Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Saturday, August 02, 2008 4:27:51 PM
I saved two popular pieces of open source software for the end. I'm bored with reviewing software, so next week, I'll look into how FOSS (free and open source software) can affect education.
Mozilla's Firefox
The
Mozilla Firefox internet browser is an extremely popular replacement for Microsoft's Explorer. It deserves its popularity. It introduced tabbed browsing years before Explorer. It does a great job blocking pop-ups. It's really helpful (especially on Windows) about blocking spyware.
Additionally, Firefox has a number of add-ons that provide many additional features, as desired. In using Firefox, things may look a little different, but overall, its function is the same as Explorer. It's free, but since Explorer comes packaged with Windows, that's not so much an advantage.
I suggest you try it. If you don't like it, the price was right.
Mozilla's Thunderbird
Mozilla's Thunderbird is an E-mail client. It can be compared to Apple's Mail and Microsoft's Outlook. In all honesty, I like Apple's Mail. I use it to get mail from this blog and for a personal e-mail account. I use Thunderbird for work.
The advantages of Thunderbird are price and add-ons. My favorite add-on is its calendar. I use it for lesson plans at school. That's convenient for someone like me who switches throughout the day between OS X, Linux, and Windows machines. I can fix my lesson plans on any of them.
As far as features, Thunderbird competes well. As for price, it is free. Try it!
Linux
How does one review an entire operating system in a few paragraphs? Linux defies review because it comes in so many different faces. It's not like Windows or OS X. If you use the Fedora flavor of Linux, it's a totally different experience from using the Ubuntu flavor or the SUSE flavor.
After the initial discomfort over "different", you'll find that modern operating systems are quite good. (Except for Windows Vista...though XP was pretty good.) They do what they're supposed to do very well: run software, run hardware, run the display, manage computer memory, etc.
A good operating system is one you don't notice. It should run the machine so well that you focus on your task, not the machine. The infamous "blue screen of death" is what you don't want. All three are good at avoiding this. So why Linux?
Linux is free. You can try it by making your computer dual-boot or even by getting a live distribution that runs off a DVD (or even a floppy). Other than being different, it really won't disappoint.
Linux works well with most hardware. Nowadays, you really don't need to do much customization unless you locate a strange piece of hardware. Linux has a lot of great software available, and most of it will read Microsoft stuff. You can find software for almost anything you want on Linux.
The real advantages, other than price, are security, choice, and speed. I'm no security expert, but Linux has a UNIX base, so it's very secure, like OS X. Windows is getting there. Speed is generally better than Windows, but this is tough to test because usage and individual settings can vary it.
The big one in this list is choice. You can try many flavors of Linux. You can try several different window managers. There are competing versions of almost every piece of software. If you're really good, you can even jump in and create or improve a piece of software. Linux welcomes this!
This was a quick review and barely scrapes the surface of what I use Linux for.
Next week, I want to get into the relationship between FOSS and education.