App 9: Pidgin

Chatting online lately has become a bit of a chore.
While the majority of my contacts are on MSN, I also have contacts in Google Chat, Facebook and AOL Instant Messenger.
Having all my contacts in different protocols means that I have to use MSN Live, for MSN contacts, Use a Browser window for Facebook and Google Chat, and AIM for AOL Contacts.

Well to make things easier, I've started using Pidgin.
Older Ubuntu users are probably already familiar with Pidgin, as it used to be the default messaging application. However, its also available for Windows and Mac OS X, making it an ideal application for many people.

Upon finishing installation of Pidgin, you just use your sign-in names for each network or account you use and voila, all done!

Also, instead of having a lot of windows open for each conversation you have, Pidgin has a tabbed interface for your conversations, making it easier to find who you're talking to.

Furthermore, there are several plugins available to enhance the usability of Pidgin! 

It's great to have all your stuff in one place, and makes things much more organized, Pidgin is a great application to keep your friends close!

Pidgin is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, CentOS and Fedora Core.

App 8: Paint.Net

I have to apologize for the lack of updates. I was busy with some school-related activities in the past month.

But I do have a new App!
Many people know that Adobe's Photoshop is the most popular application to edit and manipulate images. However, getting it is a bit tough, with the basic Photoshop Elements costing about $80 and the full Photoshop CS4 costing from $200 for an upgrade to $700 for the full thing.

What I have here is a free alternative to Photoshop.

Paint.Net offers many of the features that Photoshop has but I've noticed a few things that make it truly competitive with Photoshop.

As with many of my other applications I've posted, Paint.Net is fast to load, and uses up less resources. In a comparison of the two, I've noticed that Photoshop is using about 50% more RAM than Paint.Net when working with the same file using the same tools and applying the same effects.

Additionally Paint.Net has a huge community to create plug-ins for features that are not included with the application.

It has a clean interface, and has compatibility with Windows 7 Jump-Lists!
I recommend it, and it's a quick 5Mb download from http://getpaint.net