Linux with Operating System Concepts

Software Title
Software Type
Platforms
7-Zip
File archiver and compression/
decompression utility
Linux (command line only), Windows
Audacity
Sound editor
Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Blender
3D image tool (animation, rendering)
BSD Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
FileZilla
FTP clients and servers
Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
(Mozilla) Firefox
Web browser
All platforms
FullSync
File synchronization and backup tool
Windows
GIMP
Image editor
Linux, Windows
Inkspace
Vector graphics editor
Linux (Ubuntu), Mac OS X, Windows
LibreOffice
Productivity software office suite 
(originated as OpenOffice but this 
software has since been developed by 
others)
Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows
Notepad 
+
+
Text editor for CSS, C/C
++
, C#, Java, 
JavaScript, SQL, HTML, XML, PHP
Windows
(Apache) OpenOffice
Productivity software office suite
Linux, Windows
TrueCrypt
Disk encryption software
Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Ubuntu
Linux operating system
N/A
VLC Media Player
Multimedia player for streaming video/
audio files and DVD/CD player
All platforms
Xvid
Video compression/decompression
Linux, Windows

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Software Installation and Maintenance
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565
by hobbyist and people in the open source community. Open source software was largely 
shunned by professional organizations. There was a fear that any open source product 
would have errors that could potentially harm the organization because the software would 
not work when it was needed leading to possible delays, inaccuracies, and other problems. 
Additionally, most proprietary software comes with support and a guarantee that errors 
would be fixed in a timely manner.
Open source software competes regularly with proprietary software in part because the 
open source community has been found to be as or more responsive than many of the 
companies producing proprietary software. In fact, a comparison between open source 
software and proprietary software often illustrates that open source software has better 
security, is of higher or equal quality, has a greater degree of interoperability (available on 
multiple platforms), and provides a reasonable amount of support. The support might be 
available for free, or for a fee but the fee would in most cases still be far below the expense 
of the proprietary software and its support.
13.8.2 Why Do People Participate in the Open Source Community?
Why are people willing to contribute their time to the open source community? It is 
especially puzzling because contributions are often made by programmers who develop 
software for a livelihood. If they are willing to freely contribute, then they are in essence 
producing for free something that they could be paid for instead. In fact, it is possible that 
the software they are helping to produce might compete against software that they are paid 
to produce or maintain. And yet being involved in the open source community could help 
their careers. How?
Here are several reasons to contribute to open source projects.
• Learn about new technologies.
• Learn about different software development approaches.
• Participate in large group projects (with potentially hundreds of developers).
• Learn to work in groups that are geographically separated.
• Produce tools that might be useful to the individual at work or even at home.
• Desire to see a given project be successful.
• Make contact with other developers.
• Demonstrate to current (or future) employers a wide range of skills, some of which 
may not be displayed through their current job.