So you've heard about open source software and you want to give it a try. Where do you go
to get started? If you are reading this document on the Internet, then you are using open
source software already.* But where else might you go to try
out some open source software?
- Use it on someone else's server
- Most of us use open source software without knowing about it. When you type
www.slashdot.org, www.lse.ac.uk or www.unesco.org
into your web browser, some open source DNS software called BIND is used to
locate the computer you require out of the millions of others on the Internet. Very likely
an open source web server called Apache is then used to send the web page
requested back to your browser. Similarly, many large organisations run their mail systems
using open source mail transport agents such as Postfix and
Exim. Since open source software tends to use open standards the systems
running open source software seamlessly interoperate with all operating systems and most
applications. This interoperability is often completely invisible to the end user. If you
are reading this document online, you are already interacting with open source
software.* - Get it with your hardware
- Many pieces of hardware, particularly networking hardware such as firewalls and
gateways, come with the Linux operating system. A customised version of Linux called
embedded Linux runs many smaller appliances from mobile phones and routers to microwave
links. Users don't notice the use of Linux and may not even be aware that the hardware has
an operating system. By reusing the operating system in a large number of devices the time
and cost of developing a new device is reduced. This is often called the secondary
software sector because the software is secondary to the product's purpose and
its technical details are irrelevant to the end user.
- Get it with your proprietary software
- A surprising amount of the software that people buy or license contains open source
software within it. This can be exactly the same software as is used in fully open source
systems. The MacOS X operating system, for example, is built on top of the open source BSD
UNIX operating system.
- Get a LiveCD
- LiveCDs are complete systems that run directly from a CDROM without touching a
computer's hard drive. They provide a low risk sampler, but because all data is lost at
every reboot they are typically unsuitable for production systems. LiveCDs include
KNOPPIX, Mandriva Move and FreeSBIE, which are based on the Debian, Mandriva and FreeBSD
operating systems respectively.
- Get applications on disc
- There are many open source applications that can be obtained on CD or DVD, for your existing
operating system. The OpenDisc is a DVD containing popular open source desktop software for
Microsoft Windows.
- Get applications from the Internet
- Getting applications from the Internet is slightly more challenging than getting them
from a CD, due to the added complexity of downloading the application and the risk of
dealing with potentially untrusted web sites. This is the standard method of getting new
and updated applications for Linux distributions such as Debian, RedHat and Mandriva, and
is a very common way of getting tools and utilities for Microsoft Windows. It is also an
excellent way to get the latest versions of Mozilla's popular open source web browser and
email client, Firefox and Thunderbird.
- Get an operating system on CD
- Installing a new operating system is not for the faint-hearted because it often
involves repartitioning or reformatting your hard disk. It is advisable to ensure that all
data is backed up first. The standard method of installing most Linux distributions is to
install from CD.
- Get an operating system from the Internet
- Installing a new operating system from the Internet is more challenging than
installing from a CD because if the task is interrupted or fails it can leave the machine
unable to reconnect to the Internet to continue. This is the standard method of updating
Linux distributions.
- Compile your own from source
- Open source software is available as source code from many different web sites.
Compiling software from source code is only recommended for those with a technical
background. The Gentoo Linux distribution uses this method as standard.
- Compile your own from source obtained from version control
- Developers use version control systems to track the individual changes made to the the
source code. Checking the source out from the developers' version control system means
that you get software as up-to-date as that obtained by the developers. This is the
definitive bleeding edge code, but frequently has serious (although usually transient)
problems. Only developers or seriously committed deployers with local developer skills
should normally compile from version control.
Practicality normally dictates where you get your software from. Widely used open source
software is typically available in a wide variety of ways. By its re-distributable nature,
users quickly re-package it into convenient forms for themselves and others. Less widely
used software is typically only available in one or two ways.
* OSS Watch documents are principally written in XML and transformed
into various presentational formats using XSLT stylesheets. The XML documents are stored on
machines running under Debian GNU/Linux. Public
access to these documents is through the OSS Watch web site which employs an Apache web server. The XML documents are transformed
dynamically into HTML when they are accessed. The transformation software is Apache AxKit. All of the software involved in this
process is open source software.
Related information from OSS Watch:
It is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 England & Wales licence.
OSS Watch is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee.