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J-Cap Web Design is based on Open Source
J-Cap Web Design is based on Open source software, and almost all the programs used at J-Cap Web Design are open source. Since open source programs are freely available, links with download details are are given with the following list, which is a complete web design framework made up of only open source software
Firefox
J-Cap Web Design recommends Firefox, with its strong compliance for web standards and unrivaled security. Firefox is the premier star open source application. Firefox has a wealth of applications that can be very valuable to a web designer, include SEO tools, ftp, live editing, Javascript debugging and fast web browsing. Firefox is recommended for viewing all J-Cap web sites at their best.
Firefox Homepage
Geany
Geany is an excellent open source programmers IDE (Integrated Developer Environment) that can be used interchangeably with Notepad++ to design applications as well as web pages. With excellent syntax highlighting, code comes alive in an intuitive, easy to understand way.
Geany Homepage
Notepad++
Notepad++ is a full featured notepad that can be used interchangeably with Geany, a full featured IDE. Notepad++ has great features that are vary useful to a web developer like FTP access, custom macros, and syntax highlighting. Notepad++ is free and open source.
Notepad++ Homepage
GIMP -- GNU Image Manipulation Program
Gimp is a Photoshop like image editing program that is maintained by the GNU, a free software foundation. GNU is very full featured competitor to Photoshop and costs upwards of six-hundred dollars less!
Gimp is the perfect web developer's image editor.
GIMP Homepage
Evolution
Most emails to J-Cap Web Design go through the evolution email client. Evolution is a full-featured simple and effective email client, task manager, calendar application and memo pad. Evolution is a very comprehensive open source alternative to Outlook.
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Linux
J-Cap Web Design uses multiple different Operating Systems because they each have their own strengths. Some have features, some have stability, some have speed, some have compatibility. The multiple advantages of multiple operation systems make it important to be diverse.
Ubuntu Home Page
Apache
Apache is server software designed to manage servers that host web page. It is very popular, flexible, reliable, scalable, and of course, Open Source. Apache is the number one choice for web server software. J-Cap Web Design uses this software to simulate the environment that the web page will be in once it is on the server. Apache is the reliable tool used to simulate the internet the web page will eventually be at.
Apache Home Page
PHP
PHP is a server side scripting programming language used by J-Cap Web Design to create custom and resealable internet applications. This web programming language allows J-Cap Web Design put the power of changing web content in the clients hands! With this J-Cap Web Design builds custom database-driven control panels for the clients to access their own website and change web content. PHP is a powerful and popular open source web programming language.
PHP Home Page
MySQL
PHP is an excellent programming language, but in order to build database-driven applications, you need database software! MySQL is database software that integrates seamlessly with Apache and works well with PHP to store information and serve it on command. MySQL is a reliable open source database application.
What is Open Source?
Imagine a piece of software, much like the one you are using right now to look at this web page. Did you ever wonder how that piece of software came into existence? It came into existence in one of two ways: the open source or proprietary method.
The vast, vast majority of software has something like a blueprint. This blueprint is the means by which the software was originally made. Someone, somewhere, sat down and wrote a very complex blueprint to the software, and then used that blueprint to 'build' the software. This blueprint is made up of lines of code in one or more programming languages. This blueprint is the source code to the piece of software, because it is the source of the software, or where it comes from. When you get the application, you do not get the source code, but a set of unintelligible computer commands that only the computer really knows how to use.
If a knowledgeable programmer gets his hands on the source code of a program, he can understand how the program works, how it functions, how to change it, and he can even re-create the program however he wished, with various changes. The source code of the application is how the application is built, and how it functions.
Now imagine a software company that sells its software as a product like Quicken, Microsoft Windows, or TurboTax. These companies keep their source code to themselves, because if they gave out the source code, competitors could steal their work and make a product better than what they are making, or even charge a lower price for nearly or exactly the same product. Companies hide the blueprints to their software because if they did not, they would not be able to sell their software competitively.
That all makes sense right? It is important that a company protects its profit! If companies cannot sell their software, no new software would be made... right?
Wrong
There is an alternative model to the scenario described above. The above is the proprietary model of software engineering. The Open Source model is very different :
With the open source model, software and the source code to it are released for free download on the web for anyone that wants to have it. Anyone has access to the blueprints of the software and anyone has access to the software itself free of charge.
What would lead someone to the conclusion that this is a good idea? Would someone doing that lose business? How do they make money? What would make someone to give away free software?
This is where open source shines. Open source companies make their money by means other than selling software. Linux is a set of open source operating systems that usually make their monies on support for their operating system, which is sold on an annual subscription basis. Firefox is an open source web browser that makes money from traffic it drives to Google's web searches. There are more than one ways to make money from software.
But the real beauty of open source is how it is developed. The source code is free for all to see, and usually, the bugs in a program are freely visible as well. If a programmer uses a piece of open source software, he has the right to download the program source code and fix the bug, and he is encouraged to send his changes back to the company. If the bug fix is a good fix, the company incorporates the new code into its next release, thus making the product better. Because of this, programmers for an open source company spend most of their time deciding which code is good, instead of actually programming
Open source software creates communities that surround the software and contribute to it. Corporations, sometimes to suit their own interests, will often contribute money or work into an open source project, so these projects are not comprised solely of hobbyists.
Open source offers free enhancements to your computer. Open source is a kind of software, a model of construction, and a philosophy of freedom.
Open source is :
- Free to Download
- Free to Change
- Free to Re-distribute
J-Cap Web Design holds that Open Source is the way of the new millennium, and uses free Open Source software to cut costs without cutting quality, any you are the beneficiary who receives a lower price for quality web design!
