OEM Companies changing to Open Source

Web applications and services

Apache : The Apache Web Server (its roots were detailed earlier) is the leading HTTP server on the Internet today, hosting over 67% of the websites according to http://www.netcraft.com. Apache is open source with versions running on Linux, BSD, Unix, NetWare, and Windows, as well as other platforms. Apache includes a powerful feature set with scripting, authentication, proxy, and logging capabilities. Popular features include multihoming, the capability to host multiple sites on the same machine, and the capability to password protect pages. Apache is also highly configurable and extensible for third-party customization and modules. Apache has been termed the killer application for the Internet. The Apache community is located at http://httpd.apache.org/.

Development tools

PHP : PHP is a prevalent, general-purpose scripting language that is used for web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP was originally started in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf as a way to post his résumé and collect viewing statistics, and was called Personal Home Page Tools. It was rewritten by two Israeli developers, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, and renamed PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is popular as a server-side scripting language and enables experienced developers to easily begin creating dynamic web content applications. PHP also enables easy interaction with the most common databases, such as MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB2, and many others. See http://www.php.net/ for more information.

Documentation

The Linux Documentation Project: Early open source projects were known to be light on descriptive documentation. As the movement has matured, reference information for open source projects has become more plentiful and more informative. The open source model itself is being used to generate documentation, training resources, and teaching aids. The most notable body of content is the Linux Documentation Project located at http://www.tldp.org/.

The Linux Documentation Project (LDP for short) originated in 1992 as a place on the World Wide Web where Linux developers could share documentation with each other and with those who were using their software. The LDP is maintained by a group of volunteers who provide a fairly extensive library of help, including feature man pages (feature or command documentation), guides, and frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Open source project sites

sourceforge.net :VA Software produces a web-based software collaboration and development application called SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/index.php). SourceForge.net is an online instance of SourceForge that is available for the management of open source development projects. Several services, including Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) for version control and distributed collaboration, are available to facilitate online development and management of code. SourceForge.net markets itself as "the world’s largest Open Source software development website, with the largest repository of Open Source code and applications available on the Internet." As of September 2004, SourceForge.net claimed more than 87,000 projects and 913,000 registered users. Basic membership and project management is free, but for $39 per year, users can access a collection of premium services.

Inside This Section

Firefox vs Other Browsers

For Firefox users it's not about features, it's all about compatibility, customizability and convenience. This is where Firefox gets an upper hand over all its competitors, including major ones like Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari.
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Sourceforge: A Case Study

The needs of the people can only understood by the people, and only the people can provide feasible solutions. However, the solutions need to be updated from time to time, or new ones need to be thought of. Also, there should be a common forum on which all the problems and solutions can be posted. The platform is called the ‘Internet’.
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