobtrusive software works quietly in the background using very little memory protecting you from viruses, Trojans and worms. There are none of the annoying popups we've come to accept from security software and you can customise how and when the app scans your system for maximum subtlety.

26. Stuffit Expander

Stuffit has been around on the Mac as long as we can remember and has always been on hand to perform one of the simplest but often awkward of tasks – unzipping a compressed file. While Apple's Archive Utility does much the same job, Stuffit has a wealth of available preferences including automation, virus scanning and expanding to specific folders.

Perhaps most importantly, it will unzip certain compression formats that Apple's built-in decompression can't handle. You'll find it's an invaluable tool to have when somebody sends you something compressed on a Windows computer using an obscure compression tool.

Don't forget, a premium version (called StuffIt Deluxe) is also available that enables you to compress files in a number of ways. It can make some documents up to 98% smaller than their original size! It's also particularly good at compressing JPEG files, which are often used for photos.

Web tools

27. Chrome

Chrome

Love or hate Google you can't fault its browser, Chrome, which is all about speed and efficiency. With a unified URL bar that works for search as well as web addresses, it's a clean and snappy browser that takes advantage of your Mac's power to bring you the sites you need quickly.

Offering tabs, extensions and themes, Chrome provides all the features you need combined with its trademark pace. Security features see you protected from malware and phishing, and the software is automatically updated with security patches. A great alternative to Safari if you fancy a bit of a browser change.

28. Cyberduck

Cyberduck

You may not have to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client very often but on those occasions when you do you surely don't want to have to pay for it.

Fortunately there's Cyberduck, which won't cost you a penny but provides all of the features you would expect in a paid-for client including Keychain access, SSH security features and Quick Look previews.

The app even allows you to edit files on the server if you need to make last minute changes to your upload. Built for the Mac, Cyberduck is Bonjour compatible so should find FTP and WebDAV servers on your local network.

29. Dropbox

How many times have you got to the office and realised you left an important document you were working on at home. It happens the other way around too. What if you're on the road and forget to load the right files onto your laptop?

Dropbox rids you of these worries by providing you with online storage that's accessible from any of your computers and even on your iPhone or iPad. Simply install the app on your Mac, drop your files into the shared folder and work on them wherever you have an internet connection. Forget USB drives and email attachments, this is the easiest A completely free FTP client for speedy transfers. way to work.

30. NetNewsWire

One of the easiest ways to get the latest updates from your favourite sites is to make use of RSS. You can do this in Safari and Mail, but for a truly brilliant experience, check out NetNewsWire.

The app syncs with Google Reader or can run on its own, and gathers the RSS feeds from all of your selected sites into an easy-to-read list with notifications when new posts are available.

With a wide range of views and export options to Instapaper and del.icio.us, NetNewsWire provides everything you need to keep on top of breaking news from your chosen sources.

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In Depth: 30 best free Mac programs to download

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 12:00 AM PST

There's something exciting about buying a new piece of software, unwrapping the packaging and slipping the disc into your Mac ready to install your new goodies. And, of course, the new Mac App Store has made the process of obtaining new software by a digital download just a few simple mouse clicks.

Whichever method you prefer, the biggest drawback is the money you have to hand over. Forking out for your goods is a necessary evil, and the price of things is usually a good indicator of its quality. But the good news is it's not always that way, especially when it comes to Mac software.

As we will show you, there are many apps available for free that have all the polish and advanced features you would expect from a premium paid-for version, but without the nasty price tag. There are apps that will clean up your hard drive or organise your day-to-day activities. Some even work on your iPhone and iPad, too.

We've presented the best ones below – they're all really fantastic and, best of all, they're all free.

A number of these applications, while still great as a free version, also have more fully featured pro versions. So if you really enjoy one, you can consider spending the extra money.

Best free Mac media tools

1. Boxee Online

Boxee

TV channels put a lot of their content online for free, but you usually have to go to their websites to find out what's available. Not with Boxee.

This app lets you browse through episodes of shows from sources such as YouTube, among many others. It also pulls in media from your Mac. The interface can be controlled via the keyboard, an Apple remote or the free Boxee app available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

It's a doddle to navigate, enabling you to quickly find sports, movies, music or photos to enjoy on your computer. For entertainment on your Mac, Boxee is hard to beat.

2. Vuze

Vuze

BitTorrent clients have received a bad rap over the years for enabling users to download copyrighted material for free. Vuze is no different in this respect. That said, downloading via BitTorrent is not illegal and, should you be accessing legal material, you're fine.

Even better than that, Vuze will act as a media player for most formats and even convert files for playback on your devices, including iPads and games consoles. You can even stream video from Vuze via Wi-Fi to compatible devices such as the Xbox 360, making it more of an ideal media viewing solution than a nuisance to society.

3. Flip4Mac

There's been little love lost between Apple and Microsoft over the years, and the same extends to their media formats. The dreaded .WMV (Windows Media Video) file is the scourge of the Mac OS X operating system and will not run natively in QuickTime.

Fortunately, the free Flip4Mac software will eradicate this headache and, once installed, lets you forget about formats and enjoy the video you are after. The WMV player also allows for Windows Media files to play back in Safari as well to help you enjoy a more complete browsing experience. A must-have install to alleviate format folly.

4. HandBrake

Handbrake

Those looking to bring their movie collection into the modern world should certainly consider HandBrake for all their ripping needs. This simple app can grab a movie from DVD and encode it into a variety of formats for playback on your Mac, iPhone or iPad.

Those with the new Apple TV will also be able to create compatible files from their movie discs and add them to iTunes without having to fiddle around with DVD players and tons of cases. The app can even retain the chapter selection features and subtitles of your original disc.

While ripping a DVD to your Mac can take some time (and please respect copyright) if handled right, the outcome makes accessing your entertainment a great deal easier. The latest version of HandBrake introduces a live preview feature that allows you to check the quality of your rip before committing to hours of encoding too. You can also use HandBrake to convert video files into different formats.

5. Spotify

Spotify

Spotify came from out of nowhere and took the music lovers of Europe by storm. This is streaming music done right. This service is free to those who can handle an advert every three songs or so. It offers a catalogue of more than 10 million songs of all genres, which stream instantly through the Spotify app.

It can also link to your iTunes library so all of your favourite tracks are in one place. You can log in from multiple Macs using your Spotify account, create playlists, share music with friends and more.

One of our favourite features is the innovative collaborative playlist, where your friends can add tracks over the internet for you to listen to. If you wish, you can pay to upgrade Spotify to a premium account, at which point you become ad-free.

And for £9.99 per month you can even have the same service on your iPhone with music stored for offline playback.

6. VLC

VLC

VLC is one of those apps you can turn to if QuickTime and other media-playing apps won't work with a media format you want to use. Initially, you might wonder why you'll ever need this app, but if you ever stray beyond the bounds of the iTunes Store and download video from another online source, you're more than likely to encounter a problem – that is, it's not playing properly in iTunes or QuickTime.

Converting the video with HandBrake is always an option, but, to be honest, using VLC is simply quicker. The app can handle DVD playback as well as more obscure formats that crop up from time to time.

Files that are missing pieces or broken can still be played in VLC to the best of its ability and it provides a wealth of codecs to help your Mac handle all kinds of media file formats.

VLC is an application that every Mac user should have installed for when their media won't behave.

Social apps for Mac

7. AddressBookSync

The Address Book app on your Mac is great for organising contacts and syncing them to your iPhone. However, the problem is with so many contacts held, continually adding information and profile pictures can become a time-consuming task.

AddressBookSync is an ingenious tool that connects to your Facebook account to pull in your friends' birthday info as well as images from their accounts into your Mac's Address Book. This is particularly handy for iPhone users with images appearing on screen when a contact is calling.

8. Adium

Adium

The chances are you have an account for more than one instant messaging client. With so many available from iChat to Windows Messenger through Google Chat and Yahoo! it's not surprising.

So, do you leave all of these clients open and consuming memory or do you find an all-in-one solution? If you want the latter, Adium is your app.

Compatible with more IM clients than you probably knew existed, Adium combines all your accounts into one easy-to-use solution so you can keep in touch with all your contacts regardless of the service they are using.

9. Twitter

This is the official Twitter app for Mac. It was launched at the same time as the new Mac App Store, and quickly became the most popular download there. To get it you'll need to have the Mac App Store installed (which means you'll need to be running OS X 10.6 and have installed the latest system updates).

Unlike other Twitter clients, Twitter offers a very OS X-friendly environment without skimping on the features you need to enjoy your 140-character fix.

A particularly great feature is that you can view all tweets in a conversation simply by double-clicking on the main tweet. You can also search for trending topics and use multiple accounts within the same app.

Composing a new tweet is now made far easier with the Compose window that floats outside the interface, ready for you to type your thoughts. If you want to add an image to your tweet simply drag and drop it into the new tweet window.

You can select which image hosting service you use from the Preferences pane, and also which URL-shortening service the Twitter app will use. You can also get the official Twitter app for iPad and iPhone to complete your Twitter experience wherever you are in the world.

10. Skype

Skype isn't a new service but the way it has developed over the years keeps it incredibly useful. The premise is simple, with an internet connection and a copy of the free software installed, you can talk to anyone on Skype via audio or video chat. And you can even swap files, create conference calls or simply chat via instant messaging.

For an additional fee, you can add voicemail to your account and even call mobiles and landlines if you wish.

Handy utilities

11. Evernote

Evernote

Whatever you're doing in life there are things you need to remember, be they pictures, notes, websites or sounds. Evernote provides a place to store your ideas, plans and reminders.

Using cloud-based storage, the Mac app syncs with your iPhone and iPad, as well as any other computer to keep your notes close to hand whenever you need them. Unique search features allow you to dig out anything you've stored and it can even recognise handwritten docs.

This app not only organises your notes, photos, screenshots and more, but you can add custom tags to make things easier to search.

12. r-name

Have you ever had a bunch of files in a folder and then discovered you need to rename each one? For a renaming task that comprises more than ten files or more it can become a very dull and repetitive task.

