I have spent a fair amount of time over the past few months considering switching browsers. Today I took the plunge and installed Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird.
I am blown away by the features of both programs. There is already a myriad of themes, and extensions to customize your browsing experience. The programs launch with nary a wait, and I have never seen pages load so fast in my life. This is even more advantageous for users of the new Mac G5 chip, as the code has been optimized for use on G5-equipped systems.
I will be using these programs indefinitely. I urge everyone to ditch M$ Outlook and IE. The world of open-source has designed something far superior.
Showing posts with label open source. Show all posts
Showing posts with label open source. Show all posts
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Take Two of These and Call Me In The Morning - By The Way, Here's A Whole Pile of Work That Must Get Done!
I am still feeling miserable. I managed to stay home from work yesterday, but that doesn't mean that the work didn't show up at my front door. After laying down for a few hours, my boss shows up at my door with some "urgent" work. So this was an opportunity to put my new office suite OpenOffice, to the test.
My initial experience with OpenOffice was that the interface closely resembled Micro$oft Office. What I was really interested in, was how compatible the two were.
I imported a Word file, and an Excel file. The Excel file converted to OpenOffice seamlessly. There were only minor issues with some fonts, but the file appeared normal once ported back to a PC version of M$ Office. The Word file converted less accurately, namely with respect to the drawing tools. Arrowheads were improperly sized, and the graphics were generally harder to manipulate in OpenOffice. This could be potentially fixed in an upcoming release of OOo.
One other problem I had centered around the highlighted text feature. I normally use this to highlight words and phrases that will require editing. I highlighted some text in OpenOffice, but once opened on M$ Office, the highlighted text would not "un-highlight". This was solved the old-fashioned way, by deleting the highlighted text, and manually re-typing it.
Overall, OpenOffice has passed the first test. I have yet to see how it will work with inserted images such as photos.
I managed to put in a half-day at work today, but I left for the afternoon as I am in desperate need of some rest. I have a late night due to Grease rehearsal, and I can't miss tonight as I missed Sunday's practice. If I don't get enough rest, I'm going to end up being completely useless tomorrow -- and there are late nights ahead for me the rest of the week.
On another note, I have been watching my traffic on this site. October has broken all the records for site visits on this site. Traffic is continuing to climb; perhaps November will be even more successful!
My initial experience with OpenOffice was that the interface closely resembled Micro$oft Office. What I was really interested in, was how compatible the two were.
I imported a Word file, and an Excel file. The Excel file converted to OpenOffice seamlessly. There were only minor issues with some fonts, but the file appeared normal once ported back to a PC version of M$ Office. The Word file converted less accurately, namely with respect to the drawing tools. Arrowheads were improperly sized, and the graphics were generally harder to manipulate in OpenOffice. This could be potentially fixed in an upcoming release of OOo.
One other problem I had centered around the highlighted text feature. I normally use this to highlight words and phrases that will require editing. I highlighted some text in OpenOffice, but once opened on M$ Office, the highlighted text would not "un-highlight". This was solved the old-fashioned way, by deleting the highlighted text, and manually re-typing it.
Overall, OpenOffice has passed the first test. I have yet to see how it will work with inserted images such as photos.
I managed to put in a half-day at work today, but I left for the afternoon as I am in desperate need of some rest. I have a late night due to Grease rehearsal, and I can't miss tonight as I missed Sunday's practice. If I don't get enough rest, I'm going to end up being completely useless tomorrow -- and there are late nights ahead for me the rest of the week.
On another note, I have been watching my traffic on this site. October has broken all the records for site visits on this site. Traffic is continuing to climb; perhaps November will be even more successful!
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Bring Out The Gimp
Have you ever wanted to have the power to use Adobe Photoshop software, but could not afford it, or felt guilty using pirated software? Then check the Gimp out. The Gimp is an open-source, freely distributed photo editing suite designed for all major computer platforms. It should do everything that Photoshop does.
I installed the Gimp on my iMac, and with a little tweaking, I had it up and running in a few minutes. The software is still under development, so they have not yet coded an aqua interface for the OSX version of the program -- it is running under X11, an X Windows application.
Why would I need such a program? Well, I'm designing some new images to be placed on this site, and I wanted a powerful image manipulation program. I hope in a few weeks I will be able to upload the new images and you can see my amateur artistic skills.
