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Free Open Source Software Solutions

Open Source software provides low cost, high value software following open standards. This software can be peer reviewed to achieve better quality and reliability without vendor lock in. Open standards allow documents to interact effectively across applications.  

Open Source Software Advantages

  • Cut operating costs for software and licences.
  • Scale to software requirement changes quickly.
  • Scale up virtual computing environments with less licencing issues.
  • Less issue with product versions not being backward compatible.
  • Lower hardware requirements in most cases.

Open Source Software Disadvantages

  • Product upgrades may be a manual process in some cases
  • Training staff to work with new applications
  • Conversion of document types may be required

Application Comparisons

Application Type Proprietary Application Open Source Application Cloud Computing Application
Email Client Outlook  Thunderbird, Evolution Gmail
Email Server Exchange Sendmail Google Premier Apps
Database Server Microsoft SQL, Oracle My SQL, PostgreSQL Amazon Simple DB
Web Site Server Internet Information Server Apache, Joomla, Zope Google Sites, Amazon EC2
File Server Windows 2003/2008 server Samba Amazon Simple Storage Service
Office Applications Microsoft Office Open Office, Star Office Google Docs, Zoho, Microsoft Azure
Operating System Windows XP/Vista/7/2003/2008,MacOX 

Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, SuSE, RedHat Fedora, Knoppix)            

Go Grid
Internet Browser Internet Explorer, Safari Firefox VMware Browser Appliance
HTML Editors for web pages Dreamweaver komposer, Joomla, Nvu Google Docs
Image Editors Photoshop  Gimp Flickr
Backup NtBackup Rdiff-backup, Clonezilla Backup Direct
Anti Virus Norton 360, Trend Micro amavsid, Span Assassin, ClamAV Trend Micro Encryption Gateway appliance, Censor Net appliance
Programming Visual Studio .NET Java, Gcc, Ruby on Rails, Mono.NET Google Web Toolkit
VOIP Telephony  NEC soft phones Asterisks on local server FreeSWITCH http://www.applicationsnet.com/
Virtual Servers VMware, Windows 2008 Server Zen http://www.applicationsnet.com/
Virtual Computer/s on a Desktop VMware Workstation, VMware Player, Microsoft Virtual PC Zen http://www.applicationsnet.com/


How much does you computer applications cost each year? Are there alternatives?

What source software can bring computing total cost of ownership down

Open Source Implementation Considerations


  • Desktop hardware with Linux appear to be approximately $300 US cheaper that Microsoft Windows 7 Professional.
  • A further saving of $230 US can be made by using Open Office instead of Microsoft Office.
  • Compare the cost of Cloud Servers version local physical servers.
  • Consider if local server consolidation using virtualisation may improve local server utilization, reduce space needed, reduce power needs and reduce cooling needs.
  • Can specialized application be provided using Software as a Service model?
  • What Open Source Software can run under Windows Operating System? http://www.theopendisc.com/
  • Can older hardware or thin client hardware be used with virtual desktop to reduce or eliminate desktop hardware upgrade cycles?
 Linux is a free open source operating system for desktop, laptop and server computer types.

Open Source Software References

http://sourceforge.net/ Over 230,000 Open Source Software Projects to browse, download and try. Over 34 million site visits per month.
http://www.novell.com/linux/products.html Netbook, Desktop, Server, Virtual Server operating systems with open source application lists. 
http://www.linux.org/ 
http://www.linux.com/ 
http://sites.force.com/appexchange/apex/home Software as a Service Provider
http://opensource.org/ Open Source Initiative





Matthewb Homepage Energy Efficiency Section Energy Software Calculators Efficiency Quiz's Information Technology Section Computer Efficiency Solar Section Presentations Efficiency eBook Matthewb Site Map