A web browser without tabs? Hard to come by. Windows Explorer, on the other hand, is still pretty much the same pane it's always been.

Qmmander is a lightweight, portable alternative. Built on Nokia's QT framework, Qmmander (like many Explorer replacements) adds tab support and split-window views to power up your file management tasks.

File browsing is snappy, even when exploring shares on a local area network. Qmmander's panes can be displayed horizontally or vertically, and an extensive set of hotkeys is built-in for those who prefer mouse-free computing. Qmmander's interface isn't overly-complicated and it still sports a nice set of features in a small, portable package.

However, one feature advanced users might find lacking in Qmmander is the ability to bookmark or favorite folders. It would certainly make for a thoughtful addition. I usually work in the same set of 5 or 6 folders, so being able to load them quickly and easily would be a real time-saver.

Qmmander is free, portable, open source, and runs on Windows. It's packed as a 7z archive, so you'll need an app (like 7-zip) to extract it.

A French website [Google Translate link] is reporting that 130,000 Tax Authority computer systems are soon to make a major switch to open source software. Email and calendar duties are being handed over to Thunderbird and the Lightning plugin. The move also includes a transition to OBM's open source groupware/collaboration/messaging platform.

When the General Directorate of Public Finance was formed, two tax agencies were combined. Their users were split, with 80,000 using Lotus Notes and 50,000 running Microsoft Outlook. In the end, the new agency's decision had a lot to do with a desire not to re-license Lotus Notes and Outlook and to simplify operations by supporting a single client.

Thunderbird had already made inroads with the French Department of Defense as well as the Misitry of Culture. The new migration brings the total number of installs to more than 200,000.

Always nice to see Mozilla adoption in the enterprise!

[via OSOR.eu]

If there's one thing better than a handy, free application it's a handy, free application that runs on everyone's computer. Looking for a cross-platform download manager? Take a look at Multiget.

Once installed, Multiget monitors your clipboard for download links -- or you can start putting the app to use via its floating drop box. Find something you want to download in your favorite browser, then click and drag a link onto the box to initiate the transfer. Downloads can also be started via Multiget's task menu.

Multiget supports multiple simultaneous threads per download, FTP and HTTP resuming (as long as the server supports it), and it works through proxies.

The developer provides binaries for Linux and Windows - as well as the source code, of course. Those of you running a Linux distro with apt-get can likely do a simple sudo apt-get install multiget. Mac and BSD users have to jump through the additional hoop of compiling from source, but Multiget will work for you, too!

Before I get started, yes, I do realize that this is not Engadget. However, TonidoPlug is a bit of a different situation for us. It's an excellent example of a software product making the jump to hardware -- and doing it well.

In case you missed the earlier posts, I took a look at the Tonido beta a while back. Anyone who is leery about offering up confidential documents and media files to the Cloud Gods, Tonido is for you. If you can read and follow directions and spare some of your valuable time to configure the suite, it's a simple, secure, and effective way to rock a cloud setup without giving up control and complete privacy.

Here's a quick recap of what Tonido provides:

• File sharing
• Photo gallery
• MP3 streaming with playlist support
• Thots, a simple blogging platform
• A collaborative workspace with calendar and task management

As for the plug itself, it utilizes Marvell's Sheevaplug base running the 1.2Ghz Foreceon processor with 512Mb of DDR2 memory and 512Mb of flash storage onboard. Ubuntu 9.04 provides the embedded software muscle and leaves plenty of room for expansion.

Regardless of what operating system you run on your computer, it doesn't have to be all work and no play. Heck, that could turn you into some kind of axe-wielding homicidal maniac bent on destroying your own family while watching over a remote resort hotel in the dead of winter.

I'd certainly never want that to happen to any of our DownloadSquad readers, so here's a list of games that you can install on Windows, Mac, and Linux (and some even on BeOS and BSD). Enjoy!

...And, as usual, if there's a particularly killer cross-platform game that I didn't include, feel free to post it in the comments -- and tell us why you love it!


Battle for Wesnoth - One of the best known open source games around, Wesnoth is an excellent fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game. There's plenty here to keep you busy - multiple campaigns and large maps, and online multiplayer for when you grow weary of playing on your own.

Battle Tanks - It's got colorful, cartoonish graphics, massive explosions, tanks....And best of all, it's got multiplayer. What could be more fun than blowing up your friends while causing immeasurable damage to an unsuspecting city?

Cube2: Sauerbraten - Another excellent open source FPS. One of the coolest things about it is that you can build and edit levels while you're in the game. There's also Quadropolis, a massive repository of goodies for the Cube engine including maps, scripts, and mods.

Eat the Whistle - If you're into uber-realist sports games, go ahead and scroll right past this one. If, however, you enjoy a little bit of humor and some old-school visuals, Eat the Whistle is a must-have download. Features sim, career, and arcade (complete with power-ups) modes.

