So long as the Web application isn't locked into something dumb, such as
a particular version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer on Windows
(IE-only Web applications usually lock out IE on the Macintosh, too),
you can access the application from Linux. Like the old New Yorker
cartoon that no one on the Internet knows you are a dog, no one knows or
cares that you are running Linux.
Netscape's browser runs on most versions of Linux, as does Opera,
Mozilla, Konqueror, and a host of other browsers, so a modern browser be
available. Since many Web applications are driven by data, this makes
Web-based database front ends an intriguing way to replace low-end
database applications, such as those built on top of Microsoft Access.
In an earlier dispatch, I mentioned QuickBase from Intuit (maker of the
Quicken accounting package) (http://www.quickbase.com). QuickBase holds
your data on Intuit's servers, which you access over the Web in what
used to be called an Application Service Provider, or ASP, model.
Typically, you pay a monthly fee for the service, starting at $14.95 US
for the low-end service. So long as you are comfortable with someone
else holding your data, this can be an easy and cheap way to create a
data-driven Web application and replace simple desktop-bound database
applications. Users also benefit from being able to access the data from
an off site locations.
Another company in this market that appears very friendly to open-source
projects is Zapatec (http://www.zapatec.com). Zapatec also acts like an
ASP, hosting a database and Web-application environment. Zapatec's
database runs PostgreSQL and uses the Java-based Tomcat servlet engine
from the Apache project to drive the Web application, both popular
open-source products.
With Zapatec, you write your business logic for your application using
the open-source BeanShell Java-based scripting language. This is an
interesting solution to the problem of how you can write software and
install it on Zapatec's remote servers. In this case, the software you
write is all text, in the form of BeanShell scripts.
The only really odd thing in the Zapatec offering is the use of
Zapapages, Zapatec's replacement for JSP, ASP, XSP, and a zillion other
schemes to meld HTML and program logic. You can read an online tutorial
at http://www.zapatec.com/website/main/tutorial.form. Zapatec also
provides its manuals online.
Zapatec appears very friendly to open-source projects. You can apply to
have Zapatec waive the fee for their mid-priced "Shared 2" offering. The
low-end offering is also free, but provides less storage space.
With either of these two packages, you should be able to replace many
Access-based applications, and provide greater access for your users, if
you are comfortable locating your data on someone else's servers.
