Safe computing with Free and Open Source software for Windows Platform

Get most of the software equivalents you use on Windows platform for free. Simply download the CD - and install the applications therein from the Website:
http://www.valo-cd.net/

 

VALO-CD contains all the best of the Open Source and Free Windows programs on a single CD, so that installing them is as easy as possible.All the software is FOSS (VALO)

 

, so using them does not require paying licences. With the help of this CD you can avoid buying proprietary software like Microsoft Office and instead get the FOSS equivalent LibreOffice. With this disc you can save hundreds of Rupees! 

Check out the programs you get on this CD here: http://www.valo-cd.net/programs

 

You also avoid virus and malware/trojans that come with pirated copies of Windows software!!!

Happy safe computing.

Debian is the champ - 2011

Great post on Linux distros at Tuxradar

Of course Debian is the champ :)

Where is the doubt??????????

Free and Open Source Software listing

A great list of Free and Open Source Software

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_software_packages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Open_source_network_management_software

NASA Open Source summit

Well, just to show that Open Source is something to reckon with, 

NASA is going to host an Open Source summit on 29-30 March

http://www.nasa.gov/open/source/
"This event will bring together engineers and policy makers across NASA and respected members of the open source community to discuss the challenges with the existing open source policy framework, and propose modifications that would make it easier for NASA to develop, release, and use open source software"

Wish someone sponsors my trip there ;-)

Jokes apart, its high time our Govt (or its parts like the services) convene a similar summit - 'coz I see a lot of decisions taken based on personality and experiences and not on a collective thinking or future implications. 

"Open source brings numerous benefits to NASA software projects, including increased software quality, reduced development costs, faster development cycles, and reduced barriers to public-private collaboration through new opportunities to commercialize NASA technology. This inherently transparent, participatory, and collaborative approach is revolutionizing the way software is created, improved, and used.

Although open source release has already provided numerous benefits to NASA, the full benefits of open source can only be realized if NASA is able to establish the processes, policies, and culture needed to encourage and support open source development. This will require expanding open source activities beyond releasing software only after completion and finding new ways to support two-way collaboration with an open development community throughout the entire software lifecycle."

Open Source and Linux Economics

The usual question that many ask and suspect - 'How come Linux is given away free? And how do these companies - like Ubuntu - survive?'

I always have a difficult time answering that - and most of the time can make out that the audience is not convinced. Those in the government and decision making chain instead of being thankful that we have a great software available free of cost - do tend to feel there is some ulterior motives (who gives away things for free now-a-days??) or just don't believe it!

Came across a great blog by Mark Shuttleworth - the Owner/Creator of Ubuntu (his company is called Canonical) - wherein he explains some of the free and Open Source Economics. Check it out here
(of course - make it a point to check out the fair comments at the blog site too! Pretty interesting debate!!)

Mark is a 'billionaire' by the way, and the second 'self-funded' space tourist - check his Wikipedia site here

Extract from his blog:

The bulk of the direct cost in creating the audience of Ubuntu users is carried by Canonical. There are many, many indirect costs and contributions that are carried by others, both inside the Ubuntu community and in other communities, without which Ubuntu would not be possible. But that doesn’t diminish the substantial investment made by Canonical in a product that is in turn made available free of charge to millions of users and developers.

The business model which justifies this investment, and which we hope will ultimately sustain that effort for the desktop without dependence on me, is that fee-generating services which are optional for users provide revenue to Canonical. This enables us to make the desktop available in a high quality, fully maintained form, without any royalties or license fees. By contrast, every other commercial Linux desktop is a licensed product – you can’t legally use it for free, the terms for binaries are similar to those for Windows or the MacOS. They’re entitled to do it their way, we think it’s good in the world that we choose to do it our way too.

Office suite freedom with LibreOffice 3.3 release this Republic Day

A special gift this 62nd Republic Day 26 Jan 2011 for all those who value their 'Freedom' - the release of 'LibreOffice 3.3' - a solid replacement for MS-Office Suites and OpenOffice (bought over by Oracle) on 25 Jan 2011.

