Open Source Software

[Black Dragon]

Are there any devotees here of open source software? Having been a Linux user for several years now, I really appreciate quality software being developed by a community.

But I've also come to see the other side of the equation. Because there is little (if any) profit involved, open source software sometimes lacks the polish of paid programs. In some cases open source packages end up being abandoned by their developers.

What has been your experience with open source?

 

[Neunzehn]

I've found free ware to be very helpful. Open office/LibreOffice (what's the difference?) is awesome, except that it does not check grammar. I've installed Cachman, didn't "use" it after the free trial but the little boxes at the bottom indicate how much ram is left and how much processing power is being used at all times. Spy bot search and destroy does it's job well, so does free AVG. Oh!! and blender is really cool, along with gimp and deep paint. I do have a grievance with the text to speech programs, however there is a free one on line that is pretty hood, though only in limited quantities. Also INS is VERY useful for storing compressed installation files.

I have never used linux. Is it any good?

 

[Calash]

Not a devotee by any means but I do support it and use it where I can. Open Office is my standard on everything but my work VM (technically Libre, the branch of Open Office.

My main work computer runs Ubuntu x64 with a couple of Windows XP Virtual Machines.

Can not forget Android, being Open Source in the current phone code. There is some confusion on Honeycomb so I will not comment there.


Is Linux good? It is very good but it may not be good for you. Distros like Ubuntu and Fedora have done a lot to make it a very stable and usable desktop operating system. However it is now Windows and if you go into it with any notion that it should work exactly like that you will end up disappointed.

Linux suffers much more when you try to take the path less traveled. This is due to the open nature of the OS, you can really make life difficult for yourself if you do not tread carefully.

Personally I love it. Then again I am a geek so your mileage may vary . The nice thing is that most of the major distos have "Live CD"s that will let you test the OS without making a single change to your computer. It will be a bit slower but you will get a good feel for what it can and cannot do.

 

[Derin]

Being a poor uni student, I end up with a lot of open source stuff simply because it's free and easy to get. Unfortunately I have no programming knowledge of my own.

While I'm not completely happy with open source antivirus programs (they don't seem to like some of my games), they seem to do a better job than commercial ones. My parents bought me a new computer for my 21st birthday and, under the direction of the salesman, bought Norton. Huge waste of money. AVG might not run completely smoothly withe verything I want to do, but it protects my damn computer.

I use OpenOffice for word processing. My one complaint is that I can't seem to make it default to saving in .doc or .docx, so occasionally I'm not paying attention and come to university with an assignment I can't open on any of their computers. I've also found a drawing program called Inkscape, which I love (although I can't seem to make it draw plain dots).

I don't use Linux because my computers came with Windows as default and I'm really, really lazy. I'm also... well, a bit scared of screwing something up learning a new system. I know nothing about computers.

 

[Telcontar]

I'm a big fan of Open Source, though not the crusader sort. I don't think it's about to replace proprietary, closed-source products.

There are so many folks out there working on amazing projects that make it much easier for 'the little guy' to get quality work done in any field. Hobbyist gamers using Ogre (3D graphics engine) are producing incredible games. This is especially valuable to me. I'm a computer programmer who wants nothing more than to make games - until I can make them professionally, I do it on my own time. Using free tools gives my effort a great deal more sophistication than it would have otherwise (not to mention saves me a lot of boring grunt work).

Some of my favorite Open Source projects are OpenOffice (yeah, LibreOffice now, though I haven't started using the rebranded fork), CEGUI (GUI creator geared toward game makers), Terragen Classic, Audacity, and games such as UFO: Alien Invasion and Battle for Wesnoth. Free, all free!

EDIT: It is also handy to be able to go into the code and fix bugs myself, if I know the next development cycle will take awhile.

 

[Hans]

I have been using Linux for about 16 or so years now. Windows 3.11 was the last windows I had, so it has to be somewhat about that. I use a lot of open source software, but am in no way fanatic about that. My favorite browser for example is Opera. Which is not open source.

There is the argument for OS. that you can change it yourself, when it doesn't fit your needs. As a programmer I should completely follow that argument. But I don't. I never got into that. Most of the time when I need something special I am faster writing my own tool than working through someone else's code.
That as I see it is the fate of many small OS programs. The original author writes them until he can do everything he wanted to do, and before these programs get a chance to reach greater publicity he stops working on them. Because he has done, what he wanted to do.

I have some programs on freshmeat.net that suffer the same fate. Works for me, so I have no need to improve them. They are to small to be noticed by anyone else, so I get no feedback, still no need to improve them and they stay small. So a lot of programs look abandoned just because they do whatever they were meant to do.