I love Open Source software

By mariquita , 17 March, 2016

I use a lot of Open Source software. I’m currently writing in Libre Office (so I don’t accidentally refresh my post and lose all my work which, yes, I just did). Once I’m finished writing, I’ll log into my Drupal website using Firefox. My Drupal installation is based on PHP calls to a mySQL database and served up using an Apache server. The website software is hosted on a Linux operating system. My old web host used FreeBSD machines. FreeBSD is the operating system upon which Mac OS X is based. I email using Thunderbird and work with data using R or Python.

My proclivity towards Open Source software began in 1998 when I wanted to learn how to create a database-driven website. I was using Windows 98 at the time which came with Microsoft’s Personal Web Server (PWS), a web server like Apache. Using PWS required the use of ASP and a Microsoft database like SQL Server or Access. Since a SQL Server license cost thousands of dollars and Access came with MS Office, I defaulted to Access.

Guided by a tutorial at Webmonkey (which is no longer there, I checked), I put something together. It’s difficult to remember what it was but I wasn’t happy with it. I tried multiple times in multiple different ways to get it to work but PWS wasn’t cooperating: I wasn’t able to serve up data stored in Access.

The web discussion list I followed must’ve written about PHP, mySQL, and Apache enough times that it lodged itself into my subconscious. Off to more tutorials I went. Installing all of it on Windows was easy. Getting them to talk to each other begat the same problem I had with the Microsoft products. There was something in the Apache directives I was supposed to modify but I couldn’t figure out what. I tried for days to get it to work. I couldn’t. So I took a break … for three months.

I went back to it just to see if I could get it to work. I searched for more information and tried more things. It wasn’t long before I got everything to work: a form was served up on a web page and accepting data input into the database and serving it up again. I was happy. It turns out I was making Apache directives in .httpd a more difficult thing than it is. They’re just lines of text which tell the Apache server how to handle things.

I’ve worked in Microsoft environments but I always recommend Open Source software to clients. Open Source software is easier to troubleshoot and it just works better. I always know where I’m drilling down or up by scrolling through the commands I’ve used on the command-line. With Windows, I have to keep track of all the Windows I’ve clicked through because there’s no log of my actions. The real proof came when I was checking for snow closings on local news channels. The first website gave me an error which said something like “Come back later, too many connections.” The second website gave me all the school closings in the blink of an instance. Out of curiosity, I checked what they were running on by visiting netcraft. Guess which one was running on IIS and which one on Apache? The one throwing an error was running on IIS while the information-filled one was running on Apache.

I don't use Open Source software for everything. I still like my Macs and my iOS devices but I do use a lot of Open Source software to help me accomplish work. I don't have the expertise to contribute code but I do try to help by submitting bug reports. It's my way of trying to give back to a community which has helped me so much both professionally and intellectually.