50 OSS Alternatives List

My student Debbie Lee sent me this list of 50 OSS alternatives to proprietary programs entitled The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives.

Some of the stuff that's recommended is a little bleeding edge. For example, Songbird, an alternative to iTunes, is at version 0.4. I don't think it's really a viable alternative to iTunes.

Perhaps the most interesting item on the list is the first one. Upgrade from Microsoft Vista to Ubuntu. I've been using Linux on my desktop since about 1993, and Windows 98 was the last version of Windows that I really knew much about, so I'm clearly not an objective observer. That said, Ubuntu is now really easy to use---and even install---for most people. A novice can install Ubuntu in about 30 minutes. I have even had a non-technical student install it by mistake; the "remove all partitions and use whole disk for Ubuntu" meant nothing to her. She used the system for all of her work for several days before notifying her tech that she'd wiped Windows from her hard drive. The increased hardware requirements and heightened registration requirements of Vista (apparently, I don't really know) seem to be giving people pause on this upgrade.

I've recently been contacted by a teacher who's installed Edubuntu and has thin clients working. He needs me to help him figure out how to set up accounts for his 1200 students, but the basic setup seems to have worked out of the box (or downloadable CD, as the case may be). The machines that many schools are now throwing out are quite capable as thin clients. I'm now working in two schools that have 50+ iMacs that we're configuring as thin clients. The jury is still out on how they'll be adopted, but I've got full support from the tech staff, which is previously unprecedented.

Though it's informative to see this large list Perhaps a better list of OSS alternatives for a Normal Person the Open Education Disc is probably a better list of OSS programs for the faint of heart. That CD has an easy-to-use installer to install great OSS software for Windows. People with fast connections and can figure out which files to download (more tricky with some programs than others) should look at the list of programs and just download the ones you want.

And I've mentioned it before, but the portable apps suite is also an easy way to or try out OSS stuff. This suite installs on a USB drive, so nothing gets installed on your computer. And the cool thing is that you can then carry these apps to where ever it is that you use a (Windows) computer.