A rising blogger who uses open-source tools for web design

[linuxforartists]

I'm pretty active in reading blogs about web design and Internet marketing. One blogger who's appeared on my radar recently is Information Highwayman.

In his post, How I became a professional web designer (http://informationhighwayman.com/articles/professional-web-designer/), he reveals that he mainly uses open-source tools, like GIMP and Gedit. I thought that was cool. Whenever I tell people I do web design, people look at me with pity when they find out I don't use Apple and Adobe software.

[Lucradia]

Wonder if notepad is open-source.... (Not Notepad++ I mean, I mean Notepad that's bundled with Windows.)

[IWantFroyo]

Whenever I tell people I do web design, people look at me with pity when they find out I don't use Apple and Adobe software.

When people tell me they use Apple and Adobe software, I look at them in pity. Being able to understand HTML markup really is important, so you can make your website even better.

I use WordPress for my main blog just because of the comment boxes. I haven't gotten the hang of writing my own, yet.

For other blogs and web pages, Vim/Gedit/Bluefish for me!

[Thewhistlingwind]

Wonder if notepad is open-source.... (Not Notepad++ I mean, I mean Notepad that's bundled with Windows.)

If it comes with windows, the answer is no.

Period.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

My blog is written in PHP, with MySQL database. All images layout images were made in Gimp. Oh yeah, I'm open baby. (PS, I use gedit for coding).

I work as an ASP.NET developer and I can honestly say that there's nothing I know how to do in ASP.NET or other proprietary tools that I can't do with free tools.

[IWantFroyo]

If it comes with windows, the answer is no.

Period.

That should be part of my signature.

As for proprietary stuff for something specific (like web design), try not to use it if you don't have to. Companies like Adobe and Apple try to lock you in, and from what I've heard, they're quite good at it.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

That should be part of my signature.

As for proprietary stuff for something specific (like web design), try not to use it if you don't have to. Companies like Adobe and Apple try to lock you in, and from what I've heard, they're quite good at it.

Most actual developers I know NEVER use dreamweaver. Where I work, the graphics department is independent of the IT department (who handles web development) so they use CS4/5 to do our images and then we do the code in Visual Stuido. Mixed feelings about that, it's actually a great development environment but it does do some weird things sometimes.

[IWantFroyo]

Most actual developers I know NEVER use dreamweaver. Where I work, the graphics department is independent of the IT department (who handles web development) so they use CS4/5 to do our images and then we do the code in Visual Stuido. Mixed feelings about that, it's actually a great development environment but it does do some weird things sometimes.

I just use a text editor (sometimes a fancier one such as Bluefish). Those don't pull any tricks on me.

Also wanted to add that there's a lot of cloud-held tools that are pretty good. I end up bookmarking a few hexadecimal color tables a lot. For the actual coding, I still prefer the text editor.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

For the actual coding, I still prefer the text editor.

Likewise. Which is why I code in gedit for my personal websites. A lot of the backend for my work sites has to be compiled and we use Visual Studio because it is the best choice for C# code. I still find GIMP much easier to use than Photoshop and much lighter on the resources, so sometimes I will do a quick GIMP job instead of sending a request to graphics.

[IWantFroyo]

Likewise. Which is why I code in gedit for my personal websites. A lot of the backend for my work sites has to be compiled and we use Visual Studio because it is the best choice for C# code. I still find GIMP much easier to use than Photoshop and much lighter on the resources, so sometimes I will do a quick GIMP job instead of sending a request to graphics.

I use GIMP a lot for my graphics. I remember that the last time I sat down in front of Photoshop, I had forgotten how to use it. And people say the GIMP isn't user friendly.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

I guess the difference I notice most is between web developers (as I call them) or programmers, and Web Designers (also graphic artists).

Most developers/programmers I know write XHTML manually. Most web designers/graphic artist's I know use DreamWeaver.

Programming websites to actually do something is a whole other story than just describing the layout with html/css. I don't begrudge anybody for using an IDE for programming.

[IWantFroyo]

I'm not against IDEs, but I don't use them. I end up spending more time trying to figure out how to use it than work.

Most of the more technical people I know use a text editor. People who want to do it, but not learn it, end up using this or that random proprietary program (in my experience- and this is outside of work).

This gets extremely annoying in conversations. "Oh, you blog too?! You really should try using *insert proprietary program*. Blablabla linking bla images blablabla publishing button..."

I find a text editor and terminal emulator all I need. No complex GUIs to figure out.

[lykwydchykyn]

Some people have top-of-the-line skills.
Some have top-of-the-line tools.

Some people have both; but if you have to choose, pick the skills.


I've found that to be true in every field I've worked in.

[keithpeter]

Hello All

From the original article...


Any time I ran into a problem, I tried to find a website that already did what I wanted to do, and I looked at their code to see how they’d done it. That’s the real beauty of the web. People think you’re a genius if you can copy someone else’s code. I’d wager 90% of everything in this site’s markup was originally copied and pasted from someone else’s. That’s the way the web works.

That quote encapsulates what I think is the great thing about the Web, you can learn from others code.

The quote also exposes a major issue: cut and paste from a mix of other sites! The Highwayman himself obviously knows how to structure pages and can use other people's layouts to learn from. Others may not, so much...

[Lucradia]

Most actual developers I know NEVER use dreamweaver. Where I work, the graphics department is independent of the IT department (who handles web development) so they use CS4/5 to do our images and then we do the code in Visual Stuido. Mixed feelings about that, it's actually a great development environment but it does do some weird things sometimes.

I usually just do code in whatever text editor I can find, then tweak it and preview it in all the web browsers I can install (Midori, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Chrome)

At one point, I made a website that looks the same in every single one. But the design was so simple, no one actually liked it, as there was too much whitespace.