St. Thomas Open Source Repository

The St. Thomas Open Source Repository

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Updated 06/22/2007 v 1.6

Welcome!

Welcome to the St. Thomas Open Source Repository! St Thomas United Methodist Church is located in Glen Ellyn, IL. We hold a Christian Computing Forum the forth Saturday of every month. Its a small but fun group that is always interested in learning more about ethical technology.

If you are reading this then you should know that Chad Sutton (that's me) is giving these CD's away for free, or if you feel so inclined, a donation to the St. Thomas United Methodist Church building fund. Considering that you can save thousands by using the software on this CD rather than buying software, a small donation of a few dollars is a great deal. You should also know that I'm providing support for this CD. You can reach me at my email, csutton@chadarius.com. Drop me an email anytime and I'll help you out myself or get you pointed in the right direction.

What is Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS)?

How can you just give away this stuff? Aren't you breaking the law? You can't steal software! Well you are correct. I can't steal this software... because I have permission by the copyright holders to give it away to anyone I want. I can give it away for free. I can even charge a fee (or ask for a donation). This is because all of these programs are Free/Libre and Open Source Software!

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (or FLOSS) is software that is freely available to anyone to copy, redistribute, and even modify. It uses a special kind of copy right often called “copy left.” You can find out a lot more about open source licensing at http://www.opensource.org/.

Here is a quote right from opensource.org. “The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.” That all sounds great, but its a rather cold and logical way of looking at it. Yes its a great process for creating and maintaining software, but there is so much more to it than that. As a Christian, the moral and ethical reasons to use FLOSS is far more important.

There is a great quote from Matthew 10:8 that clearly describes how, the disciples should carry out their mission. “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Open Source software allows churches, governments, schools, universities, etc... where money is a barrier, to provide education and services that would be impossible otherwise. Supporting FLOSS is supporting all of the people in the world whose lives can be made better with it. Free and Open Source Software is delivering scientific, education, entertainment, and office software to millions of people. That includes you and me!

There are a number of open source projects that you may not know about, but are very important. For instance, The Apache Project (http://apache.org) produces the world's most popular web server. Literally, without the Apache web server, the Internet would cease to exist. Yahoo and Google are both run using Apache along with a huge majority of the websites on the Internet. Apache is free for anyone to use, copy, distribute, and change. What an amazing concept.

Apache is not the only big open source project. There are lots of very useful free/libre and open source software programs that are secure and high quality that you can use everyday... even including replacing whole desktop operating systems like Windows... for free! CD 1 of this bundle includes all kinds of great Windows based open source programs that you can install and use for free. Use these programs and you can save hundreds if not thousands on software.

Did you know that the Apple Macintosh operating system is actually a free Open Source operating system called BSD? Its true! Apple adds their own proprietary graphical user interface layer over the top of it, but the entire base of their operating system is very much like Linux.

In fact, you can replace almost all of that expensive unsecure Microsoft based software with Open Source. You can start by using these great Windows based open source programs on your Windows 2000 or higher operating system right now.

How much would these 2 CD's save me?
The prices here were taken from http://www.techshopministry.org or directly from the respective vendor's website. They are the retail prices for the full version (not an upgrade).

CD1 Contents

First, a quick note to give credit where credit is due. There are two projects on the web that inspired me to start this project. The first is The Open CD (http://www.theopencd.org) project. The other is the Software for Staving Students at http://softwarefor.org. Both projects are amazing. However they don't focus on the specific needs of a church office. I hope to continue to add both general purpose and church specific software to this repository until it is full to the brim!

7-Zip

What the heck is a zip file? Well its a way of highly compressing a file or even a whole set of directories and files into a file that is compressed. That means it takes up a lot less space. If you need to send someone a large OpenOffice document, you can use 7-Zip (http://7-zip.org/) to create a compressed file that is often 50-70% smaller! Of course you can also open other ZIP documents using this program. 7-Zip completely replaces expensive programs like Winzip which can cost up to $30-$50.00.

Audacity

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) is an open source audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux, and other OS's. You can digitize old analog tapes, phonographs, make MP3 files of recordings, create Podcasts, even create multi-track songs. It supports a variety of plugins and effects that you can download and learn about from the Audacity web site.

Ekiga (Updated!)

Ekiga is an open source VOIP (Voice over IP) and Internet Video Phone. It is still in beta for Windows, but is a great piece of software formerly known as GnomeMeeting. It's web page is http://ekiga.org (download here). You can sign up for a free account at http://ekiga.net. Ekiga for Windows is still in beta and may have some issues. I would consider it experimental.

FireFox (Updated!)

Internet Explorer is the Microsoft Internet browser that is delivered as part of the Windows operating system. It is a HUGE security risk. Malicious hackers and unethical businesses use Microsoft's poor security to force Internet Explorer to do things that can use your computer and personal information for their own nefarious purposes. Don't let anyone do that to you again. Install FireFox instead. Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/) is the most popular Open Source browser. It is far more secure than Internet Explorer and it has more advanced features too!

Pidgin Instant Messaging (Updated! Used to be called GAIM)

Pidgin (http://pidgin.im/pidgin/home/) is an Instant Messaging client. Do you have multiple instant messaging ID's? Do you have to run Yahoo Instant Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and MSN Messenger just so you can IM with all your friends? Well now you can run just one instant messaging program to connect and use all of those services in one! I use Pidgin to connect to Yahoo, ICQ, AOL, MSN, and Google all at the same time.

Inkscape (New!)

From http://inkscape.com: "Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format."