And that's where r-name comes in. It's a simple, free app that allows files and folders to be dropped in and renamed in any way you require. Ideal for photos or television series, this app will save a great deal of time.

13. Burn

While it's easy to burn a CD or DVD from within Mac OS X, Burn brings simplicity, as well as advanced options to the task. For example, it allows you to set which file system your disc will use so Windows owners can access files.

It can create audio CDs and MP3 discs, and caters for DVD, VideoCD and DivX discs. An Inspector tool allows you to change settings on your disc such as file permissions, dates and the icon.

14. Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon copy cloner

Everyone talks about backing up their computer files, but how many of us are committed to doing it properly?

Carbon Copy Cloner makes it easy to back up your system but to move it to another Mac or larger hard drive without having to reinstall the OS. It even offers incremental backups, which only updates files that have changed since you last ran the software.

Considering this is a free application, it's an absolute powerhouse for any Mac user who wants security for their system and flexibility for their hardware.

15. SketchUp

SketchUp

If you've never used a design app or 3D-modelling tool before, fear not. SketchUp makes the entire process simple.

Using a range of tools, draw the shapes you want and then drag them out to create 3D objects. Ideal for decoration planning, basic design work or providing mockups of home improvements, SketchUp is the ultimate design tool for beginners.

As well as creating designs for your home or office, you can create 3D models and add them to Google Maps. Once you've installed SketchUp you're guaranteed to spend hours playing with the infinite possibilities it affords.

16. OpenOffice

OpenOffice

So you need an office suite that can handle spreadsheets, word processing, design and presentations. Do you go for Apple's iWork or Microsoft's Office? Both cost at least £50 and offer many pros and cons.

Or you could opt for OpenOffice that costs… well, nothing. Unbelievably, OpenOffice is a complete set of office tools compatible with most formats of office file and available for Mac that won't cost you a penny.

Ideal for students, home users or businesses not ready to take the plunge on a full site licence for commercial software, Open-Office is a great alternative to iWork and Office.

17. GIMP

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program. That's the official title of this app, which makes you realise why the creators opted for GIMP as the name for this powerful graphics suite.

It's like Photoshop for free, and is a true labour of love for its developers who have carefully crafted it over time to produce one of the most fully featured pieces of free software available for Mac OS X.

Whether you want to retouch photos, create graphic designs or experiment with 3D, GIMP offers it all and more. Before you fork out for an expensive graphics app, spare the time for this 78MB powerhouse to download.

18. Audacity

Audacity

While GarageBand handles the creative aspects of Mac audio-editing, Audacity is a free option for recording, editing and adjusting audio files.

If you want to quickly split an MP3, convert the format of an audio file or digitise tape or records, Audacity is really easy to use and it's also capable of a number of additional tricks too. If you are after more advanced techniques, Audacity can even offer tools to speed up and slow down audio, work with multiple tracks at once and clean up audio files with a variety of effects.

Those who are serious about their audio editing can even add VST plug-ins to Audacity, in order to further enhance its already brilliant feature set.

Considering the fact it's a free application, Audacity offers some very professional tools and is an ideal choice for those who need a fast and effective editing option when GarageBand isn't the best solution.

19. SketchBox

There are built-in Sticky Notes in Mac OS X but they don't offer nearly as many features as those found in SketchBox. This app's simple interface allows you to create multiple notes, sketch on them with a pen, add text and even set alarms for individual sticky notes.

The main screen shows all of your available notes and, if you wish, you can even build storyboards from sketches you have drawn. The app is free but is no longer updated by the developer. It is also known to have incompatibilities with Snow Leopard, however we're yet to find any.

We've found SketchBox to be a great way of jotting down our creative ideas – it's small and lightweight, so you don't have to wait ages for it to load and risk losing that precious moment of inspiration.

Being able to do a quick sketch and add text at the same time is the digital equivalent of jotting things down on a table napkin – the traditional first step of every great idea in the world!

20. Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety's intent is to produce the opposite emotion to its name, when used correctly. Working with Mail to-do lists and your iCal schedule, Anxiety provides a small floating window for you to quickly add reminders to and check off when you're done.

These are then added to your Mail and iCal lists so you can access them on all of your synced devices and cross them off as you go.

One of the main advantages of Anxiety is that unlike many list managers, it's very lightweight. Easier than a sticky note and far more accessible, Anxiety shrinks into the background when not in use.

So why is this app in the Creativity section, you ask? Well, how can you be creative if your mind is full of all the things you have to do? By removing the little niggles of life you'll find you have more time to dream up more imaginative solutions. So, take the first steps to a more organised you and install Anxiety today.

Best free Mac system tools

21. AppFresh

AppFresh scans your system for installed applications and then lets you know which of them have a pending update. You can then choose those you would like to install and those to leave be.

It sounds simple but this extremely easy process can be a real time saver that allows you to take control of the update process when you have the time rather than be dictated to by your software.

You can also switch off common and infuriating update checkers like Microsoft's AutoUpdate software. More time, less annoying messages and pop ups. Now that's fresh!

22. AppCleaner

AppCleaner

A lot of apps throw a ton of files across your system, taking up space. Even when you remove an app, these files remain.

AppCleaner hunts down these lurking files and removes them along with the app. You can even set AppCleaner to watch out for when you next drag an app to the Trash and hunt down all of its associated files for removal as well.

To avoid accidents, you can tell AppCleaner to protect certain apps from deletion, plus every deleted file is kept in a log so you can see exactly what you got rid of.

23. Growl

Growl

Growl is a notification tool that can alert you to all sorts of happenings on your Mac, from new emails to software downloads. Notifications can be customised and appear discreetly at chosen positions on your Desktop with a small amount of information included.

A wide range of apps support Growl notifications including Twitter clients, Dropbox and many more. Custom plugins are also available for Mail and Safari to notify you of new messages and completed downloads.

When you don't have time to launch an app to check things, Growl is a great solution for quick updates.

24. iStatPro

iStatPro

Sometimes it just feels like there's something wrong with your Mac. Maybe websites are loading slower, apps are being sluggish or the fans keep turning on. It's at this point where you will need to follow that nagging feeling and check that everything is in order. And iStatPro is the perfect way to do this.

This handy Dashboard widget monitors all sorts of information on your Mac, from CPU usage to temperature, and should help you pinpoint where things are amiss. The interface is customisable via simple drag and drop, and you can set exactly which reports are shown on the screen and which are not.

Easy to understand graphs and charts explain network use and memory assignments, and there's even an iPhone app that displays live stats for your Mac on your phone's screen. For peace of mind or some serious system analysis, your Dashboard and iStatPro should be your first port of call.

25. Sophos

As Mac users, we don't really need to worry about viruses on our platform. Sure, there have been a few pieces of malware that have presented a risk, but they're the exception, rather than the norm.

However, it pays to make sure you're protected. Sophos knows this and, alongside its commercial offerings, provides Sophos Anti- Virus for Mac Home Edition as a free download.

The unobtrusive software works quietly in the background using very little memory protecting you from viruses, Trojans and worms. There are none of the annoying popups we've come to accept from security software and you can customise how and when the app scans your system for maximum subtlety.

26. Stuffit Expander

Stuffit has been around on the Mac as long as we can remember and has always been on hand to perform one of the simplest but often awkward of tasks – unzipping a compressed file. While Apple's Archive Utility does much the same job, Stuffit has a wealth of available preferences including automation, virus scanning and expanding to specific folders.

Perhaps most importantly, it will unzip certain compression formats that Apple's built-in decompression can't handle. You'll find it's an invaluable tool to have when somebody sends you something compressed on a Windows computer using an obscure compression tool.

Don't forget, a premium version (called StuffIt Deluxe) is also available that enables you to compress files in a number of ways. It can make some documents up to 98% smaller than their original size! It's also particularly good at compressing JPEG files, which are often used for photos.

Web tools

27. Chrome

Chrome

Love or hate Google you can't fault its browser, Chrome, which is all about speed and efficiency. With a unified URL bar that works for search as well as web addresses, it's a clean and snappy browser that takes advantage of your Mac's power to bring you the sites you need quickly.

Offering tabs, extensions and themes, Chrome provides all the features you need combined with its trademark pace. Security features see you protected from malware and phishing, and the software is automatically updated with security patches. A great alternative to Safari if you fancy a bit of a browser change.

28. Cyberduck

Cyberduck

You may not have to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client very often but on those occasions when you do you surely don't want to have to pay for it.

Fortunately there's Cyberduck, which won't cost you a penny but provides all of the features you would expect in a paid-for client including Keychain access, SSH security features and Quick Look previews.

The app even allows you to edit files on the server if you need to make last minute changes to your upload. Built for the Mac, Cyberduck is Bonjour compatible so should find FTP and WebDAV servers on your local network.

29. Dropbox

How many times have you got to the office and realised you left an important document you were working on at home. It happens the other way around too. What if you're on the road and forget to load the right files onto your laptop?

Dropbox rids you of these worries by providing you with online storage that's accessible from any of your computers and even on your iPhone or iPad. Simply install the app on your Mac, drop your files into the shared folder and work on them wherever you have an internet connection. Forget USB drives and email attachments, this is the easiest A completely free FTP client for speedy transfers. way to work.

30. NetNewsWire

One of the easiest ways to get the latest updates from your favourite sites is to make use of RSS. You can do this in Safari and Mail, but for a truly brilliant experience, check out NetNewsWire.

The app syncs with Google Reader or can run on its own, and gathers the RSS feeds from all of your selected sites into an easy-to-read list with notifications when new posts are available.

With a wide range of views and export options to Instapaper and del.icio.us, NetNewsWire provides everything you need to keep on top of breaking news from your chosen sources.

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In Depth: Best Linux compression tool: 8 utilities tested

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PST

In the '80s and early '90s, compression was king. As you struggled to connect to a BBS (bulletin board system) with the latest Amiga utilities on, you dreamed of when things would be faster and not having to spend as long decompressing files as they took to download.

