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The Burning Issue |
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Dear Reader,
Time for the June edition. If you
can tear yourself away from Tim Henman on the
tennis court or England on the football field,
we'll take a look at Open Source software.
Open Source software is becoming a
real alternative to the standard Microsoft Windows
and Office applications. So this month I've turned
the whole of the Burning Issue over to looking at
Open Source software, what it is, and how Linux,
OpenOffice and Evolution email may change the way
we use software.
In keeping with
the Open Source theme, Alison's tip this month is
for OpenOffice, the alternative "office"
application. We've recently started offering
training in OpenOffice and the response has shown
us there's real interest in this software.
The
internet links are also all
Open Source related, but not all boringly
business, there's a few weird links in there!
I've created an
Archive of past
Burning Issues on our web-site. So if you've only
just subscribed you can catch up on old issues
there. Of course if you like this little
newsletter, tell your friends, send them to the
website or get them to
subscribe here.
If you don't like it, tell me. You can unsubscribe with
[UNSUBSCRIBE], or send me
an
email and I'll make sure you don't receive
another copy.
Have fun, and cheer for your team
in this summer of sport.
Stuart Box -
Email me your feedback
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What does
"Free" mean anyway?
There is a bewildering range of
"free" software. Open Source, Free
Software Foundation/GNU, Public Domain
and Freeware are a few of the terms and licenses
used. Basically all are aiming at the same thing,
software that is free to distribute, open and
accessible to all.
The
Open Source organisation has
ten main points, which also broadly cover the
other license types. The points are:-
- Free redistribution.
- Source Code must be easily
available.
- Modifications and derived
works are allowed, provided they too are covered
by the license.
- Integrity of the Author's
source code - may require modifications to carry
a different name or version number.
- No discrimination against
persons or groups.
- No discrimination against
fields of endeavour.
- The licence applies to all
receiving the program.
- The licence is not specific
to a particular distribution.
- The license must not restrict
other software.
- The license must be
technology neutral.
Full details of the
Open Source
license are on their website as are the
Free Software
Foundation/GNU
licence details.
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What software is
available.
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"This is all very
good" I hear you
say, "but what can I do with Open Source software
what does it do ?"
The Internet is full of
open-source software in heavy commercial use. You
might say, without open source, there would be no
Internet. Some of the most popular open source
products in use today are:
Operating Systems
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Linux:
A popular Unix-like
operating system. Versions have
been run on anything from a handheld computers
and regular PCs, to the world's most powerful
supercomputers. For a list of popular Linux
distributions, look
here.
Office Applications
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OpenOffice, is the
open-source project originally based on StarOffice.
It includes a word-processor,
spreadsheet, presentation program, a drawing
application, and a number of other programs.
OpenOffice.org has just released version 1.1.2,
which has several new features and fixes
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Evolution, is the best E-mail client I've
used, a direct comparison to Outlook, Evolution
handles all the functions expected of an E-mail
program, including shared diaries, and contact
lists, when used with an Exchange server, and
now Evolution Connector is available as Open
Source.
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Firefox, an Internet Browser,
basically a cut down Mozilla. is the fastest
browser I've ever used, wonderful.
Many of the machines that keep
the Internet working are based on Linux. Legend
has it that Microsoft keeps Linux boxes
hidden behind the scenes, in order to keep their
Hotmail and MSN services working. Not
surprisingly, most of the software on top of the
operating system that keeps the internet humming is
also open source:
Internet
-
Apache,
which runs
over 50% of the world's web servers.
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sendmail,
the most important and widely used email
transport software on the Internet.
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Mozilla,
the open source redesign of the venerable
Netscape Browser, is retaking the ground lost by
Netscape in the "browser wars". It has quickly
moved from 1.0 to 1.2, adding functionality,
stability and cross-platform consistency.
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Alison's tip of the month,
OpenOffice Styles
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OpenOffice is very much like
Microsoft Office, indeed it can read and write
Microsoft Office files ".docs", ".xls" etc. But
it's not an exact "clone" (I doubt Microsoft's
legal department would allow that!)
In the Word processor consider
using "styles" for formatting documents. Unless
you are writing a very simple document, avoid
"physical formatting". Press <F11> for a full
style list. look at the box on the toolbar
(left-hand side) for a list of paragraph styles
used in the current document.
The styles are divided into the
following groups:
- Character styles (applies to
a letter or a group of letters)
- Paragraph styles (a paragraph
extends from <Enter> to <Enter>)
- Frame styles (a frame a box
containing text, graph, picture, etc.)
- Page styles
- Numbering styles (for bullet
and numbered lists)
The most important are the
paragraph styles. I use them to format chapter
headings, captions, table headings, etc. To apply
a style to a paragraph, I place the cursor in the
paragraph to be modified, and then double-click on
the name of the style in the "Stylelist".
To modify a style (or create a new one), I use the
menu "Format"-"Style-"Catalog".
If you'd like Alison to help unlock the
secrets of OpenOffice, or any other of the
products we train on, for you or your company,
feel free to
contact her, or look at the course
details on our
website.
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Why you may
want to consider Open Source software
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So why choose Open Source ? Well
the most common reason is cost. If you are
upgrading old copies of Microsoft Office, or
purchasing new licences you may find that the Open
Source alternative is much cheaper. Software like
OpenOffice does all that their Microsoft
counterparts do, even reading and writing the same
files, but with no licensing or upgrade cost.
Email software like Evolution can do all that
Outlook does, even connecting to a Microsoft
Exchange server. Open
Source systems generally are less vulnerable to
Viruses, Worms and and Trojan software, and as a
consequence may be more secure. Also OpenSource
systems often support foreign language sets
better, due to a less American-centric development
method.
Finally, OpenSource operating
systems like Linux are often more efficient on
slightly older slower hardware. They run faster on
older machines that the latest windows version. So
it may be you can keep PC's for five years rather
than three, and save some money on upgrading
hardware.
Microsoft make fine software,
Windows XP and Office XP are super systems, but at
least in Linux, OpenOffice and Evolution there is
an alternative, which may allow you to squeeze a
bit more out of the IT budget, and that's never a
bad thing!
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Burningsuit and OpenSource
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As an IT business, here at The
Burningsuit Consultancy we run a range of Microsoft
and OpenSource systems. You may be interested in the
mix. We run
- A
Microsoft Small Business 2003 Server, which
handles email (Through Exchange), File and Printer
sharing
- A server running
SuSE Linux,
which manages our web sites, and hosts "Magic" our
web-based Event Management System. "Magic" uses a
MySQL database
to hold details of Events, Venue's, and Attendees.
- PC's running Windows XP,
including my Tablet PC, which have Microsoft
Office and OpenOffice installed.
- A PC running
Linux
Mandrake 10,
Open Office
and
Evolution e-mail
- A laptop which dual-boots into
either Windows XP or
Redhat Fedora
Linux, again running
OpenOffice
and
Evolution E-Mail.
It seems to me that this type of
mixed system will become more popular in future. If
your keen to get more from your IT budget, or want
more information on any of the topics mentioned this
month then please
contact us. |
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