Crispy's Tech Tips Pt III

But don't feel like paying an arm & a leg for some buggy MS piece of bloat-code garbage? Look into the world of open source code. Check this out!

As some know, I used to use Trillian as my instant messenger program due to its ability to connect to various services simultaneously. After a serious security flaw was found in the program over one month ago (which has still yet to be patched), I switched over to Gaim, which does all the same things with the following improvements: it is 1) more secure and 2) open source. Open source, basically, means that the code is free to be viewed and modified by anyone. Since the source code is public information, users can send feedback to the originating company about security flaws, features, code streamlining, etc. This results in more frequent and timely updates for your software. These all work together to provide a much better experience on the side of the end user (you and me). So instead of paying $150+ for MS Office, you can download OpenOffice for free (legally, too) . OpenOffice has equivalents for all of the applications found in MS Office.

Take the plunge. Check out open source.

Crispy