Computer Spot dot Net

The UNIX operating system was developed in the 60’s and 70’s by a group of AT & T employees at Bell Labs.  Unix is used by both servers and workstations and is the basis for a wide variety of other operating systems.

The operating system under UNIX consists of many of the utilities listed above along with the master control program which is called the “kernel”.

The kernel helps start and stop programs, handle the file system, take care of other common high level tasks that most programs share and schedule access to hardware to avoid conflicts if two programs try to access the same resource or device simultaneously.

Besides the main kernel, UNIX systems also had micro-kernels which tried to reverse the growing size of kernels and return to a system in which most tasks were completed by smaller utilities. Read the rest of this entry →

The open source community has developed privacy-related tools to help you keep your data and online activities private.

With these tools, you don’t have to spend big bucks just to purchase expensive security tools. Whether you are a developer, student, or new open source user, you’re sure to find tools here that can help keep your data secret.

Developer Tools

• Jasypt – Jasypt is a tool you can use to add encryption to your code if you are not fully knowledgeable with cryptography. This tool uses standards-based encryption methods or techniques that allow you to encrypt text, numbers, passwords and more.
• JCrypTool – this tool allows you to learn about encryption and cryptography. It makes it easy for users to experiment on different encryption mechanisms.

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As we all know, open source software’s source code is available to the general public for modification or use from its original design or structure free of charge.

One of the famous open source softwares is Linux operating systems.  But open source is not just about access to the source code.  It has free distribution and it does not restrict other software.

Have you ever wonder why you should use open source software?

This article sites the top reasons why you should use open source software.

• First, open source programs are RELIABLE.

Open source software’s source code availability to the public makes the program reliable.

Whenever there is a bug detected, developers or users tried to fix those bugs within a couple of hours, report it to the maintainers of the software and release an updated version.

Users may opt to choose to use the fixed version or the official version (including the fix releases). Read the rest of this entry →

The Open Source community is celebrating another major achievement with the recent release of the final version of OpenOffice 3. OpenOffice has been very successful since its introduction.

The hype surrounding OpenOffice is understandable because it is long touted as the software which could potentially challenge the dominance of one of the most profitable business softwares ever produced – Microsoft Office.

OpenOffice has several major advantages over Microsoft Office.

• It is a free software and can be used for any purposes without licensing fee obligations.
• It is available for various platforms such as Windows, Linux, Solaris and even Apple Mac.
• Due to its open source nature, anyone can participate in its development and improvement, making it easier to eliminate bugs and request new features.

OpenOffice 3 is a suite consisting of 6 applications: word proccessor Writer, spreadsheet Calc, presentations program Impress, database program Base, equation editor Math and graphics program Draw. Read the rest of this entry →

In my previous post, I talked about the introduction of open source software. In this post I am going to give a review of one of the open source software programs: Open Office Software. Open office is an alternative to the other commercial Office Suite software programs.

Open Office is an office suite that was developed for Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems. It comes with similar packages as the commercial brands, such as a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), and presentation maker (Impress).

Also, Open office also comes with a database and drawing tool. Besides all this, Open Office is compatible with Microsoft-based office files which would allow for a mixed-suite environment. Read the rest of this entry →

Probably you’ve heard of open source software but might not have fully understood what it is and why it even exists.

This article will describe this recent phenomenon and describe some of its benefits for the software using community.

In a nutshell, open source software is a software which is made by everyone for everyone. The purposes behind its development is open access, it will evolve into something that represents the true desires of computer users. Read the rest of this entry →