A Byte of Python

Appendix A. Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS)

FLOSS is based on the concept of a community which itself is based on the concept of sharing, and particularly the sharing of knowledge. FLOSS is free for usage, modification and redistribution.

You are already familiar with FLOSS since you have been using Python all along! If you want to know more about such FLOSS, you can explore the following list. I have listed some major FLOSS as well as those FLOSS which work on both Linux and Windows so that you can try out these software without the need to switch to Linux immediately although you eventually will ;-).

  • Linux. This is a free and open-source operating system that the whole world is embracing! It was started by Linus Torvalds as a student. Now, it is giving competition to Windows. It is a full-featured kernel and the new 2.6 kernel is a major breakthrough with respect to speed, stability and scalability. [ Linux Kernel ]

  • Knoppix. This is a distribution of Linux which runs off the CD! There is no need to install it. You can reboot your computer, pop this CD in the drive and then start using a full-featured Linux distribution! You can use all the various FLOSS that come with a standard Linux distribution - you can run your Python programs, compile C programs or even burn CDs using Knoppix (of course, you will have to have two separate drives for this). Then, reboot your computer, remove the CD and then you are back to Windows as if nothing happened at all. [Knoppix ]

  • Fedora. This is a project sponsored by Red Hat which is the standard Linux distribution. It contains the the Linux kernel, the X Window System, the KDE and GNOME desktop environments and the plethora of FLOSS they provide and all this in an easy-to-use and easy-to-install manner. If you are a complete beginner, then I would recommend that you try Mandrake Linux. The newly released Mandrake 10 Linux is just too awesome for words. [ Fedora Linux, Mandrake Linux ]

  • OpenOffice.org. This is an excellent complete office suite based on the Sun Microsystems' StarOffice software. You can use OpenOffice to open and edit MS Word and MS Powerpoint files as well as it's own open and excellent XML-based formats. This is the one-stop shop for all your office needs. It runs on both Linux and Windows. The upcoming OpenOffice 2.0 has some radical improvements to it. [ OpenOffice ]

  • Mozilla Firefox. This is the next generation web browser which is predicted to beat Internet Explorer (in terms of market share only ;-) in a few years. It is blazingly fast and has gained critical acclaim for its sensible and impressive features. It works on Linux, Windows, Mac OS and many other platforms. [ Mozilla Firefox ]

  • Mono. This is an open source implementation of the Microsoft .NET platform which allows .NET applications to be created and run on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS, as well as other platforms. Mono implements the ECMA standards - Microsoft, Intel and HP have submitted the CLR (Common Language Runtime) and the C# language to ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers' Association) which has accepted them as open standards. This is a step in the direction of ISO standards on the lines of ISO C/C++.

    Currently, there is a complete C# compiler mcs (which itself has been written in C#!), a feature-complete ASP.NET implementation, many ADO.NET providers for database servers and many many more features being added and improved everyday. [ Mono, ECMA, Microsoft .NET ]

  • Apache. This is a popular open source web server. In fact, it is the most popular web server on the planet. It runs nearly 60% of the websites out there! Yes, that's right Apache handles more websites than all the competition (including Microsoft IIS) combined. It runs on Linux as well as Windows. [ Apache ]

  • MySQL. This is an extremely popular free and open source database server. It runs on both Linux and Windows. [ MySQL ]

  • MPlayer. This is the video player for Linux. It can play anything from DivX to MP3 to Ogg to VCDs and DVDs. Who says open source ain't fun? [ MPlayer ]

  • Movix. This is a Linux distribution which (like Knoppix) runs off the CD but uses MPlayer to play movies from your CD. You can even create eMovix CDs which are bootable CDs - just pop in the CD into the drive, reboot the system and the movie starts playing by itself! You don't even need a hard disk to play eMovix CDs. [ Movix ]

This list just gives a brief idea - there are many more free and open software and technologies out there such as the Perl language, PHP language, PostNuke content management system, PHProjekt groupware, PostgreSQL database server (a real workhorse and very reliable), TORCS racing game, KDevelop IDE, the famous Anjuta IDE (by the famous Indian Mr. Naba Kumar), XVid codec, Xine - the movie player, Apache Software Foundation projects such as the Xerces parser and the Cocoon, ... this list just could go on forever.

For an incredibly huge list of FLOSS, see the following websites.

To get the latest buzz in the free and open source world, see the following websites.

If you want to get the latest Linux distributions and open source software on CDs, then see the following websites.

So, go ahead and explore the vast, free and open world of FLOSS!