MICHAEL D. McELWAIN
reviewonline.com
EAST LIVERPOOL - The first of what organizers hope will be a long series of free technology seminars was held Saturday at Coffee Fusion and Tea Company.
Despite the cold temperature, some 40 area residents headed to the business along West Fifth Street for a presentation on the merits of free, open source software.
The event was organized by Shawn Golden, a computer technology instructor at the local branch of Kent State University.
However, Golden turned the program over to Steve Curtis and David Pipes who not only gave a presentation on open source software, but also provided free CDs filled with examples.
Using word processing and other software as a comparison, the two spoke of Microsoft Office’s monopoly and suggested an alternative suite of applications in the open source world.
"The biggest advantage is it’s going to be free," Curtis, an instructor at NewLife Technical Institute, said.
Another advantage of open source software is that, by its very nature, it is constantly updated to meet the needs of the end user, Curtis added.
In face, when the end user first runs the open source software they must agree to never repackage the software for sale.
Open source software is written by a loose consortium of programmers from all over the world aiming to bring free, high quality software to computer users.
"They (programmers) are end users themselves who work during their free time mostly to make the software better," Pipes, a software engineer himself, said. "People love doing this."
The result is software that instead of several hundred dollars is free and has features often just a robust as the name brand counterpart.
Just one of the open source packages competing against Microsoft Office is Open Office.
Instead of Access as a database, the alternative is Open Office Base. Powerpoint has an equal alternative in Open Office Impress and the venerable Microsoft Word has Open Office Writer as a competitive alternative, according to Curtis.
"It basically looks the same and behaves the same," Curtis said about Writer.
Pipes said there are occasional backward compatibility issues with some of the software, but as time goes by, programmers will release free updates or improved versions of the software.
The two went through other open source software possibilities like sound file editors, antivirus programs, data security solutions and photo editing tools.
Perhaps the most widely known example of an open source software alternative is Mozilla Firefox, a web browsing utility.
"It’s not susceptible to viruses as much as Internet Explorer," Curtis said.
Pipes also showed off a memory stick, or jump drive, filled with applications so a user can plug it into any USB port and run a program directly.
Applications are more stable and more user friendly in the open source community than ever before, according to Pipes. But those applications typically run off of some version of the Microsoft Windows operating system.
For those who delve deeply into the field, there are versions of open source operating systems also available for free and most are based on some form of Linux programming.
"It’s a lot less user friendly and a lot more involved," Curtis said about entire open source operating systems.
Golden said he was impressed with the presentation and glad that so many people came out to attend.
The next scheduled presentation is tentatively set for 2 p.m. Feb. 23 at Coffee Fusion and Tea Company. Golden said he and East Liverpool resident Matt Stewart will give a presentation on using digital cameras.
reviewonline.com
EAST LIVERPOOL - The first of what organizers hope will be a long series of free technology seminars was held Saturday at Coffee Fusion and Tea Company.
Despite the cold temperature, some 40 area residents headed to the business along West Fifth Street for a presentation on the merits of free, open source software.
The event was organized by Shawn Golden, a computer technology instructor at the local branch of Kent State University.
However, Golden turned the program over to Steve Curtis and David Pipes who not only gave a presentation on open source software, but also provided free CDs filled with examples.
Using word processing and other software as a comparison, the two spoke of Microsoft Office’s monopoly and suggested an alternative suite of applications in the open source world.
"The biggest advantage is it’s going to be free," Curtis, an instructor at NewLife Technical Institute, said.
Another advantage of open source software is that, by its very nature, it is constantly updated to meet the needs of the end user, Curtis added.
In face, when the end user first runs the open source software they must agree to never repackage the software for sale.
Open source software is written by a loose consortium of programmers from all over the world aiming to bring free, high quality software to computer users.
"They (programmers) are end users themselves who work during their free time mostly to make the software better," Pipes, a software engineer himself, said. "People love doing this."
The result is software that instead of several hundred dollars is free and has features often just a robust as the name brand counterpart.
Just one of the open source packages competing against Microsoft Office is Open Office.
Instead of Access as a database, the alternative is Open Office Base. Powerpoint has an equal alternative in Open Office Impress and the venerable Microsoft Word has Open Office Writer as a competitive alternative, according to Curtis.
"It basically looks the same and behaves the same," Curtis said about Writer.
Pipes said there are occasional backward compatibility issues with some of the software, but as time goes by, programmers will release free updates or improved versions of the software.
The two went through other open source software possibilities like sound file editors, antivirus programs, data security solutions and photo editing tools.
Perhaps the most widely known example of an open source software alternative is Mozilla Firefox, a web browsing utility.
"It’s not susceptible to viruses as much as Internet Explorer," Curtis said.
Pipes also showed off a memory stick, or jump drive, filled with applications so a user can plug it into any USB port and run a program directly.
Applications are more stable and more user friendly in the open source community than ever before, according to Pipes. But those applications typically run off of some version of the Microsoft Windows operating system.
For those who delve deeply into the field, there are versions of open source operating systems also available for free and most are based on some form of Linux programming.
"It’s a lot less user friendly and a lot more involved," Curtis said about entire open source operating systems.
Golden said he was impressed with the presentation and glad that so many people came out to attend.
The next scheduled presentation is tentatively set for 2 p.m. Feb. 23 at Coffee Fusion and Tea Company. Golden said he and East Liverpool resident Matt Stewart will give a presentation on using digital cameras.
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