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Questions tagged [open-source]

Software whose source code is made available for use/modification/distribution as users or other developers see fit. Usually developed as a public collaboration and made available free of charge.

130 questions
43
votes
8 answers

Is Mac OS X/macOS open source?

I learned recently (on Super User) that Mac OS X uses the bash shell. I also know that OS X has a UNIX core. I was searching for information about OS X and Open Source on google, but what I found was this site which seems to include the source code…
hasen
  • 5,269
28
votes
11 answers

Visio alternatives

I need an alternative to Visio for making diagrams (particularly signal processing block diagrams) that includes some kind of custom stencils + connection points. I just spent 2 hours learning bits and pieces of Dia only to find that it has no…
Jason S
  • 7,944
21
votes
7 answers

Extract first page from multiple PDFs

I’ve got about 500 PDFs to go through and extract the first page of. They then need to go through some time consuming conversion process so was hoping to try and save some time by have a batch process to extract just the first page from the 500 PDFs…
user15968
17
votes
5 answers

Are there any open source app virtualization solutions for Windows

I am looking for open source solutions that provide application virtualization for Windows! In other words an open source to ThinApp from VMWare. I have found several commercial options, but nothing open…
GeorgeU
  • 325
16
votes
3 answers

Is TianoCore+coreboot a true open source UEFI?

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding UEFI, but like it or not, it's becoming the only option when it comes to generally available desktop motherboards. I've been avoiding UEFI mobos for some time, but now it became quite difficult as mobo…
Red
  • 272
16
votes
2 answers

avahi-browse or avahi-discover for Windows

Is there a Windows free (= libre) software analoguous to GNU/Linux avahi-browse or avahi-discover (which would discover avahi/bonjour services on the local network and list them)? Since I have problems with Windows and Ubuntu 12.04 seeing…
imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
  • 705
13
votes
4 answers

Are there alternatives to TextExpander on Mac OS X?

I'm looking for a open source alternative to TextExpander (or TypeIt4Me or Typinator) -- not because I'm cheap, but because I'm interested in the source code. It therefore doesn't have to be as polished as the apps mentioned above.
sapporo
  • 265
8
votes
3 answers

How to merge pdfs and create bookmarks for each input file in output file? (linux)

I'm using Linux and I would like to have software (or script, method) which merges some pdfs and creates an united output pdf, containing bookmarks. Bookmarks are named by filename of pdf files, which were used for merging and pointing to the page…
yanpas
  • 562
7
votes
4 answers

Verifying that open source software hasn't been tampered with

I'm about to download some OSS software, and I would like to ensure (with a reasonable degree of certainty) that it hasn't been tampered with to insert malware. Specifically, it's a password manager (KeePassX), which seems like an extremely juicy…
Reid
  • 486
5
votes
4 answers

Using non-proprietary document format

I am going to be migrating to Xubuntu; I have a question on docx formats. I have quite a few hundred proprietary docx files. I want to be able edit them w/o the formatting getting destroyed and rendering unreadable in Office. Would it be best to…
null
  • 51
  • 1
5
votes
3 answers

Open Source image editor that handles PNG Alpha transparency correctly?

I want to be able to take a sample image, and be able to fade out the background. For example, I might take a picture of a bird. Make most of the background almost completely transparent, and have a smooth transition to full opacity adjacent to the…
Brad Gilbert
  • 805
5
votes
4 answers

How to contribute to GNU/Linux and free-software world with design skills but lack of programming skills?

I have very little programming knowledge but have plenty of design/graphic/branding/marketing/web skills (Architecture, web designing and e-commerce background). How best can I contribute to the free/open-source/GNU/Linux world? Where would be the…
nitbuntu
  • 247
5
votes
3 answers

Recording Skype conference calls on OSX?

I am looking for an open-source way to generate an audio record of Skype conference calls under OSX 10.5 or higher.
Daniel Mietchen
  • 251
5
votes
1 answer

What is wrong with the TrueCrypt license?

I was thinking about securing some data on a laptop running Ubuntu with something like TrueCrypt, but I noticed that I could not apt-get it even though it is "open source". So I searched the web for some information on what is going on and whether…
Johan
  • 5,515
5
votes
2 answers

What exactly is "tesseract"?

Like so many software companies that provide a free/open source version and also sell a "commercial" version, they make it as cryptic and unfriendly as possible to actually download and use the free one. Here is a typical example:…
Yashveer Hulsey
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