Blog Of Jacob Henke

I'd like to explain to everyone why Open Source software isn't a bigger influence in the world. First, is that people are scared that because their isn't a company backing the product that they can't find support if there was to be a problem. Well, that's not true there are thousands of message boards and freely available experts because almost every major OS product has a community backing. If there is a problem and its not just unique to your machine then someone most likely has posted a patch or fix.

The second problem is that there isn't sufficient advertising to promote these projects, and only an individual who supports Open Source can discover these projects. Finally is that people don't understand how a free peice of software could compete with paid software. Well, I wish to persuade the general populous because like all other comodities having options is better.

As for open Source Projects here a couple that people could generally use as alternatives to purchasing:

• Firefox
  -Firefox is a alternative to Internet Explorer. Firefox has been getting alot of media coverage lately, and In the opinion of most IT professionals seems to be the best browser available. It has all the funtionality of Internet Explorer 7, but without any of the security flaws.
• Open Office.org
  -This program can replace Microsoft Office for most people. It has the ability to read/write all the MS office formats, but it can't replace Outlook, it's just used as a word processor, spread sheet, and presentation software.
• Gimp
  -Gimp Stands for GNU image manipulation, which means that its a replacement for Adobe Photoshop. It has a learning curve which is kinda steep, or in other words if your used to Photoshop especially CS OR CS2 then some of the features your used to are not in the same place and don't work the same way, but everything is there and is possible
• Inkscape
  -This is a Replacement for Adobe Illustrator, its a Vector Graphcis program.
• Blender
  -Blender is a replacement for 3D studio max or Bryce #d. It has all the modeling capabilities of both the aforementioned programs.

While these aren't the only project out ther they are the programs are the alternatives to the most used applications