The Fox Report
Barry Fox’s technology column
M
Welcome to the key-free zone
ost computer software
now comes with an activation
key. Fair enough, because this
helps prevent piracy. But it’s a lot less
fair if one key cannot activate installations on several same-owner computers
(desktop, laptop and rainy-day spare),
perhaps throwing up error messages
when two are on line at the same time.
Most modern software keys can only
be used on one computer, once, and there
is no easy option to re-use it legitimately;
for example, if the owner has to rebuild
a PC after a crash, theft or hardware upgrade. Sometimes a routine OS update
will knock out installed software, which
then cannot be used on another PC.
First Windows, then macOS
We expect this from Windows, but it is
now happening with Macs. The recent
upgrade to Catalina killed existing 32bit software. There was no automated
check and warning ahead of installation; just an encouragement to update
the OS and then error messages from
32-bit programs, with no option to
undo the update. It seems Apple has
been taking lessons from Microsoft in
how to upset customers.
Another unhappy new trend is to
sell software on a monthly or annual
subscription, rather than outright purchase; Microsoft’s Office 365 or Adobe
Photoshop are common examples.
Go key-free
So, unless software promises legitimate
re-use of a key; for example, by uninstalling or easy voiding online to de-activate,
there is now a real incentive to go keyfree, with open-source equivalents that
are cash-free (often with the option to
make a cash donation to the developers).
The curse of the key and the fact that
I own and use multiple computers has
driven me to research key-free alternatives. There is a lot of junk out there, with
various traps for the unwary – notably,
unwittingly downloading software you
don’t want. I have compiled a list of
key-free programs that I have happily
used, with no problems (yet). Most are
open source, fully free; a few are free,
but stripped-down versions of keyed
versions with more features.
This list comes with no guarantees
and the warning to a) download direct
from the developers’ sites, not some
middleman, and b) think carefully
before clicking on ‘download’ because
the good free stuff is sometimes buried
amongst not-so-good stuff.
For the purposes of this column, I have
deliberately avoided recommending any
proprietary software that only works
free for a trial period. Free trialling is
a good way to buy software because it
shows that developers have confidence
in their product, but that’s not what this
key-free list is about.
I have not included free anti-virus software. Recommendations are too risky.
But I will say that I have left some PCs
protected only by Microsoft’s Windows
Defender, and not (yet) regretted it.
Office, Mail, photos
Most of what follows is for Windows PCs,
but some packages have Mac options.
The longstanding open-source
equivalent to Microsoft Office is now
called Apache Open Office, see: www.
openoffice.org
It does pretty much everything the
costly Microsoft packages do, in much
the same way, but lacks an equivalent
to the Microsoft email client Outlook.
Fortunately, Windows 10 comes with
a stripped down version of Outlook,
called Mail.
Mail lacks some Outlook features,
but the wide range of free Google Tools
(Calendar, Contacts, Slides, Sheets, Docs,
Photos) fills the gap. Contacts makes a
good free replacement for now-defunct
Cardscan (albeit without Cardscan’s
clever business card scanning OCR, but
not many people use business cards any
more). Google Drive provides 15GB of
free online/cloud storage, and if you are
prepared to spend tedious time mastering
the confusing Settings options you can
stash limitless photos for free.
Adobe seems hell-bent on pricing
Photoshop out of the market, which
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Practical Electronics | May | 2020
is steering serious users towards the
extremely powerful open-source, free,
rival GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation
Program). GIMP takes a bit of learning
(like Photoshop) but Adobe’s pricing is
strong encouragement to make the effort.
Further applications
The free open-source movie editor
Shotcut is in many respects the video
equivalent of GIMP.
https://shotcut.org
Open-source Handbrake efficiently
transcodes video (crushes file sizes,
processes and converts formats) for free.
https://handbrake.fr
Where Handbrake can’t cope with a
video processing job, then Avidemux
probably can. For instance, Avidemux
can stitch small video files together.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/
avidemux
Audacity is a wonderful free opensource tool for editing sound; in many
respects it is the audio equivalent of
Shotcut. It also enables the capture of
streams and inputs that the computer
is playing, which can be more useful
than the music industry would wish.
www.audacityteam.org
Likewise, OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is excellent free, open-source software for capturing and streaming video.
https://obsproject.com
By far the best all-round program for
playing audio and video files is free
open-source VLC.
www.videolan.org
The only thing VLC has failed me on
(despite my adding add-ons) is playing
Blu-ray movies from a Blu-ray drive.
Although the appearance is a bit crude,
the free version of Leawo Blu-ray player
will usually do the trick.
www.leawo.com/blu-ray-player
Downloading multimedia files can be a
nuisance. I have found that JDownloader
eases the pain. In fact, you may be
surprised at just what audio and video
streams it can download.
https://jdownloader.org
When files are too big to attach to an
email, or rejected by the recipient’s
system, some people use the free tier
of Dropbox. I prefer the2GB free tier of
WeTransfer, but do try both.
www.dropbox.com
https://wetransfer.com
One unhappy by-product of spending
too much time with a computer is the
way it fills up with duplicate files. The
best free tool I have found for thinning
them out is Duplicate Cleaner Free.
www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/
dcdownloads.html
If disaster strikes and your computer is
wiped out by a crash, malware or update,
you will hope you have a recent full
system backup. By far the most reliable
backup program of many I have tried is
Macrium Reflect. The free version makes
full system backups, which is all most
people need to sleep easy.
www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Doubtless some readers will already be
fuming over software that I have failed
to mention and which they feel is better
than the stuff I have mentioned. If so, let’s
hear from them and share the benefits.
