Free or Open Source Web Design Program?

TheZorch asks: "I'm looking for a good Freeware or Open Source web design program. Right now, I use Web Dwarf but its features are a little limited. I love the ability to put text and graphics wherever I want, which is also how Dreamweaver works. The main problem with Web Dwarf is that I can't insert Macromedia Flash items onto a web page. I've tried Mozilla's web page composer, FrontPage Express, and OpenOffice. None give me the freedom to do what I want to be able to do. The program has to be FREE, no adware, no turned off features until you buy it, and I have to be able to format the page freestyle similar to how Dreamweaver and Web Dwarf work. Can you recommend one for me?"

Comments

best tool

[yagu]

vim

Re:best tool

[Eric Giguere]

Nvu (note spelling) is indeed a great program. It's an open source project that supports Linux, Win32 and Mac OS X. You can use it in a WYSIWYG mode or you can edit the source of the page directly. Besides being free, it also includes support for editing CSS styles (including external style sheets), a must for building sites today. Plus you can get extensions that add neat new features. Definitely worth a look.

Eric
Invisible Fence Guide (CSS to make it fancy is still coming...)

Re:best tool

[fean]

nVu may be a great tool, but it is severly limited... it re-writes code, has a horrible local/remote interface, and has many many many features to implement before it can even think about replacing frontpage, much less Notepad or Dreamweaver.

That said, I highly recommend you try it, hopefully it's limitations aren't specific to your application. nVu is somewhat patchy, so some users may have everything they need, while others (like me), can't do a thing (the re-write code thing is HUGE)

Re:best tool

[Eric Giguere]

It's true, there are limitations. For one thing, Nvu is really about editing single pages, one at a time, not about creating "projects" of pages. And yes, there are other problems, like the way it rewrites references to external JavaScript when you publish the page up to the website. I don't find the code rewriting to be too bad if you turn on the option to retain the original formatting, though.

Of course, because it's an actively-supported open source project, there's always hope that these bugs will be fixed over time. (Well, not sure about the file-oriented nature, that seems architectural... not that it's necessarily bad, I actually like working that way...)

Nvu is particularly excellent for someone just getting started with building web pages, which is why I recommended its use in my book. And the price is right for most people!

Eric

That, and I want a pony too.

[Jeff DeMaagd]

What is the constriction preventing the use of commercial software?

Re:That, and I want a pony too.

[Jeff DeMaagd]

In my opinion, I think it was the subject line, but the problem is that I thought there is some truth to the sentiment when I wrote it, and I still do. My thinking is that someone wants the advanced features found in a $400 program, but is willing to pay $0 to get it.

While I think OSS is a great thing as it offers more choices, but I simply don't think it is necessarily capable of solving all problems in the best possible way.

Re:That, and I want a pony too.

[dtfinch]

Not every seasoned web developer in their mid-30's can spare $200 or so for web development software. Oh, wait, err, nevermind.

Re:That, and I want a pony too.

[DaoudaW]

What is the constriction preventing the use of commercial software?

I was worried for a moment but I believe you mean constraint.

Re:That, and I want a pony too.

[aminorex]

It is capable of eliminating the ability to sell software without source code for a profit, and will do so in time. Some of us don't buy closed-source software because we consider it immoral to so do, barring some overriding need, and are willing to pay in money, features and even time in order to avoid it.

bluefish and nvu

[ubiquitin]

Two to consider are:

bluefish which is available for MacOSX
and nvu which is also available for MacOSX.

Re:bluefish and nvu

[grub]

re: your sig, THANKS! Abortion pictures are cool. Makes me want toast for dunking.

Re:bluefish and nvu

[TheZorch]

It looks like Nvu is what I'm looking for. Thanks for the help. The reason why I can't use commercial software is due to a lack of funds. I'm on a restricted budget right now and I need a good web design program but can't buy one.

it has to be said...

[anderiv]

I love the ability to put text and graphics wherever I want

Hrm - sounds like vim would be the ticket. ;-)

All joking aside - my understanding of html/css has shot up through the roof since I ditched Dreamweaver and started coding by hand. Code cleanliness has also improved greatly, as you'd expect. If you've never tried, give yourself a week with a text editor and a good html/css book. It's quite freeing to not have to worry about anything other than the code. No application updates, no program idiosyncracies to deal with, etc.

Re:it has to be said...

[greywire]

This will get you started: Eric Meyer on CSS.