Fast forward a few decades and the sheer size of the data files we juggle about is pretty boggling. Many have built in compression of some kind. Bandwidth isn't such an issue any more, and in some ways neither is disk space, but it would still be nice if there was a quick and convenient way of reclaiming a few GB here or there, or not having to wait so long when uploading email attachments.

Compression technologies have moved on in the interim, but perhaps not as much as you may expect, because we're fighting against an exponential curve of just how far things can be compacted. Many data formats are nigh on incompressible, because they've already squeezed the redundancies out.

Nevertheless, there are some tools available that leverage our superfast CPUs and gargantuan memory reserves to try some new tricks. In this test, we're looking at a selection of old and new tools currently available.

Some don't get a review, but are included in our tabulated data, which you'll find both in cut-down form here and a full version of online - gzip is there for comparative purposes, for instance.

Our selection

bzip2
rar
7zip
lbzip2
xz
lrzip
PeaZip
arj

RAR 4.00 beta

Originally released way back in 1993, the RAR format has gone through quite a few revisions and tweaks in the meantime. The original author, Eugene Roshal, licenced the software to a German software company who now produce the WinRAR variant and command line options for non-Windows platforms.

On the decompression side, RAR supports a lot of formats, including unusual ones, such as ISO files and CAB archives. The format is far more popular on the Windows platform, and is generally used for splitting large files into usable chunks. This makes it popular for posting large files to usenet groups, and the WinRAR utility for Windows is very well-used indeed.

The generation of parity and volume files alongside the chunks makes it easy to correct minor transmission errors and make sure you've got a perfect copy of whatever was sent. On Unix systems though, the native RAR format is pretty much nonexistent.

In performance terms, it does better than expected. While it is slower than most of the tools on test, it does actually manage some reasonable space savings across the different filetypes. Compression algorithms are usually focused on some particular type of data, and it may well be that better space savings would be recorded by testing against the sorts of files usually found on a Windows system.

It wasn't particularly troubled by the practically incompressible image files, and it did reasonably well with large disk images and the generic filesystem selection.

As a proprietary command line tool for Linux, though, its uses are limited, and is probably best saved for occasions when interoperability with Windows platforms is required.

RAR

Verdict

RAR
Version: 4.00 beta
Web: www.rarlab.com
Price: 29 Euros

As with ARJ, only really useful for trading files with Windows users.

Rating: 5/10

Bzip2

Julian Seward released the original bzip2 in 1997 under a BSD licence. In case you are wondering, there was indeed a bzip before that, but it was withdrawn by the author after possible patent worries loomed menacingly (ah, software patents, don't we all love them?).

Not to worry though, because bzip2 is better than it anyway. Using a combination of different algorithms - such as run-length encoding (RLE), the Burrows-Wheeler transform, and other such cunning trickery - it immediately became noteworthy in Unix circles because of the impressive compression achieved compared to the standard utility of the day, gzip.

Cunningly coded to be almost identical in terms of usage, bzip2 soon became a shoo-in replacement for all types of archiving purposes. Most notably, much source code was shipped using a tar/bzip2 combination instead of the usual tar/gzip combination of the time.

It's somewhat disappointing that in the intervening 14 years or so bzip2 hasn't replaced gzip entirely - changing the habits of Unix users is obviously like trying to steer a particularly fat continental shelf or something.

However, for large volumes of archiving, it seems the trade-off between space savings and compute time isn't always worth it. The figures we generated for Test 3 show that bzip2 running on maximum compression does shave a few per cent off the file size, but at the expense of taking around four times as long.

So if speed is of paramount importance to you, gzip is still a better option… Hang on, before we say that, you should check out the review for lbzip2.

bzip

Verdict

bzip2
Version: 1.0.6
Web: http://bzip.org
Price: Free (GPL)

It's fast and widely used, but switch to lbzip2 for a speed boost.

Rating: 5/10

lbzip2

This is an intriguing contender for the modern age. Using POSIX threads, this tool parallelises the compression routines so they can be run in more than one process and later combined. We care about this because lots of machines now have a multi-core processor.

Standard bzip and indeed many of the other tools on test are only capable of running in a single thread. That means if you have a dual-core processor, such as the one we used for testing, only one is being used for the hard work of compressing, while others lie idle. Of course, the other cores can take care of the system overhead, but it is a bit of a waste.

Parallelising the task does include a bit of overhead in terms of processor time, because there has to be a 'dispatcher' component that allocates tasks to the threads and combines their results at the end. Even so, on a dual-core machine you should see a reduction in the time taken by around 40%, depending on the actual task.

This is borne out by our results - with the same settings, the time taken by lbzip is between 35 and 45% faster. The significant thing is that it is by and large the same process, and you should end up with pretty much exactly the same files. In our tests, however, the resultant filesizes were a few bytes off in either direction, which may simply be due to slightly different application of the algorithms.

Importantly, files created with lbzip2 are valid bzip2 archives - the format hasn't changed, so they can be distributed to and uncompressed by those using bzip2. Lbzip2 is available in some repos, and some quarters suggest that it should just be aliased to the standard bzip2 commands - there is no real disadvantage to it even on a single core.

lbzip

Verdict

lbzip2
Version: 0.23
Web: http://lacos.hu
Price: Free (GPL)

This is a faster version of the old Unix favourite.

Rating: 7/10

7zip

Released in 1999, 7zip (aka 7z or 7za) is a relative newcomer to compression. It was written by Igor Pavlov, who also designed the LZMA algorithm that forms the default compression mode.

The 7zip code also includes other compression methods, such as bzip2, so it can support formats other than the default .7z.

Although it's open source, the main development focus is on the Windows platform, where 7z enjoys a great deal of popularity, and the code comes with a natty front-end. The basic source code has been tweaked by some, while other projects have made use of the LZMA SDK to produce very similar variants. One of these is xz, and others include p7zip. For this test we compiled from the original source code.

Looking at the test results, it's easy to think that 7z isn't making use of the multiple cores on offer. In fact, it is a threaded application, but even so takes slightly longer than the single-threaded bzip2 archiver, and twice as long as lbzip2. We could make some allowances for this code, since it's compiled from the generic source rather than being geared to work on Linux, but it fares better than pxz, the parallelised version of the derivative xz compressor.

One area in which this algorithm does perform well is decompression, as this and the xz utilities consistently perform better than the rest of the pack (apart from gzip, which isn't as compressed to begin with).

7z is certainly a useful tool, and one which may become more worthwhile on faster machines, or in cases where you want the compression to be good, but the decompression to be speedy (such as distributing apps and data).

7zip

Verdict

7zip
Version: 9.13 beta
Web: www.7-zip.org
Price: Free (GPL)

Pure LZMA action fares better than some of the derivatives

Rating: 7/10

xz

Xz is another piece of software that aims to replace gzip by offering similar options and syntax. It works using the LZMA algorithms, as also used in 7z, so the results should be rather similar.

The confusing thing is that the LZMA algorithms should eat up all the test files we have and generate a good space saving without too much of an increase in time. The numbers, though, tend to indicate otherwise.

The compression results are good and, in the default mode, xz seems to be tweaked to extract more compression than 7z, but the cost of that is a major amount of time. Even if we ignore the figures for the first test, which punishes tools that try to do a good job in time terms, xz fails to inspire in the other tests too. It takes over twice as long as bzip2, for instance, to produce a measly few percent more of space savings.

Due to its single-threaded nature, it also takes nearly twice as long as 7z to produce a file of almost identical size. There is a parallelised version of xz too, pxz, for which we have included separate data in the table at the end.

This does produce some significant time savings, but not to the same extent that lbzip2 manages for the bzip2 algorithm. It manages around a 35% time saving, which is welcome and propels it ahead of the single-thread archivers in terms of speed, but doesn't help it catch up to the other threadaware tools, or even 7z.

As mentioned in our 7z review, the advantage of this app is that it offers good compression and fast decompression times, which is why Slackware began using it for creating packages. That might be a good call for distributing packages, but it isn't a great choice if you're doing the archiving.

xz

Verdict

xz
Version: 5.0
Web: http://tukaani.org/xz
Price: Free (GPL)

Mildly disappointing performance from a supposed bzip successor.

Rating: 7/10

lrzip

Lrzip is relatively new in the world of compression utilities, and is derived from the rzip utility. The focus here is on compressing large files, and lrzip works best on systems that have large amounts of available memory and big files (greater than 100MB) to crunch.

This is because it uses some long-range redundancy checks to compare areas of data in the hopes of being able to save some space. The default method for the actual compression is to use the LZMA algorithms as used by the original 7z and also xz and pxz archivers in this test.

LZMA is rapidly becoming the standard algorithm, in spite of patchy performance with the other utilities that have adopted it. Whatever the secret sauce added to lrzip, it seems to work as it manages to be far faster than the other LZMA-based utilities on large files.

As well as LZMA, you can opt to use the LZO algorithms, which are insanely fast, but don't provide a great compression ratio, or the glacially slow ZPAQ, which gives maximum compression ratios.

The ZPAQ software is available as a standalone too, but it is messy to build yourself. Nevertheless, we've included figures later for comparison.

By use of extreme measures, it seems to be able to produce the most compact archives. It's really more of a proof of concept rather than an everyday compression utility, because of the immense amount of time and resources used to generate the files. The average throughput is only about 170k/second!

The real killer is it takes about as long to decompress. Lrzip manages some reasonable times, good compression and a variety of options, which make it one to watch.

lrzip

Verdict

lrzip
Version: 0.46
Web: http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/lrzip
Price: Free (GPL)

Awesome all-round performance and a great candidate for general us.

Rating: 9/10

PeaZip

PeaZip is a little unusual among our selection of archivers. Unlike the others, it's a GUI-driven app that covers a number of archive formats and offers other features besides. There are, of course, tools such as File Roller and Ark on Linux which will do similar jobs and act as frontends for most of the other archiving tools covered here, but PeaZip deserves to be here because it also creates its own archive format.

