Cool Software: FreeMind
One program that my project manager likes to use a lot is MindManager. However, it costs about $350US which is a little out of my price range. So I decided to do a little looking at Sourceforge.net and found a cool little Java app called FreeMind.
FreeMind is an open source Java application designed for creating mind maps. And it works amazingly well. I have only been playing with it for the last hour or so and so far I am greatly impressed. The interface is very minimal yet very well laid out and very intuitive. If you have ever seen anyone use MindManager then learning FreeMind will only take a minute or so. It is incredibly easy to use.
Even though the program is created in Java, the developers have done an excellent job of integrating into the windows look-and-feel (I have not tried it on linux yet).
I can definitely see myself using this program a lot and I am eager to see what the developers do with it next. If it currently only at release 0.7.1, but don’t let the low version number scare you off. The program seems to be very stable. The only major feature that is mysteriously missing is the undo function: so save often.