-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Braiden [mailto:jel@...]
Sent: Monday, January 13 2003 12:52
To: Ecoplan
Subject: Free Software Tools

Hi,

I noticed your comments on the software tools page of your site
regarding Free Software. I would like to commend you for realising the
ethical importance of Free Software use.

On the other hand, you don't seem to be aware of the Free Software
options available. Linux has progressed rapidly, and many varieties of
it represent useful "drop-in" replacements for most uses of Microsoft
Windows. Mandrake Linux (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/) represents a
very nice and easy to use solution for most users. I'm not being biased
here in my recommendation, because I personally prefer Debian
(http://www.debian.org/), with is highly ethical, both as software, and
as a open and democratic voluntary organisation. However, Debian is
primarily designed for experts, and so I would not recommend it. There
are some variations on Debian which may be easier, but I won't go into
those.

In any mainstream Linux distribution one chooses, one will find a
complete office package installed which easily rivals MS Office.
Sometimes, this will be a commercial package, SunOffice, but usually it
is the Free Software version of this, which is virtually identical, and
has more potential, OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/).

It is important to know that you do not have to use Linux to begin using
Free Software, however. OpenOffice is also available for MS Windows;
again, Free. You can download it right off the OpenOffice.org site and
install it, giving a complete replacement for MS Office. It is also
available for Macintosh computers, and some others, providing much more
flexibility than MS Office in organisations to which lots of mixed
computers have been donated. Encouraging people to use this would go a
long way to promoting electronic communications for all, since it can
create documents in it's own format, which can then be read and modified
using Free Software. The alternative is to create documents which are
effectively held to ransom, at the price of the commercial software
which created them.

Equally, there are free programs available, for many platforms, for
other purposes too. Although OpenOffice.org already includes a good
drawing application, GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/) provides a photo
editing and drawing application which effectively replaces Adobe
Photoshop. The same argument about creating Freely-usuable documents
applies to images created in GIMP. A Photoshop ".PSD" is useless to the
vast majority of internet users, unless GIMP can manage to import it.
Anyone, however, can download GIMP, and help to redesign logos, posters,
or floor plans which have been provided in GIMP's own (open) XCF format.

Powerful Free database software is available too; essential for any
growing organisation which doesn't want to commit to a vendor for access
to it's own information. An important option is that of Mozilla
(http://www.mozilla.org/). Mozilla is currently the best web browser
available, supporting more new standards than any other, and is entirely
Free Software. It is the main software from which Netscape 6 is
derived, and so should be recommended before it, especially given the
ethical preference there. It is also available for a wide variety of
computers, giving more more uniform working environment across mixed,
donated computers.

I really would like to suggest that you investigate the Free Software
options more fully, and recommend at least one Free alternative to every
commercial application you have listed. More than than, I would hope
that you would point out the ethical differences, and recommend that the
Free option be chosen if at all possible.

Anyway, I hope I've helped to explain the options a little better. Rant
over :)


- Lee.