Open Source Software

Definition:

The term "open source" is somewhat ambiguous and sometimes confused with the notion of "free software."  As used here, and as defined by the Open Source Initiative, open source can be summarized as software for which the source code is available and the usage of the software is free.  Open source as an initiative came into being about 10 years ago.

Why you care:

A a business person open source represents an alternative to the cost of licensing Microsoft products such as Vista, XP, and Office.  This can represent a significant cost savings, even in a small organization.  Although open source has been touted as the Microsoft alternative for many years it is only recently that the software has reached a level of stability and functionality where I would recommend it to a business user.

What we do:

We walk your organization thru the steps necessary to transition to an open source strategy:

  1. Determine which workstations and workers are candidates for an open source solution.  In general a worker who only needs internet access, word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation and email is a candidate.  We utilize the uBuntu open source distribution to provide end users desktop functionality.  Part of the uBuntu solution is Open Office, an open source multiplatform and multilingual office suite.  Open Office is our source for word processing, database, spreadsheet and presentation functionality
  2. Determine if the hardware being used by the workers will support the open source solution.  Most existing desktop and laptop hardware will run the uBuntu Linux distribution.  Our role as technicians is to make sure that the specific machines in your organization will run the software.  We also want to make sure that shared printers, files, and folders will be accessible both from the new and old workstations.
  3. Determine the backup and migration strategy for each workstation to make sure we don't lose important documents or files in the transition.
  4. Determine the strategy for those applications that will not run on the uBuntu platform.  There are three options: don't convert that particular workstation; convert but provide a remote desktop window to another machine running the solution, or creating a "dual boot" workstation.
  5. Create the desktop/laptop "solution map" and get agreement from you on the proposed solution.
  6. Provide training to your users.  The uBuntu user interface will be familiar, but not exactly the same as the traditional windows desktop.  We help your user overcome change anxiety.
  7. Implement the solution.

Servers:

Servers in uBuntu are like desktops without the graphical user interface.  We will help you set up servers after determining the specific services necessary.  Most organizations start with at least one LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP.)  This will give you a web server (Apache2) and a database server (MySql.)

 Wine:

Wine is software that permits you to run native Window's software on a Linux machine.  We will assist you in installing, testing, and using Wine.  You should be aware that not every windows program will run under Wine, but a great number of them will.