So... "Free Software" Did Get Your Attention!
Several years ago, John started experimenting with Open Source software; he quickly saw the benefits of not having to pay licencing fees everytime he purchased or upgraded software on a computer. With four laptops and two servers in the house, that adds up to a significant savings. If you're interested in learning more and how the movement was started, read this article on Wikipedia.
Here's a brief sampling of some of the software that we use on a daiy basis, including the publishing of this web site:
The operating system (OS) we use is Kubuntu Linux. It's extremely easy to install and use. It can also be installed on a computer already running Windows, giving you the option to choose which OS to use when you boot up the computer.
Here are some of the key applications we use, most of which can be installed on either Linux or Windows. OpenOffice provides a full suite of applications that are Microsoft compatible: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base.
We also found these clip art and free fonts web sites to be very useful additions to OpenOffice.
Firefox is an excellent and very secure web browser.
For email and RSS feeds, we use Thunderbird. There are a number of plugins and extensions that can be added to both of these Mozilla products; For example, John added calendar and contacts features that synchronize his desktop information with his Google account.
OpenProj is a great project management tool, although it is a little difficult to use for someone who isn't familiar with project management terms and definitions.
We used KompoZer, a WYSIWYG editor, to create the web pages.
Before starting the development of our web site, we found a huge selection of free templates at Open Source Web Design.
Kompozer also has the ability to upload files to your hosted web site, but we found it easier to use FileZilla.
For image editing, we use GIMP. This is also an extremely versatile application, but it's fairly straightforward for simple tasks.
While we haven't yet used Audacity with our web site, we will when it comes to editing and converting audio files.
Finally, if you absolutely have to use Windows, you can always run it as an application (i.e. virtual machine) on Linux using VMware Server.
Here's what VMware Server looks like running a Windows session on Kubuntu Linux:
Now that we've whet your appetite for free software, you can find just about anything else you're looking for on SourceForge.