The PEA file aims to be a modern reinterpretation of the RAR format - a container for different types of compression that can also have different layers added, such as various types of compression, or be split neatly into manageable chunks for distribution.

The native format of the archive is simply a variation on the Zip algorithms. Outside the world of Linux, Zip is still the most widely used archive format, mainly for compatibility reasons. Although PeaZip does handle other formats, we've rated its performance in the table based on creating native PEA files with Zip-style algorithms. Consequently, the performance isn't that great.

It manages to nestle in the top group for speed, but compression ratios are poor, and it's often outperformed on both counts by lbzip2. However, PeaZip behaves nicely and doesn't suck up all your RAM by default, and therefore on more resourcechallenged systems, its performance may look better.

When using the better compression modes available, it's about on a par with 7z. As well as simply archiving, PeaZip can be used as a general file manager, and is available skinned for both GTK/ Gnome and KDE desktops. It may be more aimed at Windows users, but it is open source and has lots of Linux love.

peazip

Verdict

PeaZip
Version: 3.6
Web: www.peazip.org
Price: Free (LGPL) Certainly a useful tool that works well with KDE and Gnome.

Rating: 7/10

arj

Conceived in the '90s, the ARJ format took a while to catch on, but became a major one for some types of archiving. Like RAR, it supports easy file splitting for archiving onto disks or, more often, for splitting files up for ease of use transferring or distributing them.

The original arj software was written for DOS, but soon became a full desktop app for Windows systems, and most of its usage is on that platform. An open source version of the software was created, which naturally found its way to Linux, and although the format has never been particularly popular for pure Linux uses, it has advantages for cross-platform file transfers.

Our results show that this software sits firmly in the camp of getting the job done quickly, but that this comes at the cost of not doing a great deal of compression. On the second test it was only marginally slower that the superspeedy gzip, but it also recorded the worst space savings for the last two tests.

That it doesn't put in a better performance than the standard gzip software on Unix systems is probably one of the reasons you will rarely find anyone using it on Linux machines, although it is nevertheless still maintained and available in just about every Linux distro.

In the battle with the RAR format, arj held its own for a long time, but in the last few years, even the commercial version has had minimal updates, and it is safe to say that this format is certainly on the endangered list.

It's nice to know that it exists, but it isn't for everyday use. Even for the splitting and distribution of files to Windows, the RAR format is a much better bet.

arj

Verdict

arj
Version: 3.10.22
Web: http://arj.sourceforge.net
Price: Free (GPL) The archiver that time forgot and only really useful for legacy support.

Rating: 2/10

The best Linux compression tool is... lrzip 9/10

main graph

Our first conclusion from all the data gathered for this test is that if you have multiple cores in your Linux box, you should really check out one of the threaded tools available. On a two-core machine it will make a significant difference. With more than two, it could change your world view.

As far as the tests themselves go, the first one is a bit of a stinker, because no matter what algorithm you use, it's never going to be able to compress much of what is already highly compressed data. The only thing harder to compress is pure random data, which is why we avoided that here.

The arj and RAR utilities, it soon becomes obvious, are really only useful for our Windows cousins, or for exchanging files with them via email. As for the more Linux-y tools, one of the surprises is how well the old-timer tools do.

Bzip2 (along with the thread-aware lbzip2 variant) and gzip do a pretty good job of archiving, and they manage to do it incredibly fast - there isn't a great deal of difference between archiving a file with them or simply copying it, which can be useful for all sorts of reasons.

PeaZip deserves an honourable mention for being easy to use and for providing a front-end to a lot of these utilities.

Then there's the LZMA-based tools, which may seem to be the future. It was a little surprising that the generic 7z tool seems to do better than the Slackwarefavoured xz/pxz. For applications where the speed of decompressing the output is paramount, they're clearly out in front.

In that case, nothing beats pxz, apart from gzip itself. For all-round performance, the winner should be lrzip, though, which combines the popular LZMA algorithm into a fast and space-savingly great too, which is why it comes out top here.

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In Depth: Best Linux compression tool: 8 utilities tested

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 04:00 AM PST

In the '80s and early '90s, compression was king. As you struggled to connect to a BBS (bulletin board system) with the latest Amiga utilities on, you dreamed of when things would be faster and not having to spend as long decompressing files as they took to download.

Fast forward a few decades and the sheer size of the data files we juggle about is pretty boggling. Many have built in compression of some kind. Bandwidth isn't such an issue any more, and in some ways neither is disk space, but it would still be nice if there was a quick and convenient way of reclaiming a few GB here or there, or not having to wait so long when uploading email attachments.

Compression technologies have moved on in the interim, but perhaps not as much as you may expect, because we're fighting against an exponential curve of just how far things can be compacted. Many data formats are nigh on incompressible, because they've already squeezed the redundancies out.

Nevertheless, there are some tools available that leverage our superfast CPUs and gargantuan memory reserves to try some new tricks. In this test, we're looking at a selection of old and new tools currently available.

Some don't get a review, but are included in our tabulated data, which you'll find both in cut-down form here and a full version of online - gzip is there for comparative purposes, for instance.

Our selection

bzip2
rar
7zip
lbzip2
xz
lrzip
PeaZip
arj

RAR 4.00 beta

Originally released way back in 1993, the RAR format has gone through quite a few revisions and tweaks in the meantime. The original author, Eugene Roshal, licenced the software to a German software company who now produce the WinRAR variant and command line options for non-Windows platforms.

On the decompression side, RAR supports a lot of formats, including unusual ones, such as ISO files and CAB archives. The format is far more popular on the Windows platform, and is generally used for splitting large files into usable chunks. This makes it popular for posting large files to usenet groups, and the WinRAR utility for Windows is very well-used indeed.

The generation of parity and volume files alongside the chunks makes it easy to correct minor transmission errors and make sure you've got a perfect copy of whatever was sent. On Unix systems though, the native RAR format is pretty much nonexistent.

In performance terms, it does better than expected. While it is slower than most of the tools on test, it does actually manage some reasonable space savings across the different filetypes. Compression algorithms are usually focused on some particular type of data, and it may well be that better space savings would be recorded by testing against the sorts of files usually found on a Windows system.

It wasn't particularly troubled by the practically incompressible image files, and it did reasonably well with large disk images and the generic filesystem selection.

As a proprietary command line tool for Linux, though, its uses are limited, and is probably best saved for occasions when interoperability with Windows platforms is required.

RAR

Verdict

RAR
Version: 4.00 beta
Web: www.rarlab.com
Price: 29 Euros

As with ARJ, only really useful for trading files with Windows users.

Rating: 5/10

Bzip2

Julian Seward released the original bzip2 in 1997 under a BSD licence. In case you are wondering, there was indeed a bzip before that, but it was withdrawn by the author after possible patent worries loomed menacingly (ah, software patents, don't we all love them?).

Not to worry though, because bzip2 is better than it anyway. Using a combination of different algorithms - such as run-length encoding (RLE), the Burrows-Wheeler transform, and other such cunning trickery - it immediately became noteworthy in Unix circles because of the impressive compression achieved compared to the standard utility of the day, gzip.

Cunningly coded to be almost identical in terms of usage, bzip2 soon became a shoo-in replacement for all types of archiving purposes. Most notably, much source code was shipped using a tar/bzip2 combination instead of the usual tar/gzip combination of the time.

It's somewhat disappointing that in the intervening 14 years or so bzip2 hasn't replaced gzip entirely - changing the habits of Unix users is obviously like trying to steer a particularly fat continental shelf or something.

However, for large volumes of archiving, it seems the trade-off between space savings and compute time isn't always worth it. The figures we generated for Test 3 show that bzip2 running on maximum compression does shave a few per cent off the file size, but at the expense of taking around four times as long.

So if speed is of paramount importance to you, gzip is still a better option… Hang on, before we say that, you should check out the review for lbzip2.

bzip

Verdict

bzip2
Version: 1.0.6
Web: http://bzip.org
Price: Free (GPL)

It's fast and widely used, but switch to lbzip2 for a speed boost.

Rating: 5/10

lbzip2

This is an intriguing contender for the modern age. Using POSIX threads, this tool parallelises the compression routines so they can be run in more than one process and later combined. We care about this because lots of machines now have a multi-core processor.

Standard bzip and indeed many of the other tools on test are only capable of running in a single thread. That means if you have a dual-core processor, such as the one we used for testing, only one is being used for the hard work of compressing, while others lie idle. Of course, the other cores can take care of the system overhead, but it is a bit of a waste.

Parallelising the task does include a bit of overhead in terms of processor time, because there has to be a 'dispatcher' component that allocates tasks to the threads and combines their results at the end. Even so, on a dual-core machine you should see a reduction in the time taken by around 40%, depending on the actual task.

This is borne out by our results - with the same settings, the time taken by lbzip is between 35 and 45% faster. The significant thing is that it is by and large the same process, and you should end up with pretty much exactly the same files. In our tests, however, the resultant filesizes were a few bytes off in either direction, which may simply be due to slightly different application of the algorithms.

Importantly, files created with lbzip2 are valid bzip2 archives - the format hasn't changed, so they can be distributed to and uncompressed by those using bzip2. Lbzip2 is available in some repos, and some quarters suggest that it should just be aliased to the standard bzip2 commands - there is no real disadvantage to it even on a single core.

lbzip

Verdict

lbzip2
Version: 0.23
Web: http://lacos.hu
Price: Free (GPL)

This is a faster version of the old Unix favourite.

Rating: 7/10

7zip

Released in 1999, 7zip (aka 7z or 7za) is a relative newcomer to compression. It was written by Igor Pavlov, who also designed the LZMA algorithm that forms the default compression mode.

The 7zip code also includes other compression methods, such as bzip2, so it can support formats other than the default .7z.

Although it's open source, the main development focus is on the Windows platform, where 7z enjoys a great deal of popularity, and the code comes with a natty front-end. The basic source code has been tweaked by some, while other projects have made use of the LZMA SDK to produce very similar variants. One of these is xz, and others include p7zip. For this test we compiled from the original source code.

