The Free Desktop - Because Free is Better

Open source software is an amazing way to get high-quality and secure products for your desktop at absolutely no cost. With the rise of open source, you can replace nearly any expensive commercial application with a fully functional counterpart. To top it off, you'll also have a community of loyal and experienced users to provide technical help and usage advice when you encounter a problem.

Not all software here is officially open source, but it is all free for use. So take a look at these commercial alternatives; I think you'll be pleasantly suprised by what you find.

Need : An office suite
Try : OpenOffice
OpenOffice, created and developed in collarboration with the software company Sun Microsystems, provides a quick, effective and easy to use alternative to commercial office suites. Manage documents, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, equations and presentation image creation in 6 independent but interusable applications. The suite comes with built in templates for a wide variety of business products, such as business cards, labels, letterheads and postcards, and the ability to import/export from the most widely used commercial software suites.

OpenOffice.org

Need : A secure web browser
Try : Mozilla FireFox
Mozilla aims to 'Take Back the Web' with it's highly customizable, unbelievably secure, and ultimately user-friendly open-source browser FireFox. You can add modifications quickly and easliy that will assist you in everything from blocking unwanted ads to downloading videos with a single click.

Mozilla.org

Need : An eMail client
Try : Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is an open source eMail client that is completely compatible with Mozilla FireFox. Add eMails account with easy-to-understand wizards; send, receive and achive eMails with the intuitive user interface. You can even sort out SPAM quickly with built-in alerts and one click flags.

Mozilla.org

Need : Media converter
Try : MediaCoder
MediaCoder is a "universal media transcoder which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution, converting between almost all popular audio/video formats with high performance and a rich adjustable parameters." In plain English, take your favorite YouTube videos and convert them for your iPod, PSP or desktop media player. MediaCoder works with vitually all media types, and converts at a very good pace without rendering your computer completely unusable, like many commercial converters. There are built in wizards for converting to popular devices and formats, and the ability to resize the coverted file.

MediaCoder

Need : Multi-format media player
Try : VLC Media Player
VLC is a cross-platform media player that is compatible with all video codecs. It's lightweight and easy to use. What more needs to be said?

VideoLAN.org

Need : CD to MP3 converter
Try : FreeRIP
FreeRIP is a simple to use audio converter that can transfer your audio CDs to digital audio formats. It removes the problem of converting a CD in proprietary programs and not being able to use it in another. FreeRIP will also connect to the freedb CD database and attempt to automatically tag your converted files.

MGShareware.com

Need : MP3 Tagger
Try : Mp3Tag
Mp3Tag is a user friendly ID3 tagger that integrates into Windows Explorer. You can also search for the album on freedb and automatically tag it that way.

Mp3Tag

Need : An image editor
Try : Paint.NET
Paint.NET is a highly functional image editor originally developed with help from Microsft. Open, manipulate, and create the most common image files, and increase functionality with freely available plug-ins. Paint.NET has one draw back : it requires the Microsoft .NET platform, which not all computers have installed.

GetPaint.Net

Try : The GIMP
The Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP for short) is extremely powerful, almost to a fault. Designed for users with heavy graphics editing needs, The GIMP is not for everyday users.

GIMP.org

Need : Program development tools
Try : Eclipse
Eslipse is a cross-platform development tool that can be used to create a wide variety of programs. There are dozens of plug-ins available to help you develop for the web, desktop and even mobile phones. Manage multiple projects in individual workspaces, eliminating the need to open each individual file. Also, Eclipse will automatically detect synax errors, preventing the potentially tedious hunt for a single error.

Eclipse.org

Need : An FTP client
Try : WinSCP
WinSCP is a lightweight FTP client that allows you to manage multiple FTP accounts. The built in page editor lets you modify your source in real time, and the file/directory manager lets you move, copy, delete, create, download, upload and change permissions with a few clicks. And, you can keep directories up-to-date during production with folder synchronization. WinSCP is not compatible with all FTP servers.

WinSCP.net

Try : FileZilla
If WinSCP was no compatible with your FTP server, give FileZilla a try. Compatible with virtually all FTP servers, FileZilla is an easy to use FTP client. Upload, download and browse directories with a simple double-click.

FileZilla

Need : An SSH Client
Try : PuTTY
PuTTY is a single file SSH client. Manage all your SSH/Telnet connetions.