Barry Fox, FBKS (Fellow,
International Moving Image Society)
STEWART OF READING
17A King Street, Mortimer, near Reading, RG7 3RS
Telephone: 0118 933 1111 Fax: 0118 933 2375
USED ELECTRONIC TEST EQUIPMENT
Check website www.stewart-of-reading.co.uk
Fluke/Philips PM3092 Oscilloscope
2+2 Channel 200MHz Delay TB,
Autoset etc – £250
LAMBDA GENESYS
LAMBDA GENESYS
IFR 2025
IFR 2948B
IFR 6843
R&S APN62
Agilent 8712ET
HP8903A/B
HP8757D
HP3325A
HP3561A
HP6032A
HP6622A
HP6624A
HP6632B
HP6644A
HP6654A
HP8341A
HP83630A
HP83624A
HP8484A
HP8560E
HP8563A
HP8566B
HP8662A
Marconi 2022E
Marconi 2024
Marconi 2030
Marconi 2023A
PSU GEN100-15 100V 15A Boxed As New
£400
PSU GEN50-30 50V 30A
£400
Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.51GHz Opt 04/11
£900
Communication Service Monitor Opts 03/25 Avionics
POA
Microwave Systems Analyser 10MHz – 20GHz
POA
Syn Function Generator 1Hz – 260kHz
£295
RF Network Analyser 300kHz – 1300MHz
POA
Audio Analyser
£750 – £950
Scaler Network Analyser
POA
Synthesised Function Generator
£195
Dynamic Signal Analyser
£650
PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1000W
£750
PSU 0-20V 4A Twice or 0-50V 2A Twice
£350
PSU 4 Outputs
£400
PSU 0-20V 0-5A
£195
PSU 0-60V 3.5A
£400
PSU 0-60V 0-9A
£500
Synthesised Sweep Generator 10MHz – 20GHz
£2,000
Synthesised Sweeper 10MHz – 26.5 GHz
POA
Synthesised Sweeper 2 – 20GHz
POA
Power Sensor 0.01-18GHz 3nW-10µW
£75
Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 30Hz – 2.9GHz
£1,750
Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 9kHz – 22GHz
£2,250
Spectrum Analsyer 100Hz – 22GHz
£1,200
RF Generator 10kHz – 1280MHz
£750
Synthesised AM/FM Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.01GHz
£325
Synthesised Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.4GHz
£800
Synthesised Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.35GHz
£750
Signal Generator 9kHz – 1.2GHz
£700
HP/Agilent HP 34401A Digital
Multimeter 6½ Digit £325 – £375
HP 54600B Oscilloscope
Analogue/Digital Dual Trace 100MHz
Only £75, with accessories £125
(ALL PRICES PLUS CARRIAGE & VAT)
Please check availability before ordering or calling in
HP33120A
HP53131A
HP53131A
Audio Precision
Datron 4708
Druck DPI 515
Datron 1081
ENI 325LA
Keithley 228
Time 9818
Practical Electronics | May | 2020
Marconi 2305
Modulation Meter
£250
Marconi 2440
Counter 20GHz
£295
Marconi 2945/A/B
Communications Test Set Various Options
POA
Marconi 2955
Radio Communications Test Set
£595
Marconi 2955A
Radio Communications Test Set
£725
Marconi 2955B
Radio Communications Test Set
£800
Marconi 6200
Microwave Test Set
£1,500
Marconi 6200A
Microwave Test Set 10MHz – 20GHz
£1,950
Marconi 6200B
Microwave Test Set
£2,300
Marconi 6960B
Power Meter with 6910 sensor
£295
Tektronix TDS3052B Oscilloscope 500MHz 2.5GS/s
£1,250
Tektronix TDS3032
Oscilloscope 300MHz 2.5GS/s
£995
Tektronix TDS3012
Oscilloscope 2 Channel 100MHz 1.25GS/s
£450
Tektronix 2430A
Oscilloscope Dual Trace 150MHz 100MS/s
£350
Tektronix 2465B
Oscilloscope 4 Channel 400MHz
£600
Farnell AP60/50
PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1kW Switch Mode
£300
Farnell XA35/2T
PSU 0-35V 0-2A Twice Digital
£75
Farnell AP100-90
Power Supply 100V 90A
£900
Farnell LF1
Sine/Sq Oscillator 10Hz – 1MHz
£45
Racal 1991
Counter/Timer 160MHz 9 Digit
£150
Racal 2101
Counter 20GHz LED
£295
Racal 9300
True RMS Millivoltmeter 5Hz – 20MHz etc
£45
Racal 9300B
As 9300
£75
Solartron 7150/PLUS 6½ Digit DMM True RMS IEEE
£65/£75
Solatron 1253
Gain Phase Analyser 1mHz – 20kHz
£600
Solartron SI 1255
HF Frequency Response Analyser
POA
Tasakago TM035-2 PSU 0-35V 0-2A 2 Meters
£30
Thurlby PL320QMD PSU 0-30V 0-2A Twice
£160 – £200
Thurlby TG210
Function Generator 0.002-2MHz TTL etc Kenwood Badged £ 6 5
Function Generator 100 microHz – 15MHz
Universal Counter 3GHz Boxed unused
Universal Counter 225MHz
SYS2712 Audio Analyser – in original box
Autocal Multifunction Standard
Pressure Calibrator/Controller
Autocal Standards Multimeter
RF Power Amplifier 250kHz – 150MHz 25W 50dB
Voltage/Current Source
DC Current & Voltage Calibrator
£350
£600
£350
POA
POA
£400
POA
POA
POA
POA
Marconi 2955B Radio
Communications Test Set – £800
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