Operating Systems

Probably the best known piece of Open Source software is the operating system "Linux". The project was started by Linus Torvalds in Finland in 1991, and has grown through the use of the General Public License under which the code is available. Because developers have access to the source code, and can contribute back to the development process, they have been able to port Linux to many computer architectures and adapt it to solve their own specific problems.

The name "Linux" actually refers to the Operating System Kernel - the code that talks to the hardware and provides a framework for programs to run in. Users tend to work with "Linux Distributions", which include the kernel and many other Open Source programs to provide a fully working system. Well-known Linux distributions include RedHat Fedora, Novell SuSE, Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, Gentoo and Mandriva.

OpenSourceScotland.org is running on a distribution of Debian.

Business Tools

Databases

Many database vendors have Open Source versions of their packages, including Ingres. The two best known are MySQL and PostgreSQL. Many web applications built on Linux platforms are known as either "LAMP" or "LAPP" - named for the packages which provide the application: Linux, Apache (web server, se below), MySQL/PostgreSQL and PHP (the programming language the application is written in).

MySQL is owned and developed by Swedish company MySQL AB. and provides "consistent fast performance, high reliability and ease of use". The software runs on Unix/Linux/Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X.
The back-end of OpenSourceScotland.org depends upon MySQL.

PostgreSQL is based upon work started at University of California at Berkeley, and is regarded as being highly standards compliant. PostgreSQL runs on Unix/Linux and MS Windows.

File Sharing

The Samba project allows Unix/Linux servers to appear as a shared network drive for Microsoft Windows users to store files upon. Samba also provides login/authentication and print services to Microsoft PCs.

Web Servers

According to Netcraft, 60 million of the world's 100 million websites run on the Open Source webserver Apache, including OpenSourceScotland.org. The Apache webserver runs on MS Windows and Unix/Linux.

Desktop Software

Desktop Environments

The two best known desktop environments are KDE and Gnome. Both provide highly customisable graphical user interfaces to allow users to interact with their systems.

Browser

The Firefox browser provides safe, secure, multi-tabbed browsing to the internet, and features many plug-ins to help with specific tasks. Firefox runs under MS Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Office Packages

OpenOffice is an Open Source package including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database system. OpenOffice can read and write most popular file formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files.
OpenOffice runs on MS Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and FreeBSD.
KOffice is part of the KDE suite, and includes a Word processor, spreadsheet, presentation package, database system, drawing, flowchart and project management.