open-source http://www.computersight.com/tags/open-source New posts about open-source Why Use Open-source Software? http://www.computersight.com/Software/Why-Use-Open-source-Software.373711 Open-source software goes beyong being free. If from a freeware application you can expect no costs, from an open-source one you can expect the same, plus the ability to tweak it in ways you never thought developers would allow you to.
And not only that.

For example, a few years ago I was using a Terminal application in Linux. This open-source software is called Yakuake and enables one to have a drop-down terminal window in the style of the one found in the Quake game series. With the push of a button I can access the console and make it disappear just as easy.

The only shortcoming of Yakuake at the time was that it didn't insert copied content from the clipboard by using Shift+Insert. I really needed that feature as my mouse's middle button/scroll wheel was broken and I always forgot to buy a new one. So I wrote the developer asking him if he could implement that certain feature. Believe it or not, in 12 hours there was a new version of Yakuake available for download with my much-needed copy/paste from keyboard option.
Now... would I have gotten the same quick response from, say, Adobe? If I needed a certain feature in Flash 10 for Linux, how much would it have took to even get a human-written reply?
 
No Bureaucracy
 


This is the power of open-source: since open-source applications make their source-code available, either you or someone else with coding abilities can take the files, implement a requested feature and make a binary available in no time. There's no reading EULAs, asking for permission from a software company or fear you might not be allowed to distribute it.
The best example of how open-source can make software better is Linux. In 1991, only a handful of people were using it. In 2000 it was still regarded as a server operating system. Now, Linux has a market share of 10% of the operating system market and is more widely spread on the desktop than on the server part.
People embraced Linux, tweaked it, modified it to fit the need of the user not the need of a company to spare cash and man power. There are hundreds of thousands of names, each belonging to a person who contributed code to either the Linux kernel or the Linux userland. 
Linux spread like wildfire in the last few years, from desktop systems to mobile and embedded devices, all because of the open-source license that allows you to freely download and modify it as it pleases you.
 
No Spyware
 
Another advantage open-source software gives the user is that... well... it is open. In other words, you can't hide malicious software in open code. No trojans, no adware, no spyware. Only clean code that you can count on and run in binary form without the fear of malevolent consequences. If by any chance an open-source program does display ads or hides spyware, you can just grab it from another source or compile it yourself, but this never happened to me in 10 years.
 
Building Bridges
 


And then there is portability. An open-source application can function on any operating system that has a compiler or interpreter installed for the code the application is written in. I can take a small Linux application and compile it in FreeBSD, modify it to run on Windows or port it to OS X, just because I want to use it on those platforms.

I don't have to account to no one while doing this, no company to beg for a port or emulating software do depend on. As long as all the needed files are open-source and my time and programming knowledge can afford it, I can create a port for it to run on a different operating system that it was previously designed.
 
Collaboration
 
The final and one of the most important reasons open-source software works so well, is because of communities. I don't have to write the application by myself. I can design it from the ground up and use it to fit my needs. If someone else wants a new feature and I don't have the time to implement it, there will always be a third party willing to help. Thirty people can write a complex application, each by working on a different segment of code. Five of them take care of the user interface, two of them debug the existing code, one does the icons and graphics, and so on. Not only will the software be ready to use more faster but it will also pass under 29 more pairs of eyes and different opinions, so the end result will be satisfactory to everyone.
 
Conclusion
 
So this is why I find the open-source model superior to the closed-source one, bot from the end user and programmer's point of view. It works, it is safe and in many ways faster. You don't have to pay for it and this can be a incredible plus when you embark in a business that uses computers. Cutting costs should be a priority when trying to make money with software, and open-source might just be the best answer.

]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:59:05 PST Top Open Source Picks of 2008 http://www.computersight.com/Software/Top-Open-Source-Picks-of-2008.372089 Although open-source software is a complex philosophy of software marketing, distribution and modification, to most end users, open-source simply means "free". The open-source movement is growing as more users find viable free alternatives to expensive proprietary software. Below are four of the most popular pieces of open-source software available.

