Open source Business Intelligence Pentaho

Open source Business Intelligence firm Pentaho has taken $12 million Series C in a round led by Benchmark Capital. Previous investors Index Ventures and New Enterprise Associates also participated.

Pentaho offers commercial open source enterprise reporting, analysis, dashboard, data mining, workflow and ETL capabilities for Business Intelligence needs.

Orlando, Florida based Pentaho was founded in 2004 and has had three million lifetime downloads, with more than 20,000 registered community members. Pentaho’s customers include Cox Communications, Delta Dental, Lifetime Networks, Monsanto Corporation, Savvion, Sun Microsystems, Terra Industries, U.S. Naval Air Command, and Wachovia.
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Dash boards - wow these are good and hard to build by yourself , the free open source product helps here ..

http://www.pentaho.com/products/
User Interface

Pentaho’s popular open source OLAP offering to Microsoft Excel users, allowing them to interactively explore and analyze data directly within Excel.

Gold Futures Rise to Record $958.40 on Inflation Concerns

article date Feb-21-2008 - By Pham-Duy Nguyen and Claudia Carpenter
Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures surged to a record $958.40 an ounce as a slumping dollar and soaring commodity costs boosted the appeal of the precious metal as an inflation hedge. Silver rose to the highest since 1980.

Gold has more than tripled in price during a seven-year rally. The metal jumped 31 percent in 2007 as the Federal Reserve initiated a series of interest-rate cuts aimed at bolstering the economy, while inflation rose at the fastest pace since 1990. Fed policy makers intend to keep rates low ``for a time,'' minutes from their meetings showed yesterday.

``Inflation is screaming,'' said Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management in Evanston, Illinois. ``Lowering rates is only going to make inflation worse and force people into commodities. The funds are piling into gold.''

Gold futures for April delivery rose $13.20, or 1.4 percent, to $951 an ounce at 12:59 p.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The most-active contract topped $950 for the first time in electronic trading overnight.

Silver futures for March delivery climbed 9 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $17.85 an ounce. The price earlier reached $18.075, the highest since December 1980. Before today, silver gained 19 percent this year, while gold rose 12 percent.

The deepest housing slump in 25 years and billions of dollars in writedowns related to the collapse of subprime- mortgage debt spurred the Fed in September to begin cutting rates for the first since 2003 to avert a recession.

Interest-Rate Futures

The federal-funds rate is at 3 percent, down from 5.25 percent in mid-September. Gold has gained 31 percent since Sept. 18, when the central bank started cutting borrowing costs. Interest-rate futures show a 92 percent chance the Fed will lower the benchmark rate to 2.5 percent by March 18, compared with a 70 percent chance a week ago.

Last year, consumer prices rose 4.1 percent, the most since 1990. The dollar index, a measure against a weighted basket of the yen, euro, pound and three other major currencies, fell to 74.484 on Nov. 23, the lowest since the currency index started trading in 1973.

``In a negative interest-rate environment, gold does really well,'' said James Vail, who manages $1.5 billion in natural- resources funds at ING Investment Management Co. in New York. ``Gold just represents a very easy way to store value. The dollar continues to worry people.''

The dollar index traded as low as 75.57 today. The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index climbed as much as 1.3 percent to 1,465.15, the highest ever. Platinum, soybeans and corn also reached records today. Crude oil yesterday soared to $101.32 a barrel, the highest ever.

StreetTracks
Investment in the StreetTracks Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded fund backed by bullion, has risen 0.5 percent to 631 metric tons this year. It reached a record 653 metric tons on Jan. 14.

Investors put a record $8.1 billion into the gold market in the fourth quarter, according to figures from the World Gold Council. The data showed $1.96 billion invested in ETFs, which totaled 869 metric tons as of Dec. 31. Global mine production dropped 1 percent to 2,447 metric tons last year, the council said.

``Gold clearly has benefited amid a new investment-driven phase,'' John Hill, a metals and mining analyst at Citigroup Investment Research, said in a report on Feb. 14. The firm expects gold to average $900 this year.


More than half of the 28 analysts who participated in the London Bullion Market Association's annual survey forecast gold's high will exceed $1,000 this year.
-asr: ait may be just 55% of anaysts , these predictions has less than 60% success rate as per bloomberg i read some where in this site itself.

Mine Output Slides

Gold touched a 20-year low of $253.20 in July 1999. The price has climbed as output from mines eased and increasing wealth in countries such as China and India boosted demand.

Last year, global mine production dropped to an 11-year low, researcher GFMS Ltd. said. Blackouts in South Africa have disrupted mine output this year. China and South Africa are the world's largest gold producers.


Chinese demand rose 23 percent in 2007 as the country replaced the U.S. as the second-biggest buyer of the metal, World Gold Council data showed. Demand from India, the largest buyer, rose 7 percent.

``We could see $1,100 by the third quarter,'' said Tobias Merath, a commodities analyst at Credit Suisse Group in Zurich. ``We've had production outages in South Africa. Jewelry demand is increasing in Asia due to increasing living standards.''

Gold futures climbed to $873 in January 1980, when the inflation rate was 14 percent. That record stood for 28 years. In 1980 dollars, $950 is equivalent to $2,486 today, according to an inflation calculator on the Web site of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pham-Duy Nguyen in Seattle at pnguyen@bloomberg.net; Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

Medical feat: Indian doctors, made in China

article dated: Jul 24, 2006
A stethoscope hanging around the neck of their wards is the dream of most Telugu parents cutting across social and economic status. Till a few years ago only a few lucky ones could realise this dream. A rejection from a medical college often meant the door to prosperity was closed forever.

