Mike Whitla’s Blog

First Steps in Open Source

Firstly, for those that have not heard of open source: Open source is software developed to be distributed for free with free permission to add, subtract, or modify the code to suit the user. (I’m sure I’ll get corrected on this definition by someone)

Secondly, off hooray for Word Press!! who make the software that runs this blog website. It’s open source and it installs like a dream. Usually I put aside a day or so to install web installations myself but this installed in less than 15 minutes, and I’m not exaggerating.

Well it has been an interesting year for me and open source with the full range of emotions from wanting to put my fist through my monitor to jumping up and down when that damn flash player finally worked. Around November 2005 I got started using oscommerce which is a software package designed to create an online store.
Using this package as well as many contributions (in code as well as help on the fourms) from its large community of users I built the new website for my Traditional Music distribution site, Deep Down Productions. I’m really happy with the software and it was really nice getting to know people on the forums. There are so many there that give their time for free to help others figure things out.
On into this year and I need to build a new site for my main gig Rainbow Songs. I got turned on to another CMS (content management system) called Mambo that designed to handle other types of sites. As it turned our Mambo had morphed into Joomla! and off I went into a new cms. Joomla turns out to be really nifty. Very easy to use even for people who do not have any experience with programming or database applications. Joomla’s add-ons are in theory automatically installed and for the most they are. There is also a fair bit to learn and the more you learn of the inner workings of the software the better you will be able to utilize it. There is also a wonderful community of users that who help support the use and development of the package.

Open Source = many users = many testers = reliable and secure software = robust support community.

I’ve also encountered great kindness from people in the forums trying to track down fixes for my project. In particular I must send out a personal thank you to Amy Stephen. Although she has never responded to my problems in the forums reading her responses to others was quite inspirational and quite entertaining. I have seen her talk through the most desperate of users with incredible grace and humour. You also owe it to yourself to check out her blog. She has lots of great stuff there.

After
Ok a bit about me: When I’m not typing at my computer, which seems to be more than it should be for a musician, I divide my time between my growing family and making music. The music making I do though my business Rainbow Songs which it devoted to teaching music to people though a non-competitive holistic approach. (more on this later this is just a first entry to replace the default text in the sample message you get when you install the blogging software)
You can read more about me at these links:
Bio
1st CD Elephants have wrinkles
2nd CD Early morning Knee-Slappin’ tunes.

In case you can’t guess by the titles the cds are for kids. (but adults can listen to ‘em too!!)
Anyway thanks for dropping by and please feel free to leave a comment.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 10:18 am and is filed under Community, Open Source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.