Transitionning to OpenSource

For a while now, I’ve been trying to transition to using OpenSource on my work Thinkpad as much as possible. Sometimes, I’m replacing freeware, other times commercial stuff. The latest victims to be replaced have been:

• Adobe Acrobat & PrimoPDF, replaced by PDFCreator
• WinZip & IZark, replaced by 7-Zip
• Rational Application Developer, replaced by Notepad++ (in this case, I still use RAD, but just not for simple XML editing)

I’m still looking for replacements for IrfanView and Picasa, but I fear those will be difficult to displace, given their level of refinement and the fact they’re free and well established. Why am I doing this? Well, I believe that whenever possible, and where it makes sense, open source is the way to go.

It’s a model I believe in, if only because from a WW perspective, it provides an avenue for developing countries to get software that lets them compete in the business world at a par with the so-called western economies.