Open Source Software

 

We suggest you . . .
Upgrade to Open Source Software

What is Open Source Software?

Software generally comes in two types, proprietary and open source.

Proprietary software is created by a private company which guards their source code as an industrial secret (“intellectual property”), and the software saves files in closed formats that are most usually also a secret. In a software company, a group of employees work on designing, improving and upgrading the software, and the software and it’s upgrades are sold, hopefully making a profit for the company.

In Open Source Software, the source code is open and freely available for anyone to use and modify, and the software is also freely available and freely distributable by anyone. All around the world, there are folks who enjoy coding and sharing their skills for the public good, and there are literally tens of thousands of them modifying and improving all kinds of open source software all the time. Open Source programs also save in accessible file formats, the descriptions of which is also openly available.

There is also free software, which is freely available and distributable, but whose source code is still considered “intellectual property” by its authors.

Wikipedia has an extensive list of Open Source Software available. Also see the entry there for free software. And most exciting is the way the spirit of open source software is being generalized: https://itsfoss.com/open-source-impact-on-science/

The Open Source Programs we use:
At Snakeroot Organic Farm, we use as many open source programs as we can. Here are some examples of the ones we use and are enthusiastic about.

Web Browser:
Firefox. Available for Mac, Linux and MSWindows, and are available in English and many other languages.

Email:
Thunderbird. Available for Mac, Linux and MSWindows, and are available in English and many other languages.

Both Firefox and Thunderbird are products of the Mozilla Project, which is “A Global Community. The Mozilla project is a global community of people who have been working together since 1998 to create world-class open source software. Those involved in the community believe that openness, innovation, and opportunity are key to the continued health of the Internet. The projects on this page are just some examples of what the community is doing.”

Office Suite:
Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database, Presentation, Drawing.
Open Office. Available for Mac, Linux and MSWindows, and are available in English and many other languages.
OpenOffice.org is a multi-platform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.
Office Suite:
LibreOffice is community-driven and developed software, and is a project of the not-for-profit organization, The Document Foundation. LibreOffice is free and open source software, originally based on OpenOffice.org. LibreOffice includes several applications that make it the most powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing).
Computer Operating System:
Linux is a family of free and open-source software operating systems built around the Linux kernel. Typically, Linux is packaged in a form known as a Linux distribution for both desktop and server use. The distribution that we are using is called Ubuntu, which is a Linux distribution based on the Debian architecture. It is usually run on personal computers, and is also popular on network servers, usually running the Ubuntu Server variant, with enterprise-class features.

FTP program:
FileZilla is a free software, cross-platform FTP application. Available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.  It supports FTP, SFTP and FTPS transfer protocols. This program is used to transfer files to and from my home computer to Internet servers where websites are stored.