OStatic

A while back, we posted a collection of the many tutorials, reviews and pointers to web-based resources that we've been compiling on OStatic since it was launched. We've been steadily adding to that collection, and readers have pointed out a few omissions from the original collection. In this post, you'll find an update with even more resources. Whether you're looking for useful Firefox extensions, want to improve your AJAX skills, or you're launching a web-based open source project, check out some of the tips and tutorials found here.

If you want to put a boatload of useful open source applications on a computer or, as I do, on a pocket USB drive so that you can have them with you at all times, there are now some very fast ways to do this. MacLibre is a great way to get tons of good free, open source apps in one download for Mac users. For Windows users, as I've written about before PortableApps.com is also a great way to get many free applications in one free download. So what kinds of applications are we talking about?

Get your OSS education, people. While documentation, including tutorials, is often a weakness with open source applications--even very established ones--the good news is that there are some outstanding free tutorials on the web.

Sometimes these are delivered by the community behind particular projects, and sometimes they are from enthusiasts and other third parties. In this post, I'll round up good, free learning resources--including videos and demos--for top-notch OSS apps, including GIMP, OpenOffice, Firefox, MySQL, SugarCRM, web development languages and more. A little time spent working on your skills at these sites will pay excellent long-term dividends.