The scenario has changed in the last four to five years. Pursuing medical education abroad, if the doors are closed in India, is no longer a rich kid's prerogative.

From long-time favourites like the United States and Russia, the one phrase that made Indian bazaars shudder, `Made in China,' has started making a mark in the field of education too.

With more than 5,000 Indian students and of them nearly 2,000 just from Andhra Pradesh, the medical degree from China is in great demand.

While management seats in India cost no less than Rs. 40 lakhs in some colleges, a Chinese package of less than Rs. 10 lakhs, inclusive of entire course tuition fee, hostel fee and living expenses squeezed in, surely is music to the ears.

World class

"The quality of medical education in China is world class and students need not have any apprehensions," says S. Jaipaul Reddy, Managing Director, St. Joseph's Consultants Pvt. Ltd. that admits students to 12 Chinese medical universities. Last year, he sent nearly 300 students to China while this year the number has crossed 750.

A prime reason for the growing craze is the introduction of English as a medium of instruction in the last couple of years. Mr. Jaipaul Reddy says the Chinese Government has allocated two billion dollars to 50 selected Government medical universities as part of its package to make them the best in the world by 2011.

"Each university has nearly US $ 200 crores and they are spending it to get the best of faculty from across the world and add more facilities to colleges and hospitals. They are already better equipped then most Indian medical colleges," says Mr. Reddy.

Admission procedure

Agrees V. Rajaram of Medico Abroad that sends aspiring medicos to Jinzhou Medical University and Dalian Medical University. "The attraction is not just lower fees but the hassle free admission procedures, followed by guidance of students," he says. To ensure that students don't feel home sick the consultants have set up kitchens with Indian cooks. Parents are constantly informed about their wards' academic records and the life there. "We not only guide them in admissions but keep a track of their life there," informs Mr. Reddy.

The simple admission procedure is a major factor. The Government of China has opened its medical education to the world recently so visas are quite easy to come by. The Ministry of Internal Affairs gives a JW-20 (similar to I-20 of American Universities) after receiving the admission letter. When student approaches the embassy an `X' visa is issued that is valid for 30 days. A student has to join within 30 days to get the visa extended.

Students with not less than 70 per cent marks in Intermediate are being admitted in Chinese universities. So there is no compromise on quality of students who come from more than 50 countries to study medicine.

Interestingly, Indians in Gulf too are impressed with Chinese medical education and preferring it to Indian colleges.

"It has come as a big boon for middle class families," says Mr. Srinivasa Rao, a taxi driver in the Gulf. His daughter is admitted in the Zinjhou Medical University.

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Medical feat: Indian doctors, made in China
By Erik Nilsson (China Daily) Updated: 2006-11-23

Since private medical university fees are too expensive for the average Indian, the dream of becoming a doctor was only within the reach of the well-off that is, until 2003, when Chinese universities touting low tuition threw open their doors to them.

Thousands of made-in-China Indian doctor hopefuls enrolled in Chinese medical universities eager to take advantage of this deal, which seemed too good to be true and, as they are finding out, might actually be.

Soon after enrolling, these students discovered something that troubles them.

"Our futures depend on luck now," said one 21-year-old second-year student studying at Tianjin Medical University (TMU) who declined to give his name for fear of getting "in big trouble" with the school.

"We can't stop now; it's too late. We're just hoping for the best, that by the time we graduate, the Medical Council of India (MCI) will recognize our degrees."

The Indian Embassy in Beijing estimates between 4,000 and 10,000 Indians study medicine at Chinese universities but said it is impossible to know the exact number because not all of them register with the embassy.

In 2004, more than 20 medical universities began aggressively recruiting Indian students, promising low tuition and English-language instruction. With 263 Indians enrolled in its medical programme, TMU has one of the largest Indian medical student populations in China, said Guo Fenglin, director of the school's International Exchange Department.

"This university provided us a guarantee that we could get a reliable deal so we would be allowed to practice medicine when we go home," said Prokash Kumar, 18, a second-year TMU student from Tamil Nadu. "The promise the university gives us, we believe they'll follow."

Kumar said he believes that as long as he passes the MCI Screening Test, he will be allowed to practise medicine in India because MCI will recognize the degree he will have earned. The university's syllabus, he pointed out, is nearly identical to those of India's universities, so he says he should be prepared for the test.

"It would be the university's responsibility to help us out because we have relied on the university and would have relied on them for five or six years. We have followed the rules," he said. "If the degree is not recognized, that would mean we just wasted five years of our lives. That is not a trivial thing."

A chief officer with MCI did not respond to questions sent and re-sent over a week-long period by fax and e-mail.

His classmate, 18-year-old R.S. Ramya, of Kanyakumari, also said she is confident she will be allowed to practise medicine in India after she graduates from TMU and passes the test.

"The senior students we knew, they thought it was safe coming here, so if they are coming here, we know it's OK," Ramya said.

Many Indian medical students came to Chinese universities at the recommendation of educational agents, who assured them their certification would be recognized when they return home.

The agents also tell prospective students the courses will be taught in English, but the students at TMU don't agree how well their teachers speak it.

"Our teachers know English very well," Kumar said. "If we have some problem, we can explain in English, and they understand very well."

However, another TMU student who refused to give his name for fear of expulsion said he has serious problems understanding his instructors.

"You can hardly understand their pronunciation," he said. "Some teachers are good, our teachers are really co-operative and everything; it's not their fault they can't speak English, but it's also not our fault that we can't understand them. We told them to bring teachers from India, and they promised a couple of times that they would, but they haven't."

Gourangalal Das, first secretary at the Indian Embassy in Beijing, said that complaints about the English proficiency of instructors come from many universities across China, but added: "All of the students say that they've gotten better faculty and over time, the language ability of the instructors has improved. Many universities are bringing in foreign teachers, who are easier for students to understand."