FreeCiv - Another cornerstone of open source gaming. Inspired by Sid Meier's classic series, FreeCiv challenges you to develop your civilization from primitive roots into a thriving, modern society. Multiplayer mode support up to 30 (yes, 30) players. With more than 100 playable nations and 29 translations, FreeCiv is a truly international Time Waster.

FreeDroid - A modern take on the C64 classic Paradroid. It's a rich, futuristic RPG with plenty of robot butt kicking. In addition to dozens of different weapons, there's also a wide range of magic attacks, and you can even take control of your enemies and use them against each other.

Frets on Fire - If you've been looking for an excuse to rock out with your keyboard, go download Frets on Fire now. Tell your office mates your learning to play like Vadim Pruzhanov. Sure, he plays a different kind of keyboard, but it's still badass.

Glest - This fantasy themed RTS pits the opposing factions of magic and technology against each other. Do battle with mages, dragons, archers, horsemen, ornithopters, and more. If you grow weary of Glest itself, there are plenty of mods you can download to breath new life into the game.

Globulation 2 - A slick RTS that lets you focus on the "S" by intelligently handling part of the nettlesome micro-management this type of game usually requires. The game's built-in tutorial will help you learn how to build a powerful creature civilization that will be the envy of...er...other creatures.

Grid Wars 2 - There are times when playing this game makes you feel like you're trying to take on Asteroids, Tempest, and Gyruss all at once. If you like space shooters, bright, stunning visual,s and frantic gameplay, Grid Wars 2 will keep you riveted.

Hedgewars / Wormux - Two different takes on the turn-based goodness inspired by Worms. Both games feature awesome, cartoony graphics and fun gameplay, though I'm partial to Wormux (it may have something to do with the Gnu cannon).

LinCity - This popular open source city simulation hit version 2.0 this year, and it's looking better than ever. Manage your resources, keep people happy, and watch your creation grow into a booming metropolis - or cram everyone into spaceships and get the heck out of dodge - either way, you win!

Neverball - If Marble Madness was cool, Neverball is absolute zero. Use your mouse to tilt the playing surface and manouver the ball to collect coins and reach the goal marker. The download also includes Neverputt, which is exactly what you think it is - a tilt-and-roll miniature golf game.

Phun - Two-dimensional physics sandbox tomfoolery! Create all kinds of crazy arrangements then turn Phun loose and see what happens. Objects can be made out of different materials, and they react in different ways. See how gravity, friction, and wind affect things. If only grade 12 physics had been this much fun...

Scourge - Scourge bills their project as a "graphical Rogue-like game." If that's true, think of Rogue as the plate and Scourge as a multi-layer, fancily decorated cake piled atop it. It's packed with open source Dungeons and Dragons style action. The project has some ambitious goals and is looking for contributors - if you enjoy playing it and can offer your skills, find the team on the #scourge IRC channel on Freenode.

Smokin' Guns - Take a Quake3-powered FPS, slather on some Briscoe County, Jr., and you've got Smokin' Guns. You can almost smell the black powder and road apples. It's good, old-fashioned, Wild West fun.

Vacuum Magic - If Luigi's Mansion left you thinking all vacuum-based games sucked, give this 2d side-scroller a try. It's just you and your mystical 'vacuum field' against all manner of nefarious critters. Suck in certain beasts and food items and you can spit 'em back out to inflict damage.

VDrift - Ever wished you could be just like Vin Diesel? I wouldn't go sharing that with too many people. On a related note, VDrift is an awesome 3D drift racing sim. The latest version boasts a smarter AI, better physics, new sounds, and improved overall performance.

Vega Strike - VS provides the backbone for a number of remix projects (like Pi Armada, Privateer Gemini Gold, and Parallel Universe). Explore space, build a trading empire, and blast your opponents to space dust. Plus, they just got their 'Super Ultra Cool Sound Systems' (SUCSS?) working last month.

Warsow - Warsow's developer credit Quakeworld, Quake CPMA, Jet Set Radio, and Speedball for inspiring aspects of their game, and it's a combination that really works. The game's fast pace and cell-shaded graphics work well together. Other cool features: dual firing modes (weak and strong) for weapons, wall jump, ramp slides, dashing, and dodging.

Widelands - If you enjoyed playing the Settlers games and haven't tried Widelands yet, now's the time. Lead your tribe to glory in single-player mode, or go multiplayer on your LAN or over the Internet. You and your friends can unite to form glorious new empires - or just try to kick the snot out of each other.

Wolfenstien: Enemy Territory - Mein Leben! Ok, so that was from the old, old Wolfenstein. The idea is the same: shoot all the bad guys or they'll shoot you (or blow you up). The links will take you to Planet Wolfenstein where you'll find downloads for all three OSes, map editors, source code, and more.