Ubuntu Linux: billed as "Linux for humans", Ubuntu Linux is a very user-friendly operating system. Ubuntu Linux comes with a full suite of open-source software installed, including office, graphics and multimedia programs. Thousands more programs are available free of charge to replace anything you may have used on your Microsoft Windows PC. I installed Ubuntu on my laptop several weeks ago. The entire installation was very easy and took less than 30 minutes. My 12 year old daughter, who has never used anything but Microsoft Windows, was able to easily find her way around and acclimate herself to Ubuntu. She has now proclaimed that she likes using the laptop more than our Microsoft Windows desktop because of her preference for the operating system. Since Linux is much more secure than a Microsoft Windows PC, I feel very good about her using it. She is much less likely to accidentally download viruses, spyware or adware on the laptop running Ubuntu. Ubuntu, or any other Linux distribution, is a perfectly acceptable operating system for most PC users. The only exception to this rule is the serious gaming community-very few popular games include Linux distributions, although for the casual gamer, open-source Linux games abound.

Firefox: If you want to view web pages they way they were meant to be seen in a secure environment, then Firefox web browser is for you. Firefox is fully web compliant, which means you'll see things on websites that just dont show up in Microsoft's internet explorer. There are also thousands of add-ons available for Firefox to make your browsing, shopping, researching, or whatever you choose to do more fun, efficient and effective.

GIMP is a free-source image editor similar to Adobe Photoshop, although experienced GIMP users will tell you that it offers many more options and flexibility. Although there is a bit of a learning curve, mainly because the layout is quite a bit different than standard Windows graphics software, GIMP is intuitive and enjoyable to use. GIMP is available for several Linux distributions as well as Microsoft Windows.

VLC Media Player: Simply the best, easiest to use media player around, VLC will play nearly any audio and video format without having to worry about finding and installing the proper codec for whatever format you are trying to watch. Videos that won't play in Windows Media Player or other commercial software will nearly always play in VLC as long as the files aren't corrupted. VLC Media Player can also be used to stream audio and video content to the internet. Although the user interface isn't as sleek and pretty as its commercial cousins, you simply can't go wrong with VLC.

These are only four samples of the thousands of open-source programs available. Sites like osalt.com and sourceforge.org can help you find open-source alternatives to whatever proprietary sofware you may need.

]]> Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:16:25 PST How Do I Install Updates in Ubuntu http://www.computersight.com/Operating-Systems/Ubuntu/How-Do-I-Install-Updates-in-Ubuntu.113340 This tutorial have been made compatible with Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) desktop installation. Desktop installation means that your system have a graphic desktop environment called Gnome. This tutorial will show two ways for installing updates. One with graphic update manager included in desktop installation and one with just command line package managing interface called APT. The command line way can be used with server installation (no graphic desktop environment) but it's written for Gnome, so you need to think and change few steps. Commands in the tutorial will be the same in Gnome, server installation and any other graphic desktop environment.

This tutorial doesn't include any figures about the process. I expect, that you can survive without.

This tutorial requires that you have permissions for using gksu and sudo (admin or root).

Getting updates using Update Manager

  1. Find the ”System” menu. It's next to orange-blue Firefox icon at the upper left corner.
  2. Click the ”System” menu.

Menu appears and you will see it.

  1. Find the ”Administration” menu and move your cursor on it
  2. Find the ”Update Manager” icon. Click it.

You wait a little while, depending the performance of your computer.

  • Click ”Check” button in the window you got

You wait a while, when the ”Update Manager” downloads the update list for you. This time depends on the speed of your Internet connection. You have to be connected to the Internet to get updates.

  • Click ”Install Updates” to install updates

You wait a while, when the ”Update Manager” downloads all the updates. After that it installs them. It might ask you questions depending the packages your updating. You can watch the indicator and see, how the update process goes. After the update, it will close the installation process window and show the same ”Update Manager” window again. Click ”Close” to close the ”Update Manager”.

Getting updates using APT

This way is not the easiest, but can be fastest when you learn it.