Recognition is the key

Kumar and Ramya agreed that the appeal of studying at a Chinese university is the low tuition.

"A normal Indian cannot afford to attend a private medical college," Ramya said. "Coming here offers us a reasonable education at a reasonable cost."

TMU's five-year medical training programme is more or less typical of those offered in China. Critics in India say that the aggressive recruitment of Indian medical students is motivated by nothing less than money, and they offer as evidence that the minimum score on high school final exams required for admission at these schools is 70 per cent.

Guo confirmed the 70 per cent minimum score requirement at TMU but said the school always seeks better-qualified students.

Regarding money, TMU charges Indian students US$3,300 a year for tuition, which is near the top of the scale for Chinese universities. Last year, it was US$2,300, and next year it is expected to jump to US$4,100. Some medical universities in China charge as little as US$1,600 a year; the national average is US$2,000, Guo said.

That tuition fee is substantially less than Indian universities' charge, but if MCI does not recognize the degrees, getting them in China is worthless at any price.

"The problem is that China has degree and diploma recognition agreements with many countries maybe 50 or 60, especially in Europe but there are no bilateral agreements between China and India right now," Guo said. "For other countries, it is no problem. Even Americans study here, and their degrees are recognized."

He said the Ministry of Education and the Scholarship Committee of China are working to establish bilateral degree recognition agreements with their Indian counterparts.

Any Indian student who receives a medical graduate degree from a foreign country must meet three conditions to be a registered medical practitioner in India, Das said.

First, the students must pass MCI's Screening Test. Second, they must earn a medical degree from an institute listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools, published by the World Health Organization. Third, they must obtain the Eligibility Certificate from MCI according to the Eligibility Requirement for Taking Admission in an Undergraduate Medical Course in a Foreign Medical Institution Regulations, 2002.

Han Rui, a co-ordinating professor in TMU's International Exchange Department, said because MCI issues Eligibility Certificates to students before they go to China, "we believe MCI will honour their degrees. Otherwise, they would be going back on their promise. How could they face their students?"

The eligibility requirement was passed to avoid a repeat of the nightmare faced by Indian medical students who invested several years of study in inexpensive but dubious educations at Russian and Eastern European universities in the 1990s, Indian media reports say. Because the English-language instruction the students received there was of such poor quality, most failed the Screening Test when they returned. Some later petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the MCI's decision and won a one-time waiver.

Concern has arisen that the China experience would repeat the European one eligibility certificates or not.

"No batch of Indian medical students in China has yet taken the MCI test, and it is difficult to predict," Das said. "Most universities claim that their syllabi conform to the MCI requirements."

Keeping track

He said the Indian Embassy has responded to students' complaints with visits to various universities.

"Most of the complaints are from individual students and pertain to micro-level issues," Das said. "Macro-issues like curriculum, internship and practice, et cetera, the Embassy is proactively pursuing with the concerned authorities in India and the Chinese Ministry of Education."

But specifics of the dialogues are "not in the public domain," he said.

Guo confirmed the Embassy's visits to TMU to conduct investigations and regularly sends e-mails and faxes requesting information about its students.

He said that he also receives occasional complaints from Indian students, and the university tries to ensure quality instruction by using a two-pronged approach. First, teachers are scrutinized by a supervisory group of foreign and Chinese professors who visit their classes and evaluate their performance. Second, students submit written evaluations of their instructors.

"If the teachers aren't teaching very well, the students will come to my office and make complaints, and we replace the teachers," Guo said.

The first batch of Indian students will graduate in 2008. Then they will find out if their faith that their Chinese degrees will qualify them to practise medicine in India was justified.

For Ramya, it's not only a matter of career, but also of family.

"My parents are doctors," she said. "They are working at the hospital, and they are waiting for me to come and join them."

_______________________________________________________________________
article dated: October 18, 2004
After the United States, Britain and Australia, Indian students are now heading towards China for higher education.

Last month, some 230 Indian students joined various Chinese universities for medical studies.

India's higher education sector is undergoing a churning process these days. Although the country offers world-class education at competitive costs -- for instance the IITs and IIMs -- the number of foreign students enrolling in Indian universities has considerably dwindled in the last decade.

Like in foreign investment, China has outpaced India in capturing the international education market. Education experts who visited China say the Communist nation has become the most sought after study-abroad destination.

"India is just missing the international education bus. China has invested so much in higher education over the years that that the country is producing many more quality students than India. No wonder then that Indians too want to study in China," says S Gopinath, an education expert who regularly guides Indian students on getting admission to various Chinese colleges.

Asian Education Consultancy, a top consulting company in southern India, says medical education in China is of a higher quality and lower cost compared to India.

Last month, AEC sent 122 Indian students to the Three Gorges University in the Hubei province in Yichang in China.

"Medical education in India is so costly that only the rich can afford it. Now China is emerging as a hot destination for Indian students for medical education," says AEC Director Niyaz Mohammed.

Each Indian student to the Three Gorges University pays Rs 800,000, which includes accommodation, food and all expenses for the entire five-year medicine course. The amount has to be paid in parts on a yearly basis. Apart from this, students pay Rs 43,000 as airfare.

Mohammed says the education cost in China is cheap.

"Consider what you have to pay to become a doctor in India. Admission fee alone in some medical colleges in India runs into Rs 25 lakhs," he says.

Mohammed who has been to various Chinese colleges and universities says the higher education sector in China is vastly modernised compared to that in India.

India sends the largest number of students to America; 74,600 students enrolled in US colleges and universities in 2002-2003. But education experts feel in course of time, China will have the largest number of Indian students.

