Many people pay no attention to opensource software. They assume that since it is free, it is not as good as expencive software, or it does not have any support. Many linux advocates have fought this battle for years.
When I first started working with linux, an opensource Unix-like operating system, I too assumed it had no support.
Shortly after I installed Linux, I found that I was not able to use my scanner. A driver was not there. With no support phone number to call, I found a Linux News group and posted my problem. Later that same night I received an e-mail with a driver that a person had writen for the scanner and instructions to install it. It worked Flawlessly..
That made me start thinking about this "No Support" argument. If this problem had happened on my Windows computer and I had contacted the scanner manufacture or Microsoft, do you think I would have received a custom writen driver with good directions just hours after I requested it? Heck No!
While some opensource products may not have a company supplying support, they do have a wide spread comunity of IT users and Opensource advocates there to help. On the other hand, some opensource products do have a support model and are just less feature rich versions of pay software.
Here are just a few examples of opensource software that is worth having a look at for personal use or Small Business:
OpenOffice - Open office is similar to Microsoft Office. Openoffice was writen by Sun Microsystems and Sun currently does offer paid support on the product.
Open office contains applications similar to Microsoft word, excel, and Powerpoint. They do not currently offer a replacement for Microsoft Outlook or Publisher. Check out Open Office at http://www.openoffice.org/
Asterisk - Asterisk is an Opensource PBX Phone system based on VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Asterisk has been deployed with as many as 10,000 handsets! That's a big, robust phone system! This all works over VOIP and includes features such as Transfer, Voicemail, IVR with time conditions and routing based on Phone number called and/or Caller ID number. Don't want your daughters boyfriend to call after 10pm? Setup a rule to watch for that caller ID and send right to voicemail after 10pm, or have fun with him and make your own special message to play for him! :)
VOIP systems are very cost effective and well suited to Multi-site and remote user environments. Phone cost in the range of $125 to $400+ depending on features and quality.
Asterisk runs on Linux. If you don't know linux, that's ok. There are many distributions such as Elastics, AsteriskNOW and Trixbox. Just put the CD in the drive, follow the prompts, then open a web browser and configure. WARNING! Use your old computer that you dont care about. This will wipe out your entire hard drive. Good news though. Asterisk requires very little power, so that old Pentium 3 you bought in 2001 will work just fine to get started.
Asterisk has a strong following of knowledgable users and developers. A company called Digium also supports asterisk and makes Analog and T1 cards for asterisk as well.
SugarCRM - Many small companes just can't afford a great CRM package. CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Managment". It tracks your clients, potential clients, potential sales, and all interaction you have had with a customer.
SugarCRM is web based, so you can use it anywhere. It also works with Asterisk to allow you to dial phone numbers directly from SugarCRM on your Asterisk phone! Use your iPhone more than a deskphone? Then download KinitoPro to your iPhone and get access to SugarCRM from your iPhone.
SugarCRM is often installed with Asterisk preconfigured distributions such as Elastix and AsteriskNOW, so if you trying one of the distributions I listed above for asterisk, chances are you've already installed SugarCRM!
SugarCRM is opensource, however, has a more robust paid version and a support model. See http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/demo/sugar-suite.html for a demo of SugarCRM features.
TrueCrypt - When security matters, TrueCrypt is the answer. TrueCrypt creates Encrypted files or can encrypt your entire computer! You might recall a Whitehouse intern's laptop getting stollen and the threat of thousands of Social Security numbers being compromised. TrueCrypt would have made the stole laptop as useful as a boat ancor to the theif..
When TrueCrypt Encrypts a volume or a computer, it jumbles all the data on the drive in an algorythem that is generated randomly when you first setup the software. From that point forward, your password is the only thing that can allow the data to be unencrypted.
TrueCrypt can go one step futher. Not only can it offer great security, it can be elusive. You can create hidden TrueCrypt files or volumes, so the would be data theif would think that part of the drive is just empty.