  • Find the ”Applications” menu. This menu is the first menu in the upper left corner. Click the menu.

Menu will appear.

  • Move your cursor on the ”Accessories” menu

A new menu will appear.

  • Click the ”Terminal” icon

Terminal window will be opened. This window can be very dangerous if you don't know what you're using. I'm not responsible if something happens.

  • Write ”sudo apt-get update” string to the Terminal and hit enter

Let's analyze this command. The first word called ”sudo” means that you're wanting to run this command as the root (=the admin). It's an acronym from ”superuser do”.

The next word called ”apt-get” means the program that provides an easy command line interface for managing packages.

The last word, ”update” means that you are updating your package list for downloading updates for your system.

  • Insert your password and hit enter

Password is required to do different kind of operations as root.

It will start downloading updates. You may see the percentage of the part of the download process done. It might vary during the download process. After it ends and you will see the $ mark at the last row you can continue.

Be sure, you're connected to the Internet. This and the next step requires the Internet connection.

  • Write ”sudo apt-get dist-upgrade” and hit enter

This command will download you all these updates. It might ask you to confirm that you want to download these update. Confirmation can be done by hitting the Y-button. After download process it will install these updates. The time it takes depends on the amount of updates, the speed of your Internet connection and the performance of your computer.

It might ask you question and you can navigate in the settings forms using TAB button (next to Caps Lock and Q buttons).

When you see the $ mark at the end of the last line, you may close the Terminal. Update process has been completed.

]]> Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:42:24 PST Exporting PDF From Openoffice.org http://www.computersight.com/Software/Exporting-PDF-From-Openoffice.110249 At first, you should check and get all the tools for porting PDF. In this tutorial, exporting will be done using OpenOffice.org 2 Writer on Ubuntu Linux. This tutorial can work on different platforms with different products and I don't give any kind of warranty at least to this platform I'm used when I have made this tutorial.

Getting OpenOffice.org

If you're running Ubuntu (desktop installation), you don't need to do anything to get OpenOffice.org. It's already behind Applications > Office menu.

If you're not running, you can find OpenOffice.org for your platform at OpenOffice.org. Different Linux distributions often provide OpenOffice.org either by default or it can be easily downloaded from their repository.

Starting OpenOffice.org

We will use OpenOffice.org 2 Writer but other OpenOffice.org 2 products work about the same way.

If you just downloaded and installed OpenOffice.org, you might get a dialog asking your personal details allowing you to insert them or just skip. It's up to you if you want to register yourself as OpenOffice.org user.

Open OpenOffice.org 2 Writer by selecting Applications > Office > OpenOffice.org Writer

OpenOffice.org 2 Writer will start. It may take a while.

You can now open a document or write your own. It doesn't matter what you write. You can include rich text (bold, italic, underline, different fonts and colours), pictures... etc. After you are done your document, follow this tutorial to export is as PDF.

Exporting document as PDF

This is the easiest step. If you want it to be easy, it will be easy. If you want experimental settings, you get them too.

The easy way:

Click the icon next to printer (left side). There's some red and white color (colors from Adobe's logo) and text "PDF".

Then you get a dialog:

Select the place you want your document will be exported. Then click Save

The experimental way:

Go to File > Export as PDF

You get a dialog with few settings you can change. I think you figure your way out there.

]]> Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:05:11 PST The 10 Best Open-source Graphics Software on the Internet http://www.computersight.com/Software/The-10-Best-Open-source-Graphics-Software-on-the-Internet.74078 GIMP

Link: http://www.gimp.org

Author: The GIMP Team

Supported Platforms: XP - Vista - OS X - Linux

Description: GIMP is a great graphics manipulation program. It is equipped with a very useful customizable interface, that even allows you to edit your pictures in fullscreen mode! GIMP also features a variety of photo enhancement options that are able to fix a number of problems caused by your lens, such as perspective distortion and vignetting.