Experts like Gopinath and Mohammed point out the following reasons for the shift:

* China has Top 100 universities that are well resourced. China's universities turn out thousands of bachelor degree holders, similar to an Indian IIT graduate. They easily get admissions in the top universities of the world.
* China turns out more top candidates each year than India, as it has more world-class universities.
* China has opened up higher education for both private and foreign investment. Foreign investors can come in by tying up with local Chinese partners.
* Unlike India, China is experiencing a great deal of two-way international student traffic. China has become one of the world's great study-abroad destinations. Currently more than 60,000 foreigners study in Chinese universities, and that number is swelling each year.
* China is the number-one choice for US students who want to study in Asia. Very few Americans study in India.

As more and more foreign students including Indians travel to China for higher education, admissions of foreign students in Indian universities have fared badly over the years.

According to a study by the Association of Indian Universities, the number of foreign students in India shrunk from 12,765 in 1992-93 to 7,745 in 2003-04. The AIU study covered 277 major Indian universities.

The study says Malaysian students formed the largest foreign component in India this year -- 806. They were followed by Nepal (681students), Iran (472) and Kenya (442).

This was in sharp contrast to the position in 1992-1993 when Kenya sent 3,980 students to India. In 1993-1994, India had 1,421 students from Malaysia and 909 from Nepal.

AIU has listed two significant reasons for this decline in foreign students to Indian universities: the lackadaisical attitude from the government in promoting Indian universities abroad and the poor quality of education in most Indian universities.

AIU now wants the human resources development ministry to hold regular education camps in foreign countries to attract students.

"Universities from abroad are conducting large number of camps here to recruit Indian students. Why can't India chalk out a similar education strategy to attract foreign students," asks Gopinath.
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open source search engine Lucene

http://www.bixee.com/Hospitality/jobs-in/India?e=10-15
- this indian job site mention they use open source search engine Lucene
- this shows good filtering on the left menu by city etc
- same feature can be used for "bug searches"
- lots of silicon vally tech companies use this for their code search( java, php etc.) and I saw it is blazing fast at auction gaint company

Apache Lucene is a high-performance

, full-featured text search engine library written entirely in Java. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform.

Applications and web applications using Lucene include (alphabetically), see below for usage of Lucene on web sites:
- Indeed.com - one search. all jobs. - the great site indeed is using it ..
- see this Bixee - Search Engine for Jobs in India.

India Engineering collages

Total Engg. collages in India : 1550
AP as of 2008 : 337 ( first place in india as per this eenadu reprot )
new in 2008-09 year for AP: 80




for 2008-09 AP total collages: 400 out of 1600 India total that is 25% of total country ..
- Tamil nadu, karnataka , maharasta next places : These 4 states ( with AP) may have 75% of collages easily ...


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Andhra to have 8mn new jobs by 2015


The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) envisages that Andhra Pradesh will have 7.5-8 million new jobs to offer by 2015, considering the likely improvements in the state’s economic output and labour productivity.

The employment opportunities envisaged are likely to emanate from construction, textiles, IT and ITeS, healthcare, tourism, pharma, biotech, financial services and engineering sectors.

The CII projections are based on a ‘Study on Mapping of Human Resources & Skills in Andhra Pradesh- 2015’. The study was jointly conducted by CII and ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited (IMaCS).

As per the study, the state requires 4.5 million skilled and 3-3.5 million unskilled human resources by 2015. As against this requirement, supply of skilled workforce is estimated to be around 3.4 million. After factoring in the low levels of employability, the available skilled workforce is reduced to 1.3 million.

Andhra currently has an established (higher) education infrastructure consisting of about 1,340 arts, science and commerce colleges, 101 polytechnics, 300 engineering colleges and over 550 industrial training institutes. Together, these institutions out turned over 300,000 skilled human resources in 2006.

However, according to the study, over 28 per cent of the engineering graduates and 20 per cent of the diploma-holders that the above institutions turn out every year are unemployed.

The primary reasons cited for the ‘unemployability’ of the student are a disconnect between academic curricula and industry requirements resulting in deficiencies in specific functional skills and shortfall in appropriately trained faculty resulting in inappropriately trained students.

For narrowing human resources-availability gaps in the state, the CII has suggested creation of additional educational infrastructure and ushering in skill building initiatives.

As per its estimate, the annual funding requirements to support these initiatives will be of the order of Rs 650 crore, the bulk of which has to be spent on employability-focused training.

The state government should take a lead role in the skill development initiatives and establish a Skill Development Fund (SDF). The funding of SDF should be raised by innovative ways.

The government should fund the initial corpus to support training activities of workers. The organisations employing these workers should pay the government one month’s pay of the worker. “We expect this to cover 50-60 per cent of the total yearly funding requirement,” the CII said.

According to the organisation, the balance funding could be in the form of budgetary support or through funding from multilateral agencies. The state government should nominate a nodal agency to manage the disbursement of funds that would support various training initiatives.

10 great free downloads for your network

They're useful, easy to learn ... and you certainly can't beat free

February 6, 2008 (Computerworld) Got a small network, home network, medium-size network -- even an enterprise network -- and want to get the most out of it? Then I've got good news for you: 10 free pieces of software that can make your network easier to use, troubleshoot and maintain. These freebies will help everyone from networking pros to networking newbies and everyone in between.

There's plenty here for you -- great free tools for keeping your network secure; creating a quick, navigable network map; scanning networks and putting together a list of all connected devices; checking to see if your servers are up and running; even designing networks and more.

Note that I'm leaving out extremely popular and well-known free downloads, such as the Ethereal network protocol analyzer or Wireshark and am concentrating instead on lesser-known downloads.

