Most of you know that I fully support the open source world, while I hack away as a ‘jack of all trades’ developing currently in .NET (C# and ASP.NET). I also don’t mind NOT having to pay for things like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I have both because I love to support and there are soooo many tutorials out there that even an amature can pretty much achieve a goal. I do most of my graphics in AI or PS.

But, I also love to use Inkscape and GIMP. These are the two open source rivals to the Adobe line. And let me tell you this…if you don’t mind the minor learning curve, you can do anything and everything you can do in these two free graphic software that you can do with Adobe’s AI and PS. Now, I should also let most of you know that Inkscape is Vector based and GIMP is Raster. To most that doesn’t mean much so I won’t go into technical details.

Anyway, the main reason for this post is to let those of you know that the GIMP just released a new and improved version: 2.4

I’ll load it up here in a few days and give it a spin. Maybe I’ll write a review this time!

An open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. HandBrake painlessly turns a DVD into files suitable for Apple TV, iPhone and video iPod (as well as other tasks).

El Linko

I am not going to turn this into a one vs the other or even a review of those that are most popular out there. I know there are tons, some full and rich with features and others that are super light and to the point (just editing text). But, when I am not at work using Visual Studio for my development, I am usually at home writing PHP, HTML/XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc…by hand.

With that, you usually want to find a nice editor that has the features you want and makes things as simple as possible to complete your task. Here’s a list of some very nice Text Editors for the PC:

Notepad++ (my editor of choice at the moment)
Intype
Crimson Editor
HTML Kit
Aptana
Notepad2
E Text Editor (they say will rival TextMate for the Mac, but I can’t justify paying for one when there are soooo many good ones out there that are FREE)
UltraEdit (again, why pay?)

The main reason I even started this article was because I was getting tired of the simple white backgrounds. Yeah, you can go in and change colors through some of the options, but it’s just not right. You can’t ever get the color scheme correct. So, I did a quick search for a nice theme for one of these editors…and since I already use Notepad++ as my primary Text Editor for my PC at home…I downloaded and installed Port of Ruby Blue theme. And let me tell you, this is one nice theme and it’s very easy on the eyes!!! I highly recommend this theme if you don’t want to spend endless hours trying to get your own theme complete.

Here are a couple I’ve used for the Mac:
Coda
TextMate
Bluefish

These two are kind of different in they are the WYSIWYG editor:
Amaya
Nvu (pronounced N-view)

And this is a nice little Suite of Products with both free Text Editor and WYSIWYG Editor: Trellian, Trellian WebPage, Trellian CodePad. They have a ton of other cool products too…go check them out!

I’ve read and discussed this topic for a little over a year now. I was and still am your classic open source style of developer. I write PHP almost every chance I get (mostly for freelance work). But, when it comes down to it…the market where I live doesn’t bode well for the open source market. Right now the to hottest languages are Java and C# (as well as ASP.NET). I’ve looked long and hard for positions where I could do more PHP or Python or even Ruby. But the fact remains to hold true that more money is made (when you still want to ‘work for the man’) when you stick with Java or .NET. Now, I’ve recently switch to more .NET development…but this article is worth linking to:

Give .NET a Break

I love reading what those guys over at ParticleTree.com post up…so read some of their other stuff too…especially their Web App Autopsy post.

So, in all, the foot is placed on the table from the .NET side of things…and my passion still sits with the open source arena. To each his/her own I guess.