Wost Practices: Vendor Lock In is Your Fault

Wonder why people think IT people are from another planet? Take this complaint about Google's Android Operating system from a discussion on Slashdot:

"The OS is still missing native MS Exchange support. Our company currently utilizes T-Mobile as a wireless provider and this is the single biggest hangup from us deploying the G1 handsets. I do realize that there are 3rd party apps that provide this functionality, but that gets expensive when you roll out 100+ devices."

First, MS Exchange support is not a feature of an operating system, second, choosing MS Exhcange is what is limiting your choices on phone handsets. 

IT pros need to get something through their heads:

Vendor lock in is caused by selecting vendors who use lock in to retain customers and protect profits.  It is not caused by the company that just came out with an incredibly useful and impressive new product that is not compatible with your locked up proprietary solution.

It's time for IT pros to stop blaming the new products for not being compatible with your software that "features" vendor lock in.

lockin, microsoft, it

Four Killer Open Source Applications You Don't Know About

Ok, so you've probably heard a little about Open Source. Chances are most of the websites you see are served using the Apache Webserver. You've also probably used the Firefox browser, used OpenOffice and maybe even have played around with Linux. Here are four incredible open source applications you can download and use for free. There's no strings, and if you want to get source code to the applications, you can.

Marble
Marble is a shockingly good "desktop globe" that includes lots of maps that works on Linux, Windows, Mac and eve Windows CE. Need a map you don't have? Click Open Map and you'll find some Want a quick map to see how to get to the local Tweetup? Use the OpenStreetMap Map. Tweetup on Venus? No problem, switch to Marble's Venus map. Want to plan a bike tour? Use the Bicycling Map. Want to see how hot it is on average in Buenos Aires? Use the average Temperature map. Marble is like having a complete collection of globes, a street map and even an old historical globe. Marble has been great for helping my daughters with geography and science.



Price: Free. As in free beer.
Linux: install the marble package for your distribution. Debian & Ubuntu - sudo apt-get install marble
Windows & Mac: Download Marble Here

Songbird
Want an easy to use, totally web enabled and customizable music player? Ok, look no further than Songbird. Unlike iTunes, Windows Media Player and Linux uberplayer Amarok, Songbird is built on top of the Mozilla Firefox web browser - so it makes using sites like Last.fm, Shoutcast and Amazon.com a snap. Songbird is shaping up to be one of the best music players around... and it works on everything.

Price: Free. As in free beer.
Linux, Windows & Mac: Get Songbird Here

Scribus
Want to work up a newsletter or print brochure? Don't want to shell our $1,000 for software? Look no further than Scirbus, an open source Desktop Publisher. Scribus isn't a toy - it's actually a professional grade page layout program that lets you design print shop ready publications - newsletters, brochures, magazines, whatever. This is one seriously powerful program, and it's free.



Price: Free. As in free beer.
Linux, Windows & Mac: Get Scribus Here

Kompozer
Want a nice web page editor that lets you edit exactly as your page will look in a browser? Well, a few years ago there was a program called Nvu that did that - but the company that funded development gave up on it. Then one day a programmer named Kompozer is a very easy to use web page editor. It's free, and for straight HTML, it's almost unbeatable.

Price: Free. As in free beer.
Linux, Windows & Mac: Get Kompozer Here