Open Source Information

open source info
what is open source? (external link)	GNU general public license (wikipedia article)	linux distributions (distros) (wikipedia article)	ubuntu linux distribution (external link)
office suites	gimp image editing program (external link)	opendocument standards	obtaining open source software
open source advocacy (external link)	wiki world (coming soon)

office-style suites

Here are three common Open Source office suites. All provide the ability to open and save files in ways that are basically compatible with MS Office suite programs. However, complex documents or documents with special features may need additional tweaking to get them to appear the same in both programs. One goal among some in the Open Source community is to create OpenDocument types, that is file formats that can be used by an office-style program. See below for more information on the OpenDocument initiative.

OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice is about ready to launch version 2 which has many improvements in it. This is one of the more established and capable programs among the office suites. It is available for Windows, Linux distributions, Mac, and other operating systems.
KOffice. KOffice does not have the advanced features for the basic office programs (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, etc.) but it does have an additional set of applications such as Kivio which is a Visio-style flowchart program, Karbon14 which is a vector drawing program, KFormula which is a formula editor, and so on. As a basic office suite KOffice is lacking but these additional programs can make KOffice a real asset. It is only available on Mac or Linux systems though. Hopefully that will change.
StarOffice ver. 8. This costs 70$ which is far less than the approximately 500$ for the MS Office Suite. Basically Sun Microsystems took OpenOffice and substantial revised it so that it could more effectively compete with MS Office. You still will run into problems exchanging files between MS Office and StarOffice but fewer than any of the above programs. This product has gotten general good reviews and has the advantage of Sun Microsystems standing behind it. Support at this price, though, is limited

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opendocument standards

Basically OpenDocument standards refer to the creation of file format standards that will allow, for example, any word processing software program to open a file with the formatting and content intact regardless of what program created the file. OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured information Standards, is seeking to create such open and standard file formats for word processing, presentation software, spreadsheets, etc. OpenDocument is what these standards are called. For more information on this initiative, go to the OASIS web site.

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obtaining open source software

SourceForge.net This is a huge source of open source software. However, it tends to be more oriented to developers rather than users and it can be confusing to new users. Here is where you see projects just being started, some growing rapidly, others slowly fading, and still others left unfinished. There are numerous ways of gauging the status of a project such as the speed with which bugs are resolved, patch activity, translations, feature requests, forum activity, and number of downloads.
Freshmeat.net This is much the same as SourceForge though perhaps a bit less intimidating for new users or newcomers to open source. Basically they provide a " description of the software, links to download it and to obtain more information, and a history of the project's releases, so readers can keep up-to-date on the latest developments." Just as with SourceForge, each project or software package has a comment board which can help you gauge the viability of that particular item. They also provide a statistical analysis of the projects rating, vitality, and popularity. Don't let yourself be put off by the opening page which gets right to the point of providing descriptions of software materials -- this web site has a lot in a whole host of areas from biology or physics to the arts.
www.theopencd.org This web site is currently being blocked by EICC filters so you will have to visit it from your home computers but is probably the most user-friendly of the open source software sites.
Open Source Directory -- OSDir.com This web site is currently being blocked by EICC filters so you will have to visit it from your home computers.
Bioinformatics.Org Yes, this software is related to biology -- where else do you go to find a database on immigrant genes, pancreatic cancer genes, or leukemia genes? Most of this software is focused on biological analysis but browsing through this site shows the potential of open source. If you are doing biology, this place is a gold mine but it also includes all kinds of lab software, data collection, and so on.
Linux Online. Here's a straight-forward, easy to use web site containing lots of applications as well as numerous distributions. This site is a good place for newcomers to Linux to find useful articles to help them use the distributions and programs.

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