Open source

[Steve19]

There's been a lot of activity in open source this year. Apache has become the network market leader. Suse and Ubuntu have supposedly really made Linux much easier to use. OpenOffice has put a pretty nice office productivity suite out and in statistics the R-Project is really gaining in adoptions.

I am wondering how many people on BP are using open source and what you think of it, whether you use it or not.

 

[sandgk]

Have used - and liked.

Thing about Open Source that I liked was the ability to select rom numerous Desktop Environments. Also, the low-cost of the applications, particularly scientific, imaging and mathematical.

Wish our corporate would let us set up Linux based scientific workstations, however, they are wedded to Win32 (XP on a highly controlled network). Their justification for the manner in which they deploy computing resource and architecture is, ironically enough, "Total Cost of Ownership" which seems laughable to me. Our IT/IS spends semingly half their time keeping all the plates spinning to avoid conflicts of one type or another between the more expensive older sci-apps and improvements in Win32/64 that demand increasing hardware resources.

I would imagine Linux and its brethren represent a very good cost balance in areas where paying many thousands of dollars for applications is not viable.

 

[fanaticbuckeye]

I am pretty ignorant when dealing with Linux, but I have a few questions...

I have a Dell computer (work) that is currently on running Windows 2000. I no longer have the Windows restore disk, and was thinking of using the Linux OS, and removing the Windows OS all together.

All of the work is internet based, so there is no real issue here. Other than that is there any advice you guys can give. Is Linux stable enough? Easy enough to set up with a group of other computers on a small office network?

Thanks.

 

[Hodge]

OSS is almost always better. The best aspect IMO is the support. If something needs fixed, it will get fixed fast and well.

Ubuntu has made a huge stride for linux being more user friendly. Open office is nice from what I've seen (althought I've only had limited experience with it). Gaim is better overall than the now-spyware-infested AIM.

So yeah, I use it and like it.

 

[fanaticbuckeye]

What are "distributions?"

Also, what is OSS?

 

[sandgk]

What are "distributions?"

Think of them as latest updates - but of the source code, not merely the compiled applications, the latter would properly be termed binaries.

 

[Hodge]

What are "distributions?"

Also, what is OSS?

Linux has different versions or distributions. Ubuntu, Suse, Debian, Knoppix, Mandriva, Red Hat, etc. They all have the same core running them, but they have different bells and whistles that you see.

Open Source Software.

 

[fanaticbuckeye]

Okay, so each of those are versions of Linux. Open Source is just another distribution, right?

http://shots.osdir.com/

Then is the link above is just a list of updates with different "themes?"

 

[Hodge]

Okay, so each of those are versions of Linux. Open Source is just another distribution, right?

http://shots.osdir.com/

Then is the link above is just a list of updates with different "themes?"

Open source is an agreement that the "source" of the software is "open" or publicly available. There is actually a lisence you agree to adhere to. Linux happens to be an operating system that falls into the open source category.

And yes, that's a pretty comprehensive list of linux distributions. Some of the difference could be called themes, but I think the biggest difference is the level of user friendliness.

 

[OSUsushichic]

Steve, I'm a huge fan of Open Source. Through my graduate studies I've researched many useful OS applications in the education fields. Check out MIT's OpenCourseWare (ocw.mit.edu). Faculty have posted their course materials for free and have helped other universities around the world to adopt OCW. I have an article about OCW coming out next month. I can forward it to you, if you're interested.

Also, my current class is developing a digital library using an OS application called Greenstone (greenstone.org). It was developed by a group of professors in New Zealand (and supported by UNESCO) so that anyone around the world can develop their own digital collection. This stuff is so very cool!

I'm attending a geeky conference in a few weeks, and many of the panels are about OSS. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

[Clarity]

Not a bad starting point;
http://www.opensourcewindows.org/

I use GAIM, 7zip, KeePass (couldn't survive without this), Eraser, sTunnel, PuTTY, WinSCP3, Firefox and Thunderbird, BitTorrent, Gourmet Recipe Manager, Blender, Inkscape -- I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to mind. Most of these I get from SourceForge.

I hear good things about GIMPshop as a free Photoshop alternative,

 

[bkochmc]

Not a bad starting point;
http://www.opensourcewindows.org/

I use GAIM, 7zip, KeePass (couldn't survive without this), Eraser, sTunnel, PuTTY, WinSCP3, Firefox and Thunderbird, BitTorrent, Gourmet Recipe Manager, Blender, Inkscape -- I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to mind. Most of these I get from SourceForge.

I hear good things about GIMPshop as a free Photoshop alternative,

GIMP is a great alternative... It has many of the features most Photoshop users would need. I used it once in a while at my old job and never ran across a feature I needed that it didn't have.

http://www.gimp.org/