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Open Source Software
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WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE?
Open source software is essentially free programs, but in more ways than you might expect.
As well as being free to install and run on your computer, and to distribute to your friends, open source programs have their free nature protected by a public licence that keeps them free for anyone to study how the programs work, so you can adapt them to your needs if you wish, to improve the program if you can, with the caveat that you are then obliged to submit your improvements back to the public, so that the whole community benefits. And that last part demonstrates the philosophy of Open Source; the exact opposite of commercial software, some might say.
Open Source is certainly in-tune with the pioneering spirit that launched the World Wide Web and launched manys a website in the 1990's, but are these program's really a viable alternative to spending serious money on "serious" software? In the case of the Open Source software packages highlighted here, the answer must be yes.
The question then arises as to whether these packages are better, but to answer that you must look at what you mean by the question. What do you want out of it? In terms of value, the Open Source movement cannot be beaten. In terms of performance it is only the "power users" who might find the Open Source alternatives occasionally lacking.
IS THERE A DOWNSIDE?
What the likes of The Gimp lack from their commercial peers is the absence of some options that may be missed by power users, and a lack of cosmetic finesse that the commercial packages have developed over a number of years. In both these areas though, expect the Open Source rivals to catch up in the next year or two; indeed, OpenOffice has just done so with the release of version 2.0.
There is a danger of approaching open source products expecting to see something completely identical to their commercial counterpart (OpenOffice to be like Microsoft Office etc), and seeing any differences as defects. This is a mistake as a little time spent exploring the open source product will reveal that the same ends can often be achieved, but that the commands you're looking for may use different labels or be located in slightly different menu structures.
Open Source software tends to have new versions of their software available to download every few months; as opposed to the annual or two yearly release cycles from Microsoft, Adobe and Macromedia.
This leads to the obvious conclusion that in some cases Open Source software will provide serious competition to commercial interests over the coming months and years, and in the case of Firefox, there is a product that is already far superior to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
So to the question of "is there a downside", the answer must be, it depends who you are and where your interests lie. Lower cost alone makes many people willing to adapt to its differences and be creative about filling any functionality gaps. Consider whether the price of commercial counterparts is a realistic amount of money to pay to offset perceived downsides. And if you're the customer, then having a choice of more than one option can only be a good thing for you - and your wallet.
NOT JUST FOR WINDOWS
It is worth noting that the links below are for the windows versions of the software packages, but all the titles listed are also freely available for Macs and the Open Source operating system called GNU Linux. The software packages look, act and save the same way whichever operating system you use.
Gimp The Gimp, or General Image Manipulation Program to give it its full title, can perform a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction. Despite its free pricetag, this program packs a formidable arsenal of options or abilities, and is considered by many as a realistic open source alternative to the likes of Adobe Photoshop, a program whose file format is one of the many that The Gimp can open and save as. You will need to download both GTK+ Runtime Environment and The Gimp installers. Install GTK+ before installing The Gimp. Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox is a speedy, full-featured browser that makes browsing more efficient and more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Firefox includes comprehensive pop-up controls to keep unwanted advertising off your desktop; a tab-browsing mode that lets you open several pages in a single window, allowing you to load links in the background without leaving the page you're on; integrated Google searching; and simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively. A large variety of free downloadable extensions and themes are available that add specific functionality and visual changes to your browser. For instance, an extension called "adblock" allows you to block adverts served from specific domains by using the * wildcard character. Add to this a powerful download manager, the ability to add a variety of search engines to the drop down menu (Amazon, ebay, as well as the standard Google), the ability to import your existing settings from Internet Explorer, and you will find there is little to stop you from trying out this far more secure alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Firefox works with a third party Java Runtime Environment, which is an add-on required to handle media application content on some websites. This add-on (J2SE v150_06) is free and available from here Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is an email client and newsgroup reader that works alongside Firefox in much the same way as Outlook Express works alongside Internet Explorer. While the two programs are independent, they both come from the same Mozilla stable. Thunderbird offers easy importing of existing data, and boasts the same sort of security benefits as its sister program. Add to this intelligent spam filters, a built-in spell checker, a customisable layout, IMAP/POP support, HTML e-mail composing, quick search, address book, advanced message filtering, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts, and you should find everything your existing email client does and more. The one exception is calendaring, which Microsoft Outlook currently provides in addition to its email abilities. Thunderbird does not do this, though Mozilla have started developing a future version that will do. It may be a few years off yet though. NVU 1.0 There are a lot of web authoring packages about, both professional, shareware and even free. NVU is a visual WYSIWYG editor, enabling you to layout your pages directly instead on dealing with straight code and flipping between code and browser views. It is user friendly, allowing you to make professional looking pages without first mastering the HTML coding language. However, if you are confident about editing the code, the program allows you full control over that also. Support includes CSS, XML, and JavaScript, and the program also includes a site manager, colour picker, stylesheets and a CSS editor. While not yet ready to rival the industry standard in web design - Macromedia Dreamweaver - NVU is nonetheless a clean and flexible editor that is both intuitive for the newcomer and accommodating for the more demanding user. OpenOffice 2.3 OpenOffice is a suite of applications, including word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), slide presentation (Impress), image manipulation (Draw), and a relational database (Base). OpenOffice is able to read and write Microsoft Office files. This allows users to open and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and access Microsoft Access databases without the need for the expensive Microsoft Office Professional package to be on their computer. OpenOffice also has a look and feel similar to the Microsoft products, so if you're used to using Microsoft Office then you'll be completely at home with OpenOffice. Best of all, if you are a small business with a number of computers, there is no limitation to how many computers you load the program onto; no additional costs, no activation codes. Download once and install as often as you like. A weighty download, this free open-source product gives you everything you'd expect in office software to create dynamic documents, analyse data, design eye-catching presentations, produce dramatic illustrations, and open up your databases. You can publish your work in Portable Document Format (.pdf), and release your graphics in Flash (.swf) format - without needing any additional software. A library of free clipart can be downloaded separately from openclipart.org |
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