Looking at the test results, it's easy to think that 7z isn't making use of the multiple cores on offer. In fact, it is a threaded application, but even so takes slightly longer than the single-threaded bzip2 archiver, and twice as long as lbzip2. We could make some allowances for this code, since it's compiled from the generic source rather than being geared to work on Linux, but it fares better than pxz, the parallelised version of the derivative xz compressor.

One area in which this algorithm does perform well is decompression, as this and the xz utilities consistently perform better than the rest of the pack (apart from gzip, which isn't as compressed to begin with).

7z is certainly a useful tool, and one which may become more worthwhile on faster machines, or in cases where you want the compression to be good, but the decompression to be speedy (such as distributing apps and data).

7zip

Verdict

7zip
Version: 9.13 beta
Web: www.7-zip.org
Price: Free (GPL)

Pure LZMA action fares better than some of the derivatives

Rating: 7/10

xz

Xz is another piece of software that aims to replace gzip by offering similar options and syntax. It works using the LZMA algorithms, as also used in 7z, so the results should be rather similar.

The confusing thing is that the LZMA algorithms should eat up all the test files we have and generate a good space saving without too much of an increase in time. The numbers, though, tend to indicate otherwise.

The compression results are good and, in the default mode, xz seems to be tweaked to extract more compression than 7z, but the cost of that is a major amount of time. Even if we ignore the figures for the first test, which punishes tools that try to do a good job in time terms, xz fails to inspire in the other tests too. It takes over twice as long as bzip2, for instance, to produce a measly few percent more of space savings.

Due to its single-threaded nature, it also takes nearly twice as long as 7z to produce a file of almost identical size. There is a parallelised version of xz too, pxz, for which we have included separate data in the table at the end.

This does produce some significant time savings, but not to the same extent that lbzip2 manages for the bzip2 algorithm. It manages around a 35% time saving, which is welcome and propels it ahead of the single-thread archivers in terms of speed, but doesn't help it catch up to the other threadaware tools, or even 7z.

As mentioned in our 7z review, the advantage of this app is that it offers good compression and fast decompression times, which is why Slackware began using it for creating packages. That might be a good call for distributing packages, but it isn't a great choice if you're doing the archiving.

xz

Verdict

xz
Version: 5.0
Web: http://tukaani.org/xz
Price: Free (GPL)

Mildly disappointing performance from a supposed bzip successor.

Rating: 7/10

lrzip

Lrzip is relatively new in the world of compression utilities, and is derived from the rzip utility. The focus here is on compressing large files, and lrzip works best on systems that have large amounts of available memory and big files (greater than 100MB) to crunch.

This is because it uses some long-range redundancy checks to compare areas of data in the hopes of being able to save some space. The default method for the actual compression is to use the LZMA algorithms as used by the original 7z and also xz and pxz archivers in this test.

LZMA is rapidly becoming the standard algorithm, in spite of patchy performance with the other utilities that have adopted it. Whatever the secret sauce added to lrzip, it seems to work as it manages to be far faster than the other LZMA-based utilities on large files.

As well as LZMA, you can opt to use the LZO algorithms, which are insanely fast, but don't provide a great compression ratio, or the glacially slow ZPAQ, which gives maximum compression ratios.

The ZPAQ software is available as a standalone too, but it is messy to build yourself. Nevertheless, we've included figures later for comparison.

By use of extreme measures, it seems to be able to produce the most compact archives. It's really more of a proof of concept rather than an everyday compression utility, because of the immense amount of time and resources used to generate the files. The average throughput is only about 170k/second!

The real killer is it takes about as long to decompress. Lrzip manages some reasonable times, good compression and a variety of options, which make it one to watch.

lrzip

Verdict

lrzip
Version: 0.46
Web: http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/lrzip
Price: Free (GPL)

Awesome all-round performance and a great candidate for general us.

Rating: 9/10

PeaZip

PeaZip is a little unusual among our selection of archivers. Unlike the others, it's a GUI-driven app that covers a number of archive formats and offers other features besides. There are, of course, tools such as File Roller and Ark on Linux which will do similar jobs and act as frontends for most of the other archiving tools covered here, but PeaZip deserves to be here because it also creates its own archive format.

The PEA file aims to be a modern reinterpretation of the RAR format - a container for different types of compression that can also have different layers added, such as various types of compression, or be split neatly into manageable chunks for distribution.

The native format of the archive is simply a variation on the Zip algorithms. Outside the world of Linux, Zip is still the most widely used archive format, mainly for compatibility reasons. Although PeaZip does handle other formats, we've rated its performance in the table based on creating native PEA files with Zip-style algorithms. Consequently, the performance isn't that great.

It manages to nestle in the top group for speed, but compression ratios are poor, and it's often outperformed on both counts by lbzip2. However, PeaZip behaves nicely and doesn't suck up all your RAM by default, and therefore on more resourcechallenged systems, its performance may look better.

When using the better compression modes available, it's about on a par with 7z. As well as simply archiving, PeaZip can be used as a general file manager, and is available skinned for both GTK/ Gnome and KDE desktops. It may be more aimed at Windows users, but it is open source and has lots of Linux love.

peazip

Verdict

PeaZip
Version: 3.6
Web: www.peazip.org
Price: Free (LGPL) Certainly a useful tool that works well with KDE and Gnome.

Rating: 7/10

arj

Conceived in the '90s, the ARJ format took a while to catch on, but became a major one for some types of archiving. Like RAR, it supports easy file splitting for archiving onto disks or, more often, for splitting files up for ease of use transferring or distributing them.

The original arj software was written for DOS, but soon became a full desktop app for Windows systems, and most of its usage is on that platform. An open source version of the software was created, which naturally found its way to Linux, and although the format has never been particularly popular for pure Linux uses, it has advantages for cross-platform file transfers.

Our results show that this software sits firmly in the camp of getting the job done quickly, but that this comes at the cost of not doing a great deal of compression. On the second test it was only marginally slower that the superspeedy gzip, but it also recorded the worst space savings for the last two tests.

That it doesn't put in a better performance than the standard gzip software on Unix systems is probably one of the reasons you will rarely find anyone using it on Linux machines, although it is nevertheless still maintained and available in just about every Linux distro.

In the battle with the RAR format, arj held its own for a long time, but in the last few years, even the commercial version has had minimal updates, and it is safe to say that this format is certainly on the endangered list.

It's nice to know that it exists, but it isn't for everyday use. Even for the splitting and distribution of files to Windows, the RAR format is a much better bet.

arj

Verdict

arj
Version: 3.10.22
Web: http://arj.sourceforge.net
Price: Free (GPL) The archiver that time forgot and only really useful for legacy support.

Rating: 2/10

The best Linux compression tool is... lrzip 9/10

main graph

Our first conclusion from all the data gathered for this test is that if you have multiple cores in your Linux box, you should really check out one of the threaded tools available. On a two-core machine it will make a significant difference. With more than two, it could change your world view.

As far as the tests themselves go, the first one is a bit of a stinker, because no matter what algorithm you use, it's never going to be able to compress much of what is already highly compressed data. The only thing harder to compress is pure random data, which is why we avoided that here.

The arj and RAR utilities, it soon becomes obvious, are really only useful for our Windows cousins, or for exchanging files with them via email. As for the more Linux-y tools, one of the surprises is how well the old-timer tools do.

Bzip2 (along with the thread-aware lbzip2 variant) and gzip do a pretty good job of archiving, and they manage to do it incredibly fast - there isn't a great deal of difference between archiving a file with them or simply copying it, which can be useful for all sorts of reasons.

PeaZip deserves an honourable mention for being easy to use and for providing a front-end to a lot of these utilities.

Then there's the LZMA-based tools, which may seem to be the future. It was a little surprising that the generic 7z tool seems to do better than the Slackwarefavoured xz/pxz. For applications where the speed of decompressing the output is paramount, they're clearly out in front.

In that case, nothing beats pxz, apart from gzip itself. For all-round performance, the winner should be lrzip, though, which combines the popular LZMA algorithm into a fast and space-savingly great too, which is why it comes out top here.

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Review: BinaryNights Forklift 2.0.3

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 03:00 AM PST

This ForkLift update bills itself as the 'second coming of file management', aiming to cement the application in place as the premiere file manager for the Mac.

Unlike most of its rivals, such as Transmit, ForkLift slightly uneasily straddles the gap between FTP client and Finder, integrating ideas from both. Therefore, you can use ForkLift to connect to FTP, WebDav and S3 accounts, but the application also encourages you to use it as a dual-pane Finder replacement, even adding Finder-like Devices and Favorites sections to its sidebar.

ForkLift's feature-set is impressive and largely based around efficient workflow. Many new features are also matched by the latest Transmit mounting remote storage in Finder, a transfer queue, Quick Look integration – but it also has a couple of interesting unique features.

Tweak a preference setting and archives can be browsed like folders – handy for anyone who archives projects to ZIP.

New in ForkLift 2 is Stacks, virtual containers to which you drag files that can then be uploaded as one. These features are great and would be enough to recommend ForkLift outright if it wasn't for the performance issues we suffered throughout testing.

Speed-wise, ForkLift was typically fractionally faster than Transmit, but regrettably, reliability was a concern – we regularly suffered errors during uploads and downloads, regardless of how much we tweaked the settings; Transmit, by comparison, was fine with the exact same files and servers, so that's where our recommendation remains for now.

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Review: BinaryNights Forklift 2.0.3

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 03:00 AM PST

This ForkLift update bills itself as the 'second coming of file management', aiming to cement the application in place as the premiere file manager for the Mac.

Unlike most of its rivals, such as Transmit, ForkLift slightly uneasily straddles the gap between FTP client and Finder, integrating ideas from both. Therefore, you can use ForkLift to connect to FTP, WebDav and S3 accounts, but the application also encourages you to use it as a dual-pane Finder replacement, even adding Finder-like Devices and Favorites sections to its sidebar.

