"Cloud Computing" Nedir - Management Engineering Graduation Project Determination Öncei Araştırma

Uzun süredir iş ve akademik yoğunluktan ötürü blog'a dönüp bakamadım, Management Engineering double degree eğitimimin Graduation Project'i için yaptığım araştırmalarda üzerinde durduğum bu konuda bildiklerimi payşalmak istedim,

Siz de sıklıkla rastlamaya başladınız bu kelimeye. Cloud Computing (Bir Türkçe önerisi olan?) sanırım ilk defa Google'dan duyduğumuz oldukça yeni sayılabilecek bir kavram.

Cloud Computing temel olarak bir uygulamanın, web üzerinden, kendi sisteminizde herhangi bir kurulum gerektirmeden çalışabilmesi demek. Bu uygulamalardan kasıt: Word, Excel gibi ofis uygulamaları olabileceği gibi yedekleme yazılımları da olabilir. Tanımı açıklamak adına sanırım en iyi örnek ise Google Docs uygulaması olacaktır. Bildiğiniz üzere Google Docs sayesinde sisteminize hiç bir şey kurmadan, dünyadaki istediğiniz yerden, milyonlarca insanla beraber erişebilirsiniz.

Aynı zamanda Google'ın yeni tarayıcısı Google Chrome da bir Cloud Computing örneği olarak gösteriliyor. Çünkü Chrome her ne kadar sisteminize kurulum gerektirse de web servislerinden de fazlasıyla faydalanıyor.

Kimilerine göre fikrin yaratıcısı Microsoft, kisime göre Google, bir görüşe göre; HD videoları düzenlemek, cep telefonundan 500 gb depolama alanına erişmek, yazılımlara ve verilere dünyanın heryerinden erişmek… İşte bulut’un vaad ettikleri bu ve bunun gibi şeyler. Tüm bunlar için gereken tek şey “internet erişimi” Microsoft bulut’un ardında yatan düşünce temel yazılımlardan tutun da en komplike işletim sistemlerine kadar tüm uygulamaların web üzerinden çalışması. Kullanıcının pahalı donanımlara gereksinimi kalmıyor, sistem güncellemelerini dert etmesi gerekmiyor ve hatta yazılıma para vermesi bile zorunluluk olmaktan çıkıyor. Tüm bunlar bilimkurgu gibi görünebilir ama ilk örnekleri ortada. Google bu kavramın nasıl çalıştığının bir göstergesidir. Ofis araçları, eposta hesapları rss okuyucular takvim ve daha nice program platform farkı gözetmeksizin web tarayıcıda çalışıyor. Tüm programlar ve veriler google sunucularında tutuluyor ve ihtiyaç üzerine yükleniyor. Bunu mümkün kılan Microsoft, google, amazon ve IBM gibi dev firmaların koca sunucu parkları.
Microsof dünyanın 6 yerinde bir futbol sahası genişliğine serverlar bütünü kuruyor adeta bir örümcek ağı gibi çevreleniyor. Bu sunucular ihtiyaçtan fazlasına sahip bir kapasitedeler. Artık herkes verilerini bulut’a yükleyecek ve her bilgisayardan düzeltiyorum internet bağlantısı olan her bilgisayardan aynı verilerine ulaşabilecek.

Özüne bakıldığında bir ağ diye nitelendirilebilecek olan cloud computing, bu ağ üzerinde yapılabilen işlemleri temsil ediyor. Büyük bir bulut içerisine yerleştirilen bilgilere herhangi bir bilgisayardan bağımsız olarak erişilebilecek. Ağ üzerindeki uygulamaların kullandığı teknoloji de bizim sistemimizi ilgilendirmeyecek. Böylelikle bilgisayarlarımız bu ağ üzerinde duran bilgilerimize ulaşmaya yarayan araçlar olarak kullanılacak (2009 Nisan itibariyle çıkarımın :) ).

