Open Source Productivity - It's all about choices
On this page, we're not going to extoll the virtues of the common Microsoft based productivity applications because they have no need of further promotion. The world at large already knows how useful they are and support abounds at almost every nook and crevice on the internet. We will instead be looking at the lesser used Open Source equivalents.
We have already mentioned in earlier pages that proprietary titles like Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher etc. require an additional licence and EULA, which equates to more $$$, and we'll happily assist you if you require those applications, or any other proprietary applications like Adobe Photoshop with similar licensing, however many of the regular tasks these applications are used for can be acomplished with high quality Open Source equivalents, which save you money because they have no licensing fees.
This website you are viewing was produced almost entirely using open source software and is hosted on a 100% Open Source Linux server.
Open Source equivalents for common applications
Microsoft Office Equivalents
| Appication | Equivalent | Status |
| Microsoft Word | LibreOffice Writer | Very capable, good compatibility, good feature set, needs to add a simpler way to dress up your page (e.g. fancy borders). |
| Microsoft Excel | LibreOffice Calc | Very Capable, good compatibility, preferred by some over Excel, lacks pivot table features. |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | LibreOffice Calc | Moderately capable, reasonable compatibility, some features require a hands-on approach to use. |
| Microsoft Access | LibreOffice Base | Operational, but still a little rough around the edges. As with most Database applications, there is no cross-compatibility with Access. |
| Microsoft Publisher | Scribus | Professional level product competing with the likes of Adobe Pagemaker, capabilities far above those of Publisher, though may be too much for average users. Other choices could be LibreOffice Draw or Inkscape, neither of which are true page layout applications, though can be used to achieve similar results. |
Overall, LibreOffice (and OpenOffice) is a very good and reasonably well refined full Office Productivity suite for most users and small businesses with simpler needs. OpenOffice and LibreOffice are essentially the same product, though LibreOffice has more features and development is active and fast, whereas OpenOffice development has stagnated.
Writer has very good compatibility for most Microsoft Word and Microsoft Works documents and is an excellent tool for home users, students and small businesses. Word documents with highly advanced formatting or those using fonts not available on your system may have some page layout issues. Documents assembled using some advanced Microsoft Word features may render incorrectly or may not display the content at all.
Calc shares a similar level of compatibility with Microsoft Excel as does Writer with Word and is an excellent tool for home users, students and small businesses. Opening highly formatted Microsoft Excel spreadsheets with protected content or pivot tables is usually successful, though portions of the content may not display.
Impress is a few years behind in terms of features, but it does display most PowerPoint slide shows quite successfully. Some PowerPoint transitions may be skipped during slideshow playback and if fonts used in the presentation are not available on your system, individual slide content may have incorrect placement.
When saving files created using Open Source applications such as OpenOffice and LibreOffice, a file extension like .odt or .ods is used, which is not compatible with Microsoft Office. If you need to share files with Microsoft Office users, when you save your file, you will need to click on File --> Save As and choose a Microsoft Office type extension like .doc .xls or .ppt before sending them out. See also OpenOffice Migration Guide
Other Popular Applications
| Appication | Equivalent | Status |
| Internet Explorer | Mozilla Firefox | Excellent, very popular, faster and more capable than Internet Explorer. |
| Internet Explorer | Google Chrome | Very good, easily the fastest web browser on the planet, a small number of sites do not display correctly. |
| Microsoft Outlook | Mozilla Thunderbird | Excellent, rock solid, very popular, best search capabilities, install lightning extension to get calendar function |
| Windows Media Player | VLC | Excellent, very fast, uses a minimilastic Graphical User Interface, Media playback, conversion and streaming capabilities |
| Adobe Photoshop | GIMP | Very popular, very capable, lots of features, perfect for web graphics, 16-bit colour depth coming soon. |
| Winzip | 7-Zip | Excellent, best used with right click menu, 30% better compression than Winzip when using 7z compression, handles most compressed file types. |
All of the above Open Source Applications are industry class full release versions with no time restrictions and no feature limitations. These are only a handful of the Open Source applications available for computer users. With Open Source software, it is fully possible to run a complete computer system without any manufacturer, developer or maintainer induced deliberate license restrictions.