GIMP also has a very unique feature; it allows you to bind commands to several devices, such as USB and MIDI controllers, which speed up the work a lot! It is capable of saving images in common file names, such as GIF and JPEG, and if you download some extensions, you can save your images in rare formats. There is also an option to automatically compress your images without any extra steps needed. Finally, there is an option to directly load files from remote locations using protocols, e.g. FTP/HTTP.

Paint.NET

Link: http://www.getpaint.net

Author: Rick Brewster

Supported Platforms: XP SP2 - Vista

Description: Paint.NET features an easy-to-learn and intuitive user interface. Skipping from one image to another is also made faster since the images have a small preview instead of a text description. Layers are also provided, a feature that is often found in expensive graphic editing programs. You can also download loads of tutorials and plugins from the community and forums. Paint.NET also has an update every 4 to 6 weeks, introducing new features and bugfixes. Many special effects are available, such as blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, noise and embossing. There are also some powerful tools, for example a lot of drawing tools, a magic wand, the clone stamp, a recolor tool and a gradient tool. You are also equipped with an unlimited history, and the source code is free-to-download.

HugIn

Link: http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Author: Pablo d'Angelo

Supported Platforms: Windows - Mac OS X - Linux - Unix

Description: HugIn is an easy-to-use panorama photo stitcher. Its main feature is that it allows you to assemble multiple photos into one picture, by pasting, tilting, stitching and overlapping them. It is based on panorama tools.

ZScreen

Link: http://www.brandonz.net/projects/zscreen/index.html

Author: BrandonZ

Supported Platforms: Windows

Description: ZScreen is a screen capture program that allows you to take region/window/fullscreen screenshots. The program is able to automatically place the screenshots on the web using FTP. You are then able to copy the URL so you can easily show the image to your friends using an IM service. Easy configuration makes sure you only have to use two keys. Once you've configured the program you can also access everything by right-clicking.

InkScape

Link: http://inkscape.org/

Author: SourceForge

Supported Platforms: Windows - Mac OS X - Linux - Fedora - Source Tarball

Description: InkScape is a vector based graphics editor program with features similar to CorelDraw and Illustrator using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. It includes many SVG features such as alpha blending, markers and clones. You have access to a very streamlined interface.

CYCAS CAD

Link: http://www.cycas.de

Author: Verlag A.C.Frese

Supported Platforms: XP - Linux

Description: CYCAS is an architectural program that enables you to draw and design in two or three dimensions. It is bases on line graphics. It is also equipped with some special tools and techniques for architectural designing. There is also an intuitive interface.

Blender

Link: http://www.blender.org

Author: Blender Foundation

Supported Platforms: XP - Vista - Mac OS X - Linux - etc.

Description: Blender is a free open source 3D content creation suite. Huge amount of tools and features!!! Some examples: Revolutionary interface, 3D modelling, rigging, rendering, 3D animation (!), unwrapping, shading, physics and particles (!), realtime 3D game creation (!), huge file support and lots, huge lots of more. This programs seems too good to be true.

Crystal Space

Link: http://www.crystalspace3d.com

Author: Crystal Space Team

Supported Platforms: Windows - Mac OS X - Linux

Description: Crystal Space is a free cross-platform software development kit for realtime 3D graphics, in particular games. It is equipped with many tools and features, for example skeletal animation, dynamic shadows, haze effects, shaders, terrain with foliage and decals. Foliage is a very useful tool that enables you to randomly place objects such as trees, plants and rocks on your created terrain.

Art of Illusion

Link: http://www.artofillusion.org

Author: Peter Eastman

Supported Platforms: Windows - Mac OS X - Linux - Unix - Etc.

Description: Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java.

OpenFX

Link: http://www.openfx.org

Author: Stuart Ferguson

Supported Platforms: XP - NT - 2000
Description: OpenFX is an Open-Source 3D modeling, animation and rendering suite. It features a full renderer and raytrace engine, NURBS support, kinematics-based animation, morphing, and an extensive plugin API.

You should certainly try downloading GIMP, Blender and Crystal Space. Happy designing!

]]> Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:07:33 PST