Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Software tools for scholars

[marketing]

Hello,

   I'm not a scholar per se, but I run a web design business and a
publishing business using only free software in house. I think that
many of the software requirements will be the same.

   Over the years we have used Red Hat, starting with the boxed sets
before dsl made downloading the os practicle. After red hat, we
switched to Fedora for several years, and then to Ubuntu for several
more years. We currently use Linux Mint Mate.

   We have published two books, which can be seen here:

kawriter.com

   We use latex primarily to write and publish the books. There are
several other programs for converting to pdfs and stuff like that.

    When we need to do professional looking presentations, we do it in
html and then convert to pdf. Here is an example:

picaflor-azul.com/newdeck1.pdf

   Other useful free software includes The Gimp for art and photos, Libre
Office, (We mostly use this when someone sends us a microsoft formatted
document, Ugggghhh.) Emacs for text editing.

   In the past I have used free software for making telephone calls. This
was several years ago, and it worked pretty well. I don't remember the
names of any of the software we used, but there were several programs
and services involved.

   If anyone wants to collaborate with me on this I can help find and test
software, and perhaps do some of the writing too.

Thanks,

Mark


> On Sun, 2014-01-12 at 16:17 -0700, Marko Dimjašević wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Have there been any efforts to make a resource for scholars where they
>> could access/compile a list of software that is typically needed in
>> research/teaching? What crosses my mind is a whole software stack,
>> starting with an OS, to document preparation systems, diagram tools,
>> version control systems, conference call tools, email, etc.?
>>
>> The ultimate goal would be a wiki page that any scholar could use to
>> find information about issues with proprietary software, and what free
>> software tools should be used instead.
>>
>>
>> I am a graduate student and one of the most frustrating things I've been
>> facing is proprietary communication software tools. I work with folks
>> from other universities than mine, and they are all used to proprietary
>> things like Skype and Google Hangouts; other communication channel don't
>> seem acceptable nor viable to them.
>>
>> Therefore, I think it'd be great to join efforts (if anyone else is
>> interested) and start working on creating such a resource of tools
>> needed in research (and issues that arise if proprietary software is
>> used). We would also note where free software doesn't exist, and
>> hopefully raise awareness about it.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cheers,
>> Marko Dimjašević
>> http://dimjasevic.net/marko
>>
>>
>
>
> This would be a great thing to start working on in the LibrePlanet wiki
>