Check out: http://bit.ly/eNnh09

Though MS-Office is indeed a great software with loads of features, it is mired in licensing requirements and proprietary formats! More so when such a great 'can do nearly all our office work' suite like 'LibreOffice' is available for free, why bother with MS-Office? Moreover, MS-Office is not available for Linux (you can install MS-Office using Windows emulators like Crossover etc! but why bother?)

Just try out LibreOffice - and checkout what you can do with it. ITs FREE after all!!! And yess, LibreOffice can open all your doc, ppt etc formats of MS-Office - so no sweat there.

Download LibreOffice for Windows/Mac/Linux from: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

For Linux users those who are using Ubuntu or Mint, its pretty easy to install. Follow this steps:-

(a) Start a terminal window and issue these commands (you’ll be asked for your password):

                sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa 

        sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libreoffice

(b) To complete the integration to Ubuntu (Gnome) or Kubuntu (KDE), you will also need to either

      sudo apt-get install libreoffice-gnome

                or

      sudo apt-get install libreoffice-kde

Thats it - as easy as that !!
If you are adventurous enough and want to add on more features, get the 'extensions' for LibreOffice available from the OpenOffice extensions repository at : http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:OpenOfficeExtensions/List

Enjoy!!

Managing results without fat pay cheque - the Open Source Way

Came across this excellent animation video from M.I.T - which seems to clear some of the fuzziness and mystic of why Open Source is so successful. Of course there is reference to Linux. And credibility of the research can be gauged from the fact that it is from M.I.T (not the Chennai one - but the real M.I.T :-] and believe it or not - has references to India (Madurai in particular!)) .

Though a bit longish - about 11 minutes, it is pretty interesting - a must for top level managers - who are under the impression fat pay cheque can achieve results!! This is a real eye opener. And for Open Source fans like me - well, we always knew that there was something right about the Open Source philosophy!!

Enjoy the video!!!

New kid in town - Pinguy OS

Wanna try out Pinguy OS at the earliest
Check out: http://pinguy-os.sourceforge.net/

From the web-site:

Pinguy OS is an optimise build of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Minimal CD with added repositories, tweaks and enhancements that can run as a Live DVD or be installed. It has all the added packages needed for video, music and web content e.g. flash and java, plus a few fixes as well. Like fixing the wireless problems, gwibber’s Facebook problem and flash videos in full-screen.

Everything is set-up for samba, all you need to do is right click a folder you want to share and add a password in samba using system-config-samba.
It also has a UPnP/DLNA server (pms-linux) so you can share your music, video’s etc. With a PS3, XBOX 360, Smart Phones or any other UPnP/DLNA media reader.

Dell Plugs for Open Source Ubuntu Linux

Well Well well... finally Dell too! As they say... "you cannot keep a good man down"!!

Here's Dell's plug for Open Source Ubuntu/Linux
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml

Best part - check out Sl (4) - for Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware - it says "UNWARRANTED"  !!! :-)

Read and enjoy!!!


===========Extract===============

First and foremost, Ubuntu is an Operating System. Just like Microsoft^®  Windows^®  or Apple MacOS, you can use Ubuntu to surf the web, check email, or just about anything you might want to do. Here’s a "Top Ten" list of things you should know about Ubuntu.

10) Ubuntu is simple and elegant

If you’re the kind of person who likes your computer to simply work, Ubuntu is right for you. It’s based on stable, secure, easy-to-use software that’s been around for a long time.

9) Ubuntu is designed for the Internet

Do you spend most of your time on the Internet? Ubuntu connects you to the Internet in seconds. Firefox is a very popular browser and works well with practically every website you’ll run across, e.g. news sites, social media sites, etc. It also works great with web-based e-mail sites like Yahoo or Gmail.

8) Ubuntu is "social from the start"

The people who make Ubuntu designed it to be very social-media centric. Do you use Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or any of the other dozens of popular social networking sites? Ubuntu 9.10 works very well with these websites. And beginning with Ubuntu 10.04, these websites will be integrated into the Ubuntu OS itself for your convenience.

