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Linux and Open Source |
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We at CTRL8 have long beleived in the Linux and Open Source community. We have used and support many great Linux distribution and other Open Source software. He we will discuss some our experience with different "flavors" of Linux and some of the product we recommend and support.
Free vs Non-freeMost versions of Linux are free to download. These are not trial or demo versions, but full featured operating systems. There are some versions however, that are not free or else have free versions and pay versions. Examples of the latter are Linspire and Xandros. Usually, the pay versions have some "value added" components and/or technical support. That is what you are really paying for. Below I will discuss some of our experiences and opinions on each one.
Linux DistrosThe list below only represents a small portion of the avaliable distributions or "distros" of Linux. To see a complete list, visit http://distrowatch.org.
MEPIS MEPIS is a relatively new flavor of Linux but has been very successful! This distro installs in a snap, seems to support most hardware and runs pretty smoothly. It is well suited to new users and there is even a killer book out on it. There are few really good books out there for beginners. Like most distros, MEPIS comes with a huge amount of software to choose from, including OpenOffice.org, a replacement for M$ Office. I like OpenOffice so much that I no longer use M$ Office for my daily tasks.
I found MEPIS not well suited for a server and somewhat slow on my Pentium III 500 with 64MB of ram. But on my newer "test" system - Sempron 2800 with 512MB ram, it ran very smoothly. According to their website they are working on a "Lite" version for machines built for Windows 98.
Check out their website at www.mepis.org. You can also order the book I mentioned there.
One of their many happy fans put together a nice website at this link. There are some rather nice screenshots here.
Damn Small Linux This flavor of Linux is wonderful for bring older machines back to life. I installed it on a Pentium 233 and it ran fairly well. It was rather zippy on my Pentium III 500. It was not the easiest to install and the default desktop is FluxBox which takes a little getting used to. However, that said, once I got used to it I thought is was quite powerful. DSL also has a nice lite application installer. The list of available software is short by Linux standard, but I found most everything I needed. This is a great distro for people with older machines. It can be fun for "newbies" if you can get through the install.
Check out their website at http://www.damnsmalllinux.org. You can download the software there. They also have some "Mini ITX" systems for sell that look interesting.
Xandros Xandros comes in a few different versions. So far I have only tried the "Open Circulation" version which is free. I have tried it on four systems so far. My work desktop - AMD Athlon 2200 with 768MB RAM and dual monitors, my laptop - a Pentium III 933 with 256MB ram and wireless NIC, my "test" system - an AMD Sempron 2800 with 512MB ram and my husband's AMD Athlon 1600 with 256MB ram. These systems are the same one I had previously used to test Linspire. In every case Xandros was noticibly faster. I had a few hardware issues. My husbands computer has some sound issues but those were resolved after I ran all the updates. I had to work for a while to get the wireless NIC on my laptop to work. Once I figured it out the fix was easy. It installed flawlessly on my test system and my work desktop. It was the first distro that handled my dual monitors without any editing of config files.
Overall, I would say that this is my current favorite distro. It is fast and easy. It might not be the best for a true Linux newbie since it did have some hardware issues, but I highly reccomend it for most uses.
Check out their website for more information. www.xandors.org. They have several versions to choose from. Here is a link to thier comparison matrix. The OC versions works fine for me. The Deluxe version includes CrossOver Office. This is a nice utility for those folks that aren't ready to give up M$ Office or Internet Explorer. It will run many other programs too. I suggest though that if you feel you need this, buy it directly from the manufacturer. You will pay a little more, but, should you change Linux distros later, you can take it with you.
Linspire Linspire is the only distro I have tried that does not have a "free" version. This distro was one of my favorites for a long time. It installed easily, was compatible with all my hardware, even my wireless card with no tweaking at all. The only hardware issues I ran into was with my dual monitors. I just couldn't get this to work. That is the main reason I tried Xandros.
Although, not free, it is still economical. You buy it once and you can "legally" install it on up to 5 computers. If one of your computers dies, just get a new one and reinstall from your disk. No "activation" nonsense. By far, most of the over 2000 application available for installation throught CNR are free. However, some commercial applications are available for purchase at a discount. These applications can also be installed on 5 computers. A person with a home or small business network of 5 computers could save a lot of money this way.
This is the best distro, hands down, for true beginners. Computer beginners as well as Linux beginners. The instructional video are top-notch. Installing programs with CNR is so easy anyone can do it. That said, I would not recommend it for "wimpy" computers. Check out thier website at www.linspire.com.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 30 October 2005 )
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Joomla Content Management |
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Software Cost: $0.00
Setup Time: The Joomla setup takes about 30 minutes for an experience installer, assuming all installation requirements below are already in place. The total time needed to designing and implementing your entire site can vary greatly depending on complexity.
