1. OpenOffice/LibreOffice Draw

OpenOffice Draw and LibreOffice Draw are two separate software but since their usage and functionality is very similar, I would mention them together. These are the closest and the biggest open source competitors of Microsoft Visio. Draw is an all purpose drawing, diagramming and charting tool. The feature that I love in Draw is the grouping feature. You can easily group different objects together and then do different actions on the group like moving the group, connecting with other groups etc. In addition to other formats (XML format is the default), you can also export your diagrams as SWF Flash files.

Download OpenOffice Draw

Download LibreOffice Draw

2. Dia

Dia is an open source software very similar to Microsoft Visio. When you start it for the first time, you will see that the user interface resembles with Visio a lot. The feature set of dia is also very similar to Visio. You can create UML diagrams, flowcharts, network processes and architectures, entity relationship diagrams etc. easily with Dia. The default file format for any file created with Dia is .dia but there are a lot of file formats that you can export your diagram including Microsoft Visio vdx format.

Download Dia

3. LucidChart

If you are looking for a web based alternative to Microsoft Visio, LucidChart is the perf5 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Visioect choice. It provides a drag and drop web interface to draw any kind of diagram. LucidChart gives you an option to build your diagrams in collaboration with your team. Multiple people will be able to work with the same diagram making it the perfect choice for small teams. One of the great features of LucidChart is that it can export or import Microsoft Visio vdx files very easily in your LucidChart account. One thing that is missing in LucidChart is the built in categorization of different shapes for different areas like networking, engineering etc. You don’t need to signup for an account on LucidChart. You just have to open the site and start drawing.5 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Visio

Visit LucidChart

4. Diagramly

Diagramly is another web based diagramming and mind mapping software. It has a very responsive and easy to use interface with the tools on the left hand column and the drawing on the right hand column. You don’t need to signup for an account to use Diagramly. You can just visit Diagramly and start working on your diagram or mind map. When finished, save the diagram in an XML file locally on your computer. If you need to edit the diagram again, just visit Diagramly again and open your locally saved file for further editing.

Visit Diagramly

5. Pencil Project

Pencil Project is an Open Source alternative to Mcirosoft Visio which is actively maintained by the development community. Their goal for Pencil Project is to make it a tool to make diagramming as easy as possible and usable for everyone from a newbie to an expert. It is very similar to other desktop based tool with a distinction that it can be installed as a Firefox extension so that you can easily create your diagrams while browsing the Internet.

Download Pencil Project

I hope you will find these free alternatives to Microsoft Visio very useful and I would like to have your thought on how much these free software have been able to replace Visio in your work?

Image credit: Big Stock Photo

Best Online Alternatives to PowerPoint

Prezi

Prezi is my favorite online presentation building tool. Prezi takes a different approach than the traditional presentation software, including Microsoft PowerPoint. In Prezi, instead of the slide by slide sequential presentation, we can build a complete presentation structure on a single canvas and then zoom in and out of the parts on which we are emphasizing. This helps the audience to see the bigger picture and the core concept of the presentation remains in mind. Here is a very interesting introduction to Prezi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhqD0hNx4Q

There is also a Prezi Desktop version for Pro members which can create presentations offline.

SlideRocket

SlideRocket is just more than a presentation tool. In addition to presentation, SlideRocket can provide user engagement analytics. The unique feature of SlideRocket is that it can integrate content from sites like Flickr and Youtube. The plugins can also be installed expanding the features of SlideRocket. Here’s a video on introduction to SlideRocket:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nija_9mLTPE

Google Docs Presentation

Google has silently sneaked through what used to be Microsoft’s area of expertise – Office Suite. Now Google offers Google Docs which very much competes with Microsoft Office. Google Docs Presentation was added to Google Docs 4 years back and is an online alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint. The user interface of Google Docs is very much similar to PowerPoint but has less functions and is easier to use. If you need a traditional presentation builder which can build presentations online, Google Docs Presentation is the perfect choice for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_vsNV3po2k

Best Offline Alternatives to PowerPoint

While it is best for me to save everything on the cloud when I’m always online, there are certain times when you don’t get the Internet connection. In this situation, if you need to build a presentation on the go and you are looking for Microsoft PowerPoint alternatives, here are several free alternatives that you can consider.

OpenOffice – Impress

OpenOffice is an open source and free office suite which includes a presentation software called Impress. It provides almost all the tools that presenters generally need, including drawing, outline, slides, handouts etc. Although it has got a lot of features, it has an old user interface. If you are used to the older Microsoft Office interfaces then you will love to work with OpenOffice Impress.

LibreOffice – Impress

LibreOffice is an enhanced version of OpenOffice suite. LibreOffice also includes a presentation software called Impress. I prefer LibreOffice over OpenOffice because it gives me more features as well as I can create, edit and save my documents in more formats then in OpenOffice.

I hope this list of Microsoft PowerPoint alternatives have been useful for all the readers. Which presentation software do you use? If you are using multiple presentation software, which software do you use for what purpose?

1. Zetro UI Theme

Zetro UI is a clean and minimal Metro UI theme for Windows 7.

