How about a personal space for your own community, friends, club or family. Actually, how about something like twitter. Yeah! I mean your own personal twitter.

Is it possible?

Internet comes up with solutions to every problem. Be it fixing your stuff or broken softwares. It has answers to all the questions.

In this case, we have got a couple of good softwares/scripts which perfectly meet our requirements. These are FREE microblogging scripts which can create something looking like twitter.

Here are few of them:

Floopo is an out of box script which enables you to start a microblogging site.

Most of its features are similar to those of twitter, it has both more and less to it. It enables the users to post picture updates along with the 140 char text ones. Though I feel twitter also has its own way of doing something similar. Well, there are quite lot picture sharing sites made specially for twitter. A good example could be Twitpic.com.

It doesn’t have the search function and the API support. But they are planning those features along with enabling users to get updates from twitter.

In my opinion, floopo surely needs a better look. The dull colors make the site unimpressive to the user. But that should be no problem if you are a web designer and work a better theme.

Requirements:

• PHP 5+ (Linux/Unix type server)
• Apache web server
• .htaccess support
• Mysql database server
• Ioncube loaders

Demo: http://demo.floopo.com

Homepage: http://www.floopo.com/

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Well, this has to be my favorite. Ever heard of identi.ca, if not let me tell you that it is one of the top competitors of twitter. StarusNET was formerly known at lanonica. Only thing I have to say is that it is at par with the twitter along with a lot additional plugins supported by an open source community.

Moreover it can be connected to other popular social networks like twitter, facebook, etc. with ease, i.e., no need to update your StatusNET site instead it’ll get your update from the social network you use often. It has also support for OpenID.

Its based on PHP and no hefty requirements.

Demo: http://identi.ca

Homepage: http://status.net

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Can the almighty google be left behind? Jaiku is google’s reply to twitter. Jaiku’s code was eventually made available by google as open source and is currently known by the name of JaikuEngine. It runs on Google’s AppEngine and is scripted in python. So you’ll need a python enabled server to use.

Demo: http://jaiku.com

Homepage: http://code.google.com/p/jaikuengine/

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They call “Shartronix Opensource”, a multimedia microblogging platform. Well, I’ll say its the most simple looking of all of them listed. It has most of the features. Its a PHP based script but allows you do a lot. I’ll say its somewhere between twitter and facebook.

Requirements:

• Apache HTTP Server
• Apache mod_rewrite module
• MySQL – version 5.0 or higher
• PHP – version 5.1 or higher
• PHP Curl library
• PHP GD library

Demo: http://sharetronix.com/opensource/demo

Homepage: http://sharetronix.com/opensource/

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If you have used twitter when it just became popular, then you know how will jisko exactly work.

It has the API feature and can be integrated with the twitter. Also has mobile support. It is also written in PHP.

If you use Jisko you’ll have a feeling of using something familiar.

Demo: http://jisko.net

Homepage: http://jisko.org/

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Another open source software which has a lot features. The author has tried to integrate as many features as possible. It allows the users to add pictures, files and stuff to their updates along with twitter-like App support. It can also be integrated with social networks like twitter, identi.ca using apps.

It runs on PHP and Mysql.

The homepage is quite messed and there is wiki to explain stuff better.

Demo: http://openmicroblogger.com

Homepage: http://openmicroblogger.org

Wiki: http://wiki.github.com/voitto/openmicroblogger

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There were some others which didn’t fill the bill of this post but can also help you create something similar or better.

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1. Echowaves – Has a hell lot of features.

Homepage: http://github.com/dmitryame/echowaves

Demo: http://echowaves.com

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2. Yonkly – The open source version of the software should be could if you can really work on it as developer. The paid versions overshadow the free one.

Homepage: http://www.yonkly.com/

Demo: http://www.yonkly.net/

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3. Sweetter – A nice script but hasn’t been updated since last year.

Homepage: https://launchpad.net/sweetter

Demo: http://sweetter.net/

What is Ubuntu?
Ubuntu is an operating system that is available for free or is open source. Ubuntu is actually a Zulu word which means “humanity”.
The OS is build on Linux and is one of the best so far. It uses GNOME as the default desktop interface.
What’s the variety?
Ubuntu has 40+ official and unofficial distributions.
Let us discuss the major ones:
1. Ubuntu- This is the default one. It is complete as an Operating system. Ubuntu people provide both community and professional kind of support. This is also the most used one. Its runs GNOME.
I have used this and have to say it is the best.* Enblend – an image compositing program
* FontForge – a typeface (font) editor program
* GIMP – a raster graphics editor
* Inkscape – a vector graphics editor
* Scribus – a desktop publishing application
* Synfig – a 2D vector graphics and time line-based animation program
7. Ubuntu Mobile – It provides “an uncompromised Web 2.0 experience: Web browsing, email, media, camera, VoIP, instant messaging, GPS, blogging, digital TV, games, contacts, dates/calendar, simple software updates…”
8. Goubuntu- Its main aim is to to provide the user with software which are free. Rest is Ubuntu.
And many more.
2. Kubuntu- The major difference from the latter is that it uses KDE as the default desktop environment instead of GNOME.
I also have a little experience with this. Some people feel its better than the default one.
3. Xubuntu- This one uses Xfce instead of GNOME or KDE. It is meant to “provide an easy to use distribution (…) with a focus on integration, usability and performance, with a particular focus on low memory footprint (…) based around the ideals and values of Ubuntu.” Though both use the Gtk toolkit; both look a bit similar.
I am using it now and have to say its like cutting butter with a red hit knife.
4. Edubuntu- Well, as the name suggests its for students and schools. It uses GNOME as the default interface but separate versions for KDE are also available.
5. Ubuntu JeOS- JeOS is just enough Operating system and is pronounced as Juice. It is”an efficient variant [...] configured specifically for virtual appliances“.
6. Ubuntu Studio- My favorite. It is mainly for people who like or wanna edit images, music and videos in a professional way. It has all the needed software:
Audio
* Ardour – a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application
* Audacity – a digital audio editor application
* Hydrogen – an advanced drum machine
* JACK Audio Connection Kit – a sound server daemon that provides low latency connections between applications for both audio and MIDI data
* JAMin – the JACK Audio Connection Kit Audio Mastering interface
* LilyPond – a program for engraving sheet music
* Mixxx – a digital DJ-style mixing program
* MusE – a MIDI/Audio sequencer using JACK and ALSA
* Rosegarden – a digital audio workstation program
* TiMidity++ – a software synthesizer that is able to convert from MIDI to various formats
Video
* PiTiVi – a video editing program
* Kino – a non-linear digital video editor
* Stopmotion – a stop-motion animation movie creator
* VLC media player – a free software media player
Graphics
* Agave – a color scheme generator
* Blender – a 3D animation program
Edit: Thanks to my friend Vishno for helping me with a few corrections.