Amazon's New Underground App Serves You $10,000 of Truly Free to Use Apps

Amazon has created a new none traditional way of offering customers completely free to use and play apps by doing away with all in-app purchases instead opting to pay developers directly via per-minute payments in exchange for developers nixing any fees, which means for the customer the software is entirely free to download and use.

The new service, dubbed Underground, is only accessible to Android users via an Android app that must be downloaded directly from Amazon due to Google App Store restrictions. However, according to Amazon once the app is loaded users will have direct access to more than $10,000 in free apps. Some of the titles on offer include OfficeSuite Professional 8, Goat Simulator, Frozen Free Fall, and Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions.

To checkout the app you will need to visit amazon.com/underground from your Android Phone and enter your email or mobile number to receive a link to download it. You'll also need to adjust your phones settings to allow for installation from 'unknown sources'.

To do this go to your phone settings menu, tap security or application, check the 'unknown sources' box and confirm (you may want to do the reverse once the app has installed but you'll need to allow this for each app downloaded through Amazon). Now head over to your downloads folder, by going to My Files or Files, tap on the Amazon App file (Amazon_App.apk) tap Install when prompted and you should be set!

What's the catch? You will need an Amazon account to use the app, even though they are free! Other than that so far there doesn't seem to be much of a catch here. Amazon has for years offered up free app through their “Free App of the Day” promotion, which is now gone btw.

I will say I'm not a big fan of having to use Amazon's Underground App to install all my 'freebies' as it seems like nothing more than a rebrand of Amazon's traditional appstore app. Meaning not only will you see your Underground app selections but loads of listings for physical items from Amazon’s online store, along with plenty of ads for Amazon Prime.

Due to security concerns I'm also not a major fan of having to allow installations from 'Unknown Sources' every time I want to load an app from Amazon. On my Galaxy S5 this isn't a major issue since it will ask me each time and I don't have to leave the setting open, but it still might be an issue for some!

On the plus side of things though, if you buy qualify apps even those that are free, you may be eligible for Amazon promotional credits for $1 towards MP3 purchases.

Sun Launches Open Source Solaris

Sun and the OpenSolaris community are launching the first official release of Sun's open-source version of the Solaris operating system. Interested developers have had early preview versions to play with for some time, but the official release opens to door for corporate customers as well.

OpenSolaris is based on the Solaris kernel and uses many of its features like the Zettabyte File System (ZFS) and Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), which offers predictive self-healing capabilities. Initially, the OpenSolaris project will provide the core kernel, libraries and commands that are currently distributed with the Solaris OS. Over time, it is expected that additional parts of the Solaris OS will be made available through the project.

Download the latest version OpenSolaris 2008.05 in a single CD combined live/install image: a core operating system, kernel, system libraries, a desktop environment and a package management system.

The majority of OpenSolaris code is released under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) Version 1.0.

Source based on existing open source projects will continue to be available under their current licenses. Some binary components are covered under the OpenSolaris Binary License and some are covered under other open source licenses. Specific download pages provide license information associated with the available component pieces.

For more information check out the OpenSolaris homepage

PC World: 18 Great Linux Replacements for Your Favorite Windows Apps

PC World shows us 18 Linux alternatives to Windows applications, giving us yet another reason to take the leap from MS and join the Linux revolution.

If you are already using Linux then you are probably already aware of most of these applications, heck even if you aren't then you should be. Especially apps like OpenOffice, which is a great free alternative to Microsoft's Office. However for many users out there there is a fear of jumping ship from MS to Linux and many times I hear questions about app compatibility and the ability to find reasonable replacements the ones they are most comfortable with.

Most all of your popular Linux distributions come pre-packed with equivalents to many Windows applications that are often as good or in my opinion even better than the Windows based programs you're used to. In some cases the apps are also available in Windows and Mac OS versions, allowing dual-booters to stay with the same set of free programs regardless of the operating system in use.

For anyone interested in making the switch or just checking out some of the apps read the full article "Linux Replacements for Your Favorite Windows Apps".

Software News: Wireshark 1.0, Snort Alpha 3.0 Released

After ten years two widely popular network tools are finally getting makeovers.

Wireshark
After almost 10 years of work the Wireshark team has announced the release of Wireshark 1.0. Wireshark is a very handy, free packet sniffer. It is used for network troubleshooting, analysis and communications protocol development.

Visit the Wireshark download page to get Wireshark for free.

Snort 3.0 Alpha

*Update*
Snort 3 is now in beta, to try out the new beta release visit the Snort 3 beta site.

