It’s often the most flashy and rapidly-developed open source applications that get the most attention. Most people focus on projects like Beryl, Metisse, Firefox, OpenOffice.org and Ubuntu. But we can’t forget the importance of the open source software an average user doesn’t see every day. This is a list of nine such programs and libraries.
I feel lucky that I do not really have to deal with Windows on a regular basis. Unfortunately, most other people are not so lucky. Those who have to fix malware-infested Windows computers are perhaps the worst off of us all. Windows computers are notorious for getting infected quite easily, and then being a major hassle to clean up. I’m talking about a scenario like the one described in an article at Slashdot.
Today I was pointed to an article giving 10 reasons to use Windows Vista by a topic over at OSNews. I have read the reasons, and they may very well be factual. My opposition of them mostly derives from the fact that the capabilities listed are nothing new or special. Many of them have been around for a decade, if not more, on existing systems.
I recently saw a post about mission critical systems running on Windows at Slashdot. That particular post is about the use of Windows on computers running or involved with various medical systems, and it suggests that Windows isn’t a suitable operating system for such uses. I’d tend to agree.
When considering the present needs of most home users, Sun’s ZFS is no doubt overkill. Developed for Sun’s powerful Solaris operating environment, ZFS brings truly advanced filesystem technologies to the masses. For some background with respect to the benefits and capabilities that ZFS offers, I’d have to recommend an article I read today that briefly introduces ZFS. With recent versions of Mac OS X reportedly offering some degree of ZFS support, it will likely see increasing use on what can be considered typical home computers.
I have worked with various UNIX systems many times over the years. One of the most prevalent systems in industry has been Sun’s Solaris. While I tend to use FreeBSD and KDE these days, I saw a post at Slashdot that talked of Solaris and CDE that I wanted to comment on.
I know a number of people who advocate the use of Xubuntu on resource-constrained desktop systems. But there has recently been talk about how the resource usage of Xubuntu is growing at a rapid pace. Along these lines, today I read an article that considers the use of Ubuntu Lite as an alternative to Xubuntu for those with low spec computers. I haven’t used Ubuntu Lite myself, but I would like to make a recommendation of an open source UNIX-like system for low-end desktop computers: NetBSD.