You are hereSix steps you can take to use OSS to address needs in your organization
Submitted by admin on Sun, 12/05/2004 - 10:50
Six steps you can take to use OSS to address needs in your organization We have outlined so far the basics of OSS, and how it’s developed, why we think the OSS model is valuable for nonprofit organizations, some specific tools to use to make decisions about the adoption of OSS in your organization, as well as some specific examples of organizations that have adopted OSS as a part of their technology infrastructure. We outline here six steps you can take to begin to put OSS to work in your organization, and in the process learn more about it, and its capabilities and cost-effectiveness. Step 1: Shared Web Hosting
It is very common for small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations to purchase a web and email hosting account from an external virtual hosting provider. These accounts cost from $10 to $40 per month. This is because external hosting (also called virtual hosting) requires less support and is less expensive.
There are many, many virtual hosting providers, and the vast majority of virtual host providers use an open source operating system, either Linux or BSD (another Open Source UNIX variant). They use these because they are more cost effective and stable, and it is easier to administer many machines with fewer staff, than using Windows.
If you are already using a virtual host for your website, and you did not specifically ask for Windows then you are very likely using the open source operating systems Linux or BSD already, and the provider is almost certainly using Apache. You also likely have access to open source application development using the quite popular languages PHP and Perl, and the database system MySQL. Thus, you already have experience with OSS, and use it everyday, and you can check off Step 1! (Step 5 of this section will explore more on how to do it yourself). Step 2: Open Office and Mozilla
Word processing, e-mail, web browsing and spreadsheets are the primary software programs used by nonprofit staff members. Fortunately, the proprietary software programs typically used to perform these functions all have well-developed open source alternatives that run on Macintosh and Windows platforms in addition to Linux.
You can download and install one or both of Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org), or Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org). Open Office is a full-featured office suite that can read and write Microsoft Office files (.doc, .xls, .ppt), and Mozilla is an open source program that does web browsing, e-mail, IRC and HTML editing. (See appendix for more details – in some versions of this booklet, a CD is included providing these programs; they also may be downloaded at no charge.) Both of these software packages install easily. They are easy to try out and evaluate.
A security note: Don’t place this test Linux desktop on a static public IP address without NAT or without being behind a firewall (talk to your tech staff member or consultant if you have one). Although generally regarded as more secure than Windows, like any computer you put on your network, you need to be aware of how to make it secure before it is open to the public internet.
Step 3: Small desktop trial
If some of your staff are primarily using only the programs mentioded in Step 2, then you could experiment by installing Linux on an extra workstation on your internal network. In addition to providing the applications mentioned in Step 2, Linux comes with many other multimedia and productivity applications.
To evaluate using Linux on the desktop, you can take an old desktop that might be gathering dust in the corner (preferably a Pentium processor of 400 MHz or better), and install a distribution of Linux on it. One of the easiest and most popular Linux distributions is RedHat. It is easiest to go a major computer store and buy a boxed copy of the most recent version of RedHat (you can also get many other Linux distributions this way, including SuSE, Linux-Mandrake and others). These cost, in general, about $30. You can also get RedHat CD images from the RedHat website (go here for instructions on how to download and install from CD – http://www.redhat.com/download/howto_download.html)
This will give you an idea of how to use Linux on the desktop, and introduce you to a wide range of OS packages for you to test out. It is a good way to understand how Linux works. In addition, there are several ways (see list below) to use Windows software on your Linux desktop, when that is needed. Step 4:Network file and print server
One of the easiest ways to use Linux in a networked environment is to use it as a file and print server, to replace or retire the Windows server that you might have serving this function (Note: a dedicated file/print server is recommended for organizations with 7 or more staff). The case studies show examples of the use of Linux for just that purpose. SAMBA (see Appendix) allows the Linux server to share network directories (folders) so that they can be accessed by Windows clients.
If you would like to use Linux as a print server, and you have an unusual (or very new) printer, we recommend checking out http://www.linuxprinting.org to make sure that Linux supports your printer. Step 5: Self-hosting of web and e-mail/e-mail lists
As mentioned above in the virtual host section, Linux is very good at internet server functions (web and e-mail hosting, and other internet server functions). If you have a DSL connection with a static IP address (you generally have to pay more for an account like that), or a T1 or higher broadband connection, then self-hosting your website and e-mail is quite easy using Linux. You can easily use an older server machine or desktop for this function. Again, you can find or download any distribution of Linux that you like.
If you do not want to take on the responsibilities and cost of hosting your server yourself, you can get a dedicated Linux server from many hosting providers, starting at around $99/month. With this kind of server you can install any specialized OSS that you might want to use in your organization.
Unlike MS Windows servers, Linux comes with all necessary server functions in the box, and there are no per-seat licenses for anything (Windows servers do come with IIS, the Windows web server that has no additional license fees, but all additional server software, like e-mail, requires additional costs). So unlike Exchange, where you have to spend $8 (discounted) to $40 per e-mail account, Linux will allow you to have unlimited e-mail addresses at no additional licensing costs. Linux comes with Apache, the most popular web server. There are a number of mail servers that are available, including sendmail, postfix and exim.
E-mail lists (discussion lists, e-newsletters, fundraising appeals) have become more and more important to nonprofit organizations. There are a number of OS mailing list managers for Linux/UNIX, with a broad variety of functionalities and ease of use. Probably the most popular and easiest to use is a program called Mailman. Others include majordomo, Sympa, Smartlist, and ezlmm. Step 6: Moving towards an all open source office
There are a variety of other open source tools that can allow you to move to an entirely open source office.
Database servers: There are two database servers that are often used in Linux/UNIX environments (and both have been ported for use on Windows): MySQL and PostgreSQL. They are both popular, although MySQL is the most popular. They can be used for any basic DBMS functions that MS SQL server (or even Oracle) can be used for. MySQL is most often used for web-based databases, and PostgreSQL is considered a possible replacement for Oracle, because of how full-featured and robust it is. Both can be used as back ends via ODBC, with MS Access serving as the GUI front end.
There are also the membership and donor management packages eBase (www.ebase.org) and ODB (www.organizersdb.org), and although they are built upon proprietary development environments (FileMaker and Visual Basic5 respectively), they provide access to the source code. There is an open source server-based accounting package, called SQL-Ledger, which some nonprofits have begun to use, and a desktop accounting package called GNUCash for Linux.
Undoubtedly, the options will improve as developers realize that there are needs to be addressed. We have generated an on line database (http://www.nosi.net) of open source projects that are specifically of interest to nonprofit organizations, and a CD (distributed with some versions of this booklet) that provides installation programs for relevant Windows and Mac-compatible OSS programs.
Here are two tables that compare and contrast proprietary software options with open source software options, both for the desktop and the server. Server Software
Desktop Software
Further Reading
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