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Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 Technology in Action Technology in Focus: Computing Alternatives
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 3 Application Software Alternatives Open source software – –Freely distributed – –Contains the source code (the actual lines of instructional code that make the program work) – –Can be distributed to others
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 4 Productivity Software Alternatives OpenOffice ( – –Comparable to Microsoft Office Writer is like Microsoft Word Calc is like Microsoft Excel Impress is like Microsoft PowerPoint Base is a database program like Microsoft Access Draw is a graphics program Math is an equation editor
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 5 Productivity Software Alternatives (cont.) OpenOffice allows you to open files created in Office applications Incredible number of people continuing to develop for it all the time Writer: OpenOffice word processing application – –Similar to Microsoft Word 2003
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 6 Productivity Software Alternatives (cont.) Calc: OpenOffice spreadsheet application – –Similar to Microsoft Excel Impress: OpenOffice presentation application – –Similar to Microsoft PowerPoint Base: OpenOffice database application – –Similar to Microsoft Access
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 7 Database Software Alternatives Base – –Part of OpenOffice MySQL – –Comparable to SQL Server and Oracle Database 11g – –Many books and online tutorials are available MySQL
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 8 Client Alternatives Mozilla Thunderbird – –Open source client – –Add-ons available Blog editor Calendar Calculator Multimedia tools
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 9 Drawing Software Alternatives OpenOffice Draw Dia – –Comparable to Microsoft Visio – –Allows you to create diagrams, graphs, and flowcharts Google SketchUp Dia
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 10 Web Page Authoring Software Alternatives SeaMonkey Composer – –Comparable to Adobe Dreamweaver and Expression Web – –Don’t need to know HTML to generate a Web page
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 11 Image Editing Software Alternatives GIMP – –Comparable to Adobe Photoshop – –Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX versions available
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 12 Operating System Alternatives Linux – –Open source operating system – –Available to download in various packages, called distributions – –Distrowatch.com
Operating System Alternatives (cont.) Linux distros – –Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 13
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 14 Operating System Alternatives (cont.) Mandriva Linux – –3D desktop environment – –Includes open source software – –Includes security features Fee-based options available
Hardware Alternatives Apple – –Mac OS X’s latest version is Snow Leopard – –Based on the UNIX OS; very reliable – –Can install Windows Vista or Windows 7 to run Windows software Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall15
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 16 Hardware Alternatives: Do It Yourself Advantages – –Exact configuration and features desired – –Choice of components – –Satisfaction of a job well done Disadvantages –No technical support if there is a problem –Must examine complex technical specifications –Not necessarily a money saver
17 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Technology in Focus 17