What can Free Software do?

Free Software can do almost everything users, companies and institutions in general expect from software. In fact, thanks to an accessible source code, Free Software can provide, above all, solutions to specific questions and needs. The below the Free Software Center presents some relevant examples, listed in alphabetical order, with a view to illustrating all the things Free Software can do.

Apache

In the field of web servers, Free Software can be found more frequently than proprietary software. For example, the HTTP Apache free server operates in two thirds of all web Servers at a global level. Officially, the name was chosen to pay tribute to the native American Apache peoples, whereas according to other sources it would make reference to the expression “a patchy server”. Apache is currently used in various operating systems, and this has contributed to its distribution and appreciation.

ClamAV

ClamAV (Clam AntiVirus) is a virus scanner. It is also an antiphishing filter under the GNU General Public Licence, and it is often used in e-mail systems to filter so-called mailworms and mail phishing. Since ClamAV is Free Software, it was soon included in various GNU/Linux releases and integrated into other operating systems.

Compiere

The Compiere Free Software is professional software for office and administrative activities, thus it offers a quick and comprehensive overview of one’s company or organization. All resources, orders and supplies can be concretely managed with continuity.

Firefox

Towards the end of the 1990s, the Netscape corporation made the Netscape Navigator source code available to the Free Software community. Within few years, this developed first Mozilla, and then Firefox. Differently from Mozilla, Firefox is a simple browser without supplementary functions, such as e-mail or similar functions.

Gimp

Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an image processing program, which is released as Free Software under the GNU General Public Licence. The range of functions dedicated to image processing is comparable to that present in Adobe Photoshop proprietary software.

Gnome

GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) is a Desktop environment. It was created in 1997 with the aim to provide a free development and desktop environment for the GNU/Linux operating system. Among its features, it is worth highlighting that it is easy to use, it works on a resource-saving basis, it can be used by disabled people and it has a multilingual support.

GNU/Linux

Nowadays the IT market is not dominated exclusively by Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh any more. There now exists some free and high performance operating systems, such as BSD Unix and all its by-products. The most popular one is GNU/Linux, a Unix-type free operating system with Linux kernel.

GROUP-E

GROUP-E is a groupware that can be easily used for organizational, communication and teamwork activities in projects. GROUP-E was developed by endo7 IT company, based in Bolzano (northern Italy), and it was released under the GNU General Public Licence.

JGRASS

JGRASS is the result of a further development of the GRASS software. JGRASS was developed by the South Tyrolean company HydroloGIS, together with software expert John Preston from the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) in Jamaica. Thanks to its user-friendly interface, this new java application considerably facilitates setting up and processing of geologic and geomorphological analysis.

KDE

KDE (K Desktop Environment) is a graphic desktop environment for Unix workstations. It can be run in most Unix-type operating systems, such as GNU/Linux and BSD releases.

LaTeX

LaTeX here is not a rubber product. It is, rather, a software package, whose purpose is to facilitate the use of text revision program TeX by means of Makros. It was designed by Leslie Lamport in 1984. The name is the result of an abbreviation for Lamport together with TeX. The currently available version is 2ε. LaTeX is the system to revise texts for books, thesis and scientific papers. In order to acquire the text, it is possible to use any editor or a text processing function. Then, LaTeX deals with the text according to typographic and aesthetic rules.

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org (OOo) is a software package for office work and it is based on the StarOffice software. The functions in OOo are mostly the same as those offered by Microsoft Office. With OOo it is possible to prepare presentations, tables and texts, as well as carry out complex computing operations and drawings. OOo has some particular characteristics, e.g. it offers the chance to import Microsoft Office documents and it has an integrated PDF format. OOo has fewer problems with big size documents and it is less vulnerable to macroviruses. Moreover, OOo clearly needs less memory or core memory than Microsoft Office.

Samba

Samba is Free Software that can make the server message block (SMB) protocol available to *nix (Unix, Linux) systems. The SMB protocol is used in Windows to make directories and networked printers available to other users. In this sense, Samba can take on the functions of a Windows server and, thus, replace it. Some studies showed that it is more stable and faster than Windows servers, or at least that it is comparable.

SpamAssassin

SpamAssassin is a filter program. It can delete spam e-mail messages automatically. This program is written in Perl and it is absolutely one of the most popular and efficient programs against junk mail. This software is used by big providers, e.g. GMX.