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Open Source: The Bigger Picture

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

There has been a lot of noise around Open Source software lately, but the

buzz this time is not about how Open Source software is better than closed

source software. This time, the buzz is around how to truly use Open Source

software in a business environment. It's about how to integrate it with the rest

of your setup, and how to use it for the benefit of your organization during the

economic slowdown. In essence, it has a much larger role to play than ever

before. All the fanaticism surrounding Open Source seems to be disappearing to

bring out some really useful solutions to everyone's problems.

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That's why our Open Source story this time is also very different. It doesn't

get into a battle of Open Source vs Closed source, nor does it talk purely about

Linux. Rather, it talks about how to use Open Source software to resolve some of

the most practical problems everyone's facing today.

Our story is broken up into three parts. The first part is about the

feasibility of using Open Source software during the current economic crunch.

We've heard a lot of CIOs talk about shifting to it, but does it really make

sense to do so in trying times? To find out, we surveyed 126 CIOs from leading

Indian enterprises, and got some very interesting results.

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The second part of our story deals with another practical issue that most

organizations are toiling with today-interoperability. Most organizations today

have a heterogeneous IT infrastructure with multiple Operating Systems,

databases, and applications all running on different platforms. Some of it might

be running on Microsoft technologies, while other parts could be on Open Source

and Linux. For instance, your messaging platform might be on Microsoft Exchange,

while your database is MySQL. While this is done with the good intention of

ensuring that the IT infrastructure has the best and most cost effective

solutions that are around, it has its limitation. The limitation is that of

ensuring you have an integrated environment where different applications can

talk to each other irrespective of the platform they're on. What if you want to

deploy Joomla content management system on Linux, but your setup is completely

on SQL Server and Active Directory? What if you need to create a C# application,

but you only use Eclipse IDE for software development? What if you want to

introduce an Open Source application like PHPBB in your IT setup, and would like

it to authenticate the users from your Active Directory Services? These are all

practical problems that many organizations might be facing today-that of

bringing together two disparate worlds of Open Source and Windows.

Thankfully, the trend is gradually changing with both sides trying to come

together and offer feasible solutions to users. That's what we've covered in our

interoperability part of the cover story. You'll find lots of articles on how

Open Source software can work with both Windows and Linux.





Open Source for Enterprises in Tough Times





Open Source Software on Linux & Windows





Using PHP With IIS 7 and SQL Server





Use Eclipse to Develop C# Apps





Working with JQuery in ASP.NET using Visual Studio





Creating Portals the Easy Way





Authenticate PHP Apps Against an Active Directory

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The last part of the story is of course what most of our readers anxiously

wait for year after year-PCQ Linux 2009. For the past couple of years, we've

been focusing on giving serious Linux distros for an enterprise environment.

This year, we decided to be very different. So PCQ Linux 2009 has something for

everybody-be it an enterprise, a working professional, or even a home user.

Basically, we've taken away all the complexity associated with PCQ Linux and

made sure that you get more time to play around with all the neat applications

and learn how to use them instead of toiling with the installation and quitting

mid-way with frustration because it has messed up your entire system.

There are four live distros we've given with PCQ Linux 2009, which you can

run directly off the DVD. Plus, there's a ready to use cloud computing virtual

appliance that enterprises can play around with.

Lastly, to give you a true taste of choice, we've given two DVDs with this

issue. One has PCQ Linux 2009, while the other has a really good collection of

Open Source and free software on Windows. Both are collector's editions. Most of

our stories in the pages to follow are based on software provided on these two

DVDs. How's that for freedom of choice? Have fun!

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