Your probably wondering why the main stream public would want this. Many people are carrying around important data and files on small and inexpencive thumb drives. These thumb drives are easily lost or misplaced. If you lost your thumbdrive on the street, would you want just anyone picking it up and reading your important data? Encrypt it! Check out TrueCrypt at http://www.truecrypt.org/
See many more Opensource projects at http://sourceforge.net/
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Windows 7 - Why it's worth upgrading
I must admit, I have not always been a fan of Windows. I have been a linux advocate for many years and seldom was ever excited about a Microsoft product. Until Windows 7 that is!
I typicaly wait for a while before upgrading to the latest and greatest new version of windows so that others can find and workout the bugs. I have been running Betas and release candidates for windows 7 since June 2009 and have to this day have had very few issues. Windows 7 works reliably and has many new features that truly do make everyday tasks simpler, and more efficient. I'll cover a few of the features below, one at a time.
Backups - Many people are under the impression that restoring a backup of their computer will return it right back to how it was when the backup was made. This is not true. Backups generaly can not backup open files such as the windows operating system files that are running your computer and therefore are ony good for retrieving your documents and pictures, Until now...
Windows 7 offers an Image Based backup. What this means is that you can now make a complete backup of your entire system and restore EVERYTHING! If your hard drive were to crash or you purchased a new, larger drive, you can use this image based backup and be up and running, just exactly how it was before you started. Amazing!
If you already have Windows 7, you can access the Image Based Backup tool by clicking Start -- All Programs -- Maintenance -- Backup and Restore
Sharing - If your not an IT person and you have tried to share files and printers in your house from one computer to another, you may have experienced the typical problems making it all work reliably including password prompts every time you try to access the shared data. The share printer will not work unless you first open a shared folder and enter your password. Windows 7 is the answer to solving your home sharing needs.
Windows 7 includes a new feature called "HOME GROUP" in which Windows 7 computers can share their printers and files.
In the wizard you are asked to select files and folders to share and what permisions other HomeGroup users should have to those files and folders. Homegroup then creates a random password that you enter on each additional computer in your house when it joins the homegroup. It works amazingly well without the hassle of remembering passwords on each computer. See HomeGroup Preview for an entire walkthrough on setting up your first group.
Snipping Tool - If you have ever wanted to take a screenshot and not include the entire screen, or entire window (ALT+PRINTSCRN), then you know the routine. Take the screen shot, open it in mspaint, crop/cut it out, say no to saving, open a new mspaint window, paste, and then save. If you wanted to include the image in a document, you would have to add picture from file. What a waste of time!
With the snipping tool, you can simply open the snipping tool, select the region you would like to make a screen shot of, and then save, Email, or copy to the clipboard to paste into your Word document. Snipping tool also allows you to draw on the image or use the highlighter to mark up the document! Simple.. The way windows should be..
User Interface - Windows 7 includes the AERO interface, which was also available in VISTA. This makes multitasking even easier.
I typicaly wait for a while before upgrading to the latest and greatest new version of windows so that others can find and workout the bugs. I have been running Betas and release candidates for windows 7 since June 2009 and have to this day have had very few issues. Windows 7 works reliably and has many new features that truly do make everyday tasks simpler, and more efficient. I'll cover a few of the features below, one at a time.
Backups - Many people are under the impression that restoring a backup of their computer will return it right back to how it was when the backup was made. This is not true. Backups generaly can not backup open files such as the windows operating system files that are running your computer and therefore are ony good for retrieving your documents and pictures, Until now...
Windows 7 offers an Image Based backup. What this means is that you can now make a complete backup of your entire system and restore EVERYTHING! If your hard drive were to crash or you purchased a new, larger drive, you can use this image based backup and be up and running, just exactly how it was before you started. Amazing!
How is this possible? What is different from almost every other backup? It's a "Block Level" backup, meaning it's not trying to backup each file one by one. It's reading the hard drive at the block level, way below the file level.
Sharing - If your not an IT person and you have tried to share files and printers in your house from one computer to another, you may have experienced the typical problems making it all work reliably including password prompts every time you try to access the shared data. The share printer will not work unless you first open a shared folder and enter your password. Windows 7 is the answer to solving your home sharing needs.
