Open Source Software You Can Use
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This document provides an overview of open source software that can be used by non-profit organizations. It discusses popular open source operating systems like Linux and BSD and describes commonly used server software such as Samba, Mailman, LAMP stacks, and content management systems. It also mentions desktop applications like Mozilla Suite, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, and GIMP. The document notes that while over 60% of non-profits use open source on their web servers, only around 20% use it as their desktop operating system. Barriers to adoption include familiarity with proprietary tools and lack of support and expertise.
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Open Source Software You Can Use
- 1. Open Source Software You Can Use Michelle Murrain Nonprofit Open Source Initiative MetaCentric Technology Advising October 23, 2008
- 2. Using Open Source Software There are open source tools you can download right now and use, no matter what your platform, that are useful, mature, secure and easy to use.
- 3. If your website is on a Unix or Linux based host – you've been using open source software already.
- 4. Some of the software I'll talk about you might implement with help of a provider.
- 5. Types of Software Operating Systems
- 6. Server software Fileserver software
- 9. Web application platforms Desktop applications
- 10. About this review This is not an exhaustive list of all free and open source software that is mature and usable. But it is a good review of most of the software out there that is going to be useful to nonprofit organizations. For more tools, go to: http://socialsourcecommons.org
- 11. There are two common, mature open source operating systems... Linux RedHat/Fedora
- 12. Debian
- 13. Ubuntu Kubuntu
- 14. Edubuntu
- 15. others Mandriva
- 16. SUSE
- 17. and many, many others... BSD FreeBSD
- 18. OpenBSD
- 19. NetBSD
- 20. Darwin (Basis of Mac OS X – based on FreeBSD)
- 21. a few others, not much used
- 22. Operating Systems Linux and BSD are very mature and strong on the server/appliance side Varied flavors of Linux are used in network and security appliances
- 23. Linux and BSD are virtually ubiquitous in web hosting environments, from virtual host companies, to large enterprises (like Yahoo and Google.)
- 24. How to get Linux There are commercial versions of Linux that include enterprise-level support (RedHat, Novell, Ubuntu)
- 25. You can buy a box sometimes (relatively inexpensive) in a store (may come with installation support.)
- 26. Download an ISO from the website of the distribution or a mirror, either directly or via bittorrent (won't come with any support except community support.)
- 27. Buy a CD from OSDisc, or another vendor (also won't come with support – these just duplicate the CDs from the websites – so they are cheap if bandwidth is an issue.)
- 29. Server Applications Samba – allows Linux to act as a Windows file and print server – very mature
- 30. Mailman – mailing list manager
- 31. Applications for internet services and systems administration very mature, some in use for 15 years or more
- 32. Server Applications LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python) This has become an industry standard web application development stack
- 33. Included in all unix-based virtual hosting services.
- 34. Each component of the stack is Mature
- 35. PHP/Perl/Python are programming languages Ruby on Rails Newer web framework that is gaining steam. Uses the Ruby language.
- 36. Server Applications Web platforms/CMS Drupal
- 37. Joomla
- 38. Plone
- 39. These three have become standard. They have overlapping feature sets, and they are differently customizable. But all are very solid CMS platforms
- 40. Others: Typo3
- 41. Alfresco
- 42. Blogging platforms Wordpress – specialized for blogging – the others can be used that way, but if all you want is a blog – Wordpress is great.
- 43. Movable Type – also specialized for blogging
- 44. Drupal
- 45. Joomla
- 46. MediaWiki
- 47. Project Pier
- 49. phpBB
- 50. Server Applications: Business Processes CiviCRM – server-based CRM/Fundraising package
- 51. SugarCRM – server-based enterprise CRM package
- 52. SugarCRM
- 53. CiviCRM
- 54. Desktop Software Mozilla Suite (all platforms) Firefox
- 55. Thunderbird
- 56. Spinoffs: Flock
- 58. Sunbird (Calendaring - not so mature) Open Office (all platforms)
- 59. Adium (Mac OS X)
- 60. GIMP
- 61. Firefox
- 62. Thunderbird
- 63. OpenOffice.org Has word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, drawing program, HTML and XML editors, and a database.
- 64. It will read and write Microsoft Office formats (except Office Open XML).
- 65. It uses open standards for native document formats
- 66. It exports PDFs
- 67. OO Base ≠ Access (way too immature)
- 69. OO Writer OO Calc
- 70. GIMP
- 71. What FOSS is being used in nonprofits? A recent NOSI survey found: 60% of respondents used FOSS on webservers
- 72. 80% used FOSS on Windows desktops (largely Firefox)
- 73. Many fewer (~20%) used FOSS as a desktop operating system
- 74. What are the barriers to FOSS adoption Familiarity with proprietary tools
- 75. Lack of support
- 76. Lack of staff expertise
- 77. Lack of training
- 78. Resources http://wiki.metacentric.org/ - list of links for software mentioned here, and other resources.
- 79. http://nosi.net/projects/primer - Updated Open Source primer written in 2007.
- 80. http://nosi.net - NOSI's website.