Pelago :: web design & development blog » Open Source

Stand-alone Open Source software expected to have big growth

Michael — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:00:54 +0000

We have a mixed world here at Pelago where we do primarily Open Source development, but have a combo office with Macs, PCs, Windows Server 2003 and Linux. If there is ever a comparable Open Source option we definitely go that route first. It allows us to modify it for our needs and doesn’t have prohibitive licensing. It looks like Open Source vendors can expect growth over the next few years:

The market reached $1.8 billion in 2006, and will grow 26 percent annually for the next four years, the firm predicted.

The full story is here at Yahoo! news.

Ubuntu continues to gain momentum – can Linux gain ground in the desktop realm?

Michael — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:56:50 +0000

It seems like every time you turn around there is a new Ubuntu announcement. For example, it is being ported to handhelds, and Dell announced that it is going to sell computers with Ubuntu 7.04 preinstalled. With all of the virtualization growing in the marketplace with VMware and Parallels for the Mac, it seems like Linux should gain ground in the desktop arena. I have a Dell laptop with Ubuntu on it and I am able to do pretty much everything I need with it. Also, with the advent of so much hosted software (like our service Intervals) it seems like a ripe opportunity for Linux based desktops to grow in popularity. The need to be connected is at a premium, but the need for installed software seems to be lessening. If you have an internet connection, Open Office, and a chat program you can do much of most people need to do. I am curious to see where things are at in year.

The age of frameworks

John — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:33:30 +0000

On the heels of Ruby on Rails comes an array of MVC frameworks developed in PHP. WASP, Symfony, and Prado all look promising. The real challenge with any PHP framework is going to be building the scaffolding automation onto a proven MVC framework.

Symfony seems to be the most robust of these, but perhaps too complex for most basic web apps. Built around Mojavi, it is a fully robust framework. It’s main challenge will be in providing an easy to use scaffolding functionality that allows the developer to easily customize the resulting code.

WASP and Prado both are young and are developing the scaffolding alongside the core framework code. They could both evolve into strong frameworks.

Naturally, we at Pelago have found that there is no one-size-fits all framework. In the process of rolling our own framework, we’ve adapted the features we need from a variety of pre-existing frameworks. My guess is this will be the case for most web development shops building an app that goes beyond the basic app. I’m not saying that basic apps are bad, but i’m noticing a niche developing in the web app world. There are apps that do too much, which this new framework movement is rebelling against, and there are apps that do too little, which is all too often the aim of these new frameworks.

The success of these new frameworks will depend on providing a seamless setup experience for the basic web developer, while also allowing the more advanced web developer to customize and tweak the code to their needs.

Open source websites

John — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:43:00 +0000

Looking for some solid free software? Here is a good start. Ten of the better known open source resources.

Lightbox JS

Jaime — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 21:15:30 +0000

Here’s an implementation of JS with transparent PNG’s to simulate an inactive window when you zoom in on an image.

CanvasGraph.js : Graphing in Javascript

Jaime — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 21:51:50 +0000

The CanvasGraph.js library allows you to create graphs on the fly with the use of the HTML Canvas Tag, a tag introduced by apple. I say an SVG version would complete this project nicely.

Another Google post

Jaime — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 22:21:04 +0000

Here’s a couple of sites using google maps API I found.

Trulia Real Estate
MapBuilder.net
smugMaps

The Firemonger Project

John — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 20:12:49 +0000

Most news outlets are reporting on IE being problematic with spyware and virus, and recommending the public migrate to Firefox to evade such annoyances. Here is a web site that will help you get up and running with downloadable CDs you can share with your friends and family. And the best thing is, it’s free!

A better Windows

John — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 16:38:57 +0000

System and desktop applications to make your windows experience a more enjoyable one. The coolest of these has to be the multiple desktop application. Enhance and enjoy.

In the Linux loop

Jaime — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 23:32:02 +0000

Using open-source software like Linux is a no-brainer for many companies. It’s stable and can be fixed easily if bugs appear, and you can’t beat the price. But some companies and government organizations are taking their commitment to open source a step further by actively participating in the open-source community.

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,80053,00.html