Yo Frankie! - Built on the Blender Game Engine, Yo Frankie is as good a 3d platformer as you'll find for free. There's lots of lighthearted action to enjoy, and new levels are constantly being developed by an enthusiastic community.

I've enjoyed using the preview releases on my MSI laptop (due in no small part to its ability to sleep and resume better than Ubuntu on my system), and at long last the big day is finally here. After being pushed back, Fedora 11 is now available to the public.

The new version ships with either Gnome 2.26.1 [torrent] or KDE 4.1.2 [torrent]. One of the biggest additions to Fedora 11 is OpenChange, which provides full MAPI connectivity to Microsoft Exchange servers. It's the first open source implementation of the MAPI protocol.

For a complete list of what's new, check out the release notes from Fedora - they're available in 40+ languages at Fedoraproject.com. The US-English overview is presented here and a list of changes for desktop users is right over here.

It's not a lab-quality demo, but you can see the Fedora 11 preview outrace Ubuntu 9.04 in the video above. It's a solid distro, and well worth downloading.

This weekend I finished setting up a fresh triple-boot install on my MSI laptop. With my operating systems ready to go, the time had come to start reinstalling applications. While it wasn't a conscious decision, I noticed that the majority of my apps were Open Source - so I decided to keep the ball rolling.

Even if you haven't just gone through a reformat, these are great applications and well worth installing. If you have, then hopefully this list will provide you with a solid base of programs to get you started with your fresh, new Windows install!

Web Browsers: Chromium, Firefox
They excel at different things, so I install both browsers by default. Chromium is great for all-purpose surfing, while I use Firefox and my favorite extensions to tackle my daily web-based work.

Office: OpenOffice.Org, Sumatra, PDFCreator
For lightweight PDF reading and creation from any Windows app, Sumatra and PDFCreator are solid options. OpenOffice.Org, well, it's the name to beat in open source suites.

A lot of you read yesterday's post about the school teacher who cautioned us that spreading the "misconception of free software" is harmful. Today we're going to put a positive spin on things.

Free software does exist. Every retail customer that I've built a computer for in the past six years has at least three pieces of free or Open Source software on his or her system. It's everywhere, and we're all using it - even Karen, whether she realizes it or not.

So now it's time for "Sharin' with Karen." Which of your favorite free applications would you like her (and others like her) to know about and use? They might be well known - like Firefox or OpenOffice - or they might be relative unknowns - like Network Notepad.

Let's keep things positive - after all, we're talking about software that someone else is sharing with you!

Post your picks, and I'll put together a roundup for the weekend.

Maybe we'll help change some minds!

Microsoft's been announcing partnerships with Linux distributors left and right over the last few months. First, the company reached an agreement to share intellectual property with Novell, then Xandros, and most recently Linspire.

That's led many to wonder whether Microsoft would be partnering with Canonical anytime soon. Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, fast becoming one of the most popular Linux distributions, especially among newer Linux users. But while Ubuntu could certainly benefit from improved interoperability with Microsoft programs like Windows Media Player and Office, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth says it just ain't going to happen. Not yet, anyway.

In a nutshell, Shuttleworth says that he has not intention of caving in to Microsoft's threatened lawsuits against the open source community. And while he supports any efforts Microsoft makes towards allowing proprietary software to run better on Linux, he doesn't really believe the company is committed to open standards. He doesn't rule out working with Microsoft in the future, but Shuttleworth sees no reason to do so now.

And here's a key point. Since Microsoft is working with Novell, Xandros, and Linspire, there's every reason to think that the entire Linux community will benefit. Any changes that are made to open source software will by definition be available to all developers, and could therefore be included in future Ubuntu releases.

[via CNet]

For those who have never had the pleasure, Camino is an open source browser based on the same Gecko rendering engine as Firefox, but built to integrate much better with Mac OS X. Right out of the box Camino has a much more Mac look and feel, and under the hood it has integrated better with Mac OS X by doing things like storing web passwords in the Mac OS X Keychain (a centralized, secured and backup-friendly database where all Mac OS X apps store passwords). With the release of Camino 1.5, new features and even more integration can be had, such as:

• The spell checking feature now uses the built-in, system-wide Mac OS X dictionary for checking spelling and storing custom words
• Storing passwords in the Keychain now fully integrates with Safari, allowing both browsers to recognize, store and share the same password entries
• Session saving ensures your tabs and windows are restored right back to where you left them, even after a crash
• Feed detection allows Camino to pass RSS feeds on to your default reader
• A more powerful and obvious pop-up blocking system, giving you control over whether you show pop-ups from a specific site once, always or never
• The ability to trash downloaded files directly from the Downloads Manager window

While Camino doesn't support Firefox's popular extensions, it does have a healthy plug-in community at PimpMyCamino for those who might still need a little extra oomph from the open source, Mozilla-based browser. Camino 1.5 can be had from CaminoBrowser.org.