PuTTY

FindYourStash Contest Updates

For info on the contest, see this post.

Current Winners..

Daily ($5.00)
07.05 : cwijas
07.06 : 031247
07.07 : franciskellync
07.08 : yousofdiam
07.09 : rdwjyss2
07.10 : kbeertje

Weekly ($25.00 VISA Gift Card)
07.07 : kmaslinski

Congratulations to all the current winners!

July Contest - Celebrate a birthday.

For July, FYS will be having a raffle!

For every $3 earned, receive 1 ticket
For every referral receive 1 ticket
For every active referral, receive 1 additional ticket

Each day, there will be a drawing for $5 added to your account.
Each week, there will be a drawing for a $25 gift card.
At the end of the month, the grand prize drawing will select 3 winners
1) xBox 360
2) iPod Nano (4GB)
3) $100 VISA Gift Card

The raffle winners shall be selected by the Raffle Grand Master, my 4 year old daughter, Shannon. Daily winners will be selected at 7PM CST. Weekly winners each Saturday @ 7PM CST. The grand prize drawing will be done on August 10th. Prizes are shipped the day after payments are sent.

And, since this month is her 5th birthday, the first 3 people to correctly guess what day she was born will receive an extra 2 tickets. The first 3 to correctly guess the hour AND day will also receive a bonus 3 tickets. Just send your guess to help@findyourstash.com.

Happy Raffling!

- Becky @ FindYourStash -

PS : The contest rankings page will be up sometime tonight.

Goodies!

Here are some great freebies found in my wanderings last night :

Health and Beauty

• Sample of Prilosec OTC
  
• Sample of Tampax
• Pantene Coupon
• Sample of Metamucil
• Sample of Kinerase
• Sample of Calgon
• Sample of Clif Bar
  
• Free Pedometer
  

Cooking and Baking

• Gooseberry Patch Cookbook
• Sample of Reynold's Parchment Paper
  
• Jiffy Mix Cookbook
• Success Rice Cookbook
• Soccar Mom Cookbook
• Buitoni Recipe Book
  
• Fruit and Sunshine Recipe Book
• Eagle Brand Recipe Book

Kids and School

• FEMA Coloring Book
• Mini-Book from Barnes and Noble
• Posters, books and calendars
• Comic Books
• EnduraGlide Dry Erase Markers
• Horse Bookmarks and Posters

Pets

• Sample of Purina Cat Food
• Sample of Sheba Cat Food
• Sample of Lassie Dog Food
• Coupon for Free Iams Dog Food
• Sample of Cesar Dog Food
• Sample of Dog Treats
• Sample of Purina Might Dog Food
• Free Pedigree T-Shirt (with purchase)

FindYourStash News and Updates

Quick points

• >>All functionality is back since the server upgrade (including the forum).
  
• >>Payments are slated to be sent out on the 30th
• >>New site goodies are in the works
• >>New offers are going up tonight (about 100)
• >>There are still three days left in the earnings contest

>>All functionality is back since the server upgrade<<

After switching servers on Saturday, a few things were down. But, we're happy to announce that everything is back in working order. Most notably :

• Support forums
• Contest Pages

>>Payments are slated to be sent out on the 30th<<

Site owners across the board had a bit of a headache this month with our advertisers. Fortunately, many announced that payments would be sent on June 30th at the latest. Once everything has cleared, FindYourStash will be sending out payments.

Why so late?
There was a bit of confusion on to what was going to be paid, what wasn't, and why. As a way to protect honest members, as much as it's inconvenient, FindYourStash decided to keep payments until everything was set in stone. The last thing we wanted to see happen was multiple dishonest members receive their payment and us not receive payment for those completed offers, leaving honest members without payment.

>>New site goodies are in the works<<

These are currently top-secret, but once they're finalized we'll let you know. But, believe me, they're kinda cool.

>>New offers are going up tonight (about 100)<<

There are currently about 800 offers waiting to be validated. 100 of those are going up tonight, with tons of new freebies.

>>There are still three days left in the earnings contest<<

Get your earnings on! You still have 3 days to win a $25 gift card, or, even better, a Nintendo Wii! Be sure to stop by the contest rankings page to see where you stand and and get info on the current prize.

Thanks for Reading

- Becky @ FindYourStash -

Need help? Have questions? Want to chat?

help@findyourstash.com

Or, you can try me on AIM (good luck!)
FindYourStash