OSS mainstays: Non-profit IT pt.1

At Athens Area Habitat, I can vouch that the money we receive is used very ethically.  When people donate their hard-earned money, we work over-time to make sure we build as many homes as possible with it.   Every internal and promotional project with a “your budget is zero dollars” mentality.  We are, however, a full-on business with extensive IT needs and a professional brand to maintain.  Nobody but me at the office has anything beyond basic computer skills SO it falls to me to figure out how to accomplish enterprise level operations with basically no money whatsoever.  It was the need to get a whole lot done for very little money that initially spurred my investigation of open source software.  The amazing thing that I discovered was that the open source solutions available were often competitive, if not better than their full-price counterparts.

As a quick guide, here are the programs I use on a daily basis to get everything done that I need to get done.  They are all completely free and come highly recommended.

Graphics:

GIMP: substitute for Photoshop.  Will do absolutely everything you require and expect from a graphics editor.

Inkscape:  This program is an exemplary vector based drawing program.  I prefer it head and shoullders above illustrator.

Scribus: Solid page layout software.

Open Office:  You’re screwed, Microsoft.  This suite sponsored by Sun is the posterchild of open source success.

Ubuntu:  A free OS.  Use this for a few weeks and you’ll understand what computing is really about.  Free yourself from the corporate structure already.  Anyone who gives a dime to Apple or Microsoft is the victim of a scam.

Those are my staples.  To be fair, there are some gaps when it come to OSS.  There’s no real alternative to Flash, Dreamweaver, or Final Cut as far as I’m aware.  If anyone has a good suggestion, I’m open to it.

Finally!

Success!  openSUSE installed flawlessly on my eMac first try!

Phew.  Now I can work on bigger things.

Round Three: openSUSE vs. eMac

So Fedora on an eMac is a bust due to a conflict with ATI Raedon video cards.  I could spend another week hacking my way into the elegant graphical install, but who wants that?

Apparently, someone  got openSUSE running on the eMac right off the bat, so I’m downloading it now.  I’ll let you know. Free for a reason,   right?

I swear, try to do anything outside the box on a Mac and you have your work cut out for you.  Ubuntu is running flawlessly on my workstation at the office, first try.  Incidentally, the machine I’m using is a Dell from about two years ago that you can pick up on eBay for about $140 now.  It’s a solid platform and with some more memory and a video card upgrade I could be screaming through HD edits.  Oh, and it drives two monitors right out of the box.  Tempting…

If I figure out how to translate my entire workflow to open source software I will be saving thousands a year, which will translate directly into profit.

Costs as much as a PC…but it is a PC.

Ubuntu on an eMac G4 has proven to be a collosal pain.  After a week on message boards and a mountain of frustration I have abandoned the thought.  I’ve begun seeking an alternate platform for my home-base open source bliss.  In the course of doing this, I stumbled on Fixstar’s site.  Not only do they create and distribute Yellow Dog Linux, but they also sell harware…including PS3’s with Yellow Dog pre-installed.  Oh the rapture.  You can also install linux on X-box, but the idea of a Cell processor running Linux makes my nerd heart beat a little faster.

If Yellow Dog fails me, Fedora PPC is my next option.  Results to follow.

Do you Ubuntu?

I have ascended to a new level of geekdom.  I recently installed Ubuntu on my PC at work and have been thrilled by the customizability and built-in features.  The install on a Wintel machine was a breeze: boot from CD, click-click-click, watch a progress bar, and presto!  A new OS!

I was driven to try Ubuntu because I built a database for work using Open Office’s Base, but found its performance under Windows to be abysmal.  I thought this might not be the case under a Linux OS, so I set out to find one I could use without spending endless hours with a terminal screen.  Ubuntu is it, and my workflow is much better now.

Now, installing Ubuntu on my G4 emac has proven a total headache.  Still no luck fixing the various bugs w/ this platform.  BUT installing on an intel based mac should be very easy since it’s the same architecture as a regular PC.

Anyway, I’m a huge fan of open source and the communities it fosters.