And as a bonus, I'm including a review of an extra, for-pay, try-before-you-buy download that can help your network as well.

Network Magic
If you're looking for a simple, free, all-in-one network management tool for a small peer-to-peer network, this is the one to get. It handles all the basic network chores, including adding new devices to the network, fixing broken network connections, setting up wireless encryption and protection, sharing printers and folders, reporting on the state of the security of each PC, and much more.

click on the list which has url links , these are those 10
* Network Magic
* Spiceworks IT Desktop
* NetLimiter Monitor
* Network Notepad
* Advanced IP Scanner
* Advanced Net Tools (ANT)
* DreamSys Server Monitor
* NetBrute Scanner
* Technitium MAC Address Changer
* RogueScanner
* NetPeek

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives

by Jimmy Atkinson - Published: February 7th, 2008
- asr: check comments at the end of the above url , it shows good reviews on each program ..

Not every proprietary program can drive a person crazy, right? Some, like Norton Ghost, are superb tools for anyone to use. But, the fact that these tools are proprietary can drive open source fanatics up a wall. It’s not the price of the software that makes the real difference (although it’s a reason to migrate from one software to another for many people); it’s the idea that proprietary software comes with boundaries that keeps the user experience confined to…well, being the user. That’s enough to drive any developer crazy.

The following fifty proprietary programs are listed in no particular order within broad categories along with their open source alternatives. In some cases you could probably write your own book on frustrations with the proprietary programs shown here. In other cases, you’ll discover that the open source alternative isn’t quite up to snuff yet. And, in other cases still, you’ll learn that some proprietary programs are real gems, but that the open source advocate can replace those gems with equally shiny objects from the open source repertoire.
Basics

CrossLoop – Simple Secure Screen Sharing - Remote PC ( asr add )

1. Windows Vista OS to Ubuntu OS: This is Microsoft’s operating system (OS), and even Microsoft fans have become disillusioned with this product. Open source OS alternatives have expanded; but these OS often are difficult for the average user to install, learn, and operate. Why deal with it when Ubuntu has become so easy to use that even the most computer illiterate can jump into this operating system with very little time spent on a learning curve? In fact, users can purchase a Dell computer with Ubuntu already installed. Remember, however, that when it comes to using open source software that the open source community often focuses on applications that can be used through Windows, Mac, Linux, or Unix with the majority seemingly devoted to Windows.
2. Internet Explorer Browser to Firefox Browser: Sure, Internet Explorer (IE) is free; but, that’s because it comes packaged with Windows’ operating systems. Free is far different from open source software, where users have more control over how that software works. While you might feel more comfortable with a proprietary operating system, you can still use an open source browser like Mozilla’s Firefox, an exceptional product that expands its use with ‘add-ons‘ created by avid users.

Office Suites

3. Microsoft Office to OpenOffice: If the price makes you feel that Microsoft has worked you over, then switch! If you compare Microsoft’s Office with other products, then you’re looking for something that includes an email client, a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, and a multimedia presentation application. The only product that provides a competitive edge against Microsoft is Google (that includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Presentation and more). But, some would argue that Google isn’t truly open source. So, the next best bet alternative would be OpenOffice, an open source project that includes everything you’d find in Microsoft Office except the email client.
4. Mactopia to NeoOffice: Another Microsoft office suite, but this time meant for MacIntosh computers. Try NeoOffice instead. NeoOffice® is a full-featured set of office applications, including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs for Mac OS X. This suite is based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, but it has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.

Office Tools

5. MathWorks MATLAB to Scilab: MATLAB is a highly used application for numerical computing. It provides a programming language that allows users to work with numbers in any possible way imaginable through visualization. Scilab is the open source alternative to MATLAB, and it provides visualization of numerical data just as MATLAB does. Scilab is partly compatible with MATLAB, and both tools are suited for Windows, Linux, and UNIX.
6. Microsoft Access to Kexi: Microsoft Access is a versatile tool for creating database-driven applications and to maintain office or personal data. Access contains an embedded database engine, but it also connects to other databases through ODBC. On the other hand, Kexi allows users to design forms to gain access to and to create data, just like Access. Kexi also contains an embedded database engine and it can import data to Microsoft Access databases. Plus - Kexi is open source, whereas Access belongs to Microsoft.
7. Microsoft Word to OpenOffice Writer: If you want to break that office suite down and begin to replace the suite item by item, then you can start with this product first. Writer is the word processor component of the OpenOffice.org software package that is similar to Microsoft Word, and with a roughly equivalent range of features. Writer can be used across a variety of platforms, including Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Writer also includes the ability to export Portable Document Format (PDF) files with no additional software, and can also function as a WYSIWYG editor for creating and editing web pages. One plus over Word is that Writer carries functions and number formats in its tables from Calc, OpenOffice’s spreadsheet application.
8. Microsoft Excel to OpenOffice Calc: Another Microsoft product, Excel still carries its productivity pluses as a spreadsheet, but it no longer carries an air of absolute necessity. Google’s Docs can bring an online, sharing atmosphere to your spreadsheets now. As for a truly open source product that can replace Excel, try OpenOffice.org Calc. This tool provides full spreadsheet functionality incl. a huge number of statistical and scientific functions, pivot tables and charts.
9. Microsoft Visio to Dia: Visio actually is a great application that allows users to go from complicated text and tables that are hard to understand to diagrams that communicate information at a glance. The only thing that spoils the context is the fact that this software is that it’s not open source. Instead, use Dia, a GTK+ based diagram creation program for Linux, Unix and Windows released under the GPL license. Dia was ‘roughly’ inspired by Visio, which should make this tool easy for transition.

