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Date: October
31, 2005
Open source software is software that has been developed by a community of software developers rather than a single corporate entity and as such can often be much more responsive to updates and "customer" demands. Open source software has been available from the dawn of the personal computer era but due to increasing public awareness of its reliability and functionality there is a growing trend for businesses of all sizes to make use of open source software on corporate computers.
Currently the most popular items of open source software are the Linux operating system and the OpenOffice office suite. While a discussion on the relative merits of Linux is beyond the scope of these bulletins I hope in this issue to discuss some open source software that is available for the Windows operating system and which, under certain circumstances can enhance the work you do at your computer.
Free software is simply that, free. Often of very high quality it may be given away as promotional material or simply to enhance the power of the personal computer.
OpenOffice - http://www.openoffice.org/ - Released in mid-October, OpenOffice 2.0 is the latest iteration of the premier open source office suite. Combining much of the functionality of Microsoft Office in a free package OpenOffice offers businesses of any size a full-featured office suite that allows full interaction with existing Microsoft Office documents. OpenOffice includes the ability to create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, websites and images. With a menu structure very similar to that of Microsoft Office OpenOffice is very easy to learn for anyone familiar with Microsoft Office. Additionally, OpenOffice includes the ability to export any document as a PDF file; which I use almost exclusively to create the PDF files included with these bulletins. One caveat, however, is that OpenOffice is not always fully compatible with the more advanced features of Microsoft Office. Such limitations, though, will be insignificant for the majority of computer users.
IrfanView - http://www.irfanview.com/ - Able to handle images of almost any format, IrfanView is the single best image viewer available for Windows. IrfanView also offers some basic image manipulation and formatting options so for many who are not graphic artists it may be the only image viewer they will ever need.
The GIMP - http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ - The GIMP (an acronym for "GNU Image Manipulation Program") is a highly powerful image editor that allows you to create and/or modify any image to your heart's content. Similar in functionality to Adobe Photoshop (but with a less comprehensive feature set) the GIMP offers enough power to satisfy the demands of anyone who wants to retouch an image for use in a website or to fine tune a marketing image.
Google Desktop Search - http://desktop.google.ca/en/ - The average computer system will over time become bogged down with information as new documents are created, emails are sent and web sites are visited. One utility that can make all this information easily retrievable is Google Desktop Search. When first installed Google Desktop Search will index all documents on your computer, making them far easier to retrieve than with the default search utilities supplied with Microsoft Windows. Google Desktop Search is free software released by the same people behind the Google internet search engine and it functions almost identically on your own system, allowing you to search your system for that lost document whether or not you are on the internet.
Opera - http://www.opera.com/ - Many companies are looking for alternatives to Microsoft's Internet Explorer due to perceived security issues. One excellent alternative is the Opera browser. Including features such as tabbed browsing and instant recall of the previous session Opera is a fast, free browser that takes up very little additional space on your computer. I recommend Opera not because of security issues with Internet Explore but because it includes features that Internet Explorer does not currently have and which make browsing the internet a much more enjoyable experience.
* * * * *
I have added several shortcut keys to the list circulated with last month's bulletin. The new shortcuts are listed below and are also available from our website by clicking here.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this or any other issue.
Previous issues of the ELM Bulletin are available from our website.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this or any other issue.
Please feel free to forward these bulletins to anyone you wish. If you no longer wish to receive these bulletins, or if you received this bulletin by mistake please send me an email with "Please remove me" in the subject line and I will take your name off of the bulletin mailing list.
Peter Rhebergen Technical Specialist, Systems and Software Email: peter@elmcomputers.com
ELM Computer Systems Inc. 502 Gordon Baker Road Toronto, Ontario, M2H 3B4
Telephone Local: 416 495 1624 (112) Toll free: 800 268 3211 Fax: 416 495 0044
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