Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software alternatives with Ron Bongo and discover how open source can provide you with an alternative access to satellite images of the globe

Many people are already familiar with Google Earth and have already tried it one time or another. The ability to turn the globe like a piece of kid’s marble gives users a good view of the world through satellite images. However, using Google Earth takes up much system resource that makes it not convenient to use. It is available to Linux though but users can have an open source alternative that they can use – Marble. 

Marble is a virtual globe application that gives users a different perspective of the world. It can be used with Linux and has some features missing as compared to Google Earth. However, the many available features available as well as the fact that it is not a resource hog makes it a preferable tool to use. The application is associated with the KDE desktop environment and KDE users might as well have Marble already installed. However, it can still be used with any other environment. 

GPS devices can function with Marble by simply enabling the ‘current location’ in the view menu and enable the GPSD service, allowing the application to find any GPS device that can track the user’s current location. Maps can be adjusted and also has auto-zoom options that can be used. 

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn more about open source alternatives that can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software alternatives with Ron Bongo and discover how open source can provide you with good and reliable mobile security.

In this modern world driven by cellular phones and other mobile devices, protecting confidential data inside these devices from malicious attackers has become a necessity that only mobile security applications can provide. The popularity of Internet capable mobile devices such as mobile phones, netbooks, tablets and PDAs ushered in a rash of commercial applications, but at the same time it imposes a new level of security risks and vulnerability because of their mobile nature. 

Through these mobile devices, people transmit confidential data to and from their devices, which can be intercepted, modified and used while in-transit by scrupulous parties mobile users may not even be aware of. This makes mobile security an important aspect in today’s mobile world. Proprietary and commercial applications are available that would provide mobile security at various levels. Aside from them, open source alternatives such as the mobile security applications that are being developed by the Guardian Project. 

The Guardian Project is an open source mobile security development project that intends to bring privacy and security for mobile device users, particularly those that are based or are using Google’s Android mobile operating system. The Guardian Project aims to provide security solutions that would provide users full disk encryption, anonymous web browsing and secured instant messaging sessions using their mobile devices. 

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn more about open source alternatives that can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software alternatives with Ron Bongo and discover how open source changed the way people send and receive emails.

Email has played a very important role in online life, whether for business, commercial or personal applications, and Microsoft’s popular email clients Outlook and Outlook Express has dominated the email scene for several years since their initial releases. These email clients achieved tremendous popularity among online users due to their great functionalities and features as well as the lack of good applications that can compete with Microsoft’s email arsenal.

Mozilla’s Thunderbird would be one of the few email programs that can compete with Microsoft Outlook Express. These programs have basically the same functionalities and ease of use, but what’s rapidly transforming Thunderbird into the email application of choice is that users can download and use it freely as an Open Source offering. Not only that Thunderbird, unlike Microsoft Outlook Express, can be used in a cross platform environment and would work well on Windows or on a GNU/Linux operating system.

The latest version of Thunderbird can be easily downloaded from Mozilla’s website and easily installed on your personal computer or laptop. Aside from the installer program, extensions and upgrades can also be downloaded to give the user a much better email experience using Thunderbird. Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn more about open source alternatives that can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software alternatives with Ron Bongo and discover how open source changed the way people look for information from encyclopedias.

The phenomenal success of the open-source encyclopedia Wikipedia in just a short span of time rendered traditional encyclopedias practically obsolete. The great stacks of hard-bound encyclopedia volumes or their CD-ROM equivalent – both of which are obtained commercially – doesn’t appeal to standard researchers anymore as most are satisfied with the free, and much more updated, information they get when browsing through Wikipedia.

What people like about Wikipedia aside from the up-to-date information on various topics is the ease of looking for cross-information by simply clicking on the link of a highlighted word or topic. With traditional encyclopedias, researchers have to dig through more volumes of books if they want to know more about a certain word or concept that came up while doing research on a particular topic or project. With just a few clicks, users can get additional information that is related to their main research item, or get clarification about a certain word or concept they did not understand – at the speed of a mouse button.

Wikipedia is just a few of the many examples of how the open source concept is changing the lives of people in this modern, online world. Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn more about open source alternatives that can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software with Ron Bongo and discover how nations in various parts of the world can save money from their use of open source applications.

In the recent ICT for All Symposium 2011 held in Bangkok, Thailand, representatives from different nations in the Asia-Pacific region share their experiences in migrating to open source applications particularly the adoption of OpenOffice.org. Many expressed that their key success factor for migration was that OpenOffice.org was free and easy to use, giving enterprises in these nations a better global competitiveness without resorting to expensive enterprise software.

On top of that, the use of open source applications help combat software piracy, an issue that is prevalent in these nations. In Thailand, software piracy can go as high as 75%, and reducing this piracy rate can help the nation’s economy grow stronger and more competitive in the world market. Several countries in the ASEAN including Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia already have a 21.5% penetration for OpenOffice.org while data shows varying degrees of adoption in other countries in Asia and other parts of the world.

During the Symposium, a roadmap to develop open source software in Thailand was developed and the community was urging the government of Thailand as well as other Asian countries like Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to introduce open source to both individuals and enterprises. It was also indicated that exposure to open source should be done as early as possible from childhood level to make adoption for open source as easy as possible in these countries – which organizers believe will lead to the overall success of these nations.

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn how its benefits can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software with Ron Bongo and discover how various enterprises, including NASA, is acknowledging the importance of this technology.

