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COLTRANE
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| Joined: | Wednesday June 2nd, 2004 |
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Posted: Thursday February 10th, 2005 23:47 |
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*someone sent me this thought I would share it
http://www.driverheaven.net/~pete/article1.htm
Open Source – more of a reality than many people realize
Right now I am writing this document on OpenOffice.org Writer, while
browsing the Internet with Mozilla Firefox and checking my emails with
Thunderbird. Friends of mine can reach me through Gaim, and if I need
to see photos or retouch images, The Gimp is my best friend. I know
your first thought is that I am working with Linux and all I want to
do is show-off my cool open source applications. Actually, that would
be far from the truth. I am working under Windows XP.
Open Source making inroads
You probably noticed that between these applications that I mentioned,
not one of them belongs to good old Microsoft. If someone came to me a
few years back, and told me that I would be working with so many
high-quality open source applications, I'd probably dismiss him as a
Linux fanboy. But, as a popular Greek TV commercial claims: "Sometimes
it's better to chew, than to speak". Indeed, the quality of
applications that are open source has radically improved the past few
years, to a point that some of them are not considered alternatives
any more; but the best choice in their field. And yes, I am talking
about Mozilla Firefox.
Mozilla had a somewhat rocky start. After Netscape lost its first
place during the browser wars (any with many developers – yours truly
included – coming to hate Communicator simply because developing web
pages for it became a nightmare after a while), we all had high hopes
that, since the browser's source was open sourced, something good
might come out of it. Ok, so I lied. I had no hopes whatsoever that
Mozilla could turn into a contender again. I still remember
downloading early Mozilla builds, only to find them dog-slow and
crashing more often than you got a blue screen in Windows 95 (and yes,
that was often). But Mozilla kept getting better and better; and at
some point, Mozilla Phoenix was born. Some people thought that Mozilla
was too bloated (don't forget, apart from a browser, the Mozilla suite
contains an email client, IRC client and more) and people who just
wanted a browser should be able to get just that. I believe the first
build of Phoenix that I used was 0.2, and I was instantly hooked. It
was way faster than Mozilla, it had Tabs and it had extensions that I
could install and customize the browser to my own likings. So Phoenix
kept on evolving, it became Firebird at some point, and then Firefox.
Right now, at version 1.0, it is considered by many the best browser
in the market by far, even though Opera is also making very good
progress (but Opera is not free). Internet Explorer you say? The only
reason to use it nowadays is Windows Update, and some websites that
are poorly written and thus work only with IE. Along with Firefox,
Thunderbird (Mozilla Foundation's stand-alone e-mail client) is making
very good progress as well, and it is my e-mail client of choice for
quite a while (since 0.1 to be exact – and yes, I am an early adopter,
what can I say). Its spam filter is very good (and the more you train
it, the better results you get); it's robust and acts as advertised.
Since I began using Firefox and Thunderbird as my applications of
choice, AdAware scans come empty consistently. That alone should tell
you something.
OpenOffice.org has a similar tale as a background. Once a commercial
application by Sun (StarOffice), it was at some point open sourced in
order to be able to evolve more and be a contender in the Office suite
arena, where Microsoft is more than dominant. I must say, the results
there are getting better by the day (or should I say, by the build).
Right now, the latest stable version is 1.1.4, which has excellent
Microsoft Office compatibility (yes, you can open and save Office
documents, such as .doc, .xls and .ppt) and is a very good
alternative. Version 2.0 is already in the works of course, and a beta
is available for download in order for the public to get a taste of
its future. The suite has gotten so feature-rich, that I see no reason
why someone should fork a hefty amount of money to buy Microsoft
Office nowadays.
Gaim is a universal IM client, with support for many protocols,
including MSN, AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber and more. It's perfectly capable
of handling everyday IM needs like chat and to send and receive files.