ForkLift's feature-set is impressive and largely based around efficient workflow. Many new features are also matched by the latest Transmit mounting remote storage in Finder, a transfer queue, Quick Look integration – but it also has a couple of interesting unique features.

Tweak a preference setting and archives can be browsed like folders – handy for anyone who archives projects to ZIP.

New in ForkLift 2 is Stacks, virtual containers to which you drag files that can then be uploaded as one. These features are great and would be enough to recommend ForkLift outright if it wasn't for the performance issues we suffered throughout testing.

Speed-wise, ForkLift was typically fractionally faster than Transmit, but regrettably, reliability was a concern – we regularly suffered errors during uploads and downloads, regardless of how much we tweaked the settings; Transmit, by comparison, was fine with the exact same files and servers, so that's where our recommendation remains for now.

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Review: Belight Disc Cover 3

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:30 AM PST

Belight Software's desktop publishing applications are ideal for those who want professional results without compromising ease of use. The latest Disc Cover is no exception.

Designed to create CD and DVD on-bodies, covers and booklets, Disc Cover 3 brings a wealth of new features to the application. New templates have been added, as has a series of video tutorials to get you started.

Industry standard barcodes have been added, and the range of design tools beefed up. Images and information can be imported from iLife applications, Aperture and the internet too.

You can now design multi-page booklets to slip inside your CD, DVD or Blu-ray case. Master pages can be set up to repeat common design elements, and lyrics imported from iTunes or the web. Pages are automatically ordered so they can be assembled into a booklet when printed, and duplex printing is supported.

The Standard Edition of Disc Cover 3 costs $35 and comes with 1,000 clip art images, and the Retail Edition costs $45, but has more than 40,000 images and 100 fonts included with it. There are upgrade paths for existing and Standard users.

As with most Belight applications, Disc Cover 3 is fairly straightforward to use, though practice is rewarded. Complete beginners can get good results within an hour, but there are lots of advanced features to grow into. Above all it's fun to use, taking the tedium out of the design process.

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Review: Belight Disc Cover 3

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:30 AM PST

Belight Software's desktop publishing applications are ideal for those who want professional results without compromising ease of use. The latest Disc Cover is no exception.

Designed to create CD and DVD on-bodies, covers and booklets, Disc Cover 3 brings a wealth of new features to the application. New templates have been added, as has a series of video tutorials to get you started.

Industry standard barcodes have been added, and the range of design tools beefed up. Images and information can be imported from iLife applications, Aperture and the internet too.

You can now design multi-page booklets to slip inside your CD, DVD or Blu-ray case. Master pages can be set up to repeat common design elements, and lyrics imported from iTunes or the web. Pages are automatically ordered so they can be assembled into a booklet when printed, and duplex printing is supported.

The Standard Edition of Disc Cover 3 costs $35 and comes with 1,000 clip art images, and the Retail Edition costs $45, but has more than 40,000 images and 100 fonts included with it. There are upgrade paths for existing and Standard users.

As with most Belight applications, Disc Cover 3 is fairly straightforward to use, though practice is rewarded. Complete beginners can get good results within an hour, but there are lots of advanced features to grow into. Above all it's fun to use, taking the tedium out of the design process.

Related Links

Related Stories

In Depth: Is the Mac App Store an opportunity for devs - or a threat?

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

January 2011 marked the dawn of a new age for Mac users: the introduction of Apple's Mac App Store. Available initially in beta form for Snow Leopard users, the Mac App Store will become standard issue on all shipping Macs when Mac OS X Lion arrives later this year.

As a conduit for third-party software developed for the Mac, Apple's Mac App Store represents a tremendous opportunity for some developers, and a serious dilemma for others. Many developers are thrilled with the prospect of reaching new customers through the Mac App Store.

Essentially, what it brings to the table is a new distribution system for delivering a broad range of Apple-blessed software into the hands of willing customers in the easiest possible way. It's a maintenance-free system that many developers who have iOS app experience are already familiar with.

Take Brian Greenstone. He's president of Pangea Software, an independent Mac game developer, whose roots go back to the early, 'classic' days of Mac OS. "We're putting out all of our Intel-compatible OS X applications," he says.

Pangea saw tremendous success by releasing its stable of games in iOS form when the iOS App Store hit the scene. But Greenstone's not counting on lightning striking twice with the release of the Mac App Store.

Tempered expectations

"I certainly don't expect a repeat of 2008," says Greenstone. "That caught everyone off guard, but this time people are ready, and there will be much more competition from the start. I do expect this to boost our Mac game sales to levels that we haven't seen in many, many years. It should be a very nice boost for us."

Daniel Jalkut is another developer looking forward to putting his software on the App Store. His company, Red Sweater Software, makes utilities such as MarsEdit, a popular blogging application, Black Ink, a crossword puzzle app, and others.

App store grab 1

"I do plan to release most of my apps on the Mac App Store, provided Apple is willing to approve them," says Jalkut. "The store is the biggest opportunity we've ever had, especially us small-time indie developers, to grow our market and reach the millions of new customers Apple is bringing to the platform."

Trusted source

Bare Bones Software will also be publishing through the Mac App Store. The makers of BBEdit and Yojimbo see the Mac App Store as a new, important way of reaching customers.

"First, the Mac App Store represents a 'trusted source' market for our products," explains Bare Bones founder Rich Siegel. "A potential customer who sees our app in the Mac App Store may be more likely to purchase it than if they'd come across it on our website. Second, it's much easier to ensure customers have the latest available software, because it essentially integrates our products into the official Mac OS X 'Software Update' mechanics (which is something developers have been desiring for a very long time now)."

Mariner Software plans to launch six titles on the Mac App Store, according to its President, Michael Wray: "In a nutshell, I guess you could say we are 'optimistically enthusiastic yet slightly unclear' when it comes to the workings of the Mac App Store."

One telling observation is that none of the developers we talk to are ready to publish software exclusively through the App Store. For these experienced Mac developers, the Mac App Store is another way of reaching customers, but not the only one.

"For now, we're treating the Mac App Store as an additional sales channel, because we still offer direct services (upgrade pricing, educational discounts, quantity pricing, site licenses and such) that aren't available from the Mac App Store; and many of our customers are accustomed to dealing directly with developers and prefer to continue to do so," says Siegel. "I can't say whether the Mac App Store will evolve into an exclusive sales channel for us, or not – it's too soon to tell at this point."

Wray agrees. "We are looking at the Mac App Store as another domestic reseller channel. We have products in the retail stores, we have direct sales, we have domestic and international distribution, and in 2011, an affiliate network. The Mac App Store is just another arm for us to promote our products to the masses."

Apple's revenue share with Mac App Store developers is the same as its iOS App Store – 70% goes to developers, 30% goes to Apple. That's an awful big nut for Apple, say some developers, compared to what they're paying now to payment processing companies.

"Some developers may have such a strong investment in technologies that Apple doesn't approve of, or have such a mighty independent marketing operation, that it would be foolish to share 30% with Apple to give up complete control over their products," says Jalkut.

Too big a cut?

App store grab 2

One of those developers is Shirt Pocket's David Nanian. "Payment processors such as PayPal and Square charge far, far less than 30%, and even 'storefront' providers like eSellerate – which handles all aspects of the purchasing process, including an integrated store, download hosting, customer support, fraud prevention, and so on – charge more along the lines of 10%."

Rogue Amoeba CEO Paul Kafasis agrees: "A developer has to do a lot more work providing more features, more functionality. Apple, on the other hand, does no extra work selling a more expensive application, yet their cut (in raw numbers) gets much larger."

Kafasis notes that some of his colleagues think the Mac App Store will provide invaluable marketing exposure for their products. But Kafasis doesn't expect that great Mac apps will rise to the top simply because they're good products. "I have to wonder if they've actually paid attention to the iOS App Store. There are a few big winners of course, but there are many, many apps that hover near zero in terms of sales," says Kafasis.

Wray of Mariner Software, whose products are also sold on retail shelves, takes a different perspective. "The Mac App Store revenue model is consistent with margins any reseller would receive, so I don't think [Apple's] percentage is outlandish or lopsided," he says. "The reality is that Apple is in the business to make money. And while it certainly has a few bucks in the bank and is currently riding an impressive wave of momentum, it still needs initiatives like this to continually succeed when it comes to a return on its investment."

"Do developers end up getting less per unit for products sold through the Mac App Store than they do by handling their own payment processing and electronic delivery? Certainly," admits Siegel. "Will the Mac App Store bring enough additional sales to compensate for the difference? I hope and expect so."

Ownership issues

By putting itself between the customer and the developer, the Mac App Store creates an artificial, Apple-controlled barrier that Shirt Pocket's Nanian is also uncomfortable with.

App store grab 3

"Apple very clearly considers the customers to be 'theirs,'" Nanian says. "You don't get any information about them. In fact, while the customer can post reviews about your software on your store page, you can't respond to those reviews, either online or offline, because there's no way to contact those users."

Bare Bones' Siegel echoes Nanian's sentiments about the difficulty of building customer relationships in the event of using Apple's store exclusively. "The Mac App Store mechanics are such that we won't actually know who our customers are unless they reach out to us via other means. This makes it much more difficult to build enduring customer relationships, which are part of Bare Bones' stock in trade."

Wray is concerned about how removing direct contact with Mac App Store customers will affect issues such as major upgrades. "I have a suspicion this method might cause more confusion than [Apple] are expecting," he says. "There are a lot of these logistical kinds of questions that I'm sure will be answered pretty quickly. At least I hope so… for everyone's sake."

"Does the sacrifice being asked of developers, in money and freedom, justify the benefit we receive?" asks Jalkut. "I believe the answer for most developers is 'yes'."

Experienced Mac users know where to find software: there's a thriving ecosystem of mailorder companies, download services and brick-and-mortar retail shops that offer Mac applications and utilities, not to mention Apple's own burgeoning network of retail stores.

"On mobile, prior to the iOS App Store, things were an utter mess. On Mac OS X, there's been a thriving ecosystem of third-party developers for a decade," says Kafasis.

