Open Source Software
A presentation by Les Bain and Robin McCain for
PASS (Professional Association of Support Services
What is Open Source software?
Open source software is software that
has its human readable form available to the public.
- Usually software that is
licensed under open source initiative licenses.
- The software is generally
free to anyone that wants to use it.
- The people that use the
software become a community of users.
- Anyone can make changes
to the source code.
What is not Open Source software?
- Public Domain
- Some government agencies
by law must develop public domain.
- Proprietary Software.
- Proprietary software is
software that has the source code protected by trade secret and copyright.
- It is usually controlled
by a software company.
- Examples are Windows, Office,
and Photoshop.
- Freeware Software.
- Freeware has only to do
with the fact that there is no charge.
- Software that is free can
be either Open Source or Proprietary.
Why use Open Source software?
Open source software is free so it
can save a company money.
Open source software has a reputation
for being more secure for a number of different reasons.
- Because each person who
uses the software can actively participate in identifying changes.
- Because of the large body
of people that are available to make changes when a problem is identified.
- Because the source code
is available, many people can look at the source code and evaluate it
for security.
Are there Obstacles
to using Open Source Software?
Obstacles to deployment of open source
software – and our responses
- Installation may be difficult
or require extensive programming skills.
- Choose a different application
with easier installation – this is often indicative of software that
was never extensively used. Use Wikipedia to compare available open
source tools for maturity and ease of use.
- Support may not exist or
be provided in a nontraditional manner.
- Rather than call a support
center, you may need to join a mailing list, login to an IRC chat room,
a forum or contact the programming team via email. It may take two or
three days for someone to respond.
- The application may depend
on the use of operating systems other than Windows.
- Linux is probably the most
commonly used operating system for open source development. Mature
open source software will eventually be modified or ported to Windows.
(This is easier now that Apple uses processors that can run Windows
and Microsoft is beginning to recognize the value of open source software.
- The installation may depend
on the presence of a specific hardware configuration.
- In most cases, open source
software runs on commonly available standard hardware. Beware of hardware
that is “Windows only”.
Where can one
find Open Source Software and Resources?
What are some Open Source Software Products?
| Type |
Open Source |
Proprietary |
|---|
| Browser |
Firefox |
Internet Explorer |
| Office Software |
Open Office |
Microsoft Office |
| Email |
Thunderbird |
Microsoft Outlook |
| Calendar |
Lightning |
Microsoft Outlook |
| Antivirus |
ClamWin |
McAfree / Semantic |
| Project Management |
OpenProj |
Microsoft Project |
| Rendering
|
VRay |
Renderman |
| Photo Work &
Image Manipulation |
GIMP |
Photoshop |
| HTML WYSIWYG editor |
NVU |
Frontpage / Dreamweaver / Expression
Web |
| 3D Modeling and rendering |
Art of Illusion, Blender, |
Lightwave, 3ds Max, Softimage, Maya |
| Finite element analysis |
Calculix, Dune, freeFEM |
GoMesh, Strand 7, Nastran |
| CAD – Computer
Aided Drafting |
QCad |
Autocad |
| Disk Cloning |
Clonezilla |
Symantec Ghost |
| VLSI |
Magic |
|
| Molecular Graphics
Visualization
|
RasMol, Balloon |
|
| Personal Information
Management |
Evolution |
Microsoft Outlook |
| Type |
Open Source |
Proprietary |
|---|
| BSD Unix |
Open BSD, Free BSD |
Macintosh |
| Linux |
Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, Debian |
|
| Windows NT |
|
Microsoft |
| Type |
Open Source |
Proprietary |
|---|
| Data Base Management |
MySQL, PostgreSQL |
Oracle, SQL Server |
| Web Server |
Apache |
Internet Information Server |
| Email Server |
Postfix, Qmail, Zimbra |
Exchange Server |
| Shared Calendar |
Sun Java System Calendar |
Exchange Server |
| Content Management
System |
Tango, Nucleus, Drupal |
Microsoft Sharepoint Server |
| Blogging |
Habari
WordPress |
Windows Live Writer |
| Server Administration |
Webmin |
Plesk, ISPmanager, Cortex |
| Wiki |
MediaWiki |
EditMe, JotSpot, Thought Farmer |
| Media Server |
Mythbuntu |
Windows XP Media Server Edition |
| PBX, Fax |
Asterisk, HylaFax |
Nortel, Avaya |
| Unified Communications |
Elastix, Druid |
Microsoft Office Communications Server |
| Document Management
System |
OpenKM
Main / Pyrus DMS |
Xerox Docushare, Stellent |
| Customer Relationship
Management |
Dolibarr |
SAP, Salesforce.com |
| Enterprise Resource
Planning |
Dolibarr, Sequoia |
Oracle |
| Backup |
Bacula, Toucan, FlyBack, Mondo |
Acronis, Tivoli, Legato, Backup Exec,
SOS Backup, UltraBac |
| Forum Platform |
PhpBB |
|
| Bulk email listserver |
Mailman |
|
| Spam Control
|
SpamAssassin |
Symantec, McAfee |
Robin McCain
- Robin McCain is the owner
of Small Business Network and a member of the Producers Guild.(SmBizNets) www.SmBizNets.com.
- SmBizNets helps you manage
& maintain your computer network from mouse to server.
- We also have extensive experience
in multimedia, computer graphics, business presentations, trade
show displays, events planning and more.
- Your business has a Business
Plan to focus your goals and activities. Have you considered creating
a Technology Plan? Business work environments are rapidly evolving
– yesterday's paper based file cabinet is being replaced by network
based storage. SmBizNets can help you plan for the most cost effective
investments to make your office more productive. We do the troubleshooting
and solve the problems so you can focus on your business objectives.