7) Ubuntu plays videos, songs, and movies easily

Do you like to watch videos on YouTube, buy songs from Amazon, pop in DVD’s from the local video store? No problem! Dell bundles a multimedia player with Ubuntu to deliver a great entertainment experience.(DRM protected music not supported.)

6) Ubuntu is secure

According to industry reports, Ubuntu is unaffected by the vast majority of viruses and spyware.

5) Ubuntu boots up fast

Beginning with Ubuntu 10.04, available on Dell systems this summer, boot times have improved dramatically over Ubuntu 9.10. Depending upon the Dell computer your purchase, boot times can be around 30 seconds!

4) With Ubuntu, you have access to 1,000’s of free software programs

What do you like to do?

3) Ubuntu with OpenOffice is compatible with Microsoft^®  Office and Adobe^®  Acrobat^® 

Do you need to open Microsoft Office documents? What about Adobe Acrobat? Ubuntu comes with the award-winning OpenOffice software. With it, not only can you create word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and even drawings, but it can also open and save documents in Microsoft Office format. Do you ever get .pdf files emailed to you—no problem!

2) Ubuntu is based on Linux^® 

Linux has been around for nearly 20 years. The software itself is not only stable and reliable, but also pervasive. Linux is used on computers of all sizes ranging from the biggest to the smallest.

1) Ubuntu comes pre-loaded with select Dell desktop, notebook, and netbook computers

Beginning in 2007, Dell began shipping computers with Ubuntu. Since then, Dell has shipped more computers pre-loaded and pre-tested with Ubuntu than any other computer maker in the world. Every computer we ship with Ubuntu has been fully tested to ensure the best possible Internet and multimedia experience Linux has to offer. Two high-tech leaders—ensuring Ubuntu on Dell "just works."

Open Source Enterprise Collaboration Software

Check out 'MindTouch' - a great Open Sorce alternative to Microsoft Sharepoint - for Enterprise collaboration! http://www.mindtouch.com/

If one wants to buy support for MindTouch - once can easily buy the same

I see many of our organisations getting trapped into using MS Sharepoint - without realising that they get locked to a single vendor, and will not be having any choice to use products but from a single or limited vendors - and most importantly, with very serious security implications!! 

=========EXTRACT from MindTouch Web site======

MindTouch transforms businesses with a new class of enterprise software that cuts costs, increases revenue, and provides greater transparency across the organization. It is time for enterprise software to take a giant leap forward. MindTouch provides wiki-like ease of use with a sophisticated web services framework for rapid application development, creating flexible workflows and rapid integration. MindTouch creates a vibrant real-time information fabric by federating content from across enterprise silos, such as CRM, ERP, file servers, email, databases, web services and more.
MindTouch is an open source leader in enterprise Collaborative Networks and powers next generation intranets, extranets and knowledge bases.

Digital Art - using free Open Source tools

Are you passionate about painting, sketching, digital art etc? Or know someone who is (kids, friends, siblings, parents etc.)? Was using/procuring expensive digital art editing software cost prohibitive (not talking about those who feel using pirated software is their birth-right :-)?

Well, you know that the Open Source world gives you loads of wonderful digital art manipulation (Photo editing, vector drawings, 2D/3D-Graphics etc.) software - which are not only free to use, but sometimes even better than what you can get by money-pay!!

Take your pick from http://www.linfo.org/software_artists.html
42 of the best Open Source Free digital arts tools can be found here

Thats not all. Do your bit by joining and sharing the Ubuntu-Artists forum - where you share and learn and enjoy great digital art!! Check out the site http://ubuntu-artists.deviantart.com/

This is a group for everyone who uses Ubuntu to create artworks, designs and other creative media. It's a great place to show off what you can do with the tools available in Ubuntu.

Open Source is Magic

Open Source is Magic

The Open Source Picture

Open source is a concept of free sharing of technical information that has been around for much longer than most of us would imagine. When we think of open source today, we usually think of software. As wonderful and widely used as open source software is, according to Linus Torvalds, "the future is open source everything." From foods and beverages to scientific and health research studies and advanced technological innovations, the world has turned to open source.

