Dimdim is a free and open source web conferencing solution that hopes to compete with WebEX and ASAP. Although still in alpha, this product shows a lot of promise. The software is easy to setup and manage and serves up meeting content from the system that you install it on. The conference manager application runs in a web browser (MS IE only at this time but Firefox exensions are in the works) and the conference manager can upload only PowerPoint presentation at this time. The attendee only needs to have a web browser with Flash. We tried it out in our office recently and it worked very well.
Hundreds of Free Virtual Appliances
VMWare has a community site that provides hundreds of Virtual Appliances for use in their free VMWare Server product. What is a virtual appliance? It is a preconfigured operating system that has been tailored to perform a specific set of functions. There are appliances for Ruby on Rails development, Python Web Development and even Jabber servers. Virtual appliances make great test development environments and allow you to try a wide range of services without the pain of installing the systems yourself! Â If you’re unfamiliar with them I would strongly suggest that you bookmark this site and take a look around it when you have a couple of hours. There is unbelievable value here.