Productivity

10. Blackboard to Moodle: Blackboard has been the CMS (Course Management System) ‘industry standard’ for educational purposes for many years. This program allows instructors to build courses, manage student workloads, and more. But Moodle has gained significant ground as an open source alternative to Blackboard, as it helps educators to create effective online learning communities in a scalable package that costs nothing to use.
11. Box to Cabos: If you’re into file sharing, you’ve probably heard of Box.net, if not used them. Not only can you share files, Box allows you to store your files securely online, allowing you to access them from any computer, phone or mobile device for a fee. Cabos, another file sharing program that’s open source, provides simple sidebar user interface, firewall to firewall transfers, proxy transfers, Universal Plug and Play, iTunes + iPod integration, “What’s New?” searches, international searches, and more. All you need is Windows 2000 or later. Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later. Mac OS 8.6 or later. Granted, you don’t have the file storage capacity, but at least you can share files with Cabos without that extra storage capacity.
12. Microsoft Project to Open Workbench: Microsoft allows users to control project work, schedule, and finances, and effectively communicate project data to other users. But, it costs to do that with Microsoft. Instead, use open source Open Workbench to accomplish exactly the same project details for free. When users need to move beyond desktop scheduling to a workgroup, division or enterprise-wide solution, they can upgrade to CA’s Clarity™ system, a project and portfolio management system that offers bidirectional integration with Open Workbench.
13. Mindjet to FreeMind: Mindmapping is a way to share ideas among individuals and groups for productivity. This type of activity takes time, but it saves time. So why should you pay for a product when you can save money by using FreeMind? This latter product will accomplish all the Mindjet does and more. That “more” is the fact that FreeMind is open source.

Graphic Programs

14. Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape: Adobe’s vector drawing system is one of the best in the industry. However, like Photoshop, the price can be prohibitive for some designers and artists. Try Inkscape instead, an open source vector graphics editor similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X. Inkscape uses the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format and it supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.). Finally, the streamlined interface is easy to use to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more.
15. Adobe PhotoShop to GIMP: Even if you’re paying for upgrades instead of the original package, the price for Adobe’s Photoshop can be prohibitive for some photographers and graphic designers. Try GIMP to see if this open source tool can’t provide you with all the power you need for your photography and graphic design needs. GIMP stands for Gnu Image Manipulation Program, and it’s the solution that comes closest to emulating the Photoshop environment.
16. Adobe Premiere to Avidemux: Premier is state of the art real-time non-linear video editing for any format including High Definition (HD). Supports 16-bit color resolution, GPU accelerated rendering for faster effects and even advanced DVD authoring. On the other hand, Avidemux provides Windows, Mac, and Linux users with an easy-to-use open source tool for DVD/DivX converting and editing. Avidemux also has scripting support for automation and even offers DVD authoring with the addition of the open source software, dvdauthor.
17. AutoCAD to Archimedes: AutoCAD is an AutoDesk tool used by any designer who creates design drafts - mostly architects. Archimedes is an open source computer aided design (CAD) alternative that focuses primarily on architectural design. AutoCAD definitely has the winning score thus far, but Archimedes shows promise. The latter program contains all the drawing features a designer would need, but its interoperability is weak. Designers still can export scalable vector graphics, so there’s a real market for this open source tool (this opinion isn’t based upon Archimedes’ newest release).
18. Microsoft PowerPoint to OpenOffice Impress: You can make a move away from this Microsoft tool with the use of Google’s Presentation or with OpenOffice’s Impress. Both tools represent full-featured presentation applications that allow users to create and modify diagrams and pictures right within the application.
19. Microsoft Paint to Tux Paint: While not a serious graphics program, it is widely used by many computer users, mostly children Try Tux Paint instead of Paint, as this open source product stands apart from typical graphics people edit software (such as GIMP or Photoshop) in that it was designed to be usable by children as young as 16 months of age. The user interface is meant to be intuitive, and utilizes icons, audible feedback and textual hints to help explain how the software works.
20. TruSpace to Blender: Caligari offers a range of products that enable designers and artists to produce 3D images - at a hefty price. Blender, on the other hand, provides one tool that provides full multiresolution sculpting capabilities with 2D bitmap/3D procedural brushes (Paint, Smooth, Pinch, Inflate, Grab) supporting symmetry. And, that’s just the beginning of Blender’s capabilities. This open source software is free to download and use.

Web Editors

21. Adobe GoLive CS2 to Mozilla SeaMonkey: GoLive is an integral part of the Adobe Creative Suites products, so it works with your InDesign documents and allows those documents to be converted to Web pages. But, you might want to try Mozilla’s SeaMonkey before you commit to the total Adobe suite option. The Mozilla SeaMonkey project includes a Web-browser, email and newsgroup client, HTML authoring program and IRC chat client. The Composer is simple but it handles tables, CSS, positioned layers and more without sweat. Add-ons currently include Scribefire, the blog blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.
22. Adobe Dreamweaver to NVU: While this tool is a powerful WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor, other options exist that can save money. NVU (pronounced N-view, for a “new view”) is a complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Use NVU to create Web pages and manage a Website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.
23. Macromedia Flash Professional to OpenLaszlo: Developers use Flash to create multimedia events on the Web. Since the program utilizes vector-based graphics, it provides a venue that goes beyond the Web. As an open source product, OpenLaszlo provides developers with a platform to create zero-install Web applications with user interface capabilities of desktop client software. In other words, OpenLaszlo applications developed on one machine will run on all leading Web browsers on all leading desktop OS. These applications, like Flash, provide animation, layout, data binding, server communication and more.
24. Microsoft Frontpage to Bluefish: While not as powerful as Dreamweaver, Front Page is a widely used proprietary application used to create Web pages. Take a gander at this list to understand your many open source options for HTML editors. Try Bluefish as one option that can save you money and, possibly, time.
25. Windows Notepad to ConTEXT: Yes, you can get the world’s most versatile HTML editing tool absolutely FREE when you purchase Windows version 2.0 and above. But, why would you want to do that when you can work with open source ConTEXT? This application is a small, fast and powerful freeware programmers text editor, developed to serve as a secondary tool for software developers.
26. Altova XMLSpy to XML Copy Editor: XMLSpy is one of the most popular XML editors on the market today. Its editing features and support for both schema and DTD development along with XSLT, XQuery and XPath development make it an ultimate XML tool. As an open source alternative, XML Copy Editor is a versatile XML editor primarily focused on text editing with XML files. However, XML Copy Editor provides many other features including validation of DTD and XML schemas - as well as XSLT and XPath with tag-free editing. Both tools are Windows applications.

