Five cool open-source sleeper apps

David M Williams
Monday, 27 August 2007 17:46

Business IT - Open Source

Inkscape

Inkscape is a powerful and convenient drawing tool which has capabilities similar to well-known commercial apps Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Xara X and Freehand. Inkscape’s cheeky slogan is “Draw Freely” which plays on the high price traditionally associated with high-end desktop publishing and design tools.

The key to Inkscape is the scalable vector graphics (SVG) file format – mentioned earlier with reference to Dia. Supported SVG features include text, shapes, paths, markers, transforms, alpha blending and more. Ultimately, Inkscape aim to be fully compliant with the SVG standard. The key advantage of vector graphics is they can be resized to any zoom level – even very large zoom levels – and still appear crisp and sharp. Bitmapped graphics, on the other hand, become blocky and pixellated when resized to higher resolutions. Both have their place; you would not use a vector graphics program to touch up photographs, whereas The GIMP or Photoshop do this admirably.

A variety of vector-based formats can be imported as well as other typical, if “flat”, raster image formats like JPG, PNG and TIFF. The output can be saved as PNG, SVG or other vector formats. Adobe Illustrator files can be both read and produced. A very comprehensive FAQ is available online as is other detailed documentation.

Samples of artwork produced using Inkscape can be seen at DeviantArt as well as several other locations.

Due to its support for standards, Inkscape can exploit the plentiful set of freely redistributable clip art at the Open Clip Art Library.

XMoto

All this hard graphical work, charting and file space exploring is hard work, so some downtime is well-deserved. This means you can fire up XMoto for a little two-wheeled open-source motocross fun.

XMoto is a challenging 2D platform game with an integral physics engine. You must take care to control your bike’s throttle, braking and attitude across the different environments presented. These environments range from the expected bumpy ride through to roller-coast like stressful trips through psychedelic worlds. You will even find visitors popping up, like the classic Space Invaders.

An enthusiast fan-base has been built-up, thanks to the addition of small, but cool, features like level replays, web-based high-score posting and user-definable levels. Interesting replays can be submitted and posted online for all to see and discuss and many levels downloaded, all rated in terms of perceived difficulty.

Additionally, the XMoto web site includes a Wiki with many helpful documents such as the manual and FAQ but also a guide for good level design with excellent practical tips to enhance visual effects, realism, performance and most importantly pure playability. One downloadable mod converts the game into a skate park trick-performing platform.

You know you can’t play Solitaire for ever; fire up XMoto, put on your helmet and feel the motor hum.

End matter

Commercial software makes good business sense; everyone has to eat. However, we can all be grateful for the altruistic work of talented people worldwide who selflessly contribute quality open source software to the world. And, at the price, we can eat.

Even should you decide the apps listed don’t cut muster, one of the beauties of open source is you’ve had no financial risk by testing them out. Open Source is the ultimate feature-unconstrained, time-unrestricted, nag-less, ad-free trial.