Free software is getting better...and faster that it seems

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a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Greetings. A little time ago I asked for a Freedom respectful program that can replace most of the Autocad's functionalities; and some of you suggested Librecad.

Librecad is very good and I tried first the version 1.0.4 and then the 2.0 and I can say that the improvements raised the bar to a whole new level; now Librecad have nothing to envy Autocad; more the opposite because even if they are on the "rc" status, the program is rock-solid in comparison to autocad.

I could do all my job making plan of buildings and machines without any obstacle and if I needed 3d, there are a lot of Free software that allow me to extrude.

What I'm trying to communicate is that you don't need user subjugating software to make your job because free software is getting better and better and the only way to keep it this way is to support these projects.

I've already recommended Librecad to some of my companions and some of them are very impressed and I could use the situation for transmit to them why is important to have freedom over the programs (very pragmatic arguments but are better than nothing).

I'm sure that you use free software that is improving so ¿Why not use this post to share your experience? It would help newcomers to progressively use more free software

Andresm

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Joined: 11/21/2010

Thank you for your research! I am also interested in CAD soft and freeCAD would be my test, I did not try it in depth yet.

gnumeric for spreadsheets
inkscape with the sozi addon for cool presentations
gwyddion for SPM data analysis .

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

For "not cool but clear presentations", i.e., "for scientific rather than marketing presentations" Beamer LaTeX rules. Here is an example and its source. It is far from being perfect (it is mine!) but that gives an idea of the possibilities and the syntax of Beamer LaTeX (not much to learn on top of LaTeX). I am proud of my theme though. :-p

ssdclickofdeath
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Joined: 05/18/2013

I think your presentation looks nice.

ssdclickofdeath
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Joined: 05/18/2013

If you make links as text, for example, this instead of this, http://trisquel.info/ users of the mailing list can't see the links.

Andresm

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Joined: 11/21/2010

This is great! I think I will use it for my presentations, if you do not mind. I always wanted to do a costume Beamer presentation but never got down to such level of control.

The Sozi presentation I have is:
http://sozi.wikidot.com/local--files/presentations/AFM-sozi3.svg

Not very serious, but pretty fun to do.

Sozi is explained here:
http://sozi.baierouge.fr/pages/10-about.html

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

You are welcome to use "my" theme. That said, it is not hard to do. I started from an existing theme (the progressbar theme: http://recherche.noiraudes.net/fr/LaTeX.php) and mainly changed the color palette.

Andresm

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Joined: 11/21/2010

Thanks! I really wanted something to work on.

icarolongo
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Joined: 03/26/2011
a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Are all of these options Free software?

GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

First, thanks for the testimony a_slacker_here. I think if you wanted and would make a "review" with more details about LibreCad (either text or images or even video) it would be a really helpful thing for people who want to suggest free software. For example, I have no idea how AutoCad and LibreCad work. So if someone asks me about free alternative, I don't know how to show him that LibreCad is a true replacement for AutoCad. Having a more thorough review would be a great help :)

Another question (especially for Andresm), what are the advantages and disadvantages of Gnumeric related to LibreOffice Calc ?? I am really curious about this. Both in terms of compatibility with MSOffice files and it's own features to create new files and change existing ones.
Thanks

a_slacker_here
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Joined: 06/29/2013

Hey GNUser, thank you for the suggestion, it is the first time I could really help free software. Normally it's hard for me to make contributions because I don not have the knowledge that most of you have but now is different.

Sadly I'm having a very hard time during these months and it is difficult for me to make time so I won't make the "in depth review" of the program in a short period :-(.

When I manage to make time I think I should make a video because even if there are good videos of librecad in youtube, they don't show what can you make with the tools.

And, by the way, I would learn how to edit a video using free software :-).

Now that I think, I need a microphone to record my voice...¿what about the one that Thinkpenguin is shelling?

Thank you Magic banana for letting me now that something like Beamer Latex exists because I didn't know.

Please andresm, If you use freeCAD, could you tell us about your experinece with it?

Andresm

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Joined: 11/21/2010

sorry, I did not explain myself correctly. I went as far as installing it and doing a couple of extusions. And I saw it as a good substitute. I did not get any further, I guess I am looking for a project to use it.

Andresm

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Calc vs excel vs gnumeric and others.

http://www.jstatsoft.org/v34/i04/paper

I do not know about cross compatibility on transefering to and from the default formats. gnumeric does save as odf and microsoft formats.

I like how the graphs are done in gnumeric, very structured. Also, according to the paper above and other papers mentioned in the gnumeric website it handles better statistics.