infosoldier.com

I like everything that has to do with databases. I will even go so far as to say that Microsoft Access is the best RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool when you need to make a database driven application.

I also love the concept of the data-driven website. It is here where Access fails miserably because what integration it does provide is severely limited, AFAIK, and also YMMV. I planned to remake some projects I worked on previously, using Access, to the whole Web format. Simply put, make some web-enabled applications. The aim of the project was to have better knowledge of web-enabled applications in general. I would also teach myself the tools, the languages, etc. A caveat however, since this a not-for-profit project I would only use open-source tools.

This was quite some time ago and long story short I've learned a great deal about PHP, Apache, MySQL, etc. I made some headway into my projects and got basic functionality working for each. However I got into thinking about database abstraction or even into application abstraction. Because data in a database tends to be arranged in logical ways; why shouldn't the site you program reconfigure itself automatically once it's seen your data? Ah, but I digress... I don't think I'm smart enough to actually build such a site... Not yet anyway...

So I started thinking if propietary (read Microsoft-connected) tools would allow me to build my projects faster... With a little help from a friend I got a lead on the tools I might use... And the result of my testing will find it's way here...

But be warned, I'm an open source advocate through and through, though I will try be objective. Next! My current (almost open-source) setup.

The information soldier is a critic just like everyone else...

I was recently asked, by my (microzombied) friend, "what piece of software represents open source's best software?"

I admit the question caught me off-guard since I thought there were too many examples: apache, php, perl, Linux, netbsd, gcc... I could fill the page and not end. I was tempted, finally, to say EMACS. But trying to explain to him what EMACS is, isn't... Well , that would have required more patience than I had right there and then.
In the end I settled for BIND. BIND as in the de factointernet domain name server. Why BIND? One simple reason. If, somehow it was unlawful to use open source software and you could no longer use BIND the Internet as we know it would shut down almost completely. And here's the kicker: there is a company behind it, a company you can buy support from. (Yes, yes I know there are many other examples of this... but he does not)

Maybe I should have said Apache. Apache is open source software that makes it possible for you to access 70% of the Web's Sites in existence at the time of this writing. Perhaps there is some other OSS application that I don't know, that better represents the achievements of open-source software: bash? kde? firefox? vi?

What would you have said?