The installation requires a few steps:

1. Download the patch file here

2. Extract the zipped file. Open the folder and navigate to the “Extra -> Uxtheme Patch” folder within. Right click the file “UniversalThemePatcher-x86.exe” (or UniversalThemePatcher-x64.exe if you are using a 64-bit machine) and select “Run As Administrator”.

3. It will then prompt you to patch 3 files. Click the “Patch” buttons beside the 3 files. Restart the computer.

4. Copy the Zetro folder and zetro.theme to “C:/Windows/Resources/Theme“. You can now change the theme in your Control Panel.

5. Optionally, you can also change the system file. Just follow the instruction in the README.txt inside the folder. Note that the system files are not supported in Windows 7 SP1.

Zetro UI

2. Windows Metro IM

Windows Metro IM is also another Windows 8 Metro UI theme, but is radically different from Zetro UI. While Zetro UI is primarily white, clean and minimal, Metro IM uses dark color as its primary color. Overall, the Windows Metro UI theme is more polished than Zetro UI.

The installation for Windows Metro IM is similar to the Zetro UI. Just follow the instruction in the Readme.txt file.

Windows Metro IM

3. Mosaic

Mosaic is an application that bring usable Metro UI interface to your Windows 7 desktop. While it is still in alpha stage, I have no problem getting it to run in my computer.

To use it, first download the compressed file and extract it (the file is compressed with 7-zip. You need to install 7-zip to extract it). There is no installation required. You just have to run the Mosaic.exe file in the extracted Mosaic folder.

When it runs, there is nothing on the desktop to indicate that it is running. You have to move your cursor to the right border of the desktop and click on it, then you can see the configuration strip.

To get the most out of Mosaic, you need to run it in full-screen mode. Click the “Options” button in the configuration strip and select “Enable fullscreen mode“.

Once in the full screen mode, you can start to see the widget animation. Mosaic comes with several widgets that you can use like Gmail and Twitter. You can also pin websites, applications or even your contacts to the screen.

Once the tiles are pinned on the screen, you can drag to reorder them. There is no option to resize the widget though. Here’s a video that I have recorded showing the working of Mosaic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scuKYS7V66M

Mosaic

4. Win8Menu

Win8Menu is more of a concept application rather than a fully functional app. Same as Mosiac, it is still in alpha stage and plenty of things are not implemented yet. The UI is nice though and most of the things that it implemented just work.

Download Win8Menu from DeviantArt

Extract the zipped file and run Win8Menu.exe. Immediately you will see the main screen of the Metro UI. Click and drag your cursor upward and it will bring you to the Start screen.

There are no configuration option in the Start screen. What you see is what you get. You can’t arrange the tiles, pin your favorite sites, or even applications.

To get out of the interface, you have to press “Alt + F4″. To get back to the Metro Start screen, move your cursor to the right corner of the screen and click the “Start” icon.

To exit, right click on the strip and select “Exit”. The “Share”, “Connect” and “Settings” buttons are not working yet, but clicking the “Search ” button brings you to a beautiful search page.

Let us know which one you use and prefer.

Mango

Mango is the codename for the next major update of Windows Phone. It adds more than 500 new features to the existing version and makes the phone more intuitive and user-friendly. The Mango release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones later this year.

Some of the major update include:

• Silverlight 4 as core platform
• IE9 as the main web browser
• Live Tile enhancements: use of back of tiles and ability to update Live Tiles locally
• Deep linking into apps from notifications and Live Tiles
• Deep integration of calendar, contacts and social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and several others)

Surface 2.0

The more interesting announcement in the event is the release of the Surface 2.0. For those of you who are not aware, just imagine a high-end computer with a wide and sensitive touch screen embedded in a table. That’s Microsoft Surface.

For this latest release of Surface, Microsoft has partnered with Samsung to debut the Samsung SUR40 (running Surface 2.0). Unlike previous version of Surface that were bulky and heavy, the Samsung SUR40 is definitely more “table-like”, more lightweight and come with more powerful hardware specs.

The Surface SUR40 has a 40-inch full HD display powered by an embedded 2.9GHz AMD Athlon II X2 dual-core processor and the AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series GPU with DirectX 11 support. The Surface 2.0 is built on top of Windows 7 technology. At only 4-inches thick, the Samsung SUR40 can be used as a table or mounted to the wall.

The Surface make use of a new PixelSense technology that is able to recognize fingers, hands, and objects placed on the screen, enabling vision-based interaction without the use of cameras. The sensitive screen is also able to detect more than 50 point of contacts at different corners at any given time. These two features make it great for multiple people interaction.

Check out the video below showing a multiplayers tower defense game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGWyxTEy4Yg

The introduction of byte tags also make the Surface a useful tool for identifying items., such as namecards, shoes, cup etc. Basically, it can recognize anything as long as it is programmed to read the byte code assigned to the item.

For example, a small shoe show in the video is tagged with a byte code. When the shoe is placed on the screen, it will detect the code and show the various shoes design and color.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AgodslNMA4

In short, retailers can make use of this byte tag to let their customers obtain information about their products fast.

