About Softpanorama

Serving community since 1989

Browser mix	OS Mix	Links to Softpanorama by Origin	Zombies
	History	Humor	Etc

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

Albert Einstein's essay, "The World As I See It"

The mission of Softpanorama Open Source University is to provide a educational materials to schools and universities to serve as a source for the independent study of OSS in both Linux and Windows environments and this way extend the frontiers of the use of the open source software

This site was created to help students to fight CS diploma inflation ("BigMac diplomas" with the only difference that you can buy BigMac much cheaper) and help to learn the critical parts of computer technology often overlooked in the "fashion-driven" university environment.

The main idea of Softpanorama is to show that source code have maximum advantages when it is connected with the idea of scripting languages. This site includes interlinked collection of materials that are devoted to the different aspects of scripting and even pages that seems to be far from this actually have some value providing more broad view on the environment in which scripting languages operate.

The second idea is that you need to use the best CS books available. the site contains a collection of reviews of the best CS books. IMHO one of the most difficult tasks in CS self-study is to select the best book. I consider Internet to be a new academic infrastructure, not merely a shopping mall and one of the things that Internet provide is the ability to select better textbooks.

This is not an "Linux uber alles" open source evangelism site; this site emphasizes critical thinking. We advocate usage of mixed Windows+Linux environment as an optimal environment for a wide range of tasks.

Introduction

Linux and Open Source makes computing fun again.

Dear colleagues,

The author wants to help students to fight CS diploma inflation ("BigMac diplomas" with the only difference that you can buy BigMac much cheaper) and help to learn the critical parts of computer technology often overlooked in the "fashion-driven" university environment. One way to fight shortcoming of a typical CS curriculum is to study "open source" software (OSS). I think that the following areas are underrepresented in a typical university curriculum that currently overemphasize OO and other fashionable technologies at the expense of other less flashy, but more valuable approaches:

The importance of using the best available computer books for independent study (especially forgotten by most universities The Art of Computer Programming written by Donald Knuth; yes assembler is not fashionable, sorry guys ;-)
The value of algorithms and several underutilized programming methods (especially pipes and coroutines and compiler-based technologies)
Less fashionable OSes like VM-based approaches (VMware and Virtual PC) and Solaris (IMHO Solaris kernel is more advanced than Linux kernel; $999 500MHz UltraSparc-based desktop + $495 SunPCi coprocessor card with Celeron 733MHz CPU that can run Windows sharing keyboard, monitor, disk and mouse is one of the most interesting development environment I ever saw)
Unix security (Solaris is used as a primary example) and, especially, scripting languages based security tools. including undervalued and underdeveloped internal vulnerability scanners/hardening scripts.
Underutilized tools like Orthodox file managers, Folding scriptable editors (the later category includes Orthodox editors -- scriptable editors with command line interface like THE and VIM6 ), "pipable tools"(many classic Unix utilities); pipes as a tool integration approach (classic example is the possibility of processing editing buffer with pipes in vi)
The two-level approach ("scripting language" + "compiled language" like TCL + C or Python + C++) to the design of software as alternative to the pure OO implementation strategy (with a single OO language like Java, C#, etc). The value of scripting languages that support pipes and coroutines like Stackless Python, ksh93, Icon and to a lesser extent Perl and TCL. Availability of the source code is most valuable when the program is quite short and still modifiable by the user. After a certain size a program became incomprehensible and the value of open source drastically diminishes and in best case is limited to bugfixes. Here again scripting languages provide a crucial advantages over traditional software development paradigm.
The problem of information overload and related programmer burnout problem.
KISS as a software engineering principle and its application in the advanced CLI environments (shells, pipes, orthodox file managers, etc), Program understanding (especially slicing as a program understanding method -- see also Folding scriptable editors) and Reverse engineering (simplification via reverse engineering) and autodocumentation.
The importance of studying the history of computer science (see also my Open Source Pioneers book).
And last but not least: Skeptical approach to fashion in programming including, but not limited to, GPL , Linux, OO, Java, Open source movement including "Linux superstar" Linus Torvalds and "professional software freedom fighter" RMS.

It is informally connected to SDNP project. Softpanorama is already linked to several local SDNP sites (Science & Technology --SDNP Guyana, SDNP Indonesia, etc.) and have a local mirror in Kiev, Ukraine.

I am convinced that open source software is uniquely valuable in educational institutions, especially the former USSR region and developing countries. At the same time I am proponent of "mixed" environment (Windows+Unix). And I am convinced that open source software can be uniquely useful in windows environment too. Here is an apt quotation from a Rasmus Lerdof interview to ZDNet

What do you think of open source in government and education?

It's common sense that they should not rely on closed source, because they don't know exactly how it works. Microsoft have come out saying they are releasing their [Windows] source code, but there are going to be all sorts of restrictions on that. I’m sceptical of that. With open source stuff they can hire people to read and audit the code and they don’t have to sign the really nasty non-disclosure agreements.

More on the education side they should use open source software. It makes no sense to base an educational system on property software. All you are doing is generating new customers for a company as opposed to creating the people that might be the next Microsoft. For example if you have a database course, use an open source database and show them how the database works. Not everyone is going to dig into the guts of this thing, but there will be two or three kids in every class that will, and from what they will learn they can build the next great database. It’s crazy when educational systems don’t go with open source and go all Microsoft. That is where governments really should be pushing universities.

Doing a Masters of .NET? Now that’s a joke. Governments at the national level should push universities to go with open source systems, despite the kickbacks they might receive [by opting for proprietary systems]. In the long run it’s going to help a lot more than it’s going to hurt. I’ve met a lot of MCSE folks, some of them are great, some don’t know anything. Some people are great at taking tests, they couldn’t do any independent thinking...

Operating Systems Mix

	Operating Systems	Percent
	Windows	79.8 %
	Linux	10 %
	Unknown	5.1 %
	Macintosh	3.6 %
	Sun Solaris	1.1 %
	BSD	0.1 %
	Symbian OS	0 %
	Unknown Unix system	0 %
	HP UX	0 %
	Aix	0 %
	Others	0 %

July 2007

Operating Systems	Percent
Windows	79.3 %
Linux	10.5 %
Unknown	5.6 %
Macintosh	3.2 %
Sun Solaris	1.1 %
FreeBSD	0.1 %
OpenBSD	0 %
NetBSD	0 %
WebTV	0 %
Symbian OS	0 %

Browser Mix of Hits to Softpanorama Sites

April 2008

	Browsers	Percent
	MS Internet Explorer	47 %
	Firefox	40.4 %
	Mozilla	6 %
	Opera	2 %
	Safari	1.8 %
	Unknown	1 %
	LibWWW	0.6 %
	Konqueror	0.3 %
	Netscape	0.2 %
	Epiphany	0 %
	Others	0.2 %

July, 2007

MS Internet Explorer	50.3 %
Firefox	35.7 %
Mozilla	6.2 %
Unknown	2.4 %

Copyright © 1996-2009 by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov. www.softpanorama.org was created as a service to the UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) in the author free time. Submit comments This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is placed under the copyright of the Open Content License(OPL). Site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.

Disclaimer:

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the author present and former employers, SDNP or any other organization the author may be associated with.
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Created: May 16, 1996; Last modified: April 27, 2008