BlogDale

Mr C is asking about open Source software. I was responding to his post when I thought I might be better off posting here and using trackback.

Open Source junkie that I am, I’ve used all the items on his list for quite some time. Predictably, my fave open source software is Moodle. See eCognition if you want some (commercial plug).

Scribus is a superb OS DTP program.  Unlike the M$ offering, it maintains standards.

We use GIMP alongside paint.net (not OS) on the school network, and despite the cries of “totally unusable, you need a degree in nuclear physics to use it” from people who really should know better, GIMP is excellent. Get this - at our school an Art student teacher used GIMP with a year 7 class to do popart pictures using their own portraits. With no preconceptions of unusable software on the part of teacher nor pupils, the lesson went down a storm. None of these people had a degree in higher Computer Science. Mind you, if your photoshop-savvy friends sniff at it, show them Gimpshop. And remind them what they paid for their (legal) copy of Photoshop.

WINK is another fave of mine. Rather than getting kids to produce lengthy tomes for their Nationals coursework, we’re gettting them to record evidence using WINK. It creates a swf which we’re putting on the VLE so the moderator can see it.
I think Nvu is an excellent replacement for Dreamweaver (particularly if you haven’t bought Dreamweaver yet). Another alternative is html-kit. I’ll be using it with Year 7 later this year.

AVG. Wouldn’t be without it. Honestly. It’s freeware rather than OS though.

Videolan - use it instead of Windo$e media player. Works for me. Freedom means more than “no cost”.

Inkscape - oh boy, I love this vector-graphics editor. Only today Year 9 spent half an hour learning the basics of Inkscape to produce a scalable logo in svg and png formats. One of my favourites is it’s ability to produce vector images from rasters. Cartoonify your friends!

Thunderbird - if I wasn’t using Googlemail these days, I’d still use Thunderbird although there might be a blip on the development horizon as Mozilla are concentrating on other things. (Actually I still do use Thunderbird too).

If you need ftp, take a look at Filezilla . I’m really impressed with it. Does what it says on the tin.  WinSCP is a great SSH tool too, I use it all the time.

If you’re into project management try Open Workbench . Can be a bit complicated but worth a try. Apparently GanttPV is an alternative but I haven’t tried it.

Blender is awesome for 3D modelling but there’s a steep learning curve (I’m at the bottom, looking up). A more creative colleague than I uses Wings3d and swears by it. Another learning curve for me though, I’m afraid.

Synergy allows computers on a network to share keyboard and mouse.  You probably need it, you just don’t know it yet.

I could go on - it’s late though.  Take a look at this list of OS. I concur with most of it.

Soon I shall get to compile a CD of OS for the kids at school so they can use school software on their home computers without needing a licence.