Open Source Software You Can Use

Michelle MurrainNonprofit Open Source InitiativeMetaCentric Technology Advising

May 20, 2008

Outline

What is free and open source software? (very quick)

Stages of open source development Using Open Source software Types of software How to get support Q&A

What is free and open source software?

Software is released under a license that allows:

Access to source code Modification of code Re-release of code (in certain ways that differ by

license) This is free as in 'libre'

Open source software does not have to be without cost to obtain, but almost always is (free as in 'beer')

Many “free” software products are not 'libre' – not open source

Stages of open source development

Pre-Alpha Maybe just a design One or a few developers Usually doesn't work No documentation

Alpha Very first version Usually buggy Still a few developers. No community Little or no documentation

Stages, cont.

Beta Can still be buggy Might have more developers A forming community

Mature Software works well Good documentation (books, even) Good UI (if applicable) Active developer and user communities

I'm going to talk largely about mature software.

Using Open Source Software

There are open source tools you can download right now and use, no matter what your platform, that are useful, mature, secure and easy to use.

If your website is on a Unix or Linux based host – you've been using open source software already.

Some of the software I'll talk about you might implement with help of a provider.

Types of Software

Operating Systems Server software

Fileserver software Web/mail server software Database systems Web application platforms

Desktop applications

About this review

This is not an exhaustive list of all free and open source software that is mature and usable. But it is a good review of most of the software out there that is going to be useful to nonprofit organizations.

There are two common, mature open source operating systems...

Linux RedHat/Fedora Debian Ubuntu

Kubuntu Edubuntu others

Mandriva SUSE and many, many

others...

BSD FreeBSD OpenBSD NetBSD Darwin (Basis of Mac

OS X – based on FreeBSD)

a few others, not much used

Operating Systems

Linux and BSD are very mature and strong on the server/appliance side

Varied flavors of Linux are used in network and security appliances

Linux and BSD are virtually ubiquitous in web hosting environments, from virtual host companies, to large enterprises (like Yahoo and Google.)

How to get Linux

There are commercial versions of Linux that include enterprise-level support (RedHat, Novell, Ubuntu)

You can buy a box sometimes (relatively inexpensive) in a store (may come with installation support.)

Download an ISO from the website of the distribution or a mirror, either directly or via bittorrent (won't come with any support except community support.)

Buy a CD from OSDisc, or another vendor (also won't come with support – these just duplicate the CDs from the websites – so they are cheap if bandwidth is an issue.)

Server Applications

Samba – allows Linux to act as a Windows file and print server – very mature

Mailman – mailing list manager Applications for internet services and systems

administration very mature, some in use for 15 years or more

Server Applications

LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python)

This has become an industry standard web application development stack

Included in all unix-based virtual hosting services.

Each component of the stack is Mature PHP/Perl/Python are programming languages

Ruby on Rails Newer web framework that is gaining steam.

Uses the Ruby language.

Server Applications

Apache – industry standard web server. It runs twice as many webservers as the closest competitor (MS IIS).

MySQL – very popular database server PostgreSQL – considered as good as Oracle

by many Tomcat – project of Apache, used for running

Java web applications

Server Applications

Web platforms/CMS Drupal Joomla Plone These three have become standard. They have

overlapping feature sets, and they are differently customizable. But all are very solid CMS platforms

Others: Typo3 Alfresco

Blogging platforms

Wordpress – specialized for blogging – the others can be used that way, but if all you want is a blog – Wordpress is great.

Movable Type – newly open source, also specialized for blogging

Drupal

Joomla

MediaWiki

Project Pier

Moodle (Courseware)

phpBB

Server Applications: Business Processes

SQL-Ledger – server-based accounting package

CiviCRM – server-based CRM/Fundraising package

SugarCRM – server-based enterprise CRM package

SQL-Ledger

SugarCRM

CiviCRM

Desktop Software

Mozilla Suite (all platforms) Firefox Thunderbird Spinoffs:

Flock Camino (Mac browser) Sunbird (Calendaring - not so mature)

Open Office (all platforms) Adium (Mac OS X) GIMP

Firefox

Thunderbird

Open Office

Has word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, drawing program, HTML and XML editors, and a database.

It will read and write Microsoft Office formats (except Office Open XML).

It uses open standards for native document formats

It exports PDFs OO Base ≠ Access (way too immature)

OO Writer

OO Calc

GIMP

Desktop Linux

As of 2008 – good everyday operating system for some desktops

Ubuntu 8.04 probably the best bet Xandros, Fedora, Linspire, SUSE, others There will be snags

Hardware drivers some proprietary formats missing or immature software

For Whom?

Great for Email/Web stations Great for Kiosks Great for staff who only need the basic apps Probably not for most power users (unless they

are serious developers) Not for creatives – graphic, publishing, media

applications are lacking Great for developers

What FOSS is being used in nonprofits?

A recent NOSI survey found: 60% of respondents used FOSS on webservers 80% used FOSS on Windows desktops (largely

Firefox) Many fewer (~20%) used FOSS as a desktop

operating system

What are the barriers to FOSS adoption

1)Familiarity with proprietary tools

2)Lack of support

3)Lack of staff expertise

4)Lack of training

How to get support for FOSS

Evolving support model Developer and user communities – this was the

traditional, “self-help” model of technical support – this is, for many nonprofits, not enough support for implementation

Consultants and trainers Companies (RedHat, MySQL, Canonical) In our space: Technology Providers are

increasingly working with FOSS

Next Steps

Try Firefox if you haven't yet Try out Open Office Try running a “liveCD” of Linux – a way to do

a test drive on your computer without installing anything

Have a need for simple email/web stations? Don't want to buy new hardware? Think of using Linux with older hardware.

Your Questions?

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Resources

http://wiki.metacentric.org/ - list of links for software mentioned here, and other resources.

http://nosi.net/projects/primer - Updated Open Source primer written in 2007.

http://nosi.net - NOSI's website.