This document summarizes the author's experiences using various free and open source software (FOSS) programs for their research on the effects of habitat fragmentation on amphibians. The author used JabRef as a reference editor, XnView as an image editor, Audacity as a voice editor, PAST as a data editor, QGIS and DIVA-GIS for spatial data analysis, Fragstats for fragmentation analysis, and openModeller for distribution modeling. The author learned that free software is not necessarily flawed and that more interaction is needed between developers and users of FOSS programs.

1. My Experiments with FOSS
Gururaja KV
gururaj@cistup.iisc.ernet.in
CiSTUP, IISc

2. My Experiments with FOSS
as a USER!
• Purely driven by objectives of the research! To
lesser extent affordability…
• And of course…freeness of the software!
• Disclaimer: No advocacy of any particular
software…try yourself and feel the
difference!!!

3. Me and My Research
How to cope up with?
Data
* Pictures
Review of
literature * Sounds
* Habitat variable
* Spatial
Analysis
Effect of
Fragmentation on
Amphibians
Results

4. Frogs and Fragmentation

5. My Reference Editor
• JabRef http://jabref.sourceforge.net/

6. Where to search for?
• http://www.scholar.google.com
• http://www.sciencedirect.com
• http://www.jstor.com
• …..

15. My Image Editor
• XnView www.xnview.com

18. My Voice Editor
• Audacity

22. My Data Editor
• PAST

28. My spatial data provider
• GLCF http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtml
• Worldclim http://www.worldclim.org

29. My Spatial Data Analyser
• QGIS http://www.qgis.org/
• DIVA GIS http://www.diva-gis.org/

34. Fragmentation Analyser
• Fragstats®
http://www.umass.edu/landeco/research/fragstats/fragstats.html

38. Fragstats® output
Background
colour

39. Distribution modelling
• openModeller http://openmodeller.sourceforge.net/

46. What I learnt?
• Open Mindset….shed fear of Free means flaw
• Developer need more interactions with users!
And vice versa!!

47. Acknowledgements
• Dr. H.S. Sudhira for introducing me to the
world of FOSS
• Karthick B for being an RSS feed on new
version

48. Thank You