Of course it doesn't support some of the most exotic features of each
client (for instance, you can't have audio and video conversations
with your MSN buddies, although there is a project that is in the
works that will change that, gaim-vv), but let's face it; most people
want an Instant Messenger program that will do just that: allow them
to communicate with friends and family. And since the fragmentation of
the IM market means that you have friends using MSN, AIM, ICQ etc.,
you either have to run two or more IM clients at the same time, or use
a client that supports all of them. And Gaim is just that.
As for The Gimp, it's heralded throughout the community as a viable
(and free, mind you) alternative to Photoshop; and when you get
compared to Adobe's heavy artillery, it's got to mean something. Along
with Firefox, they are considered as pioneers in their respective
field, simply because they offer so much, for so little. For those of
you that wonder what Gimp means, it's an acronym for "GNU Image
Manipulation Program". You can use it for several tasks, including
photo retouching, image composition, image authoring, and it can
transform itself from a simple paint program to an expert quality
photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass
production image renderer, an image format converter and more. Its
support for plug-ins and extensions means that it can be tailored to
every need and new capabilities can be as easy to add as installing a
new plug-in. It is already widely used in the industry (a Gimp
spin-off, Film GIMP, was used among other things to create the
computer animated character Scooby Doo in the Warner Brothers film of
the same name) and with every new release it is getting bigger and better.
So… why Windows?
Using open source applications has some other, rather interesting
implications, which are far more "dangerous" to Microsoft than meets
the eye. Imagine a Windows user, who has come to rely on those
applications for his/her everyday needs. Now transport this user to a
Linux graphics environment (may it be Gnome, or KDE, which are the
most popular choices today), show him around for a couple of minutes,
and then tell him that he can work with the same applications in his
new operating system. He can surf the web, read his emails, retouch
pictures, stay in touch with friends, write documents and spreadsheets
and listen to music (XMMS and, lately, Beep Media Player are identical
to Winamp that the majority of Windows users use) by using
applications he can recognize and is familiar with. Do you see the big
picture forming in front of you? We just described what 90% of all PC
users do with their computer every day. Do you think that he will care
whether they run under Windows, or Linux or whatever? No he won't.
Most people (and rightfully so) are more application-centric than
OS-centric; so if you show them that their applications work, they
will have no problem migrating from one operating system to the other.
Microsoft is well aware of all that; after all, the current Windows
Empire was built on the fact that MS products were dead easy to use,
and were appealing to Average Joe. And when Average Joe learned to use
Microsoft products, it would be very different for another operating
system to lure him away, may that be Linux, or OS X or whichever else.
But this is slowly starting to change. In the past few months, Average
Joe has learned that in order to get rid of all the spyware, bugs and
security holes that have been plaguing his PC, all he had to do is
load up an alternative browser – Firefox. He learned that in order to
get rid of most spam email, and not be in danger of some mass mailing
worm exposing all of his contacts and emails to the outer world,
and/or infecting him with some virus, all he had to do was to use
Thunderbird. See a pattern forming here? Users are becoming more
security-aware nowadays. Although Microsoft has invested hefty amounts
of money on securing its products and fixing outstanding bugs, its
reputation in this field is still tarnished. And this tarnished
reputation could cost its position in the market in the long run. The
applications that Average Joe uses are of critical importance to
Microsoft. If the user stops using applications that are exclusive to
Windows and turns to open source ones (which are also available in
Linux), then he will have no problem ditching Windows altogether and
use an alternate OS – prospect that has several heads in Redmond
shaking in agony.
Exciting times ahead
The Linux desktop is making huge strides forward, and it is only a
matter of time before it fully catches up with the Windows desktop
(some claim that it has already as far as ease of use is concerned –
just look at Gnome). Exciting technologies that are ahead (like Cairo
for instance) promise that it will be visually impressive as well.
Microsoft knows all that, and it is one of the reasons that it wants
Longhorn to succeed so badly. Bottom line though is this: that we, the
consumers, are the ones who will get to profit from this. Competition
makes better products, and makes innovation work as it is supposed to,
not monopolies. And believe me when I say, that the open source
community has some projects running, that will change the way we use
our computers in the next years. All we have to do is sit and wait –
exciting times are ahead.
____________________
“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.� -Malcolm X
____________________
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