The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

[Moderator note: this is the primary Xmind program thread. View database entry]

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Xmind is a "mind mapper." You can create diagrams and share your thoughts with other people with Xmind's servers. They provide a portable .zip package. Simply unzip and run.

Home page: http://www.xmind.net
Download: http://www.xmind.net/xmind/downloads/xm ... 291819.zip

XMind requires Java platform.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMIND

I have a problem with a program that claims to be open source while it 'requires' you to login with your OpenID name and password to download. It strikes me as a harvest names and password scheme.

alanbcohen wrote:...it 'requires' you to login with your OpenID name and password to download. It strikes me as a harvest names and password scheme.

I understand your concern, but I'd also like to point out for accuracy's sake that OpenID isn't required - you can also sign up for an account with no verification of your email address, so you can bypass any privacy concerns by using a fake one, like I did.

One reason for "encouraging" you to get an account (other than possibly harvesting your contact info) is that one of the program's features is the ability to upload maps to xmind.net, which can only be made private if you purchase a "pro" account. It's a slightly sneakier monetizing scheme than the "pro" version of the software, but considering that they don't force you to use a real email address, I don't find it to be very invasive or obtrusive.

Cheers.

Have no idea if its *really* portable so this one goes in the "Discussion" forum.

X-Mind is a fantastic open source mind mapping, flowchart, and hierarchy tool that was until recently commercial software. Its also a nice example of how Java libraries can be packaged into a program and downloaded as a whole. Hopefully more programs come out that do this same thing.

• 1. Download the portable version from http://www.xmind.net/downloads/
  
  • Note: This download will be very large because there will be versions for non-windows operating systems included in this download.
  2. Extract the \XMind_Windows subdirectory (the WHOLE directory) to a folder of your choice. For this example, we'll use \MM
  
  3. Extract the directory \Commons to the same folder
  
  • Your directory should look something like this:
    
    \MM\Commons
    \MM\XMind_Windows
  4. Finally, run \MM\XMind_Windows\xmind.exe

I find it very difficult to work with ...
Every tool seems so hard to find!
It doesn't offer me the flexibility I need, the flexibility being the hole purpose of mindmap creation process.
I'm sad to say that I don't even care if it is portable or not ...

Maybe this could be suitable for more advanced users, I don't know ... I am very happy with my JauntePE version of Edraw Mind Map free. Every tool and symbol is "right there", just drag-and-drop, everything seems so easy, creating a mindmap feels like a breeze!

Maybe I expected too much from X-Mind...

There's a learning curve associated with it but I strongly recommend it. I tested it like a year ago but gave up on it for FreeMind's simplicity, but this program has SO many more features and capabilities.

That said, I have not tested MindMap Free, I'll look into that as well. The website info makes it look pretty good.

Can't help it: X-Mind is portable.

I just went back and re-read this:

> Can't help it: X-Mind is portable.

Really? Should it be added to the database?

TESTED: Portable
With Java being required in theory it shouldn't be added, but is this an expectation to the strict rules of TPFC?

Is there a portable alternative available? (excluding joby_toss's previous suggestion) E.G. if Firefox required Java or .NET then Opera would be an alternative web browser. I'm not up to date with this Mind Mapping!

Doesn't require Java. I uninstalled java to make sure -- the program works fine including advanced operations like file export/import and adding images.

I'll add to the database.

Edit: Added!

When I tested X-Mind I remember that java was bundled in (that's why the big package).
Maybe someone still has it and could take a look inside for java libraries?

Nevertheless, it is portable.

Space saver: Running AppCompactor (http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=1472) on the program saved 38 megs, or about a 30% decrease in size. Note that this is a very slow process: I didn't time how long the process takes but I'd estimate between 20 and 30 minutes for my early model core 2 duo processor, (using only one of the cores under a virtual machine).

Note that I didn't test ArcThemAll, which is a evidently the preferred of the two programs here on the forums.

Edit: a user mentioned in comments that you can delete \XMind_Windows\JRE if you are sure that any host machine you use will have Java installed. I tested this and it works, although I didn't check to see if this affected portability.

XMind v.3.2.1 is available, with - as they say - "some good improvements and a few fixed bugs".

http://blog.xmind.net/en/2010/11/xmind-v3-2-1/

Edit: Now updated in the database.

I found a behavior of the program that won't affect most users because I'm doing it in a non-portable way. Because I use it a lot, I've associated .xmind files with the portable program. When I open an xmind file in this manner, it will create a temp folder in ..\Commons\data\workspace-cathy
But if you'll notice its using unix / marks (not Windows \) so I can't just edit this INI file and point it to a Windows temp folder.

Obviously the portable workaround for this is to use Coffee, but my reason for not doing this is complex and not very interesting.