Open Source Software: Reviews and Links

One stiffy disk linux router, runs on a 486. tons of modules for traffic monitoring, mini web server, even samba :) unfortunately all in German, but mail me if you need help:
http://www.fli4l.de

Easy to install linux server with almost everything you /small business would need...again German:
http://eisfair.org
 
Oss

I'm a very big supporter of open source software myself. Am actually implementing a lot of open source software at the company where I'm Systems Admin.

Some of my most favourites include :

Openoffice.org :: An open source office suite, a lot like M$ Office, and has most of the functionality, only without the pricetag that accompanies M$ Products.

e107 :: An open source Content management system. This I use for my company's website, intranet, and our student research centre. It is a powerful, flexible and awesome system, and I would recommend it anyone that needs a fast, reliable, stable CMS-based website.

aChat :: This handy little program allows users in a LAN setup to easily and effectively communicate with each other. Working on an IRC-like setup it is easy to install, and set up on a user's computer. The up side of this program is that there is no server-side to be set up. This makes it even more handy, and easy to install and maintain.

Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird :: These two programs are a standard when I re-install a computer. I do not allow ony of my users to browse with anything other than Firefox, or use another mail client than Thunderbird. In Fact I actually delete the icons after setting the proxy settings in IE.

Mozilla Calendar :: This is very nice when you need to, or want your calendar with your email client (much like M$ Outlook). This provides a very nice alternative. The Mozilla Calendar uses the iCal standard, and therefor it is possible to allow calendar sharing with certain users, as in my setup at work, by using Apache and WebDAV.

python :: python is a very new, very easy, extremely powerful open source scripting language. I am learning this myself, and am finding it extremely easy (Bear in mind that I have never coded before in my life, except for a bit of QuickBasic 10 years ago). Our one system at work, that we use for tracking user's browsing stats etc. is written in python, and runs very stable.

VLC (VideoLan Client) and MPlayer :: VLC is an open source media player, that supports playback of almost every file format, including files such as ogg-theora, and much more. MPlayer also falls in this category, and is also very nice. In linux this is all that I use for playing back my video files, and find it one of the most stable, and best media players that I have come across.

Fedora Core :: This is one of the best linux distributions for a server that I have come across. Since it is based on, and supported by Redhat, I personally think that there can not be much better than this.

gentoo linux :: My favourite linux distribution. Also the distro that I use on my PC. Very fast, flexible, powerful, and with an exceptional Package management system. This ditro gives you the ability to have a very up-to date system, with all the latest patches and updates, without the hassle of most other systems.

sourceforge.net :: This website is the home of all open
source projects. Here you can find just about any type of program that there is an open source solution for out there. I constantly browse it when looking for new stuff and solutions. Visit this if you need something. Also feel free to create yourself an account and share any open source projects of your own you might have. It's all free.


This is all that I can think of off the top of my head, I'll keep adding more and more as I remember them, and discover new ones. I hope you find this post helpful, and enjoy it. :)
 
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1) Good post merrigan - thanks for that

2) Everyone check out http://swik.net/ "The free databse of open-source projects"

Altough I still like this thread, especially if you tell us software you actually use and why you use them.
 
This is a bit off topic but does gimp or some other freeware app optimize pics for web use like image ready in photoshop does ?
 
For wannabe web designers, there are loads of open source CMS options available. It makes web design a breeze and companies are paying a fortune for these self management options. Just have a look around at South African websites and notice how infrequently they get updated. Most businesses need a resident web designer and generally small bbusinesses outsource or go the DIY route. this either results in poorly updates sites or really ugly websites.

Not anymore...

http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/
http://www.php-nuke.org/
http://www.mamboserver.com/
http://www.joomla.org/
 
Worth noting: this Drupal announcement:
We're proud to announce the release of a E-Commerce 4.7, which contains a large collection of new features and improvements. The E-Commerce project is a Drupal project containing over 30 modules, and 5 developer APIs.

We've been working hard to release the 4.7 version of E-Commerce. For example, the number of code changes per month is up from 45 in 2005 to 120 in 2006.

We hope you like the improvements, because there are plenty more on the way for E-Commerce 4.8.
Click to expand...
 
TurboCASH the World Leading Open Source Accounting Package

I would like to introduce myself. I am Phlip Copeman. I am the Project leader for TurboCASH Accounting and I am a Foot Soldier for the Open Source movement.

I was asked by one of our project members to post an Answer to Andre's punt for Pastel and Cubit.
-------------------------------------------
TurboCASH is Open Source and GPL. It is free. As we speak, there are TurboCASH Project members preparing to fork the code. We support them in this - that is the essences of Software Freedom. Everything else is "Stamp Collecting".

The GNU GPL is a very powerful licence. It is difficult for me nowdays to get interested in any software that is no fully GPL. It is a 15 year old licence and still works today. Any other variation, you can be sure is the "Scheming mind" of a marketing guy who has "A Plan".

I have been involved with Software development for over 20 years. I have never been involved with a project that moves forward as fast as TurboCASH. If you are know Pastel and Cubit and TurboCASH you will know this. In two years we have moved into 50 countires and 15 languages. Over 500 people download our software every day.