NVU

NVU (http://nvu.com)is an HTML editor that provides similar functionality to Dreamweaver or Frontpage. Of course, it is free and open source software so there is high quality and a free price! It allows anyone to create HTML documents using a WYSIWYG interface.

GIMPShop 2.2.8

What a weird name! What is “The GIMP”? It stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. What does it do? Its like Adobe Photoshop but its free! The GIMP (http://gimpshop.net) might be a funny name but its no laughing matter. You can do professional bitmap graphics with this package and not have to pay $500 or more to do it. GIMPShop is a special release of GIMP that provides a Photoshop look and feel to The GIMP.

OpenOffice (Updated!)

OpenOffice (http://openoffice.org) is a complete replacement for Microsoft Office. It can read and write Microsoft Office documents. It can also create HTML documents (I used it to create this one), and can turn any document into an Adobe Acrobat PDF file so anyone can read it! So you don't think OpenOffice can possibly be good enough compared with Microsoft Office? Wrong! In many ways its better. My wife put herself through a master's degree program with it. It has all of the important features as MS Office and it runs on less hardware and memory. Save yourself $400 and use OpenOffice!

OpenSong (Updated!)

OpenSong (http://www.opensong.org) is an open source replacement for programs like MediaShout. It is still being developed, but has some great functionality for electronic worship. I an project slides for songs, announcments, bible verses, etc... all using a cool dual screen mode. It allows you to hook a projector up to your PC. The PC monitor holds a control screen that allows you to control the output on the projector. The congregation sees only the beautiful slides on the projector, while you control everything behind the scenes on the PC monitor.

Go to http://www.opensong.org and create a user account and download the background packs, song packs (so you can see the examples), and Bible verses. Enjoy!

PDF Creator (Updated!)

OpenOffice can create PDF's as part of its built in features, but other Windows programs can't by default. You can pay up to hundreds of dollars for PDF creators, or you can use PDF Creator (http://pdfforge.org). It is as simple as printing a document. Instead of printing to a printer, you print to a PDF file. Now you can save web pages (great for keeping receipts for online purchases) as PDF files.

Scribus (New!)

"Scribus is an open-source program that 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 provides professional grade desktop publishing features similar to Adobe PageMaker.

Thunderbird (Updated!)

Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/) is the email companion to FireFox. If you thought Internet Explorer was a security problem... well Outlook users are in real trouble. Once again, Microsoft has put out a product with huge security problems that unethical hackers and businesses will try to use to their advantage.

For Advanced Users (All New!)

XAMPP

Install XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html) a full featured web server (Apache), professional grade database (MySQL), and two great scripting languages for the web (PHP and PERL). Thus AMPP is born (Apache MySQL PHP and PERL). This is the most popular and powerful web platform available today and you can run it on your own Windows PC. This software runs best on Linux but XAMPP allows you to try out and test web solutions on your own PC and still be compatible with running the same software on a Linux platform.

ChurchLedger - Open Source Church Management (Updated!)

ChurchLedger (http://www.churchledger.com) is a company that not only creates a ledger and content management system for churches, but will also host it for you! That is if you don't already have a web site and know how to setup the software yourself. ChurchLedger layers itself on top of another open source web system called XOOPS (http://www.xoops.org/).

To install and use ChurchLedger you must have already installed XAMPP. ChurchLedger requires Apache, PHP and MySQL. All of which are easily installed with XAMPP. Additionally you should install 7-Zip from this CD so you can unpack and install the compressed tar file for XOOPS and for OpenSourceeChurch (ChurchLedger). A tar file is similar to a Zip file and is most often used on Linux instead of Zip files.

Installing ChurchLedger is beyond the scope of this document. I suggest you review the README and INSTALL documents that are located within the archive files themselves and visit their websites. If you have questions always feel free to contact me.

CD2 - Replace Microsoft Windows with KUbuntu!

If you are ready to make the jump to a truly free (as in freedom) computing world, you can also completely replace that nasty bug ridden, virus laden, slow, Windows operating system with GNU/Linux. Linux is an Open Source operating system that has never had a virus... ever. You can't get email viruses, email bots, or strange ad-ware programs that mess things up on it because Linux is too secure and used by a much smaller population of users.

Now if you are worried about whether you will know how to use Linux... well don't be. To do all that basic stuff is pretty much like Windows. Going past the basics is a little more adventurous, but its so powerful compared with Windows that you will never want to go back! And of course... its free!

You can try Linux without installing it! CD 2 is a special kind of bootable Linux that let's you run Linux without even installing it! You just pop the CD into your drive, reboot with the CD and it boots into Linux instead of Windows. There is no install and it doesn't touch anything on your Windows drive. Its a bit slower running everything from the CD drive, but its a great way to try things out.

If this Linux works well on your PC and you like it you can choose to upgrade your computer permanently to Linux. Just boot with the KUbuntu CD and click on the Install Button! I suggest http://kubuntu.org as the best Linux distribution to use. Its the one I used to make this document and CD set with. There are many more Linux distributions to choose from.

Change Log

6/22/2007 Version 1.6 - Added Scribus. Updated Ekiga. Firefox, OpenOffice, OpenSong, PDF Creator, and Thunderbird, XAMPP, and ChurchLedger to the latest versions. GAIM was also updated and renamed to the new project name Pidgin.

3/26/2007 Version 1.5 - Added Inkscape

2/23/2007 Version 1.4 - Added Advanced User section that includes XAMPP, XOOPS, and the OpenSourceChurch project (ChurchLedger).

1/31/2007 Version 1.32- Added Audacity, Ekiga, NVU, OpenSong. Updated GAIM and GIMPShop.