Free version software for linux

pvswitch is a very tiny program which makes it possible to use different program installations on one machine flawlessly.
Its flexibility is intended for people who need to run programs against different interpreter versions.
But it can also be used for different purposes like switching the version of a compiler, text editor, mail reader, browser, whatever.
It is most useful for developers of interpreter based programs which are started via a hash-bang line (#!).
The following example explains the usage for perl programs, but the very same is true for all other interpreter languages.
If you install two or more different perl versions on your machine, you could just call the respective perl binary you want to use..
perl myscript.pl
/path/to/another/perl myscript.pl
This works fine, although it isnt very convenient. However if you are starting your program using the hash-bang line like
#! /usr/bin/perl
and then just start it by
./myscript.pl
you would need to change the file itself to use another perl version. Again it is possible, but not very convenient.
And here comes pvswitch: its purpose is to make such situations convenient. Further it solve some problems which come up if multiple people want to use different perl versions. pvswitch allows even to run one program in two shells with different perl versions.
This is possible because pvswitch uses a environment variable to select the interpreter version to use. This environment variable can be set in different sessions independently.
pvswitch is installed as new program binary (e.g. perl) the old one will be renamed to program.pvswitch.
Now every time you execute a this program (e.g. perl), pvswitch is executed. It doesnt matter how you start the program...
perl myscript.pl
./myscript.pl # if it has a hash-bang #! /usr/bin/perl
for both cases the pvswitch binary will be executed, pvswitch will than check for the environment variable PVSWITCH_PERL_BINARY (if you are running perl), if it is found it tries to find this key in the configuration file pvswitch.conf and execute the program which is configured for the version configured set in the environment variable (e.g. perl.pvswitch).
So it just executes the real program (e.g. perl interpreter). Depending on the environment a different version might be selected.
There are some convenient tools (e.g. perlver, pvconfig) to configure this.
Enhancements:
- Fixed a bug which could cause segmentation violation.

Spinix is a new, complete GNU/Linux distribution geared toward ease of use. Currently, Spinix is still in the beta stage. There has been no official release.
Spinix 0.9 comes with an all new installer. If your computer can not boot the ISO you will need to make a bootdisk and a root filesystem disk.
Main features:
- Kernel Version: 2.4.20
- XServer: XFree86 4.3.0
- Bash Version: 2.05b
- GCC Version: 3.3
- Gnome Version: 2.2

Kammu is a mobile phone management tool.

Kammu is a KDE frontend for the GNU all mobile management tools Gammu.

This is a very first development snapshot. Please note that this version has some basic functionality only, please dont report any bugs on that version.

Batalla Naval is a networked, multiplayer battleship game. It has robots, and support for GGZ Gaming Zone and for IPv6.

The game has two versions:

The old version called batnav includes an ncurses server and clients for ncurses, xview, win31 and gtk.
The new version called gbatnav includes a gnome server, client & robot with support for IPv6 and GGZ.

rubySteak is a software that provides a GTK+ 2 interface for accessing the Steak German/English dictionary database.
Enhancements:
- This initial version features the ability to search through the steak database file.

Gnome Crystal project is a light model visualizer for crystal structures.

Gnome-1 version uses Gtk+, Gnome, libglade, gettext, OpenGL(or Mesa) and GtkGLArea.

Gnome-2 version uses standard Gnome-2 libraries and the Gnome Chemistry Utils and its dependencies.

License is GPL.

sdcv is a console version of StarDict program.
Enhancements:
- The cache scheme has been rewritten, and the size of the cache has been reduced.
- The program was merged with stardict.
- Lookup was speeded up.
- Full-text searching was added.
- The Russian translation has been updated.