En son karşıma çıkan ise yine bir başka dev IT ortaklığı Cloud Computing konusunda, Intel, HP ve Yahoo'nun birlikte bir proje üzerinde çalışması, zaten başlı başına bir olayken, bu projenin farklılığı belki de ilgiyi biraz daha arttırıyor. Google'ın da üzerinde çalıştığı (sanıyorum IBM ortaklığı ile) Cloud Computing, geleceğin önemli yapıtaşlarından birisi olarak görülüyor.
Peki Cloud Computing nedir? Biraz teknik bir konu olduğu için, yaptığım araştırmalardan anladığımı sizinle paylaşacağım. Cloud Computing aslında internet bağlantısıyla bilgisayarların tek bir merkezde toplanması anlamına geliyor. Yani sizin bir bilgisayarınız var ve biraz günü geçmiş bir bilgisayar olsa da internet bağlantınızla bağlanacağınız bu merkez sayesinde, bu merkezin server ını işlemcisini, ram ini, yazılımlarını herşeyini belli bir ücret karşılığında kullanabiliyor hale geleceksiniz. Bu şekilde elinizdeki ortalama bir bilgisayarla, yüksek verimde ve kalitede hizmet alıyor olacaksınız.
Dediğim gibi bu şimdilik bir proje. Öncelikle araştırmacılara ve bilim adamlarına açık olacak. Zaten keşfedilen sıradışı hizmetlerin öncelike bilime sonra ortalama kullanıcıya ulaştığı birçok kez görüldü. Bilim adamlarının ve araştırmacıların bu sistemi kullanarak daha etkin hale getireceğini, ortalama kullanıcıya son ve en iyi haliyle Cloud Computing hizmetinin ulaşacağını düşünüyorum.
Bu sistemin hayata geçmesindeki en önemli engel, internet bağlantısı olacaktır. Kurulacak küçük ağlarda bu problem fazla yaşanmayacaktır ama ağ genişledikçe bu ihtiyaç orantılı bir şekilde artacaktır.Dünyada hizmetin yaygınlaşması uzun zaman alacaktır. Bu hizmetin Türkiye'ye gelişi ise daha sonra olacaktır. Henüz Türkiye'deki bağlantı hızlarının Amerika'nın çok altında olduğunu ve internetin bile henüz tam anlaşılamadığını düşünürsek, bu gelişim için uzun yıllara ihtiyacımız olduğunu söyleyebiliriz.
Peki Intel, HP ve Yahoo neden bu işe girme kararı aldılar ve beraber hareket ediyorlar? Aslında beraber hareket etmelerinin en temel nedeni, her birisinin bu proje içindeki rollerde en iyilerden olması. HP bilgisayar sistemlerinde, Intel bu sistemler içindeki işlemcide, Yahoo ise ağ içindeki yazılım (web sitesi ve hizmetlerinde) dünyanın en iyilerinden. Bu şekilde güçlerini birleştirip, bu sistemi en iyi şekilde tasarlamak istiyorlar. Sonuç olarak kurulacak bu sistem, bir nevi Intel-HP-Yahoo tekeli olacak ve kendi ağları içinde bir Microsoft olacaklar. Yapacakları uygulamalar ve verecekleri ekstra hizmetlerden TTNet'e ADSL için ödediğimiz hizmet bedeli gibi ücret alacaklar.
Yukarıda bahsettiğim konular bir projenin ve detaylarının sadece şu an için görünen hali. Belki buz dağının altı yoktur, belki de tahmin ettiğimizden de büyüktür.

Konuyla ilgili çıkan ve ilgimi çeken haberler;
HP, Intel and Yahoo Team Up In The Clouds
Gartner Says Cloud Computing Will Be As Influential As E-business
IBM, Google, Universities Combine 'Cloud' Forces

Alber Einstein Quotes - Not mine, I'm just one of the inspireds :)

These are uncle Albert's quotes, not mine, stubmle is the core of this publishing, thnx Mr.Einstein you'll be always my hero and inspiration;)

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

• "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
• "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
• "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
• "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
• "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
• "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
• "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
• "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
• "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
• "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
• "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
• "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
• "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
• "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
• "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
• "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
• "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
• "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
• "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
• "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
• "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
• "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
• "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
• "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
• "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
• "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
• "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
• "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
• "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
• "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
• "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
• "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
• "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
• "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
• "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
• "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
• "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
• "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
• "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
• "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
• "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
• "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
• "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
• "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
• "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
• "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
• "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
• "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
• "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
• "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

Research: What is a Virus ? What is a Trojan ? (A simple research just after my new trojans :) )

What is a computer virus ?

Well, the best definition we have been able to come up with is the
following:

 #1 A virus is a program that is able to replicate, that is create
    (possibly modified) copies of itself.

 #2 The replication is intentional, not just a side-effect.

 #3 At least some of replicants in turn are also viruses by the same
    definition.

 #4 A virus has to attach itself to a "host", in the sense that
    execution of the host implies execution of the virus.

#1 distinguishes viruses from non-replicating malware, such as ANSI bombs.

#2 distinguishes between viruses and programs such as DISKCOPY.COM
that can replicate.