An exciting thing is coming to the open source community after NASA is opening up its doors to open source by donating their codes to non-profit companies. Working with web hosting provider Rackspace, NASA will make their codes available to at least 27 technology vendors who will be participating in this project and will be working on these codes for cloud computing technology development for scientists.

This move will help NASA cut down on cost after receiving considerable pressure from the government. This move will also prevent Rackspace from being locked in with any other cloud software. This is a clear indication of the growing number of enterprises acknowledging the importance of open source, basically due to the following reasons:

• Reduction of cost – Many open source applications are free to download and unrestricted by any license. Even commercial open source software are much cheaper compared to branded applications
  

• Higher levels of flexibility – Open source allow developers to work directly on the codes and incorporate changes according to their specific requirements. These improvements can also be shared back to the Open Source community so they can use or modify according to their needs
  

• Lower risk of Malware – Malicious software often attack a user’s root directories and files. Users of open source software however, don’t have access to root passwords thereby minimizing the risk of viruses and other malware.
  

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn how its benefits can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software with Ron Bongo and discover how a new research study is highlighting the significant improvements in open source code quality and how it can be beneficial to commercial or business users.

In a recent study by Coverity, the tools vendor for analyzing programming code commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security in 2006 to help boost the quality of open source applications, it was reported that the quality of open source code is improving and the overall number of defects decreasing. The use of open source software is increasing among government agencies, prompting Homeland Security to check for any issues with their continued use.

Open source projects and developers can send their code to Coverity through their Scan site for analysis and to check the number of potential defects the code has. During the past three years, the density of code defects dropped by as much as 16%, with up to 11,200 defects eliminated.  Since it started, the Scan site has checked more than 60 million unique lines of code coming from over 280 open source projects.

While the analysis of open source code does not necessarily mean that a particular commercial or business process utilizing the application is working correctly, it is a good tool to check if the code is technically solid or not such as looking for “structural anti-patterns” within the code. Analysis of the code will also determine if the application was programmed using the best programming practices. Without proper programming practices, applications can be prone to performance and security issues.  

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn how its benefits can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software with Ron Bongo and how open source is finding its way into the realm of large corporations and used in critical business processes.

Five or six years ago, larger organizations would not even consider using open source applications to replace critical business processes such as HR, finance, CRM and other systems that are critical to the operations of a business. But as open source applications mature and quality development runs high, thanks to the community of developers and users who support open source, large corporations are now looking towards open source as viable and cost-effective alternatives to their existing systems.

In the Accenture survey, one third of respondents are planning to migrate critical business operation systems to open source. Leading the way are financial services and high-tech companies, two industries that have invested and relied heavily on proprietary IT, but now would be the early adopter among large corporations migrating towards open source. Gone is the previous stigma of open source applications as immature and uncontrollable – systems that are not fit for corporate use.

While some companies are still wary of migrating mission-critical system to open source, they are still considering the move although at a slower approach than the early adopters. Risk management, outages and uncertainties still hold back such companies who are still more comfortable in getting commercial support from commercial software providers. 65% of users who have migrated already have documented plans on how they can strategically use open source in key business processes while the remaining percentages are still developing plans. Such governance is important for large corporation so they can have a firm management of open source use and can realistically quantify ROI and TCO.  

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn how its benefits can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software with Ron Bongo and how open source is finding its way into the realm of large corporations and into their IT infrastructure.

In a latest survey by Accenture PLC, a technology services and management consulting firm, organizations who took part in the survey indicated that while cost savings is one of the primary reasons their enterprises are switching to open source applications, their topmost reason for doing so is because of the software products’ quality, reliability and security.

This is just a clear indication of how open source applications are coming of age, maturing well enough to pass the functionality, feature, and capability requirements of most organizations aside from the cost. IT managers are becoming more confident with their use of open source, with a large back-up community all lending their eyes to detect and help solve any security problem a particular version may have. Technical resources are available out there to solve these issues and many are eager to rise to the challenge of any problems and issues thrown at them.

For other organizations, they find the flexibility of open source applications more acceptable for their needs than what commercial packages can offer. Many commercial packages offer limited flexibility particularly in intranet portal interfaces that open sources applications can provide. Aside from that, open source applications allow IT managers to have more control over developments, customizations and other changes that they would need to better suit the applications for their organizational needs.

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn how its benefits can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.

Ron Bongo here once more to give you more insights on business and how you could learn more about open source concepts.

Learn more about open source software with Ron Bongo and how open source is finding its way into the realm of large corporations and into their IT infrastructure.

In a recent survey by Accenture PLC, a technology services and management consulting firm, half of the 300 recipients who were mostly large enterprises declared that they will now commit their corporations into using open-source software. What’s amazing is that another 28% have indicated that they started to make preliminary projects and experimentations using open source applications and that 69% of these respondents are confident that their investments in open source would continue to increase.

Open source applications used to dwell the bottom rungs of the IT infrastructures of large corporations, mostly in a trial or experimental environment. However, the report from Accenture confirmed that large corporations are now using open source systems in more critical areas of their infrastructure, particularly in the areas of business intelligence, portal development, and content management.

The honeymoon period is over and these large corporations are now turning their sights and focus on open source and what these applications can benefit their enterprises – now that global focus has shifted towards more practical, and wiser, decisions on technologies these companies are spending their money in.

Come back here to learn more about the open source concept and learn how its benefits can help your business or profession as brought to you by Ron Bongo.