App store grab 3

New Mac users are a different story, however. With half of all Mac buyers completely new to the platform, many new Mac users may not be aware of the best places – both on and offline – to buy their software. The question then is: will the Mac App Store be the answer?

Macgamestore.com owner Tuncer Deniz expects that the Mac App Store will be favoured by new users, while veteran Mac owners may find the experience a bit dull. "This will give Apple a huge advantage," he says. "Sound a lot like Microsoft, doesn't it? Experienced users know where to get their software and I would imagine a vanilla-type, restricted store might be a bit too bland for power Mac users," Deniz adds.

Mark Rein's company, Epic Games, doesn't have any products headed to the Mac App Store right away. But it has recently made waves in the iOS App Store with the release of Infinity Blade, an action/RPG game based on the Unreal Engine. If history repeats itself with the Mac App Store, Rein thinks it's only a matter of time before the Mac App Store makes a huge mark on the Mac gaming ecosystem.

"It's going to be a catalyst for Mac gaming to come roaring back," Rein predicts. "Granted I don't know how long that will take; it won't be an overnight thing, it'll just take time. Customers will see all the apps in the Mac App Store, and they'll be enthusiastic and more receptive to buying them."

Broad appeal?

Kafasis expects that the Mac App Store's biggest appeal will be to new users. "That said, plenty of experienced Mac users don't know much about buying third-party software either."

Mariner Software's Wray predicts that the Mac App Store will especially appeal to 'switchers' – first-time Mac owners who have exclusively used Windows on their PCs in the past. "To have a one-stop shop to find, buy, install, and update approved Mac software? That will seem like a dream come true compared to the vast and confusing software market they call 'Windows.'"

"The real appeal is for folks who don't know the first thing about online software shopping, and for whom the blessing of Apple on both the purchasing process and the catalogue of titles, will make it a very safe and comfortable experience," says Red Sweater's Jalkut.

Siegel sees Apple's Mac OS X Download site closure as "a pretty clear signal that existing Mac users will be expected to use the Mac App Store. At the same time, the Mac App Store will be the only means that most new Mac users will know about, so it's clearly intended to pick up a lot of business from new users, as well."

Ease of purchase

"It's not exactly difficult to find Mac software as long as you know what you're looking for, but the Mac app store will make things a whole lot easier, and the customer will get immediate gratification," says Pangea's Greenstone. Greenstone thinks that experienced Mac users may prefer other channels they're more comfortable with, but he's not so quick to discount the sheer convenience of having a way to buy software at your fingertips.

App store grab 4

"Anyone will tell you it's hard to not buy through iTunes when it's just so simple and quick." Clearly, the majority of Mac developers are very interested to see how well the Mac App Store rollout works, warts and all. And with OS X Lion round the corner, Apple is pressing ahead with its expansion.

"I think what almost everyone needs to accept is the fact that the Mac App Store is a live program," says Wray, "meaning, there will surely be tweaks to how things are done if the demand from customers or developers is strong enough."

Getting on the Mac App Store is only the first step, says Jalkut. Developers also need to deliver products that are worth buying. "The app store promises incredible benefits of exposure, but that by itself is worthless if you don't have a great sales proposition," he warns.

"It's hard to say how it will change sales expectations in the long term – time will tell," says Greenstone. "It can't hurt, that's for sure, but how much it helps will depend on if prices hold and how much competition there is."

Ballooning market

"The easier it is for users to purchase, the more they will buy," reckons Kafasis. "Couple that with increased access to tens of millions of Mac users, and the Mac App Store can be very good for anyone who's included. As developers, it certainly has our attention, even if it doesn't yet have our applications."

And while Deniz recognizes a formidable opponent in the Mac App Store, he sees opportunity, as well: "We expect to prosper in an environment where more Mac games are available. Trying to figure out how to compete with Apple is the key question. As [American business tycoon] Lee Iacocca once said, 'Lead, follow, or get out of the way.'"

Related Stories



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Review: Freeway 5.5 Pro

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

Web design and production is generally seen as either geeky and technical or based on choice-limiting templates. But these two extremes are both neatly avoided by Freeway 5.5 Pro.

We looked at Freeway Express 5.5 and liked it a lot. We've been using the Pro version since then, and it's now our favourite program for making web designs and sites.

Freeway Pro's templates are just like those in the Express version; functional, better than before, but not dynamic in the way that iWeb or RapidWeaver's are. But that's not a criticism, just a difference. The templates can certainly get things started and they're good for learning from, but this is a program meant for free-ranging page designing rather than slotting content into something ready-made.

The interface is very desktop publishing-like – no geeky tendencies are required of you. Set up as many pages as you like in your Freeway document and jump between them in the Site panel on the left. Plan out your designs using page layout standards like master pages (for repeating content) and design grid structures.

The HTML and graphic boxes are like text and picture boxes in print software, although graphic boxes can also be used to set 'graphic text' if you prefer – rendered as bitmap images of fine-set typography. This is no good for search engine optimisation, but great for special headline typesetting.

You can import, crop and scale images in any format, including native Photoshop, Illustrator, PDF and TIFF; they will be converted to the right stuff for you in the output process.

Top-level designs

You don't deal with HTML, because you're working in a higher-level design model than HTML code can provide. Your layouts are generated in standards-compliant HTML, CSS, JavaScript and web graphics on the fly when you preview or publish your work. There's nothing in Freeway to tweak with a text editor, but you can add markup to objects in various ways to work around this if you need to.

But actually, Freeway's Actions – plug-ins that add all sorts of features and tricks – are generally a better way to customise the output easily and facilitate replication.

Freeway Pro lets you add custom ones to the ones that come as standard – think YouTube and HTML5 video, Adsense, RSS integration, PHP integration and more. For a number of these, be sure to check out both www.softpress.com and www.actionsforge.com.

Freeway Layers

Freeway 5.5 pro layers

Another big difference between the Express and Pro versions is the support for CSS-Positioning, or Layers as they're called here. Anything set as a layered object is generated as a 'div' in the published HTML; anything that's not layered is held in place as part of an invisible table. (Don't want to have tables used in your design structures? Keep things layered. Want to switch things about? Just click the Layer checkbox for any object.)

New to Freeway 5.5 Pro is the Showcase program, something that makes creating photo galleries and slideshows a simple process. You can have a gallery up and running in just a few minutes – a refreshing change, since this was a tedious manual job in older versions of Freeway. It's good to see the developers implement a new feature so seamlessly.

Freeway 5.5 Pro is both easy and powerful – get it and you'll be getting on with making sites quicker than you probably imagined.

Related Links

Related Stories



Related Stories

Review: Freeway 5.5 Pro

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

Web design and production is generally seen as either geeky and technical or based on choice-limiting templates. But these two extremes are both neatly avoided by Freeway 5.5 Pro.

We looked at Freeway Express 5.5 and liked it a lot. We've been using the Pro version since then, and it's now our favourite program for making web designs and sites.

Freeway Pro's templates are just like those in the Express version; functional, better than before, but not dynamic in the way that iWeb or RapidWeaver's are. But that's not a criticism, just a difference. The templates can certainly get things started and they're good for learning from, but this is a program meant for free-ranging page designing rather than slotting content into something ready-made.

The interface is very desktop publishing-like – no geeky tendencies are required of you. Set up as many pages as you like in your Freeway document and jump between them in the Site panel on the left. Plan out your designs using page layout standards like master pages (for repeating content) and design grid structures.

The HTML and graphic boxes are like text and picture boxes in print software, although graphic boxes can also be used to set 'graphic text' if you prefer – rendered as bitmap images of fine-set typography. This is no good for search engine optimisation, but great for special headline typesetting.

You can import, crop and scale images in any format, including native Photoshop, Illustrator, PDF and TIFF; they will be converted to the right stuff for you in the output process.

Top-level designs

You don't deal with HTML, because you're working in a higher-level design model than HTML code can provide. Your layouts are generated in standards-compliant HTML, CSS, JavaScript and web graphics on the fly when you preview or publish your work. There's nothing in Freeway to tweak with a text editor, but you can add markup to objects in various ways to work around this if you need to.

But actually, Freeway's Actions – plug-ins that add all sorts of features and tricks – are generally a better way to customise the output easily and facilitate replication.

Freeway Pro lets you add custom ones to the ones that come as standard – think YouTube and HTML5 video, Adsense, RSS integration, PHP integration and more. For a number of these, be sure to check out both www.softpress.com and www.actionsforge.com.

Freeway Layers

Freeway 5.5 pro layers

Another big difference between the Express and Pro versions is the support for CSS-Positioning, or Layers as they're called here. Anything set as a layered object is generated as a 'div' in the published HTML; anything that's not layered is held in place as part of an invisible table. (Don't want to have tables used in your design structures? Keep things layered. Want to switch things about? Just click the Layer checkbox for any object.)

New to Freeway 5.5 Pro is the Showcase program, something that makes creating photo galleries and slideshows a simple process. You can have a gallery up and running in just a few minutes – a refreshing change, since this was a tedious manual job in older versions of Freeway. It's good to see the developers implement a new feature so seamlessly.

Freeway 5.5 Pro is both easy and powerful – get it and you'll be getting on with making sites quicker than you probably imagined.

Related Links

Related Stories

In Depth: Is the Mac App Store an opportunity for devs - or a threat?

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 02:00 AM PST

January 2011 marked the dawn of a new age for Mac users: the introduction of Apple's Mac App Store. Available initially in beta form for Snow Leopard users, the Mac App Store will become standard issue on all shipping Macs when Mac OS X Lion arrives later this year.

As a conduit for third-party software developed for the Mac, Apple's Mac App Store represents a tremendous opportunity for some developers, and a serious dilemma for others. Many developers are thrilled with the prospect of reaching new customers through the Mac App Store.

Essentially, what it brings to the table is a new distribution system for delivering a broad range of Apple-blessed software into the hands of willing customers in the easiest possible way. It's a maintenance-free system that many developers who have iOS app experience are already familiar with.