Alternative Operating Systems and Software
Before there was Windows, there was Unix, and a few other types of Operating Systems in use. Some of these have passed by the wayside, others are stronger than they have ever been. One is FreeBSD, the base onto which the famous Apple Macs are now using, but only available on Apple hardware, so not really suitable for PC Systems, which is what we specialise with.
Enter Linux, the successor to Unix. Without Linux, most of us would have no internet as we now know it. If you have broadband, you most likely already have Linux in your household or business without even knowing it and it just works. This super reliable technology has been used since the early 90's, with an explosion in its use in 1994 for Web and Email hosting servers, and now, due to its very rapid progress in usability, it has grown in popularity as a truly viable OS for Desktop and Notebook systems.
Open Source Software
Windows users are used to software having to be purchased, licensed, activated and validated and the vendor has the right to change the license agreement any time they wish and it is the users responsability to keep up with these changes and to ensure they comply. Essentially, the license is there to protect the vendor.
Open Source Software (OSS) has a license too, but it's purpose is to protect the codebase from being snapped up by a single entity and manupulated for their sole benefit at the expense of their repective users. The major point of difference with OSS is the license essentially protects the users and the freedoms inherent with the provided software.
Another benefit of OSS licenced software is they enable a freedom of re-distribution that is not possible with Proprietary licensed software. What this means for customers that choose an Open Source Operating System is their system can be preloaded with fully functional, rock solid, highly secure, industry class applications that have no deliberate built in feature limitations or trial periods, which are avaiable for use from the first time a computer is started by the end user.
Sourceforge, the softwarehouse for OSS
The SourceForge is dedicated to making open source projects successful and has approximately 260,000 OSS projects maintained by 2.7 million developers with free software for Linux, Apple and Windows users. With the face of IT changing so rapidly, it is time to embrace the advantages of Open Source Software over proprietary closed source software.
Linux on Mobile Devices
With the explosion of smart phones, no doubt you've already heard about Android. Well Android is Linux and it's slated as the iPod and iPhone killer app. Its proliferation is absolute evidence of how far Linux and OSS has come.
Linux on the Desktop
Linux on the Desktop used to be command line driven, but now it's point and click, and just as easy to use a regular Windows system. Some hardware and software vendors are a little slow to take up support, so not all hardware devices will just work, but many devices will just work simply by plugging them in. You do not have to buy Linux to use it, because the software is provided gratis to anybody that wants to use it. A computer can have both Windows and Linux on it at the same time, this is called dual-booting, where the operating system you wish to use is chosen shortly after starting your computer. If you choose Windows, you system will run Windows, if you choose Linux, your system will run Linux and neither will interfere with the other, however your files created in Windows will be available to Linux, though not the other way around. This is a deliberate limitation of Windows, not a limitation of Linux.
Linux Applications
Software designed for Windows will not work in Linux, just like parts from a Ford can not be used on a Holden, however, many software programs used by Windows users have come directly from Linux, so a particular application that you already know of can often work significantly better in Linux than it does in Windows. Linux uses software repositories with thousands of titles available by a few mouse clicks, most of it at no monetary cost whatsoever and the quality of this free software is often very impressive.
Linux Security
At this point in time, Linux does not absolutely require Antivirus or Antispyware to protect itself because it is not actively targeted and partly because malware writers put Linux into the too hard basket to effectively code malicious code for. Anti Malware and Anti Virus software is available for Linux to filter out any infected files that may pass through a Linux system, incapable of infecting it but fully capable of damaging a windows recipient via email.
Linux Choices
Linux comes in a variety of "flavours" called distributions, many of which can be found at the Distrowatch. Our recommended distribution for new systems and refurbished computers is SimplyMEPIS
Our recommended distribution for older systems (8-12 Years old) or those that want extreemely fast new systems is antiX
Linux can also be installed as the primary or only OS on a PC based Desktop or Notebook System, saving the user from potentially paying hefty licensing fees for excessive software packages of which they only require 2% of its capabilities.
Call us now and ask how we can help to improve your IT future with Open Source Software.