Once I has the Gimp successfully running, I installed OpenOffice for my spreadsheet and word-processing needs. It so closely resembles Micro$oft Office that the resemblance is uncanny. Goodbye M$ Office; goodbye Appleworks.
Public Service Announcement: Support open-source software and save yourself a few bucks.
I installed the Gimp on my iMac, and with a little tweaking, I had it up and running in a few minutes. The software is still under development, so they have not yet coded an aqua interface for the OSX version of the program -- it is running under X11, an X Windows application.
Why would I need such a program? Well, I'm designing some new images to be placed on this site, and I wanted a powerful image manipulation program. I hope in a few weeks I will be able to upload the new images and you can see my amateur artistic skills.
Once I has the Gimp successfully running, I installed OpenOffice for my spreadsheet and word-processing needs. It so closely resembles Micro$oft Office that the resemblance is uncanny. Goodbye M$ Office; goodbye Appleworks.
Public Service Announcement: Support open-source software and save yourself a few bucks.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Browser Wars: Episode III - Revenge of Mozilla
There are countless people who feel that a holy war is being fought right here, on the internet. Their opinions are as varied as they are subjective, and are usually based upon a bias toward a brand. Others feel that they should have a choice as to what software they should be allowed to run on their computer; they feel that their right to choose has been stolen from them. Even others feel that information is something that should belong to everyone, and it should not carry a price. Of these people, their opinions of their adversaries are so fierce and jaded, that they actually consider the competitor (and those who use the offending software) agents of evil. Individuals and marketing schemes continually attempt to convert users of one platform to another, which can only be compared to missionaries infiltrating a primitive culture with the sole intent of converting "ruthless savages into believers of Christ". One leader of a company is perceived Godlike, the other is considered the Devil. But nobody really knows which side is the right one, because in fact, no right side exists. It is a war that has no real purpose, and there is no end in sight.
This is a battle that has been raging since the introduction of the personal computer, or at least, since the internet had been used for recreational purposes. In actuality, software piracy has been a problem since the mass production of computers and software, which arguably began sometime in the late 1970's. Back then, software piracy, the protection of electronic intellectual property (ie. music), and related lawsuits weren't headlining news -- as it is today. Why now, rather than then? My guess is that the computer industry wasn't as profitable as it is today, as well as our reliance on digital technology has increased. Twenty years ago, nobody even considered putting commercial audio or a motion picture on the computer; that's what VCR's and stereo systems were for. A person already had specialized items for these media. It didn't matter anyway as the computers of the past were too archaic, slow, and didn't have the capacity to store large media.
It only took about ten years before computer entertainment and mass media began to converge. Computers were slowly becoming the digital entertainment center of a household. The progress was in fact so slow it was hardly noticed. Computers were being shipped with CD-ROM drives and multimedia speakers years before anyone had any real use for them. It wasn't until the rising popularity of the internet that brought the computer on par with satellite television, digital music and digital video as kingpins of the entertainment industry.
Whose idea was it to bring mass media to the computer? It was likely software companies and computer manufacturers. It was likely a marketing scheme in an effort to sell more computers and increase profits. We, as consumers really have no need for blazing fast computers with broadband connections, complete with hundreds of gigabytes of storage to hold all our digital movies and music. It's a false need. Even computers that are ten years old have the capability of connecting to the internet to share electronic mail or surf the world-wide web. We just want bigger and faster computers because we are spoiled consumers and we must have everything now. We are too impatient to wait 15 minutes for a digital file to download from a dial-up modem. The general populace would rather download a movie or audio from a peer to peer client rather than pay for it. It's not the fact that it's free, nor is it the fact that it is stealing; we can afford to pay for these items. It is just that we, as a population, are greedy and impatient. Why should anyone pay for something if it is readily available for free?
The entertainment industry is of course, enraged. They are claiming that they are losing billions of dollars per year due to internet file-sharing. These accusations are not much more than that -- it is difficult to prove that they are losing profits. Let me explain:
The numbers the entertainment industry have been using to argue that they have been losing profits is the year they made the absolute most: 1999. This, uncoincidentally is the same year the NASDAQ broke 10,000 -- it's highest value ever. The economy was better than it ever had been before. Computers were flying off the shelves and every first-world citizen (who could afford it) jumped on the internet bandwagon. So what happened in 2000? It's called the "tech bubble burst". Recession. Investors lost trillions when their dot-com stocks withered to nothing overnight. Now it seems that the entertainment industry is blaming the file-sharing phenomenon for their lost profits, instead of putting the blame squarely on the poor state of the economy. The arguments are both subjective, and would be difficult to prove the case that it is in fact the poor economy that can be attributed to poor sales in record shops. But just watch: once the economy recovers, music sales will be up again. It would nonetheless help if the recording industry would support acts that are talented and have the ability to write good songs for a change.
