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Open-source alternatives
By Aloysius Choong, ZDNet Asia
Monday, May 24 2004 01:54 PM
Many open-source programs are free, or at least much more affordable than proprietary versions. For example, Sun's StarOffice, the commercial iteration of open-source Open Office, works to about US$50 per user. That's a fraction of the US$399 price for Microsoft's Office suite.
However, to label open-source software poor man's alternatives would be an injustice. Products like Apache are leaders in their respective domains, while Samba and Mozilla are more than credible challengers.
If you haven't found that out, check out a selection right here.
Desktop software
The movement of open-source software onto the desktop space has been somewhat sluggish. But recent efforts by Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell to introduce full-fledged open-source desktops may signal an imminent coming of age.
- Operating System: Red Hat
Red Hat is the top-ranked seller of the Linux operating system. Early May, the company announced that it would be packaging its commercial Linux OS distribution with a suite of applications, to be offered by IBM, HP and Dell over the next 12 to 18 months.
- Operating System: Lindows
Lindows, renamed Linspire in some markets following a trademark dispute with Microsoft, is another commercial Linux distribution. It features a slick look and feel, much akin to Windows, and prides itself on its "Click-N-Run" service which streamlines the installation of applications.
- Office applications: OpenOffice.org
Comprising word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing applications, OpenOffice.org is the main open-source alternative to the Microsoft Office. Although the software offers good functionality, some users may prefer Sun's commercial version, called StarOffice, which includes various third-party technologies as well as support from Sun.
Lindows, also known as Linspire, offers a familiar interface and straightforward software installation.
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- E-mail client: Evolution
Mozilla comes with an e-mail client, but some users may prefer Novell's Evolution, which offers messaging, calendaring and contact management features. The company recently announced the product's compatibility with Microsoft's Exchange server, giving users an alternative to Outlook.
- Browser: Mozilla
In 1998, Netscape, losing against Microsoft in the famous browser wars, released most of its Communicator source code under an open source license. From this, Mozilla was born. These days, it is probably Internet Explorer's stiffest rival, thanks in part to its well-implemented features like integrated searches and pop-up stopping.
- Graphics: GIMP
As a graphics manipulation program, the GIMP doesn't yet match Adobe's professional Photoshop suite. Its interface gets a lot of stick, as does the lack of support for 16-bit depth. But it is improving, and for now, it should serve the needs of the general user well enough.
Server software
Open-source software has already a strong presence on the backend. In particular, the popular LAMP recipe--comprising Linux, Apache, MySQL and scripting languages Perl, PHP or Python--has been adopted by many companies worldwide.
- Operating System: Linux
The poster child of the open source movement, Linux is a Unix-like operating system commonly used to run servers.
- Web server: Apache
Apache isn't merely an alternative. It is the Web server of choice for many businesses. Although mostly used on Linux and Solaris, versions are available for Windows, OS/2 and other platforms.
- File server: Samba
Samba's chief claim to fame is it enables Unix-based servers to share their resources (such as files and printers) with Windows clients. Its strengths are in performance and scalability.
- Database software: MySQL
MySQL is a database management system that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). Running on both Unix and Windows-based servers, MySQL is noted for its speed, reliability and flexibility. Another popular open source database software is PostgreSQL.
- Scripting: Perl
Perl is a programming language frequently used for writing CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts. Originally developed for manipulating text strings, it has since adapted well to the World Wide Web.
- Scripting: PHP
PHP, which stands for Personal Home Page, is a scripting language that has its code embedded in HTML pages. It is primarily used for developing dynamic Web pages.
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