Marty Roesch, who wrote the first version of the software nearly 10 years ago, has rewritten the software from top to bottom in the next-generation Snort 3.0 release, due in beta next month and early next year in its final release.

Snort is a free and open source Network Intrusion prevention system (NIPS) and network intrusion detection (NIDS) capable of performing packet logging and real-time traffic analysis on IP networks.

Snort performs protocol analysis, content searching/matching, and is commonly used to actively block or passively detect a variety of attacks and probes, such as buffer overflows, stealth port scans, web application attacks, SMB probes, and OS fingerprinting attempts, amongst other features.

Snort Security Platform (SnortSP) 3.0 Beta

We’re pleased to introduce our first beta release built on the new Snort 3.0 architecture. The Snort 3.0 architecture consists of two primary components: a software platform called the Snort Security Platform (SnortSP) 3.0, which is shipping in beta form in this release, and traffic analysis engine modules that plug into SnortSP. This beta test release contains one engine module which contains the Snort 2.8.2 detection engine implemented as a SnortSP engine module. SnortSP is an open-source platform for running packet-based network security applications. It provides many of the common functions required by programs that deal with packet processing such as configuration loading, event generation and traffic logging, data acquisition, protocol decoding and validation, flow management, and more.

Major features:

• Shell-based user interface with embedded scripting language
• Native IPv6, MPLS and GRE support
• Native support for inline operation
• More subsystem plugin types such as data acquisition modules, decoders and traffic analyzers
• Multithreaded execution model - multiple analysis engines may operate simultaneously on the same traffic
• Performance increases

The purpose of this beta release is to allow people to get exposure to the technology and to use the code in real-world environments - and as an opportunity to solicit feedback on the design and user experience of the new Snort code.

More Software News

Vlite releases 1.1.6 beta 2
Vlite is the very popular Windows Vista installation customizer, slipstreamer. It can be used for Vista SP1 integration and OS customizations.
Vista users can download Vlite here, for Windows Xp users we suggest Nlite

Adobe releases alpha of AIR for Linux
The alpha of the AIR runtime platform for Linux, and the alpha of the SDK for AIR for Linux, are available as separate links on this page. The public alpha of the Flex Builder 3 environment for Linux is available from this page.

PC Magazine's The Best Free Software

PC Magazine has compiled a great list of 157 free software tools you probably shouldn't live without.

Why spend money when you can get what you need for nothing? Every one of the programs listed is free, and in many cases better than software costing hundreds of dollars.

The top picks

Adobe Reader This simplest of Adobe's PDF programs lets you do just about anything PDF-related (besides create new ones), including online collaboration. It includes a host of features to aid users with disabilities. AIM One of the most widely used pieces of free software ever, AOL Instant Messenger offers a ton of capabilities. Personally I prefer Trillian its free and works with almost all IM services. Audacity Whether you're recording or editing, Audacity is all about audio in practically any format. Firefox This PC Mag Editors' Choice Web browser has been on top of the heap since version 1.5 came out in late 2005. Look for FireFox 3 to be released soon! GIMP The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) does most of what Photoshop does; the Gimpshop project (plasticbugs.com) even makes it look like Photoshop. GIMP is a great tool with many of the features and functions that Photoshop has, you can even use photoshop brushes and actions. iTunes When you're attached to the top media player in the land (iPod), success is a given. iTunes continues to build sales and refine its organization of songs, video, games, podcasts, and more. OpenOffice You can spend a lot for Microsoft Office or nothing for this suite with full-function word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentations, even an equations editor. Skype You'll pay to call regular phones, but if you sign up all your friends, Skype provides easy (and even international) calls and video-conferencing for nothing. Thunderbird Mozilla's no-cost e-mail alternative is extensible, fast, and easy to master. And a wealth of free add-ons means there's not much this program won't do, from calendars to encryption. Ubuntu Linux This Linux-based OS comes with many of these Hall of Fame products (Firefox, OpenOffice.org) preinstalled. WinAmp Windows After a decade of playing music, the "skinnable" WinAmp has several versions, including one with full CD ripping and burning.

The rest are broken down page by page into the following categories:

• Page 2 Operating Systems
• Page 3 Antivirus/Anti-Malware
• Page 4 Firewalls and Security
• Page 5 Finance and Office
• Page 6 Calendar/PIMs
• Page 7 Backup/Sync and App Launchers
• Page 8 Utilities
• Page 9 Download and Interface Enhancement
• Page 10 File View/Conversion and Networking
• Page 11 Blogging, RSS Readers and Instant Messaging
• Page 12 Communication and Audio
• Page 13 Video
• Page 14 Graphics
• Page 15 Browsers and Browser Add-Ons
• Page 16 Games/Fun