All of the tools used for making the files on this site, not to mention the server you are getting them from, are free and/or open-source software.

This site is served by the Apache web server. Apache is by far the most popular server on the Web. It has many add-on modules (sort of like plug-ins).

One of them is PHP server scripting engine. We use mySQL database as a storage of dynamic content, user database and helpdesk information. All database queries and dynamic HTML outputs are generated with PHP scripts.

We test our pages on our local Linux system (Debian GNU/Linux), using a copy of Apache running on port 8080 to avoid conflict with our local, intranet server.

All of our writing part of web development is done on our local Linux system using the Quanta Plus Web development envinronment .

All of our web graphics (logos, buttons, icons) are created and edited using free and open source tools:

• Inkscape - Scalable Vector Graphics editing tool
• The gimp - a high-end image-manipulation program (bitmap, video, animation)
• Autotrace, Potrace and Delineate - Bitmap to Vector conversion tools

• Mozilla Firefox (for Linux and Microsoft Windows)
• Konqueror
• Internet Explorer 5 and 6 for Microsoft Windows
.