Over the years of being a Linux user, I must admit that I will never turn back to being a Windows user again. If I want to do get something done on my favorite Linux distribution, there is a tool or tools already out there to help me with it. Almost every week I discover some new software tool to play with, something which helps improve my everyday experience… not always ;o)
There are lots of people out there writing software these days. In the olden days software was mostly written for Windows only. But nowadays the trend is to write software to be compatible with the three main players, Windows + Macintosh + Linux so that its gets better penetration into the Market. It even gets better when the Software you love to use, is Open Source. Starting this spring of 2007, I shall endeavor to blog about the software tools I discover each week. Hope these entries will keep you amused and turn your interest into Open Source Software.
VYM – Mind Mapping software collaborating over the Network
VYM (View Your Mind) is a tool to generate and manipulate maps which show your thoughts. Such maps can help you to improve your creativity and effectiveness. You can use them for time management, to organize tasks, to get an overview over complex contexts, to sort your ideas etc.
vym is not another drawing software, but a tool to store and modify information in an intuitive way. For example you can reorder parts of the map by pressing a key or add various information like a complete email by a simple mouse click. Grab the software from the View Your Mind Sourceforge Project Page. I saw a Lightning talk by the Author of this tool, which demonstrates that you can collaborate your thoughts using this tool with other clients connected over the Network. Now that is coolness.
soapUI – Webservices User Interface
This tool is God Send. soapUI is a free and open source desktop application for inspecting, invoking, developing, simulating/mocking and functional/load/compliance testing of web services over HTTP. If you are a Web-developer, who has written a Web service and want to test if its functional, then I recommend you download and use it as a debugging tool for your web services.
Its available as a FREE download as well as a Pro version which you can pay for support. Its got a very good feature set including the ability to do a “Web Service Simulation”, “Load Testing”, “Functional Testing” and more.