Samsung SUR40 is currently available for reservation at a price of US$8600. Would you get a touch screen table at this price?

As a Package

If you”re running a distribution that’s already got a Moonlight package, you’re in luck. Ubuntu Lucid Lynx has the package, and it can be installed through the Ubuntu Software Center or with the command line:

sudo apt-get install moonlight-plugin-core moonlight-plugin-mozilla

This will install the Moonlight plugin for Firefox along with the core components.

As a Plugin

If your distribution doesn’t have a Moonlight package, you can manually install it as a browser plugin. The Moonlight Download Page provides a link for the Linux plugin install. For best performance, make sure you select the proper CPU type.

Testing Your Installation

Once installed through either method, you will of course want to test your installation to verify that Moonlight is working. For that I recommend a simple website called BubbleMark. It’s a test animation designed to draw bubbles using various web technologies like Flash and Silverlight. You can select which software platform and its version, and BubbleMark will attempt to draw a series of moving, colliding bubbles on the screen. You can run the same animation in several formats to determine what gives you the best performance.

Fun with Silverlight

Now that everything’s up and running, it’s time to have some fun with our new plugin. The following are a few locations where you can find some great Silverlight/Moonlight software and games.

• Silverlight.net – the official page. Contains demos, games, tutorials, the works
• SilverlightGames.org – A great place to find loads of Silverlight games
• SilverlightClub.com – Mostly games, including a pretty good tower defense

Conclusion

While Silverlight itself is tied to Microsoft, Moonlight provides a way to access this functionality with open source software. Currently the platform is not hugely popular, and it’s possible it may be phased out altogether as HTML5 becomes more common, but for now Moonlight is our best bet to get this functionality on Linux.

To download the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials, you need to first login to your Windows Live account and complete a survey. Once that is done, you will be able to download the respective software for your Windows version (Win XP or Vista/7).

At MakeTechEasier, we will take you through the software and show you what to expect from this yet another Microsoft product.

Simple Interface

One thing that anyone will notice immediately after the installation is that it is simple in design and user interface. You don’t find plenty of fanciful icons or even several levels deep of tab menu. All you find is only a simple window with some simple, but important options.

There are four main tabs on the window: Home, Update, History and Settings.

Home is where you view the current status while the Update tab show you the last virus definition update time. The History tab shows a list of all the virus detected on your computer and the actions taken to combat the virus. Lastly, the Settings tab contains the common configuration options found in almost every anti-virus software, including scheduling regular scan, actions to take when viruses are detected, scan files and attachments as they are downloaded etc.

Low on Memory Resources

I have tried several anti-virus software, both paid and free, on my Windows over the years and there is always one thing in common: The CPU and memory usage spike up whenever I run a full scan of the computer. When I test-drive with Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows 7, I was surprised that while scanning my hard disk, it didn’t cause my other applications to hang. I am pretty impressed by the low memory usage and how it can get things done without causing the whole system to hang.

Screenshots tour:

After Thoughts

With the bitDefender firewal, User Account Controll and now the anti-virus software, it seems that Microsoft is making a serious attempt to combat the all securities issues that are troubling them all this while. While this won’t stop hackers from developing new viruses, it does make the system slightly harder to crack.

What other anti-virus software do you think is worth the mention here? Shout it out in the comments.

That’s why community-based review sites like Digg and del.icio.us become very popular. The logic is simple: the best judge to pick worth knowing information out there is opinion from the mass. Our opinion.

So, if you are the kind of person who loves to share your opinion to the world, maybe this one site can be one of your favorites. It’s called Ciao and it specialize on product review.

Reviews with a twist

Basically, this free service wanted to be one of your references to find product reviews. Everytime you are thinking of buying something, you go here and look for reviews. But Ciao is not your ordinary product review site. It sort of a mix from Digg, Facebook and Adsense. Users are also encouraged to do their product reviews.

After the registration process, you can start reviewing ANY product available out there; from music albums to high tech mouth watering laptops, from books to softwares. Nothing too fancy, a short 100-200 words opinion on something would be fine. (They even accept 10-20 words quick review!) Note: They require you to review the things that you yourself use and not writing fictional review.

To write a review, use the menu My Content –> Write a new review, then use the search box to find product to review. Click the envelope icon to start writing.

As an incentive to encourage people to do this, Ciao will pay user for each positive comment given to the review. They also have somekind of competition to choose the best reviews each month and split US$ 2,000 prize among the winners.

The twist which differs Ciao from other review site is that it also encourages you to invite your friends and also make friends with existing Ciao members – sort of building a friendship network like FaceBook or MySpace.

The future of Ciao

In general, Ciao is a nice place to help people decide about a product based on your own experience, make friends, hone your writing skills and earning some reputation while doing it. If you think Ciao fits you, why not join Ciao as it has just started to grow big under Microsoft (The giant acquired it as of October 15 2008). Just be sure to add me “thurana” – as your friend and give honest-good comments on my reviews. :)

Share what you think about this service using the comment below.