Windows 7 includes a new feature called "HOME GROUP" in which Windows 7 computers can share their printers and files.
Snipping Tool - If you have ever wanted to take a screenshot and not include the entire screen, or entire window (ALT+PRINTSCRN), then you know the routine. Take the screen shot, open it in mspaint, crop/cut it out, say no to saving, open a new mspaint window, paste, and then save. If you wanted to include the image in a document, you would have to add picture from file. What a waste of time!
With the snipping tool, you can simply open the snipping tool, select the region you would like to make a screen shot of, and then save, Email, or copy to the clipboard to paste into your Word document. Snipping tool also allows you to draw on the image or use the highlighter to mark up the document! Simple.. The way windows should be..
User Interface - Windows 7 includes the AERO interface, which was also available in VISTA. This makes multitasking even easier.
Have you ever had so many Tabs open in Internet Explorer that it took you a while to find the page you wanted? Now, if you have multiple tabs open in IE, just put your mouse over the Internet Explorer icon and get a preview of every tab. Jump to the tab you want by clicking on it. It's that simple.
There are many more new features including several real secuty improvements I will be discussing in the next post. You can see all the new features for your self at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/what-is-windows-7.aspx
Keep checking back for more posts about specific Windows 7 features and additional software.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Internet Content filtering on a budget
When my kids started using a computer on the internet for their homework, I knew it was time to start looking into content filtering. I have administered enterprise solutions such as WebSense, WatchGuard, as well as some open source Squid proxies, however, every one of these is outside of the household budget or required more equipment and expertise than most households would have or want. I knew there had to be a better solution.
While on my search, I came across OpenDNS.org. Ironicaly, I had already been using OpenDNS as my DNS (Domain name services) servers, but had no idea of there additional abilitys.
For those who do not know what DNS is, DNS is like a phone book for the internet. All web addresses such as http://www.google.com/ lead to an IP address that looks something like 123.456.789.123. This is similar to our standard whitepages or yellow pages the phone company leaves on our doorstep once a year. The Yellow pages list companies by name, and give you a number to call them at. DNS servers on the internet give your computer the IP address to goto (dial) for a specific web address (company).
OpenDNS.org give you the power to configure what people on your network can look up. I have tested it and found it to work quite well. The best part is you can set it up, and forget it. No updates, no additional hardware, no expencive technical help to set it up. You have control of what level of blocking you would like ranging from nothing blocked to blocking Adult, illegal, Social Network and Video Sharing sites.
So what's the catch? This must cost a fortune? No catch and best of all, it's free!
Setup is simple and very well documented. You will need to do some minor configuration steps, however, OpenDNS has done a great job of documenting the setup for many different networks.
To get started, goto http://www.opendns.com/start/ and setup a free account.
While on my search, I came across OpenDNS.org. Ironicaly, I had already been using OpenDNS as my DNS (Domain name services) servers, but had no idea of there additional abilitys.
For those who do not know what DNS is, DNS is like a phone book for the internet. All web addresses such as http://www.google.com/ lead to an IP address that looks something like 123.456.789.123. This is similar to our standard whitepages or yellow pages the phone company leaves on our doorstep once a year. The Yellow pages list companies by name, and give you a number to call them at. DNS servers on the internet give your computer the IP address to goto (dial) for a specific web address (company).
OpenDNS.org give you the power to configure what people on your network can look up. I have tested it and found it to work quite well. The best part is you can set it up, and forget it. No updates, no additional hardware, no expencive technical help to set it up. You have control of what level of blocking you would like ranging from nothing blocked to blocking Adult, illegal, Social Network and Video Sharing sites.
So what's the catch? This must cost a fortune? No catch and best of all, it's free!
Setup is simple and very well documented. You will need to do some minor configuration steps, however, OpenDNS has done a great job of documenting the setup for many different networks.
To get started, goto http://www.opendns.com/start/ and setup a free account.
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