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, 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.