Installation Requirement: This software must be installed on a web server. The web server must be running Apache, MySql & PHP.
What is Joomla?
Joomla is the tool we use to design, manage and maintain our customers' websites, and our own as well. Furthermore, we can teach our customers to use Joomla so that they can maintain their own information. We are amazed every day that such an incredibly powerful program is available for free. Joomla is is perfect example of what Open Source Projects can acheive.
To find out more about Mambo visit their main website at www.joomla.org.
Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody.
Joomla! in Action
Joomla! is used all over the world to power everything from simple, personal homepages to complex corporate web applications. Here are just some of the ways people use our software:
- Corporate websites or portals
- Online commerce
- Small business websites
- Non-profit and organizational websites
- Government applications
- Corporate intranets and extranets
- School and church websites
- Personal or family homepages
- Community-based portals
- Magazines and newspapers
- the possibilities are limitless…
Joomla! can be used to easily manage every aspect of your website, from adding content and images to updating a product catalog or taking online reservations.
Joomla! for End Users
The basic Joomla! package is designed to be easy to install, even for non-programmers. Most people have no trouble getting our software up and running, and there is plenty of support available for newbies. We have a growing, active community of more than 26,000 friendly users and developers on our forums eager to help.
Once Joomla! is installed and running, it is simple for even non-technical users to add or edit content, update images, and to manage the critical data that makes your company or organization go. Anybody with basic word processing skills can easily learn to manage a Joomla! site.
Via a simple, browser-based interface you will be able to easily add new press releases or news items, manage staff pages, job listings, product images, and create an unlimited amount of sections or content pages on your site. You can try our simple demo to get quick taste of what Joomla! is all about.
Taking Joomla! to the Next Level
Out of the box, Joomla! does a great job of managing the content needed to make your website sing. But for many people, the true power of Joomla! lies in the application framework that makes it possible for thousands of developers around the world to create powerful add-ons and extensions. Here are just some examples of the hundreds of available extensions:
- Dynamic form builders
- Business or organizational directories
- Document management
- image and multimedia galleries
- E-commerce and shopping cart engines
- Forums and chat software
- Calendars
- Blogging software
- Directory services
- Email newsletters
- Data collection and reporting tools
- Banner advertising systems
- Subscription services
- and many, many more…
You can find more examples over at our growing Joomla! Extensions Directory. Prepare to be amazed at the amount of exciting work produced by our active developer community!
Joomla! for Developers
Many companies or organizations have requirements that go beyond what is available in the basic Joomla! package or in a freely available extension.
Thankfully, Joomla! offers a powerful application framework that makes it easy for developers to create sophisticated add-ons that extend the power of Joomla! into virtually unlimited directions.
Using the core framework, developers can easily build:
- Integrated e-commerce systems
- Inventory control systems
- Data reporting tools
- Custom product catalogs
- Complex business directories
- Reservation systems
- Communication tools
- Application bridges
- or any kind of application to suit a unique need…
If your company or organization hires a third party Joomla! developer or builds in-house software using the Joomla! framework, you are building on an open platform that does not tie you to any one developer or to a proprietary, closed application.
You can learn more about developing on the Joomla! framework over at our developer’s network. The beauty of Joomla! is that you can leverage our framework and user interface to deliver applications to your end users in a familiar, powerful environment.
So what’s the catch?
There is no catch. Joomla! is free, open, and available to all under the GPL license. We don’t claim to be perfect, and can’t promise to meet every requirement in the world. But for many web applications, our software is perfectly suited for the job. We are adding great new features with each release, and with the help and advice of our incredible user community we plan on delivering award-winning software for years to come.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 13 June 2006 )
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Anti-Spyware |
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Solutions For Every Pocketbookctrl8 recommends and supports several options for spyware control. Here are just a few.
Free: Spybot - Search & Destroy
 Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies.
Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm in trying to see if something snooped into your computer, too :)
You can download this program from their website and install it yourself, or hire us to take care of this task for you.
Fairly Inexpensive: Ad-Aware? SE Professional Ad-Aware? SE Professional Edition offers you the highest level of protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. Lavasoft?s new Code Sequence Identification (CSI) technology protects you from both known and unknown variants of these threats; and with the real-time protection of Ad-Watch you can block suspicious processes and browser hijack attempts from affecting your system.
Ad-Aware? SE Professional Edition also includes the process browser Process-Watch which allows you to browse, scan and analyze processes running on your system. You can easily scan for, and terminate known suspicious processes and their associated modules.
