Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Monday, July 28, 2008 3:55:47 PM
I want to save you hundreds of your dollars. If you're in a position to make software decisions for your school (or business), I can save you thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Feel free to send me part the savings. The magic word is "FOSS" which stands for "Free and Open Source Software."
In my personal life and my professional life, I use mostly FOSS. I use a few proprietary programs for various reasons, but most of the rest of it is FOSS. In all honesty, I do use a few proprietary programs: I love my Mac. However, this post and the next few are about FOSS. Try it! As I noted in my last 3 entries, we need to think outside the box.
OpenOffice
OpenOffice was my first introduction to FOSS. When you hear its name, think "Microsoft Office." It's a suite of programs that include a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database, a drawing program, and presentation software. I won't try to compare it to the Microsoft product. There are plenty of emotional arguments about that out there...and a few factual ones.
I will say that users of office software, either Microsoft or OpenOffice, rarely use even a fraction of what the software has available. For a huge example: how many of my readers use the "styles" on their word processors? This feature is a huge labor saver. It improves consistency of documents, portability, and it makes it easier to edit and change documents. Your boss wants headings to be blue? One quick change if you used styles.
There are a lot of other features you don't use because you don't need them. Many of us entirely avoid the entire database program in their office suite. People who could be well served by a database, use the spreadsheet instead. Of course, many of us (including me) don't most of the functions in the spreadsheet.
You probably won't miss most of the features in Microsoft Office if you switch to OpenOffice. You may have to relearn the interface, but it really isn't that different. Ever move to a new town? Migrating to a new piece of software is much easier. Try it out. The price is right.
I'll offer you a discount on that first check you're sending me. The cheap version of Microsoft office costs only $150. The professional version costs $500. By that logic, I've saved most of you $150. That should pay for the new graphing calculator I really want.
More Software
Just a quick preview: over the next few days, I want to note a few more programs to try out. At the end, I want to do two things I didn't do when I covered this topic next year. First, I want to talk about use of this software in school. Second, I want to talk about familiarity vs. functionality.
The software I plan to cover includes: LYX, KeyJNote, Dr. Geo, GIMP, Inkscape, Linux, LATEX, Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, F-Spot, Xournal, Tellico, Scribus, and Moodle. I have a few days, so I may think of some other software. Save some money.