One of the aims of the Open Source Spotlight is to let our readers know about open source programs that can meet virtually every need that the typically computer user may have. In the past, we’ve reviewed a complete office suite, OpenOffice.org, an internet suite, Mozilla, and instant messengers, file sharing programs, media players, image editors, and...

Welcome back to the Open Source Spotlight – and whether you celebrated Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, the New Year, or just having a day off – I hope your festivities were fun and memorable. And in the spirit of giving and generosity of the season – I’ve got not one, but two free open source gifts for you this week. The first gift...

Welcome back to the Open Source Spotlight, and happy holidays! We’ve covered a number of open source projects so far in OSS, so you know that the open source community has created everything from P2P file sharing programs, to FTP servers, operating systems, and compression tools. But, open source isn’t just about utilities and office suites! Open...

With the holidays upon us, I thought I would takes some time to show you the kid-friendly side of Open Source. There are many programs out there for the children in our lives – or the kid inside of all of us – and TuxPaint is a great example of this genre.A little bit of back ground information. Some of you may be wondering why a kids program is...

Would you like to have your own website but you don’t know a stylesheet from a hole in the ground? Do you want to build a home for yourself on the net, but you can’t even spell HTML? Are you a power-programmer but you get sick of typing “<td><tr><p align=”left”><font face=”Times New Roman”...

Three words – Oh My Gosh! I’ve been working with Open Source programs for over a year now, and I’ve been amazed at what people are willing to give away. Programs like OpenOffice.org and Firefox, (which, incidentally officially crossed into the 1.0 arena on Nov. 9), are awesome, and they allow users to get the job done when it comes to common...

One of the first things I ever learned about corporate business back in high school was that flowcharts are indispensable. These clever little tools can, at a glance, explain complex command structures that would take hours to explain using just words. Since I learned their purpose, I’ve seen flowcharts used for everything to setting up games to taking...

Instant messengers are everywhere, cell phones, PDAs, video game machines, and – of course – computers. And just like most people now have several phone numbers, home, work, cell, fax, the computer’s phone line, etc., a lot of people have several screen names on various IM clients. There are a number of them out there – AIM, Yahoo, MSN,...

I have found in my experience with Open Source programs that it is hard to talk about them for long without having to mention Linux. For those who might not know, Linux is an alternative operating system that primarily runs on servers but is recently making some serious headway onto desktops and laptops. Linux is similar, both in name and structure, to Unix, and...

Welcome back to Open Source Spotlight.  Today the focus falls on a web-browser application that can meet all of a user’s Internet needs in one simple to install, easy to use, open source suite.  Mozilla is in the Spotlight this week.Mozilla is a suite of programs that includes everything a user could want for getting on and using the...

Last week I talked about FireFox, the stand-alone web browser from Mozilla. But surfing the web isn’t the only thing the Internet is for. An email and news client is vital to most users. So, to meet this need, Mozilla has created Thunderbird, the companion to FireFox. Thunderbird makes emailing safe, fast, and easy with the implementations of features such...

For proof that the Open Source Spotlight in on the cutting edge of the news, do a quick Google News search for the word “FireFox” and see all the articles that pop up.  I just wrapped up a few weeks on OpenOffice.org and was about to start my section on the internet suite of Mozilla when the news broke about FireFox 1.0pr.  I decided to...

Just over a year ago I was riding in my supervisor’s SUV from my hometown of Chattanooga, TN to the windy city of Chicago, IL.  We were going to a convention for the web hosting service that our company uses.  While on this trip, we did something I never do, (and still don’t), we listened to NPR.  On this particular day, the topic was...

Last week, I briefly introduced you to an awesome program known as OpenOffice.org.  I told you that it was an open source (free) office program that incorporates word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics, HTML, and other functions into one very powerful piece of software.  This week on Open Source Spotlight, I would like to focus in more on...

A computer that is built instead of bought can cost as little as $500, and still be a full featured, highly functional machine.  Software licenses for certain office suite can cost as much or even more than all of the hardware combined.  Of course, one can steal an ISO off the internet or load up a cracked version from a friend, but what if one is...