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Years ago, there was a vigorous debate about whether open source software (also known as Free Software or software libre) could ever compete with proprietary software. The debate is largely over, with millions of end-users having switched to open source software, and major companies and corporations depending their business operations on it. Even usability, the traditional handicap of open source, is a problem that is gradually being solved. Migrating to open source is not difficult; much open source software is available on Windows, so you won't have to switch to GNU/Linux right away if you don't want to. If you want to save money and free yourself from vendor lock-in, then start making the switch yourself.
Steps - Try out OpenOffice.org which is an open source office suite, available for many platforms (including Windows). It ships with a word processor, spreadsheet, a presenter (akin to PowerPoint), an illustrator, and a database manager. Alternatively, if you only need a word processor and spreadsheet application, AbiWord is a fast and lightweight wordprocessor and Gnumeric is its counterpart spreadsheet program.
- Use the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is a free alternative to costly raster image processing programs. It is available for Windows as well as Unix-like systems. There are many GIMP tutorials available on the Web; we have a category devoted to this.
- Install Inkscape if you want a full-featured and easy-to-use alternative to the likes of CorelDraw.
- Make use of the VLC media player or KMPlayer which play almost all common types of videos without the need for downloading additional codecs.
- Install CDex if you need an excellent and easy-to-use, although Windows-only, CD ripping program.
- Start surfing with Firefox. Firefox is a free, cross-platform web browser that offers greater privacy and prevents pop-ups, spyware and viruses. It is also customisable to insane degrees. If you are after an FTP client, FireFTP (a Firefox add-on) will do the trick within your browser; FileZilla is a cross-platform FTP client with many features.
- If you are a system adminstrator, manage Windows user profiles with Script Start Community, an easy-to-use popular Open Source logon scripting replacement solution that supports Linux using Samba as well as Windows Server. The solution enables you to have desktops automatically map drives, printers, setup MAPI profiles, customize user/desktop settings, and more. Script Start is also fully compatible with Citrix XenDesktop and VMware VDI technologies.
- Use Content Management Systems like Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress for starting your own web sites. You don't need to know any HTML, PHP, or any other language to manage your own websites. There are plenty of free themes and add-ons available on the Web for these, too.
- Install some open source games. This is one area in which open source still has not beaten the proprietary software world. Nevertheless, there are still some excellent and fun projects out there. Sauerbraten is an incredibly fast-paced, fun and compact first person shooter (and AssaultCube is a genetically-related, slower-paced version with more "realistic" weapons), and Freeciv is an empire-building strategy game. The Linux Game Tome tracks games for Linux, most of which are open source, and a good many of which work on Windows as well. BZFlag, a multi-player tank game, is one of the most downloaded games on SourceForge.net with a very active community.
- If you're ready to take the plunge, you might want to check out the world's most famous open source product: the GNU/Linux operating system. These days, it is a very viable alternative to Windows and runs on almost all hardware out there (including obsolete hardware that current versions of Windows will not touch). There are also several other open source Unix clones, such as OpenSolaris (derived from AT&T System V) and the various open source BSD projects.
Tips - If you are nervous about making the switch, try some portable applications (portable apps for short), which are software programs that do not require any kind of formal installation to be executed. They can be stored on a removable storage device such as a USB flash drive, flash card, CD-ROM, or even a floppy disk, enabling them to be used on multiple computers.
- If you are running GNU/Linux, you can install some of your Windows applications (setup files) with WINE.
- Avoid services such as Zune and iTunes that use copy protection on the music you download. This is not just awkward; this makes it impossible (and in some jurisdictions, illegal) to play the music that you paid for in anything but the software that the music service sees fit to support—which excludes open source software altogether. Services such as eMusic and Amazon, which allow you to legally buy and download music in the universally-supported and DRM-free MP3 format, will not lock you into a single vendor.
- Consider contributing to open source projects. You don't have to be a software developer to do this. If you are a good writer, consider writing documentation (which many, if not most, open source projects need badly). If you are good at game artwork or 3D modeling, consider contributing your work to an open source game project. Even if you're only good at telling whether software is working properly or not, start filing useful bug reports with the authors.
- On the other hand, if you are a developer and want to do the most you can for the open source and free software world, you might want to look at the Free Software Foundation's list of high-priority projects.
- Most distributions are shipped in many languages and you can customize your desktop with your local language. Check if your language is available in GNOME translation project. Knoppix, a distribution of GNU/Linux that boots from CD ROM without using the hard disk drive (a "LiveCD"), was developed by Mark Knoppler originally in German.
- A popular and user-friendly GNU/Linux distribution is Ubuntu. Boot from the LiveCD to see a full working version, with no install needed!
- Join a user forum like [www.linuxquestions.org LinuxQuestions.org] or a forum for the respective application or GNU/Linux distribution. There are a lot of people out there willing to help beginners. When asking for a solution to the problem, always try to be concise and informative. Give as much information that you know about the problem and about your computer configuration. Be polite and patient and someone will surely help you. When you notice someone with the problem you are sure that you know how to solve help him out.
Warnings - While open source software has made massive progress in usability in the last decade, some of it can still be difficult to use and have awkward documentation.
- When you want to deploy GNU/Linux for your small or mid-sized company, make use of the help and support from the respective distribution officially by paying them. You need some experience to configure and setup networking servers.
Things You'll Need - A computer.
- An Internet connection. The faster the better; nearly all open source software is primarily available online.
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