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Bookmarklets are free and don't involve any kind of software installation.
   technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

It's not just a Windows world, as new Real Player and Bookmarklets show


March 26, 2000

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, Al Fasoldt
Copyright ©2000, The Syracuse Newspapers

   The world doesn't run exclusively on Windows any more.
   It runs on Windows and Macs and other kinds of computers, too. Including, of course, Linux PCs.
   A year ago, a Martian visiting Earth could have been forgiven for assuming that there was only one kind of computer operating system. You couldn't make a left turn on the World Wide Web without running into assumptions from Web site operators that everyone visiting their sites was running Windows.
   All over the Internet you can now see how far we've come. The best current example might be the latest Real Player from Real Networks at http://www.real.com. For the first time, the Linux version of the Real Player is equal to the Windows version in every way. It looks like the Windows version and acts like the Windows version. And it has all the same features as the Windows version.
   This is a big thing to Linux fans. It's one thing to have an operating system that doesn't crash and doesn't run out of resources. It's something else again, something very exciting, to have an operating system that behaves so well AND has some of the toys and bells and whistles that Windows has.
   The Real Player is a program that plays video clips and audio feeds off the Web. It also plays audio and video stored on your hard drive. A lot of radio stations can be picked up on the Web if you have the Real Player. (The radio program Gene Wolf and I have on WSYR, "Random Access," can be heard live through Real Player, too. Go to http://www.sybercuse.com/wsyr/ and follow the links to our show.)
   You can buy the Real Player or you can get it free. If you're new to this, please read that previous sentence over again. Every time I write about the free version of the Real Player, I get letters and phone calls from people who tell me I'm wrong. They tell me that the Real Player costs money.
   So that's why I'm making such a big point of this. There is a free version and a not-free version. The free version works just as well as the not-free one. (Trust me. You never need to buy Real Player.)
   So why do people insist that there's no such thing as a free version?
   Because Real Networks hides the free one to make it hard for you to find it. The folks at Real Networks want you to buy Real Player, so they make the links to the non-free version (called Real Player Plus) very easy to find and the links to the free version very hard to find.
   So just keep searching on the Real Networks site until you find it. It will be a small link to the "basic" version of Real Player.
   Another sign that the PC world spins on more than Windows these days comes from the incredible "Bookmarklets" Web site. I've raved about Bookmarklets before -- go to http://twcny.rr.com/technofile/texts/bit013199.html -- but the latest ones are even better.
   The site to go to is http://www.bookmarklets.com/. What they are is explained very well on the Bookmarklets site, so I'll just say that Bookmarklets are tiny programs that can do all sorts of amazing things with your browser. And I's better add that the great thing about Bookmarklets is that they run on Windows PCs, Macs and Linux PCs. (And on Unix and other operating systems, too.)
   Bookmarklets are free and don't involve any kind of software installation. All you do it click your mouse to install them.
   Want to send the Web page on your screen to someone by e-mail? A bookmarklet does that for you. Want to resize the Web browser window to a standard size, such as 640 X 480? A Bookmarklet does it. Want to get a list in a separate Window of all links on a page? A Bookmarklet will do it.
   And so much more. Check these out. Windows users benefit too, of course, but if you're a Mac or Linux fan be sure to go to the Bookmarklets site and take advantage of the new world order. It's not a Windows universe any more.