Take Brian Greenstone. He's president of Pangea Software, an independent Mac game developer, whose roots go back to the early, 'classic' days of Mac OS. "We're putting out all of our Intel-compatible OS X applications," he says.

Pangea saw tremendous success by releasing its stable of games in iOS form when the iOS App Store hit the scene. But Greenstone's not counting on lightning striking twice with the release of the Mac App Store.

Tempered expectations

"I certainly don't expect a repeat of 2008," says Greenstone. "That caught everyone off guard, but this time people are ready, and there will be much more competition from the start. I do expect this to boost our Mac game sales to levels that we haven't seen in many, many years. It should be a very nice boost for us."

Daniel Jalkut is another developer looking forward to putting his software on the App Store. His company, Red Sweater Software, makes utilities such as MarsEdit, a popular blogging application, Black Ink, a crossword puzzle app, and others.

App store grab 1

"I do plan to release most of my apps on the Mac App Store, provided Apple is willing to approve them," says Jalkut. "The store is the biggest opportunity we've ever had, especially us small-time indie developers, to grow our market and reach the millions of new customers Apple is bringing to the platform."

Trusted source

Bare Bones Software will also be publishing through the Mac App Store. The makers of BBEdit and Yojimbo see the Mac App Store as a new, important way of reaching customers.

"First, the Mac App Store represents a 'trusted source' market for our products," explains Bare Bones founder Rich Siegel. "A potential customer who sees our app in the Mac App Store may be more likely to purchase it than if they'd come across it on our website. Second, it's much easier to ensure customers have the latest available software, because it essentially integrates our products into the official Mac OS X 'Software Update' mechanics (which is something developers have been desiring for a very long time now)."

Mariner Software plans to launch six titles on the Mac App Store, according to its President, Michael Wray: "In a nutshell, I guess you could say we are 'optimistically enthusiastic yet slightly unclear' when it comes to the workings of the Mac App Store."

One telling observation is that none of the developers we talk to are ready to publish software exclusively through the App Store. For these experienced Mac developers, the Mac App Store is another way of reaching customers, but not the only one.

"For now, we're treating the Mac App Store as an additional sales channel, because we still offer direct services (upgrade pricing, educational discounts, quantity pricing, site licenses and such) that aren't available from the Mac App Store; and many of our customers are accustomed to dealing directly with developers and prefer to continue to do so," says Siegel. "I can't say whether the Mac App Store will evolve into an exclusive sales channel for us, or not – it's too soon to tell at this point."

Wray agrees. "We are looking at the Mac App Store as another domestic reseller channel. We have products in the retail stores, we have direct sales, we have domestic and international distribution, and in 2011, an affiliate network. The Mac App Store is just another arm for us to promote our products to the masses."

Apple's revenue share with Mac App Store developers is the same as its iOS App Store – 70% goes to developers, 30% goes to Apple. That's an awful big nut for Apple, say some developers, compared to what they're paying now to payment processing companies.

"Some developers may have such a strong investment in technologies that Apple doesn't approve of, or have such a mighty independent marketing operation, that it would be foolish to share 30% with Apple to give up complete control over their products," says Jalkut.

Too big a cut?

App store grab 2

One of those developers is Shirt Pocket's David Nanian. "Payment processors such as PayPal and Square charge far, far less than 30%, and even 'storefront' providers like eSellerate – which handles all aspects of the purchasing process, including an integrated store, download hosting, customer support, fraud prevention, and so on – charge more along the lines of 10%."

Rogue Amoeba CEO Paul Kafasis agrees: "A developer has to do a lot more work providing more features, more functionality. Apple, on the other hand, does no extra work selling a more expensive application, yet their cut (in raw numbers) gets much larger."

Kafasis notes that some of his colleagues think the Mac App Store will provide invaluable marketing exposure for their products. But Kafasis doesn't expect that great Mac apps will rise to the top simply because they're good products. "I have to wonder if they've actually paid attention to the iOS App Store. There are a few big winners of course, but there are many, many apps that hover near zero in terms of sales," says Kafasis.

Wray of Mariner Software, whose products are also sold on retail shelves, takes a different perspective. "The Mac App Store revenue model is consistent with margins any reseller would receive, so I don't think [Apple's] percentage is outlandish or lopsided," he says. "The reality is that Apple is in the business to make money. And while it certainly has a few bucks in the bank and is currently riding an impressive wave of momentum, it still needs initiatives like this to continually succeed when it comes to a return on its investment."

"Do developers end up getting less per unit for products sold through the Mac App Store than they do by handling their own payment processing and electronic delivery? Certainly," admits Siegel. "Will the Mac App Store bring enough additional sales to compensate for the difference? I hope and expect so."

Ownership issues

By putting itself between the customer and the developer, the Mac App Store creates an artificial, Apple-controlled barrier that Shirt Pocket's Nanian is also uncomfortable with.

App store grab 3

"Apple very clearly considers the customers to be 'theirs,'" Nanian says. "You don't get any information about them. In fact, while the customer can post reviews about your software on your store page, you can't respond to those reviews, either online or offline, because there's no way to contact those users."

Bare Bones' Siegel echoes Nanian's sentiments about the difficulty of building customer relationships in the event of using Apple's store exclusively. "The Mac App Store mechanics are such that we won't actually know who our customers are unless they reach out to us via other means. This makes it much more difficult to build enduring customer relationships, which are part of Bare Bones' stock in trade."

Wray is concerned about how removing direct contact with Mac App Store customers will affect issues such as major upgrades. "I have a suspicion this method might cause more confusion than [Apple] are expecting," he says. "There are a lot of these logistical kinds of questions that I'm sure will be answered pretty quickly. At least I hope so… for everyone's sake."

"Does the sacrifice being asked of developers, in money and freedom, justify the benefit we receive?" asks Jalkut. "I believe the answer for most developers is 'yes'."

Experienced Mac users know where to find software: there's a thriving ecosystem of mailorder companies, download services and brick-and-mortar retail shops that offer Mac applications and utilities, not to mention Apple's own burgeoning network of retail stores.

"On mobile, prior to the iOS App Store, things were an utter mess. On Mac OS X, there's been a thriving ecosystem of third-party developers for a decade," says Kafasis.

App store grab 3

New Mac users are a different story, however. With half of all Mac buyers completely new to the platform, many new Mac users may not be aware of the best places – both on and offline – to buy their software. The question then is: will the Mac App Store be the answer?

Macgamestore.com owner Tuncer Deniz expects that the Mac App Store will be favoured by new users, while veteran Mac owners may find the experience a bit dull. "This will give Apple a huge advantage," he says. "Sound a lot like Microsoft, doesn't it? Experienced users know where to get their software and I would imagine a vanilla-type, restricted store might be a bit too bland for power Mac users," Deniz adds.

Mark Rein's company, Epic Games, doesn't have any products headed to the Mac App Store right away. But it has recently made waves in the iOS App Store with the release of Infinity Blade, an action/RPG game based on the Unreal Engine. If history repeats itself with the Mac App Store, Rein thinks it's only a matter of time before the Mac App Store makes a huge mark on the Mac gaming ecosystem.

"It's going to be a catalyst for Mac gaming to come roaring back," Rein predicts. "Granted I don't know how long that will take; it won't be an overnight thing, it'll just take time. Customers will see all the apps in the Mac App Store, and they'll be enthusiastic and more receptive to buying them."

Broad appeal?

Kafasis expects that the Mac App Store's biggest appeal will be to new users. "That said, plenty of experienced Mac users don't know much about buying third-party software either."

Mariner Software's Wray predicts that the Mac App Store will especially appeal to 'switchers' – first-time Mac owners who have exclusively used Windows on their PCs in the past. "To have a one-stop shop to find, buy, install, and update approved Mac software? That will seem like a dream come true compared to the vast and confusing software market they call 'Windows.'"

"The real appeal is for folks who don't know the first thing about online software shopping, and for whom the blessing of Apple on both the purchasing process and the catalogue of titles, will make it a very safe and comfortable experience," says Red Sweater's Jalkut.

Siegel sees Apple's Mac OS X Download site closure as "a pretty clear signal that existing Mac users will be expected to use the Mac App Store. At the same time, the Mac App Store will be the only means that most new Mac users will know about, so it's clearly intended to pick up a lot of business from new users, as well."

Ease of purchase

"It's not exactly difficult to find Mac software as long as you know what you're looking for, but the Mac app store will make things a whole lot easier, and the customer will get immediate gratification," says Pangea's Greenstone. Greenstone thinks that experienced Mac users may prefer other channels they're more comfortable with, but he's not so quick to discount the sheer convenience of having a way to buy software at your fingertips.

App store grab 4

"Anyone will tell you it's hard to not buy through iTunes when it's just so simple and quick." Clearly, the majority of Mac developers are very interested to see how well the Mac App Store rollout works, warts and all. And with OS X Lion round the corner, Apple is pressing ahead with its expansion.

"I think what almost everyone needs to accept is the fact that the Mac App Store is a live program," says Wray, "meaning, there will surely be tweaks to how things are done if the demand from customers or developers is strong enough."

Getting on the Mac App Store is only the first step, says Jalkut. Developers also need to deliver products that are worth buying. "The app store promises incredible benefits of exposure, but that by itself is worthless if you don't have a great sales proposition," he warns.

"It's hard to say how it will change sales expectations in the long term – time will tell," says Greenstone. "It can't hurt, that's for sure, but how much it helps will depend on if prices hold and how much competition there is."

Ballooning market

"The easier it is for users to purchase, the more they will buy," reckons Kafasis. "Couple that with increased access to tens of millions of Mac users, and the Mac App Store can be very good for anyone who's included. As developers, it certainly has our attention, even if it doesn't yet have our applications."

And while Deniz recognizes a formidable opponent in the Mac App Store, he sees opportunity, as well: "We expect to prosper in an environment where more Mac games are available. Trying to figure out how to compete with Apple is the key question. As [American business tycoon] Lee Iacocca once said, 'Lead, follow, or get out of the way.'"

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