Why is this? Well ask yourself how many Programmers to Cubit or Pastel have - 10 , 20? With TurboCASH ANYONE can downlaod the code. We get contributions from really stange plalces Vietnam, Coumbia, New York, Slovenia, Benoni. Hundreds of poeple work on TurboCASH every month. They are not restricted by employment agreements and what I want, they do whatever they want to do. Our problem as project Admins is to work out what to exclude.

Typically releases in the Accounitng Software Industry are annual - TurboCASH is weekly.

The back side of the GPL is this - Any code that you add to TurboCASH, you are OBLIGED to return to the project. Any fork, any development ultimately ends up benefitting us. We have not yet had the opportunity to sue someone, because we all understand this. When you get involved with TurboCASH, you don't rent it and you can never have it taken away from you. It is yours forever. You are similarly obliged to make any improvements available to all of us.

TurboCASH is no longer a Windows only product. We have ported to the Firebird Database and now have a Linux Server. We are also able to run in Winetools. We are actively seeking partners to help us develop Linux Clients and thin client technology.

I would have liked to have worked with Cubit. First thing I would have done was canabalise parts and put them into TurboCASH. No GPL - No can go.

You can be sure that if you deal with a Commercial Software Vendor sooner or later you are going to be sitting around a table with them discussing licences. While you are doing that, we will be holding a code review meeting, by lunch time you will be reviewing your quote and we will be publishing.

So there you have it - pay for software if you absolutely insist, but don't expect it to work as well as GPL Software!
 
Open Source Games

Thought we should also see some games in this list :D
One of the most common complaints I hear about Linux (and OSS for that matter) is the lack of games..
Yes I know there's not so many but there are some cool ones:

BzFlag: http://bzflag.org
One of my personal favorites, a multiplayer tank battle game, with various gameplay modes ("Capture the flag", "Rabbit Hunt", "Freestyle" etc..)
Linux and Win32 supported.

Sauerbraten: http://sauerbraten.org
Multiplayer first person shooter, supposedly has a very "different" game engine, also sports a in game map editing mode.
Linux and Win32 supported.

ManiaDrive: http://maniadrive.raydium.org
Probably the most frustrating game you'll ever play :D you get to drive a Renault Clio look alike through short tracks, you have to beat the "gold time" before you go on to the next track.
Linux and Win32 supported.

FlightGear: http://www.flightgear.org
An excellent Flight simulator, loads of add-on aircraft available, features an online multiplayer mode.
Note: prepare for enourmous downloads if you want all the scenery, the entire scenery database (which consists of the whole world) is supposedly around 13GB :eek:
Personally I only downloaded the base data pack (around 150MB).
Linux and Win32 supported.

Battle for Wesnoth: http://www.wesnoth.org/
A single/muliplayer turn based strategy game. Set in a fantasy type world which includes Orcs, Elves and all sorts of other creatures.
Linux and Win32 supported.
 
nVu opensource alternative to Dreamweaver, great app, it's on the Go-opensource cd, If anyone wants a copy of the CD, just pm me and I'll send a copy, but you'll have to pay for postage & packaging (& cd if Free copies are finished). See Here for More Info
 
Mozilla Portable products

Mozilla FireFox Portable ... straight of your flash drive.

Then you might also wanna have a look at Mozilla Thunderbird Portable for all your email, right from your flash drive ... where ever you are.

Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you on a flash drive.

Portable Sunbird is a standalone calendaring and task management application built on the same technology as the Firefox web browser. It's easy to use and makes keeping your calendar and tasks up-to-date a breeze. Plus, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your schedule and to do lists with you wherever you go.
 
The obvious one is Openoffice at www.openoffice.org and one that I find useful is Scribus, a powerful Desktop Publishing program that can be used for many other functions. It actually rivals some of the extremely expensive programs out there. www.scribus.net
 
Just yesterday I reformed my windows partition and now am using Ubuntu full time, it took me a little while to get things going - but now when I do a reinstall it takes about 20 min to get the system to were I want it to be, install networkmanager, audio codecs, netbeans and import old firefox bookmarks and we are ready to go. It really is a great OS, incredably stable - expecially compared to my old windows install...
 
I recently found and love http://www.dadabik.org/

I used it to give sales people an Access-like interface to a database. Imagine that: an easy to use, web-based interface to a MySQL server database - brilliant!
 
Ok, look i wasnt sure if i was to post here or not.
Its a non-paying, online alternate to having the software on your pc.

I think people come to this particular topic if they are wanting 'free' software. And this kinda-sorta fits into that.....
 
mh348 said:
nVu opensource alternative to Dreamweaver, great app, it's on the Go-opensource cd, If anyone wants a copy of the CD, just pm me and I'll send a copy, but you'll have to pay for postage & packaging (& cd if Free copies are finished). See Here for More Info
Click to expand...

How do you use NVU for PHP + MySQL development? It's nice a WYSIWYG editor (doesn't crash as often as Quanta+ does), but I have a hard time using it for web development in these languages
 
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