I actually did not want to discuss the "David versus Goliath" scenario of the recording industry suing the general public, as it has been discussed to death on every imaginable internet site for the last four years. This will be another jihad of the internet, and will continue for years to come.
File sharing on the internet is a bit like Pandora's Box; once it has opened, you will unable to close it again. Computer programmers are an intelligent and resourceful bunch, and they will always be trying to outsmart, outwit, outfox, and out-hack the competition. The recording industry will try to devise more complicated mousetraps in order to copy-protect their songs (and/or video), and programmers will always find a way to get around the obstacles in their way. The war could go on for years, but I would put my money on the hackers as the ones that will eventually wind up victorious. Hackers have noses like bloodhounds when it comes to obtaining encrypted, confidential, or copyrighted information. They are the ones who believe that information should be free and shared with everyone.
Zeropaid.com is a website dedicated to file sharing on the internet. They feature resources on multitudes of peer-to-peer software for any major computer platform. What intrigues me most about this site is not the software itself, but all the news coverage they feature on the legal battles between the entertainment industry and software development corporations, or teenaged kids who can't afford a lawyer. The spin Zeropaid puts on their news makes if feel like there is a crusade to defeat the Evil Galactic Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy. I find it rather amusing.
There are of course, other things you can do as a computer consumer if you believe that there is some sort of electronic "holy-war" taking place over cable modems across the world. If you wish to participate in the battle against "Big Brother" (whomever he may be), then learn to program. I would suggest learning to program in as many languages as you can, and try your hand at becoming a software developer. Learn what "open-source" means, and use such software whenever possible.
For nearly every major (branded) computer application that you deem invaluable on your computer, there is likely a free, open-source, program the does virtually the same thing, and is being developed by scores of programmers worldwide.
The most indispensable computer program that everybody needs is an operating system. Even that version of Windows that came stock with your PC came with a price. Microsoft and Apple love to make their consumers buy new, upgraded versions of their operating system every few years. The new OS usually has a few new features, but it is rarely worth the price you pay. Unfortunately, the new programs and the new games normally only operate on the most recent versions of the operating system for which it was devised, so often it seems like there is little choice but to keep your operating system current. In actuality, with all the security risks, spyware, and viruses that are spread throughout the internet, it is in a computer operator's best interest to keep all their software current.
If you are tired of security holes in your operating system, and sickened by viruses and worms, if your computer has had it's modem hijacked, then you must understand how frustrating it an be to be a computer user. There are alternatives.
Linux was originally developed by Linus Torvalds as an open-source clone of the UNIX operating system. You must imagine that writing an operating system is not an easy task, thus he had difficulty solving some programming problems. So Torvalds placed what he had managed to program on the internet in an effort to see if others could help him finish writing the operating system. The response was immense. Linux soon became a fully-functioning, stable, freely distributed operating system based on the UNIX kernel.
Red Hat Linux is a popular commercial version of the Linux operating system. There are even versions of Linux that operate on old hardware, breathing new life into seemingly obsolete machines. It may be an alternative choice for those who cannot yet afford a new computer.
Mozilla is an open-source web browser that is every bit as powerful as Microsoft IE. It is absolutely free, and is highly customizable. For instance, you can install skins to alter the appearance of your browser. If you are looking for a highly capable email client, Mozilla has those too. In addition, Mozilla runs on every major computer platform (Windows, Mac and Unix). I found this image on the web, and fell in love with it. I just had to show you.
"That's all fine and dandy, but Microsoft Office is the industry standard for word processing and spreadsheet applications, and I need those for my career," you say. Ask anybody and they will tell you Microsoft Office is an incredibly expensive program, and business owners usually fork out a healthy sum every couple of years in order to keep their programs up to date. Enter OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice is a fully functional office suite that does about everything that Microsoft Office does -- absolutely free. And it is being developed for every major computer platform. It is also my understanding that OpenOffice has the ability to read and write Microsoft Office files. What isn't there to love about this program?