#3 is needed to exclude certain "intended viruses", that attempt to
replicate, but fail - they simply do not qualify as "real" viruses.

#4 is necessary to distinguish between viruses and worms, which do not
require a host.

A Trojan is a program that pretends to do something useful (or at least
interesting), but when it is run, it may have some harmful effect, like
scrambling your FAT (File Allocation Table), formatting the hard disk or
releasing a virus.

Viruses and Trojans may contain a "time-bomb", intended to destroy
programs or data on a specific date or when some condition has been
fulfilled.

A time bomb is often designed to be harmful, maybe doing something like
formatting the hard disk.  Sometimes it is relatively harmless, perhaps
slowing the computer down every Friday or making a ball bounce around the
screen.  However, there is really no such thing as a harmless virus.  Even if
a virus has been intended to cause no damage, it may do so in certain cases,
often due to the incompetence of the virus writer or unexpected hardware
or software revisions.

A virus may be modified, either by the original author or someone else, so
that a more harmful version of it appears.  It is also possible that the
modification produces a less harmful virus, but that has only rarely
happened.

The damage caused by a virus may consist of the deletion of data or
programs, maybe even reformatting of the hard disk, but more subtle damage
is also possible.  Some viruses may modify data or introduce typing errors
into text.  Other viruses may have no intentional effects other than just
replicating.

The major groups of viruses on PCs are boot sector viruses (BSV), program
viruses and application viruses.

A BSV infects boot sectors on diskettes and/or hard disks.  On diskettes,
the boot sector normally contains code to load the operating system files.
The BSV replaces the original boot sector with itself and stores the
original boot sector somewhere else on the diskette or simply replaces it
totally.  When a computer is then later booted from this diskette, the
virus takes control and hides in RAM.  It will then load and execute the
original boot sector, and from then on everything will be as usual.
Except, of course, that every diskette inserted in the computer will be
infected with the virus, unless it is write-protected.

A BSV will usually hide at the top of memory, reducing the amount of
memory that the DOS sees.  For example, a computer with 640K might appear
to have only 639K.

Most BSVs are also able to infect hard disks, where the process is similar
to that described above, although they usually infect the master boot
record instead of the DOS boot record.

Program viruses, the second type of computer viruses, infect executable
programs, usually .COM and .EXE files, but they sometimes also infect
overlay files, device drivers or even object files.

An infected program will contain a copy of the virus, usually at the end,
in some cases at the beginning of the original program, and in a few cases
the virus is inserted in the middle of the original program.

When an infected program is run, the virus may stay resident in memory
and infect every program run.  Viruses using this method to spread the
infection are called "Resident Viruses".

Other viruses may search for a new file to infect, when an infected
program is executed.  The virus then transfers control to the original
program.  Viruses using this method to spread the infection are
called "Direct Action Viruses".  It is possible for a virus to use both
methods of infection.

Most viruses try to recognize existing infections, so they do not infect
what has already been infected.  This makes it possible to inoculate
against specific viruses, by making the "victim" appear to be infected.
However, this method is useless as a general defense, as it is not
possible to inoculate the same program against multiple viruses.

The third type of viruses are application viruses, which do not infect
normal programs, but instead spread as "macros" in various types of files,
typically word-processor documents or spreadsheets.  This type of viruses
can easily spread through E-mail, when users unknowingly exchange infected
documents.

In general, viruses are just program - rather unusual programs perhaps,
but written just like any other program.  It does not take a genius to
write one - many ten year old kids can easily create viruses.

Now - to correct some common misconceptions, here are a few bits of
information about what viruses cannot do.

      A virus cannot appear all by itself, it has to be written, just
      like any other program.
    
      Not all viruses are intentionally harmful - some may only cause
      minor damage as a side effect - however, there is no such thing
      as a "harmless" virus.

      Reading plain data from an infected diskette cannot cause an
      infection.  (However, it is not trivial to determine what
      "plain data" is)

      A write-protected diskette cannot become infected, if the
      hardware is working properly.

It used to be the case that a virus could not infect a computer unless it
was booted from an infected diskette or an infected program was run on it,
but alas, this is no longer true.  It is possible for a virus infection to
spread, just by the act of reading an infected Microsoft Word document,
for example, or through use of Lotus Notes, to name two well-known
applications.

It also used to be the case that a virus could not infect data files or
spread from one type of computer to another - a virus designed to infect
Macintosh computers could not infect PCs or vice versa, but with the
appearance of application viruses this has changed as well - there are now
a few viruses that can infect WinWord as well as MacWord.