 Lavasoft also offers a free version of this program. However, it is our opinion that Spybot out performs the free version of AdAware. This program can be purchased directly from their website and installed by you or, of course, our highly trained staff can install and configure this program for you.
More Expensive But Centrally Managed. If you have a SonicWALL Firewall/VPN appliance you can now add a group of utilities. Real-Time Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Intrusion Prevention. Extend security from the network core to the perimeter by integrating support for SonicWALL's Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Intrusion Prevention Service, delivering real-time protection against the latest blended threats, including viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, software vulnerabilities and other malicious code.
The advantage of this solution is that you do not need to install any software on the individual machines. No updates or scanning needed. This also adds an important layer of anti-virus and intrusion prevention at the parimeter of your network. In other words, it stops spyware, viruses, trojan, worms and hackers BEFORE they make it to your computers. The downside to this solution is that it requires and SonicWALL Firewall appliance and an annual maintenance fee.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 30 October 2005 )
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OpenOffice |
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Software Cost: $0.00 Setup Time: 15 to 20 minutes. Installation Requirements: This program can be installed on either Windows or Linux machines. Just as easy to install as MS Office. OpenOffice.org 2.0 Is Here OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the productivity suite that individuals, governments, and corporations around the world have been expecting for the last two years. Easy to use and fluidly interoperable with every major office suite, OpenOffice.org 2.0 realises the potential of open source. With new features, advanced XML capabilities and native support for the OASIS Standard OpenDocument format, OpenOffice.org 2.0 gives users around the globe the tools to be engaged and productive members of their society. Download it now. If it is not ready today in your language, it will be shortly. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is yours. OpenOffice.org 2 - Product Description  Version 2 - another first for OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org Version 1 was the first product to deliver the benefits of open-source software to mass-market users, delivering essential everyday software tools completely free of charge. Translated into over 30 languages, available on all major computing platforms (Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X X11, GNU/Linux, Solaris), OpenOffice.org Version 1 is now in use by tens of millions of delighted users worldwide. With Version 2, it gets even better:  the first office suite to use the new OASIS OpenDocument format, the future-proof international standard for office software easier to install, with a whole new look and feel, matched to the type of computer in use more intuitive, more easy to use than ever, with a host of new usability features introducing a major new component, Base: an easy-to-use database manager with a fully integrated database more compatible with other software packages ? now understands even obscure and rarely used features in major competitors
 But the licence is still the same: you may download OpenOffice.org Version 2 completely free of any licence fees, use it for any purpose? private, educational, government and public administration, commercial ? and pass on copies free of charge to family, friends, students, employees, etc.
What?s so great about OpenOffice.org? As the name suggests, OpenOffice.org is the most open office suite available: no commercial licences or software compliance issues to worry about no language barriers - if it?s not yet available in your language, the chances are it will be soon available on all major computing platforms the first office suite to comply with the OASIS OpenDocument format the source code for the software is freely available under a full OSI certified licence
OpenOffice.org is synonymous with quality the roots of OpenOffice.org go back twenty years, creating a huge wealth of experience hundreds of thousands of users have participated in the beta testing of version 2 with a fully open development process, OpenOffice.org has nothing to hide - the product stands or falls on its reputation
OpenOffice.org is friendly the software looks and feels familiar and is instantly usable by anyone who has used a competitive product it?s easy to change to OpenOffice.org - the software reads all major competitors? files OpenOffice.org is supported by a global community of friendly volunteers, only too happy to provide assistance to newcomers and advanced users alike
What?s in OpenOffice.org? WRITER is OpenOffice.org?s word processor: use it for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book with embedded illustrations, cross-references, tables of contents, indexes, bibliographies... Auto-complete, auto-format, and real-time spelling check make light work of the hardest task. Writer is powerful enough to tackle desktop publishing tasks such as creating multi-column newsletters, brochures ? the only limit is your imagination. Use CALC to bring your numbers under control. This powerful spreadsheet has all the tools you need to calculate, analyse, summarise, and present your data in numerical reports or sizzling graphics. A fully-integrated help system makes entering complex formulas a breeze. Sophisticated decision-making tools are just a few mouse clicks away. Pull in external data using the Data Pilot, and sort it, filter it, and produce subtotals and statistical analyses. Use previews to select from thirteen categories of 2-D and 3-D charts including line, area, column, pie, XY, stock and net with dozens of variants. IMPRESS is the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will truly stand out with special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools. DRAW will produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects. New to Version 2, BASE enables you to manipulate database data seamlessly within OpenOffice.org. Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, either using your own database or Base?s own built-in HSQL database engine. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 30 January 2006 )
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