Open Source Software for Web Development

June 21, 2007

A friend of mine asked me for my thoughts on free or cheap software to do Web development. There were a few open source software packages that I have heard of and had been recommended by others. I did a little more research and here are my findings.

Disclaimer – I do not use or endorse these software programs. I am only sharing this as what I have found.

Nvu – This is an open source WYSIWYG editor that is available for Windows or Mac. I had downloaded this program earlier this year. It did not work for me because it did not have some functionality that I was used to in Dreamweaver. I wanted to be able to define the location of my local files to edit and then put on the server. It appeared to me that you could not do this function. It may have been added since I tried it or I just did not figure it out. The editor functions did look good. I probably would have played with it more but I found some inexpensive software that I really like – Coda and TextMate.

GIMP – This is an open source software that would be a substitute for Photoshop. I have never used it because I have Photoshop but a friend of mine really liked it and he is not a designer.

Inkscape – An open source vector graphics program that claims capabilities similar to Illustrator. I have never used this program or know of anyone who has. I found it through doing a search for Open Source software for Web design on a site called Open CD.