... enterprise-level support (RedHat, Novell, Ubuntu) ..

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• Open Source Software You Can Use
• Michelle Murrain
• Nonprofit Open Source Initiative
• MetaCentric Technology Advising
• May 20, 2008

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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
• QA

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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Types of Software

• Operating Systems
• Server software
• Fileserver software
• Web/mail server software
• Database systems
• Web application platforms
• Desktop applications

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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.
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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

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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.)

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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.)

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Drupal
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Joomla
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MediaWiki
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Project Pier
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Moodle (Courseware)
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phpBB
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Server Applications Business Processes

• SQL-Ledger server-based accounting package
• CiviCRM server-based CRM/Fundraising package
• SugarCRM server-based enterprise CRM package

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SQL-Ledger
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SugarCRM
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CiviCRM
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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

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Firefox
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Thunderbird
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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)

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OO Writer
OO Calc
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GIMP
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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

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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

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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

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What are the barriers to FOSS adoption

• Familiarity with proprietary tools
• Lack of support
• Lack of staff expertise
• Lack of training

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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

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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.

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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.