New open source website design softare

[Y-Guy]

A while back I began moving away from Windows at home and began running Lindows a distribution of Linux.  I sailed through the last round of virus attacks without a worry and been able to move most, but not all of what I like to do on the computer to Linux.  But the last thing I couldn't do was find a replacement for Front Page, until last night.

A new Open Source program called Nvu was released for Windows and Linux. Having used Adobe Pagemill and Microsoft FrontPage I am impressed with the first release and ease of this program.  Its worth checking out if you want to design your own pages, but don't want shell out big bugs for FrontPage.

Best of all the price is right too!

If you are looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office and spending big bucks for it and future upgrades check out Open Office.  Its Open Source works on Windows, Linux and many others and again its free.

For Nvu: http://nvu.com/
For Open Office: http://www.openoffice.org/

[brainpause]

Thanks! I have been wanting FrontPage, but couldn't afford it, so I have been muddling through some HTML.

I have downloaded it, and will let you know how I like it. Actually, I've never used a webpage builder, so it will be my first venture. If it is anything at all, I will probably like it.

Larry

[Y-Guy]

Glad to help out, if you have a question let me know and we can learn together.  I put together a quick page, took a bit of getting used to it because I'm used to how FrontPage works, but for the most part it works good.  There isnt' a spell check feature, but like Firebird & Thunderbird it appears to be designed to use extensions that other developers can create for the program so I would think one would be out soon.

[brainpause]

Two questions.

1. I use Explorer at home (though I may change), and Mozilla Firebird at work. Does NVu make pages that are optimally for Explorer, or Firebird/Mozilla, both, or does it matter that much?

2. I copied and pasted my main page's HTML into the HTML tab. Of course, when you look at the Preview tab, it looks like my page, except it has no pictures and background. How do I "import" the pictures into NVu, so that I can see EXACTLY how it looks?

Larry

[gsm x2]

Two questions.

1. I use Explorer at home (though I may change), and Mozilla Firebird at work. Does NVu make pages that are optimally for Explorer, or Firebird/Mozilla, both, or does it matter that much?

2. I copied and pasted my main page's HTML into the HTML tab. Of course, when you look at the Preview tab, it looks like my page, except it has no pictures and background. How do I "import" the pictures into NVu, so that I can see EXACTLY how it looks?

Larry

Larry,

You would have to download the photos from your main pages photographs onto your computer at home and create the same directory structure on your home computer as is on the main page's server.  You can figure out that directory structure by looking at the HTML.

For example, Frontpage uses the convention of putting the pictures in a directory called "images."  So you'll see HTML code like this:


So on your computer, if you put the main page code in a directory called:

c:My Documentswebpage  You'll need to put the pictures in the directory:

c:My Documentswebpageimages

Hope that helps.  Good luck with your learning curve.

Scott

[Gone-Camping]

This does look interesting! I've been considering formatting my desktop computer and redoing it in Linux. Meanwhile, I'm looking hard at this Nvu to see if it's something I can use. I've been using WebEditPro for several years for my 2 websites, and am very used to it, but would like some of the newer functionality that is out there now. Hmmmmm....

[Y-Guy]

Larry, Scott is correct.  If you have an FTP client you can grab the site pretty easily.  Is the main pages of the site at work?  If you want to be safe, copy the folder and work on the copy to see how it functions.  

Unlike FP, Nvu doesn't seem to have some of the proprietary functions that made FP one of those love to hate programs.  Nvu, from what I've read, is designed to adhere to the web standards, this is where FP gets blasted.  FP creates of a lot of its own standards which don't look good sometimes in other browsers like Opera, Netscape and Mozilla.  Though some of the browsers have made changes to work with FPs "features".  So Nvu's pages should look fine on any browser.  I've already noticed that Nvu is a little more demanding on some things like image tags, which FP could careless about.  But in Nvu it will prevent you from leaving the image tab unless you give it an image tag name or tell is specifically no.  The image tags are a web standard so this function makes sense in adhering to the standards.

FYI the .8 version of Firebird should be released Monday!

My move to Linux has been slow, I am running 2 boxes and I swap between the two with a KVM.  Lindows was an easy install, found all my hardware and works pretty good and their Click & Run which allows you to install a wide variety of software (free or commercial) by browsing an online store is pretty slick.  I've gone from 4.0 to 4.5 and find that 4.0 was more stable.  The new version 5.0 is due out in a few months and I am hoping it corrects some issues I've had. If you want to try it, you can setup a dual boot on your computer and play with it a bit, that's how I started off initially.  To make the change easier I stopped running as many Microsoft programs as I could, I run Open Office and Firebird on my Win98 systems, and my wife has moved over too.  I still have a ton of MS software as a former MS MVP and beta tester, but I just can't afford to keep up with the upgrades and the open source movement holds a lot of promise.

[Diplomat]

Wow!  I upgraded to XP Pro late last year and did not reload FP 98 because I hated the FP extensions and some of the weird HTML code it produces.  I thought I might get Dreamweaver since I am a full time student but I could seem to part with the $200.  The result is our family web page hasn't been updated in a year and I no longer have a PU page.  Nvu looks great, the price is super, now all I need is TIME!

I keep threatening to run Linux but TIME keeps getting in the way.  Right now I am working and going to school full time trying to be ready to retire from the Marine Corps in August.   At least Camping allows time to study in a great location with great scenery!