Publishing

27. Adobe Acrobat to PDFCreator: Yes, you have a free trial to create a PDF through Adobe. However, this PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.
28. Adobe Framemaker to DocBook: Adobe Framemaker software represents a powerful authoring and publishing solution for technical communicators who want to author and publish technical documentation in multiple languages. While this software is reliable, so is DocBook, an open source publishing tool. Additionally, you have access to all the free wikis and documentation that shows how to install, use, and customize the tools and stylesheets.
29. Microsoft Publisher to Scribus: When it comes to Desktop Publishing (DTP) Microsoft’s Publisher provides more control over document elements than Microsoft Word through a DTP-oriented approach. However, professional users still consider this program an entry-level application. Since it’s part of the Microsoft Office Package, many users will find its costs negligible as well. With that said, Scribus offers an open source DTP alternative. Scribus brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.



Communications

30. AIM to Pidgin: Give it up. AIM, AOL’s Instant Messenger, no longer rules. The open source alternative is Pidgin, a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once. Let’s break that down: No matter if you use Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr. Can AIM do that? No? Well, then.
31. FeedDemon to RSS Bandit: FeedDemon for Windows constantly searches through feed search engines with keyword-generated searches as well as generalized searches. It also allows offline reading as it ‘prefetches’ your subscribed feeds. NewsGator also synchronizes with FeedDemon so you can gain access to news without your computer. Except for the fact that FeedDemon isn’t open source, it’s an ideal, robust reader. But, for open source fanatics, RSS Bandit provides an equally robust alternative RSS and Atom reader that allows you to keep track of all of the news feeds you follow. Its newspaper view can be customized and the templates are compatible with those used in FeedDemon. Plus, RSS Bandit allows you to synchronize everything with NewsGator online. Finally, RSS Bandit also provides access to news on news servers (similar to Google Groups) - it uses NNTP to read and post to newsgroups anywhere on the net. It integrates to Google Groups by linking to posts on their website.
32. Microsoft MSN Messenger to aMSN: Microsoft offers MSN Messenger to the masses as freeware on Windows, and it’s grown from a simple IM application into a trendsetter in a competitive market. Features include voice and video chatting, gaming, remote support - on top of that it allows connection through mobile devices when you are not near a computer. aMSN, the open source Windows alternative to MSN, aims to mimic its proprietary competitor as much as possible. Most of its extra features are added through plug-ins. You can add, at your leisure, POP3 email support and translation, voice clips, Webcam support, Chat logs, Conferencing support and more.
33. Microsoft Outlook to Thunderbird: Say that you decided to switch to OpenOffice, but you need an email client to replace Microsoft’s Outlook. Try Mozilla’s Thunderbird, an application that carries a similar interface and that is easy to use. Additionally, you can use Lightning to integrate Mozilla’s Sunbird calendar application with Thunderbird.
34. Skype to Wengophone: Skype is a very strong freeware internet VoIP (Voice over IP) product in the telecommunications industry. It started with a simple and free PC-to-PC telephony, but today offers full integration with existing telephone systems. Skype today also offers voicemail, video conversations and sending SMSs. Its open source alternative, WengoPhone, also provides free PC-to-PC calls as well as chat and video conferencing. Created by Wengo, this phone also can provide SMS and call-out features that allow users to communicate with any phone at reasonable prices.

Media

35. iTunes to Songbird: If you’re accustomed to the equation where “Apple + iPod + iTunes” equals a ton of money, then you might consider a switch to Songbird. Songbird is an open source player and a platform committed to “playing the music you want + from the sites you want + on the devices you want.” Songbird thereby challenges the conventions of discovery, purchase, consumption and organization of music on the Internet.
36. Nero Burning Rom to K3b: Nero Burning Rom is a popular tool to burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. This software includes backup, cd copying, audio features and more, and it’s easy to use. But, it’s not open source like K3b (Windows). This latter program creates and burns CDs and DVDs, including ripping with DivX/XviD encoding, DVD copy, ISO burning, Video CD (VCD) creation, Audio CD creation for almost any audio file, CD-TEXT support for audio CDs, support for DVD-RW and DVD+RW and much more. Oh, and did we add that it was easy to use?
37. Quicktime to Darwin Streaming Server: Apple’s QuickTime 7 Pro is good for everything from creating podcasts to transcoding media in more than a dozen formats. And, the software isn’t that expensive when compared to other products. But, why not use an open source application that shares the same code base as Quicktime Streaming Server? Darwin Streaming Server is an open source project that’s perfect for developers who need to stream QuickTime and MPEG-4 media on platforms such as Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
38. TiVo Desktop to Galleon.tv: Tivo-to-Go users were disappointed to discover that their Tivo software wouldn’t work with Windows Vista. Some answers to this problem included spending more time and money on various solutions that might work to restore that software’s functionality. One solution included using the open source software, Galleon, instead of trying to “fix” Tivo or Windows Vista. Galleon is a free open source media server for the TiVo® DVR which allows you to enjoy many kinds of content and interactive applications right on your TV. The server runs on your home computer and organizes your media collection so that they can be viewed on your home network. Galleon also brings Internet content and applications to your TV.
39. Windows Media Player to Miro: This application seems ubiquitous…no matter what you try to open, Windows Media Player is in your face, right? Well, replace that in-your-face attitude with Miro, an open source program that turns your computer into an internet TV. Miro has 2,500 unrestricted channels with a huge selection of HD content. Plus, you have access to any publisher with video RSS feeds, including anyone on YouTube, Revver, Blip, and many, many more.

