I read this article today: Shortlist of open source software used at NASA lab and I thought I should do a quick write up of the open source (and free) software that I use.
I develop/create software under 3 umbrellas: open source, licensed as free and commercial. About half of the software is written in C and the other half is written in Java. The target platforms are AIX, HP-UX (RISC & IA64), IBM i (OS/400), Linux (x86, x86_64, POWER & zSeries), Mac OS X, Solaris (SPARC & x86_64), Windows and z/OS (mainframe).
Open Source Operating Systems that I use:
– Fedora Core 4 x86 64-bit (yes, it is old but some customers are back-leveled)
– Fedora 9 x86 64-bit
– SLES 11 SP2 x86 32-bit
– SLES 11 SP2 x86 64-bit
– SLES 11 on POWER 64-bit
– SLES 10 on z/Series 64-bit
My main development desktop PC runs Windows 7 (64-bit). Yes, I could run a desktop Linux distribution and someday I may but for now, I am very efficient using Windows.
Here is a list of open source (or free) software that I use:
– Eclipse (for Java and C development) is, in my opinion, the best IDE for programmers.
– Microsoft Visual C++ Express 2010
– Microsoft Visual C# Express 2010
– Oracle JDK (many versions)
– Open Object REXX
– Apache HTTP Server
– Inno Setup is an installer for Windows programs.
– LibreOffice (alternative to Microsoft Office)
– Eudora is an email client (alternative to Outlook)
– Firefox is a web browser
– PDFCreator is simple tool but is awesome. It is an application for converting any document into a PDF document.
– Adobe Reader is a PDF viewer
– WinAmp is a great music player
– CDex is a CD ripper
– Irfanview is a graphic viewer
– Kee Pass 2 a tool for managing your passwords
– PuTTY for logging into Unix / Linux servers
– TN5250J for logging into IBM i (OS/400) servers
– x3270 for logging into z/OS (mainframe) servers
– TightVNC for controlling other servers (Windows, Linux or Unix)
– Skype
– FAR is a great file manager
– Visual Diff is a really good program that compares the contents of 2 files
– 7-Zip is a file archiver
– Virtual CloneDrive allows you to mount ISO, BIN & CCD files
– Cobian and RoboCopy are great programs to backup / synchronize your files (BACKUP YOUR FILES!!!)
Even though I have Visual C++ Express IDE installed, I don’t use it. I use Eclipse and makefiles for my C development. I rarely do any GUI development in C, so switching back and forth between Visual C++ Express IDE and Eclipse just slows me down. Hence, I can code much faster if I just stay in Eclipse and do all of my development in it. And yes, I said I use makefiles. Developers get so freaked-out when you say makefiles. But there is nothing wrong with using makefiles. All it means is that the developer needs to understand what components his/her project uses. I have to use makefiles on AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, IBM i (OS/400) and z/OS (JCL actually), so what is wrong with using makefiles on Windows? Absolutely nothing.
I create/update all of the product manuals (open source, licensed as free and commercial) using LibreOffice. I currently have roughly 100 product manuals and I have no issues using LibreOffice. It works really well and I like the 1-click button to create a PDF.
My contribution to the open source community is to create and publish open source projects of my own. I have created 9 top-level open source projects and hundreds of 1-off programs that can be found: C code, COBOL code, Java code, Jython code and Rexx code.
So, if you are not using and/or contributing to the open source community, give it a try, you might like it and learn something new.
Finally, if you are a developer or not, make sure you backup your stuff. Besides, Cobian and RoboCopy, there are lots of open source programs to backup your important files, pictures, code, documents, etc. It doesn’t matter what you use, just use something.
Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.
