Credits
$Provider relies on a number of open source software projects and companies. Here is a list, in no particular order, of organizations whose software or products we use and recommend.
Operating System
CentOS http://www.centos.org
CentOS is a free, open-source operating system created from the source code of a large North American Linux vendor. The CentOS Linux distributions are stable and reliable. The security response team is also excellent at providing critical patches in a timely manner.
Database
MySQL http://www.mysql.com
Originally engineered for speed, MySQL has been developed into a full-featured database platform. Recent years have seen the creators of MySQL successfully offer commercial support. Today MySQL provides stiff competition for the traditional closed-source commercial database offerings.
Web Browser
Firefox http://www.mozilla.com
Firefox is a fast, secure alternative to Internet Explorer. With extensive cross-platform support and innovative features Firefox has slowly been stealing market share from its blue-logo competitor.
Web Browser
Opera http://www.opera.com
Opera is another fast and very secure alternative to Internet Explorer. The most recent version of Opera has top-notch support for web standards and includes a number of non-traditional features, such as integrated support for downloading BitTorrent files.
Mail Client
Thunderbird http://www.mozilla.com
Thunderbird is the best POP/IMAP e-mail client on the market. The fact that Thunderbird is free, open-source software makes recommending it an easy decision. Thunderbird offers support for POP, IMAP, SSL and includes filtering software that accurately identifies spam and phishing messages.
SSL Library
OpenSSL http://www.openssl.org
OpenSSL is a free, open-source toolkit for transport layer encryption. For something as important as security, we recommend using the proven and secure OpenSSL library.
SPAM Library
DSPAM http://dspam.nuclearelephant.com
Accurately identifying spam is a difficult challenge. The DSPAM library is clearly the best filter for the job. After being trained, DSPAM is routinely between 99.5 percent and 99.95 percent accurate.
XML Library
Libxml2 http://www.xmlsoft.org
XML files are an efficient and proven method for storing and transferring information. The fast and extensive Libxml2 library is a free, open-source library for handling XML documents.
Antivirus
ClamAV http://www.clamav.net
ClamAV is a free, open-source antivirus client that runs atop multiple platforms. ClamAV is widely used for scanning e-mail attachments and often responds to new virus threats faster than commercial alternatives.
Compiler
GCC http://gcc.gnu.org
GCC is the GNU Compiler Collection and a stalwart for free, open-source software. Without GCC free open-source software wouldn’t exist in form it does today.
Mail Server
Postfix http://www.postfix.org
Postfix is an e-mail server that is famous for its speed and security.
Monitoring
Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/
MRTG is the industry-standard free, open-source solution for collecting and graphing SNMP information. MRTG is critically valuable for network administrators attempting to monitor their network.
Monitoring
Nagios http://www.nagios.org
With the proper effort, Nagios can be configured to monitor critical network services and notify administrators when it detects an outage. The Golden Rule is that it is always better for an administrator to uncover problems before users start complaining.
Monitoring
Net-SNMP http://www.net-snmp.org
The Net-SNMP project provides a high-quality, cross-platform SNMP agent. Properly installed, Net-SNMP can be used to provide valuable machine statistics to a monitoring program like MRTG.