Web Software
I provide full installation and complete visual and functional customization of the following software for websites.
WordPress
The open source content management system software for your personal website created by wordpress.org (not to be confused with wordpress.com), it hosted on your own server making it 100% customizable unlike other do it yourself site builders like wordpress.com, wix or squarespace. Once it is set up it will allow you full control of the content and function of your site.
www.wordpress.org
WooCommerce
Shopping Cart Software as a WordPress Plugin
Sell products right from your site with all credit card payment options. I can fully customize your stores interface to enable complex or simple product selection and shopping.
Nextcloud
Cloud Hosting Software
Host all of your own files on your own private server, like other cloud services but 100% controlled by your organization
Read more about the services I provide using the above software
Desktop Software
Firefox
Just as great a browser as always, and just as fast as the rest, but with open standards, privacy conscious and a great non profit mission to put open web technology in the hands of creators and consumers alike globally.
Filezilla
A fast FTP client that is both cross platform and open source making it great for uploads to your web server on any major Operating System.
VLC
A Video player that just works really well with just about any video format and can even convert between video formats.
Thunderbird
www.thunderbird.net
Thunderbird is a desktop email client that I have used for many years. It was originally created by mozilla and based off of the Firefox web browser. It now is a community created and operated project. It enables you to access as many email addresses as you want from one easy to use inbox. They are working on a mobile app.
Audacity
www.audacityteam.org
Audacity is great for recording editing and converting audio files.
Netbeans
Netbeans is a IDE for coding many programming languages, I have found it to be excellent for PHP HTML CSS and Javascript and have used it for many years.
GIMP
For raster(bitmap) graphic design and photo editing
Inkscape
For vector graphic design.
I am a self taught graphic designer so I have not explored the limitations thoroughly but these two have carried me through quite comfortably.
Libre Office
Includes a suite of software for documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.
It is a modern fork of Open Office
All of these apps work on Linux, Windows, and OSX.
All of these apps are Open Source, Free, and developed by global communities, these communities are your resource for tech support, just do a search and see the wealth of information available, because hey we can actually look at the code and see what they are doing behind the scenes.
Operating Systems
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
A distribution of Linux that is easy to use. Ubuntu is an operating system, which is what runs your computer from boot-up, to web browsing to any other software. It is an alternative to Windows and Apple OSX.
Many software companies are supporting linux or turning toward web based applications which work on any OS. If you are considering switching to linux, be sure to make sure your software is either compatible with linux or that there is a suitable alternative that is compatible.
Linux is also gaining momentum and support from leading game companies, such as Valve with their Steam platform, EA, and Blizzard for any gamers out there. This is due to the shear power of Linux and its openness allows graphic processing to reach new potential.
Ubuntu is entirely open source, and while OSX certainly provides the best user experience of any OS, what happens when your OSX version is out of date, Suddenly your favorite apps are no longer supported and you cant upgrade anything without buying the operating system’s latest version, or a new laptop all together. Ubuntu is beginning to rival OSX in ease of use.
Many people stick with windows for the lower cost of the computer itself. Well ubuntu runs on most windows compatible computers, and it is Free.
Linux also handles old hardware very well so if you want to try it on an old computer instead of buying a new one, you might find it to work a lot faster running Linux.
You can burn a live CD or USB flash drive and try it out risk free before installing.
Great Websites
Duck Duck Go
When half of google results are advertisements it is time to find an alternative. Some may still be fine with them tracking and selling their identity to advertisers for the service. But that service just isn’t that good any more because it is served steeped in advertisements. Youtube is now no better than cable TV as far as commercial time goes.
Duck Duck Go neither tracks you nor bubbles you which is assuming what you want to see based on past searches.
Open Street Map
A wiki style map service. It’s maps are completed with all of the benefits of local knowledge. To really see it’s potential I like to look at the level of detail in Paris. The site lacks a direction/gps service, but you can use Mapquest Open which draws from Open Street Map data which is completely free for anyone to access.
Stack Exchange
Stack Exchange is a large community of and Q and A sites created by enthusiasts for any topic you can think of, everyone can gets credit for asking or providing good answers to important questions. People who gain rank by earning points for their questions and answers run each Stack Exchange.