Long live open-source software. As long as computing power is in the hands of the programmer and not the corporations, we will always have alternatives than to give our money to Corporate Big Brother.
As I close this lengthy post, I thought I might tell you a little about The Stone SouperComputer. A number of years ago, a friend of mine told me about this article in Scientific American about a couple of professors who needed a supercomputer to do some physical modeling for their research, but it was not in the budget to purchase brand new machines. So these professors built a Beowulf supercomputer using obsolete PC's. It cost them next to nothing to build, as hundreds of old desktop computers were donated to them. I hadn't visited the Soupercomputer homepage in quite some time, upon my last visit it had been brought to my attention that the Soupercomputer went offline just over one year ago. I find these gentleman an inspiration when creative thinking allows a problem to be solved efficiently and at minimal cost. What a great idea for a bunch of silicon that was destined for the landfill.
This is a battle that has been raging since the introduction of the personal computer, or at least, since the internet had been used for recreational purposes. In actuality, software piracy has been a problem since the mass production of computers and software, which arguably began sometime in the late 1970's. Back then, software piracy, the protection of electronic intellectual property (ie. music), and related lawsuits weren't headlining news -- as it is today. Why now, rather than then? My guess is that the computer industry wasn't as profitable as it is today, as well as our reliance on digital technology has increased. Twenty years ago, nobody even considered putting commercial audio or a motion picture on the computer; that's what VCR's and stereo systems were for. A person already had specialized items for these media. It didn't matter anyway as the computers of the past were too archaic, slow, and didn't have the capacity to store large media.
It only took about ten years before computer entertainment and mass media began to converge. Computers were slowly becoming the digital entertainment center of a household. The progress was in fact so slow it was hardly noticed. Computers were being shipped with CD-ROM drives and multimedia speakers years before anyone had any real use for them. It wasn't until the rising popularity of the internet that brought the computer on par with satellite television, digital music and digital video as kingpins of the entertainment industry.
Whose idea was it to bring mass media to the computer? It was likely software companies and computer manufacturers. It was likely a marketing scheme in an effort to sell more computers and increase profits. We, as consumers really have no need for blazing fast computers with broadband connections, complete with hundreds of gigabytes of storage to hold all our digital movies and music. It's a false need. Even computers that are ten years old have the capability of connecting to the internet to share electronic mail or surf the world-wide web. We just want bigger and faster computers because we are spoiled consumers and we must have everything now. We are too impatient to wait 15 minutes for a digital file to download from a dial-up modem. The general populace would rather download a movie or audio from a peer to peer client rather than pay for it. It's not the fact that it's free, nor is it the fact that it is stealing; we can afford to pay for these items. It is just that we, as a population, are greedy and impatient. Why should anyone pay for something if it is readily available for free?
The entertainment industry is of course, enraged. They are claiming that they are losing billions of dollars per year due to internet file-sharing. These accusations are not much more than that -- it is difficult to prove that they are losing profits. Let me explain:
The numbers the entertainment industry have been using to argue that they have been losing profits is the year they made the absolute most: 1999. This, uncoincidentally is the same year the NASDAQ broke 10,000 -- it's highest value ever. The economy was better than it ever had been before. Computers were flying off the shelves and every first-world citizen (who could afford it) jumped on the internet bandwagon. So what happened in 2000? It's called the "tech bubble burst". Recession. Investors lost trillions when their dot-com stocks withered to nothing overnight. Now it seems that the entertainment industry is blaming the file-sharing phenomenon for their lost profits, instead of putting the blame squarely on the poor state of the economy. The arguments are both subjective, and would be difficult to prove the case that it is in fact the poor economy that can be attributed to poor sales in record shops. But just watch: once the economy recovers, music sales will be up again. It would nonetheless help if the recording industry would support acts that are talented and have the ability to write good songs for a change.
I actually did not want to discuss the "David versus Goliath" scenario of the recording industry suing the general public, as it has been discussed to death on every imaginable internet site for the last four years. This will be another jihad of the internet, and will continue for years to come.