A total picture of Open Source reproduced below from http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/open-source-open-world/

Open Source as seen by Google

Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice-president of product management at Google, put up on Dec. 21 what was more of a tome than a mere post on the company's blog. Entitled "The Meaning of Open," it was originally sent to Google employees as an e-mail, but it reads like a manifesto. It can be found here.

Jonathan Rosenberb says:

At Google we believe that open systems win. They lead to more innovation, value, and freedom of choice for consumers, and a vibrant, profitable, and competitive ecosystem for businesses. Many companies will claim roughly the same thing since they know that declaring themselves to be open is both good for their brand and completely without risk. After all, in our industry there is no clear definition of what open really means. It is a Rashomon-like term: highly subjective and vitally important.

The topic of open seems to be coming up a lot lately at Google. I've been in meetings where we're discussing a product and someone says something to the effect that we should be more open. Then a debate ensues which reveals that even though most everyone in the room believes in open we don't necessarily agree on what it means in practice.

This is happening often enough for me to conclude that we need to lay out our definition of open in clear terms that we can all understand and support. What follows is that definition based on my experiences at Google and the input of several colleagues. We run the company and make our product decisions based on these principles, so I encourage you to carefully read, review, and debate them. Then own them and try to incorporate them into your work. This is a complex subject and if there is debate (and I'm sure there will be) it should be in the open! Please feel free to comment.

He ends the post with:

Open will win. It will win on the Internet and will then cascade across many walks of life: The future of government is transparency. The future of commerce is information symmetry. The future of culture is freedom. The future of science and medicine is collaboration. The future of entertainment is participation. Each of these futures depends on an open Internet.

(Check out Jonathan Rosenberb blog for more)

Open Source applications - update

An excellent compiled list of the best 10 Open source software can be found at this web site of Infoworld. Very common applications which we generally take for granted!! quoting from the web site:

"To many, free open source software and Microsoft Windows seem to be mutually exclusive. After all, the open source development model is most closely associated with the Linux OS and, to a lesser degree, various Unix derivatives. So when you mention the two together, you often get some rather strange looks. This is a shame because there exists a growing landscape of compelling free and open source solutions just waiting for the intrepid Windows user.

You probably already know one of them well. Firefox has long stood as a prime example of how the open source development process can work to deliver a first-class solution that rivals, and in many ways surpasses, the best that the commercial side has to offer."

And if you enjoy having your web life in one place, check out this Open Source Aggregators from this blog.  Especially StoryTlr which has recently gone open source.

What Are Social Aggregator Applications?

Before diving too deep into this conversation, let me first explain to you what Social Aggregators are. They are basically web based applications that aggregate or gather data/information from various 3rd party social applications. A basic idea of this would be a web application that aggregates your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube etc. information into one location, allowing viewers to see all of that information in once place.

Open Source Hardware Projects - 2009

This is phenomenal! 125 new Open Source Hardware Projects for the year 2009!! The Geeks amongst you would surely be drooling. Check out this site. From Electronic Prototyping and Green Power to music, bio-medical everything is there! My favourite is the 'Development platform and tools' section!

From the web site:

"Welcome to definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2009. First up - What is open source hardware? These are projects in which the creators have decided to completely publish all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings and "board" files to recreate the hardware - they also allow any use, including commercial. Similar to open source software like Linux, but this hardware centric.

Each year we do a guide to all open source hardware and this year there are over 125 unique projects/kits in 19 categories, up from about 60 in 2008, more than doubling the projects out there! - it's incredible! Many are familiar with Arduino (shipping over 100,000 units, estimated) but there are many other projects just as exciting and filled with amazing communities - we think we've captured nearly all of them in this list. Some of these projects and kits are available from MAKE others from the makers themselves or other hardware manufacturers - but since it's open source hardware you can make any of these yourself, start a business, everything is available, that's the point."

Microsoft Open Sources Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool

Microsoft has Open Sourced the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool by releasing it under the GPLv2 license. The code is now available on CodePlex, Microsoft's Open Source software project hosting repository, over at http://wudt.codeplex.com.