Utilities

40. CuteFTP to Filezilla: Sure, CuteFTO is cute, but it’s not free. Sure, it’s reliable, but so are many other File Transfer Protocol applications. Try Filezilla, a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with tons of features - easy to install, easy to use, very reliable, secure, and open source.
41. iBackup to ZManda: Who can you trust with your backup files? It’s difficult to decide, as price alone means nothing. You want safe, reliable servers or tools that can keep your backups available and intact. iBackup has proven to be worthy of that task, but you might want to look at ZManda as well. This open source solution protects more than half a million of servers and desktops running various versions of Linux, UNIX, BSD, Mac OS-X and Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide. Not only do they backup information, they’re into recovery as well.
42. Norton Ghost to Partition Image: Norton Ghost isn’t a shabby backup system, as it’s a complete tool that backs up everything but the kitchen sink. If you have a complete disk failure, Norton Ghost can bring it back to life on a new hard disk (although you don’t need to make a complete backup every time). You can take this backup to external drives, CDs or DVDs. If you’re an open source advocate, however, Norton Ghost doesn’t cut the cake. You’ll want something like Partition Image (for Linux) or Ghost for Unix (G4U) for Windows or Unix users. Both tools are disk cloners that act differently, but they’re as robust as Norton Ghost. Read more at their respective Web sites before you make the jump. (For a complete rescue disk including Partition Image see SystemRescueCd).
43. Rational Purify to Valgrind: IBM’s Purify is a well respected and much used debugging tool. It uses topnotch memory corruption and memory leak detection to keep hard-to-find bugs from any application. As an open source alternative, Valgrind also detects leaks and other memory related programming errors. But, it also detects threading bugs and includes a call-graph profiler that detects bottlenecks in code. as well as threading bugs. A user might say that Valgrind is better than Purify, even if it is open source.
44. WinZip to 7-Zip: Some of us grew up with WinZip, so it’s sad to say goodbye. But, we all gotta leave home at some point, and when the open source 7-Zip beckons, maybe you should heed the call…

Security

45. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal to Winpooch: Kaspersky Anti-Virus probably is among the top products on the market for Windows-based anti-virus tools, mainly because it’s well known for its outstanding detection rates. It commits to multiple tasks as it protects against viruses, script viruses, checks file archives (such as zip files) and removes viruses from mail. It also provides protection against spyware as well as adware. As an open source alternative, however, Winpooch also scans files on your computer, detects malware, and prevents all the viruses, trojan horses and other problems that Kaspersky hunts down as well. Winpooch, by the way, adds a real-time scanning capability that ClamWin (noted below) lacks.
46. McAfee VirusScan to ClamWin: McAfee is well known as one of the oldest companies in the anti-virus market. Many individuals need to deal with this software company, as its tools come packaged with many new Windows OS computer systems. The plus side to McAfee is that it is reliable and that it offers 24/7 support. The downside is that it’s not open source. ClamWin, on the other hand, is a free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003. It features high detection rates, scheduler, automatic download of virus database updates and a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. As noted above, ClamWin doesn’t provide on access realtime scanning, but when combined with WinPooch, this capability is added.
47. Norton Personal Firewall to WIPFW: Many people could work with Norton in their sleep, as this company has been around that long. The Norton Personal Firewall for Windows will monitor and check all Internet traffic and it will reject any attack or intrusion attempt. Ubiquitous popups and permissions are part of the game, as it seems that each new Website carries its own set of Norton no-nos. As an alternative, WIPFW is a firewall for Windows based on IPFW for FreeBSD UNIX. It provides virtually the same features, functionality, and user interface as Norton Personal Firewall. The big difference? WIPFW is open source.

Financial

48. Authorize.net to OpenSSL: Granted, Authorize.Net’s preferred payment gateway connection, Advanced Integration Menthod (AIM), provides the highest level of customization and security to merchants for submitting transactions online. But, why pay for a secure SSL when you can get an open source product for free? The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and Open Source toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library. A worldwide community of volunteers uses the Internet to communicate, plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its related documentation manages the project.
49. Microsoft Money (Plus) to TurboCash: While Microsfot Money Plus is much more than a personal accounting software, Turbocash can boast that claim plus more. Turbocash is open source and free to use. In fact, you might compare TurboCash more to Quickbooks than to Microsoft Money. However, as a personal finance tool, TurboCash is much more user-friendly to the average home budgeter than Compiere.
50. Quickbooks to Compiere: Few people are unfamiliar with Quickbooks, as this software has made its way into many a small business computer. If you feel that few opportunities exist to switch, think again. Compiere, produced by Global Era, provides one solution to open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions for any small to large business. Compiere 3.0 marks the introduction of Compiere Professional Edition, a new premium offering targeted at larger organizations that require more advanced services and commercial licensing from Compiere.