Apart from using anti-virus programs, there are several ways to protect
your computer from viruses:

      Rule #1 is: MAKE BACKUPS!!!  Keep good backups (more than one) of
      everything you do not want to lose.  This will not only protect you
      from serious damage caused by viruses, but is also necessary in the
      case of a serious hardware failure.

      Never boot a computer with a hard disk from a diskette because that
      is the only way the hard disk could become infected with a boot
      sector virus.  (Well, strictly speaking, it can happen if you run
      a "dropper" program too, but that happens extremely rarely).

      If your BIOS allows you to change the boot sequence to "C: A:",
      do it. This will give you very good protection against boot
      sector virus infections.

      Should you, by accident, have left a non-bootable diskette in
      drive A: when you turn the computer on, the message

                      Not a system disk.

      may appear.  If the diskette was infected with a virus, it will now
      be active, but may not have infected the hard disk yet (Most
      boot sector viruses will do it right away, however).  If this
      happens, remove the diskette from the A: drive and turn the computer
      off (or press the reset button).  It is important to note that
      pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del is not sufficient, as a few viruses can
      survive that.

      Keep all diskettes write-protected unless you need to write to them.
      When you obtain new software on a diskette, write-protect the
      diskette before you make a backup copy of it.  If it is not possible
      to make a backup of the diskette, because of some idiotic
      copy-protection, I do not recommend using the software.

      Be really careful regarding your sources of software.  In general,
      shrink-wrapped commercial software should be "clean", but there
      have been a few documented cases of infected commercial software
      and even Microsoft has occasionally distributed infected files.
      Public-Domain, Freeware and Shareware packages do not have to be
      any more dangerous than "regular" commercial programs - it all
      depends on the source.  If you obtain software from a BBS, check
      what precautions the SysOp takes against viruses.  If he does not
      screen the software made available for downloading, you should find
      another source.

      Check all new software for infection before you run it for the
      first time.  It may even be advisable to use a couple of scanners
      from different manufacturers, as no single scanner is able to
      detect all viruses.

      Obtain Shareware, Freeware and Public-Domain software from the
      original author or reliable distribution sites, if at all possible.

      Look out for any "unusual" behavior on your computer, like:

              Does it take longer than usually to load programs ?
              Do unusual error messages appear ?
              Does the memory size seem to have decreased ?
              Do the disk lights stay on longer than they used to ?
              Do files just disappear ?

Anything like this might indicate a virus infection (or just that Windows
is misbehaving).

If your computer is infected with a virus - DON'T PANIC!  Sometimes a
badly thought out attempt to remove a virus will do much more damage
than the virus could have done.  If you are not sure what to do, leave
your computer turned off until you find someone to remove the virus for
you.

Finally, remember that some viruses may interfere with the disinfection
operation if they are active in memory at that time, so before attempting
to disinfect you MUST boot the computer from a CLEAN system diskette -
preferaply one that has been kept write-protected since it was originally
created.

It is also a good idea to boot from a clean system diskette before
scanning for viruses, as several "stealth" viruses are very difficult do
detect if they are active in memory during virus scanning.

My Top 50 Tools and Their Better Open Source Alternatives for 2008

First of all, thank to my ex co friends (colleques) on supporting to report my Open Source tools i have been using today.

Not every proprietary program can drive a person crazy, right?

As you can follow up my writing about Adobe some other softwares 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

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 SeaMonkeyScribefire, the blog blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. 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
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, FrontPage 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.

Which "programming language" I have been dealing with for these days ? (Winter of 2008)

If you're interested in learning new technologies on programming languages and the global development environment you have to be fresh and robust.

Nowadays, i have fully concentrated my leisure time on learning new programming languages that run the web. I was always asked "Which programming language is the best to learn?" by my friends and co-workers, i generally answer this kind of question like that: " If you only know one, then your in serious trouble" :)

This got me thinking on what programming languages should a programmer know to maximize his talent and marketability. Below is the top five languages that every programmer should know:

Ruby on Rails

Why you should learn it: Cause it is the future. If you want to build a website writing only 8 lines of code Ruby on Rails(RoR) is the language for you. There has always been talk of Object Oriented Programming(OOP) and Ruby on Rails is OOP in its purest form.
Why it is not my first choice: Cause it is still in infancy and it does not have a debugger or a true IDE. Also its has a STEEP learning curve and its hard to understand how each component is put together, but all in all, it is the newest, most innovative one and very interesting with pure futures.
Resources: Top 12 Ruby on Rails Tutorials