Details at: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/12/microsoft-finally-open-sources-windows-7-tool.ars

==Extract from the site===

Microsoft has open sourced the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) by releasing it under the GPLv2 license. The code is now available on CodePlex, Microsoft's Open Source software project hosting repository, over at wudt.codeplex.com. The actual installer for the tool is now again available for download at the Microsoft Store (2.59MB). 

If you've got a good memory, the size might surprise you as the closed source version of the tool was only 946KB (we kept the old installer for the sake of comparison). When we compared the two tools side-by-side, the only difference we noticed was that the "Terms of use" link is no longer present in the GUI (we didn't really expect to see much more, as the size difference is really due to the included source code). Microsoft explains that while the user experience of the tool has not changed, the install involves additional steps. For convenience, the previous installer aggregated together three additional components, which are separate freestanding executables:

• .NET Framework: WUDT is written in C# which requires the Microsoft .NET Framework to run.
• IMAPI: the tool uses IMAPI to burn DVDs.
• Bootsect.exe: this is part of the Windows 7 bits (found in \boot\) and allows a USB device to be marked as bootable.

Microsoft Open Sources Outlook services

Microsoft goes in for Open Sourcing Outlook services! Heartening!!
Have attached the news byte from The Economic Times, Mumbai edition (11 Nov 09)!

US Department of Defense embraces Open Source

It is official now! As of the 16th of October 2009, the United States Department of Defense recognizes Open Source software at Commodity, Off the Shelf (COTS) software, eligible for purchase, read implementation, under the purchasing rules of the Department. Check out this web site dated 28 Oct 09:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/us_department_of_defense_embraces_open_source.php

Quoting:

At the US Department of Defense, open source and proprietary software are now on equal footing. According to Defense Department guidance issued yesterday (PDF), open-source software (OSS) should be treated just like any other software product. The document also specifies some of the advantages of OSS for the Department of Defense (DoD). These include the ability to quickly alter the code as situations and missions change, the stability of the software because of the broad peer-review, as well as the absence of per-seat licensing costs. The document also stresses that OSS is "particularly suitable for rapid prototyping and experimentation, where the ability to 'test drive' the software with minimal costs and administrative delays can be important.

From one more source at: http://ostatic.com/blog/u-s-defense-department-cozies-up-to-open-source

From the Defense Department's guidance document:

"To effectively achieve its missions, the Department of Defense must develop and update its software-based capabilities faster than ever, to anticipate new threats and respond to continuously changing requirements. The use of Open Source Software (OSS) can provide advantages in this regard."

You can find the entire guidance document here. In it, there are many indications that the Defense Department likes the idea of "peer review" of code from a reliability and security standpoint. The advantage of "many eyeballs" that open source has from this perspective is often cited.

I am sure the Indian Government and Defense services follow suit earliest!!

White House adopts Open Source

This is a Eureka moment for Open Source advocates like me. The White House official website http://www.whitehouse.gov has moved to an Open Source Content Management System (CMS) . This should be proof enough that Open Source software is making great inroads despite all the doubting Thomas(es). They have adopted the Open Source and free 'Drupal' CMS. Incidently, this is the same CMS I have also adopted/using for my Cyber Real estate which is still under construction at http://www.gantayet.in

Did the White House take a clue from me??? :-) Obiviously not as millions of users are using Drupal for their web-sites, and a good product will always gets its rightful recognition in the course of time!!

Quoting for the reports on the White House website found here:-

"WhiteHouse.gov has gone Drupal. After months of planning, says an Obama Administration source, the White House has ditched the proprietary content management system that had been in place since the days of the Bush Administration in favor of the latest version of the open-source Drupal software. Dries Buytaert reflected on this, adding: 'this is a clear sign that governments realize that Open Source does not pose additional risks compared to proprietary software, and furthermore, that by moving away from proprietary software, they are not being locked into a particular technology, and that they can benefit from the innovation that is the result of thousands of developers collaborating on Drupal.'"

Hope the Indian Government and Govt. Organisation take a clue from Obama :-)

And from what my sources tell me, the Obama administrations is actively considering another Open Source candidate for active use - the Google Chrome Operating System - in the near future!! Watch this space!!