File sharing on the internet is a bit like Pandora's Box; once it has opened, you will unable to close it again. Computer programmers are an intelligent and resourceful bunch, and they will always be trying to outsmart, outwit, outfox, and out-hack the competition. The recording industry will try to devise more complicated mousetraps in order to copy-protect their songs (and/or video), and programmers will always find a way to get around the obstacles in their way. The war could go on for years, but I would put my money on the hackers as the ones that will eventually wind up victorious. Hackers have noses like bloodhounds when it comes to obtaining encrypted, confidential, or copyrighted information. They are the ones who believe that information should be free and shared with everyone.
Zeropaid.com is a website dedicated to file sharing on the internet. They feature resources on multitudes of peer-to-peer software for any major computer platform. What intrigues me most about this site is not the software itself, but all the news coverage they feature on the legal battles between the entertainment industry and software development corporations, or teenaged kids who can't afford a lawyer. The spin Zeropaid puts on their news makes if feel like there is a crusade to defeat the Evil Galactic Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy. I find it rather amusing.
There are of course, other things you can do as a computer consumer if you believe that there is some sort of electronic "holy-war" taking place over cable modems across the world. If you wish to participate in the battle against "Big Brother" (whomever he may be), then learn to program. I would suggest learning to program in as many languages as you can, and try your hand at becoming a software developer. Learn what "open-source" means, and use such software whenever possible.
For nearly every major (branded) computer application that you deem invaluable on your computer, there is likely a free, open-source, program the does virtually the same thing, and is being developed by scores of programmers worldwide.
The most indispensable computer program that everybody needs is an operating system. Even that version of Windows that came stock with your PC came with a price. Microsoft and Apple love to make their consumers buy new, upgraded versions of their operating system every few years. The new OS usually has a few new features, but it is rarely worth the price you pay. Unfortunately, the new programs and the new games normally only operate on the most recent versions of the operating system for which it was devised, so often it seems like there is little choice but to keep your operating system current. In actuality, with all the security risks, spyware, and viruses that are spread throughout the internet, it is in a computer operator's best interest to keep all their software current.
If you are tired of security holes in your operating system, and sickened by viruses and worms, if your computer has had it's modem hijacked, then you must understand how frustrating it an be to be a computer user. There are alternatives.
Linux was originally developed by Linus Torvalds as an open-source clone of the UNIX operating system. You must imagine that writing an operating system is not an easy task, thus he had difficulty solving some programming problems. So Torvalds placed what he had managed to program on the internet in an effort to see if others could help him finish writing the operating system. The response was immense. Linux soon became a fully-functioning, stable, freely distributed operating system based on the UNIX kernel.
Red Hat Linux is a popular commercial version of the Linux operating system. There are even versions of Linux that operate on old hardware, breathing new life into seemingly obsolete machines. It may be an alternative choice for those who cannot yet afford a new computer.
Mozilla is an open-source web browser that is every bit as powerful as Microsoft IE. It is absolutely free, and is highly customizable. For instance, you can install skins to alter the appearance of your browser. If you are looking for a highly capable email client, Mozilla has those too. In addition, Mozilla runs on every major computer platform (Windows, Mac and Unix). I found this image on the web, and fell in love with it. I just had to show you."That's all fine and dandy, but Microsoft Office is the industry standard for word processing and spreadsheet applications, and I need those for my career," you say. Ask anybody and they will tell you Microsoft Office is an incredibly expensive program, and business owners usually fork out a healthy sum every couple of years in order to keep their programs up to date. Enter OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice is a fully functional office suite that does about everything that Microsoft Office does -- absolutely free. And it is being developed for every major computer platform. It is also my understanding that OpenOffice has the ability to read and write Microsoft Office files. What isn't there to love about this program?
Long live open-source software. As long as computing power is in the hands of the programmer and not the corporations, we will always have alternatives than to give our money to Corporate Big Brother.
As I close this lengthy post, I thought I might tell you a little about The Stone SouperComputer. A number of years ago, a friend of mine told me about this article in Scientific American about a couple of professors who needed a supercomputer to do some physical modeling for their research, but it was not in the budget to purchase brand new machines. So these professors built a Beowulf supercomputer using obsolete PC's. It cost them next to nothing to build, as hundreds of old desktop computers were donated to them. I hadn't visited the Soupercomputer homepage in quite some time, upon my last visit it had been brought to my attention that the Soupercomputer went offline just over one year ago. I find these gentleman an inspiration when creative thinking allows a problem to be solved efficiently and at minimal cost. What a great idea for a bunch of silicon that was destined for the landfill.
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