A Survey of Open Source Web Development Tools

[Noksagt]

Newsforge ran a story about web development tools.They approach it as "web development tools for Linux," but most are available for win32 and OS X. I have almost no experience with commercial web development tools (except when trying to tidy up their ugly code). I use content management systems/wikis/etc. where possible (so others can add content & no one need worry about the code or an editor) & a text editor (vim!) when not. That being said, Bluefish, Quanta, and Nvu are all nice. All of these options are discussed in the NF article, as is Screem, which I haven't seen first-hand.

nvu

[mshiltonj]

nvu.com

Re:um

[DA-MAN]

You want free and/or open source stuff but you're using it on a proprietary OS? (your mention of DreamWeaver suggests that)

Perhaps he doesn't want free/open source for ideological reasons. Maybe he's just cheap, broke or both! Maybe he was using dreamweaver with Crossover Office.

Whatever it may be, he has his reasons. Why not obstain if you have nothing useful to say.

Do you NEED Flash?

[crimethinker]

The main problem with Web Dwarf is that I can't insert Macromedia Flash items onto a web page.

You say that like it's a problem.

I know, I know, I've got that "I know what's best" attitude that everybody loves to hate, but really, Flash is a craptastic piece of software, known mainly for bloating download times, making it impossible to bookmark a specific page, and generally being annoying. ("Punch the fucking idiotic monkey and win a piece of spyware!") Not to mention that it OWNZ0RZ screen-readers that blind or nearly-blind people use.

Seriously re-evaluate your requirements. Do you really *NEED* Flash?

-paul

Re:Do you NEED Flash?

[Bastian]

Seriously. I have a 300kbit internet connection (not as fast as standard cable modem service, but faster than 2/3 of Americans), and I hit the "stop" button and take my surfing somewhere else when I encounter Flash sites. I'm sick of the load times. I'm sick of the craptacular web design that seems to be endemic to Flash websites. I'm sick of overdone Flash sites that run poorly on my three-year-old computer. I'm sick of Flash sites bitching that I don't have the latest version installed. I'm sick of sites with text that's too small to read and that I can't make larger because they did the text rendering with Flash. I'm sick of sites that force me to make my browser window larger when I'm using a small window or that only fill a small portion of the window when I'm using a large browser window because Flash sites run one size and one size only.

Businesses that have Flash-based websites with no non-Flash option usually lose my business. I won't even stick around to see the sales pitch. I'll go find a competitor who didn't start their relationship with me by annoying me with some animation-rich but content-deprived piece of self-absorbed fluff.

Flash is for Homestar Runner, not overdesigned menu sets and half-implmeneted-and-mostly-broken re-implementations of things that are already built into HTML such as the button and the scroll bar. It's a toy for web designers who think their primary job responsibility is mucking around with Flash, not making websites that don't suck.

Re:Do you NEED Flash?

[dubl-u]

Flash is for Homestar Runner, not overdesigned menu sets and half-implmeneted-and-mostly-broken re-implementations of things that are already built into HTML such as the button and the scroll bar.

It doesn't make useless sites workable, but if you just want to stop being annoyed by intrusive multimedia, there's a great solution.

With Links

[Noksagt]

Forgot the link to the article...have included all relevants links in this one.

Linux.com ran a story about web development tools.They approach it as "web development tools for Linux," but most are available for win32 and OS X. I have almost no experience with commercial web development tools (except when trying to tidy up their ugly code). I use content management systems/wikis/etc. where possible (so others can add content & no one need worry about the code or an editor) & a text editor () when not. That being said, Bluefish, Quanta, and Nvu are all nice. All of these options are discussed in the article, as is Screem, which I haven't seen first-hand.

Freeware

[dtfinch]

All the good open source programs have already been mentioned. Here's something from the other side of the camp:
ASP.Net WebMatrix

I never used the thing beyond the first day I tried it, but some people may find it useful. I use text editors for all my serious web development.

As a professional website developer..

[SocialEngineer]

I'd suggest Jedit for any platform with Java support, or HTML-Kit if you use Windows, and want some different features.

Handcoding is the way to go, in my opinion. You can supplement your work with IDEs such as dreamweaver, but do NOT rely on them. If you can't develop a website in an efficient manner by hand, you need practice.

Re:netbeans it

[MudButt]

ASP.NET Web Matrix at http://www.asp.net/

emacs sgml-mode

[namekuseijin]

Nothing beats it in handling sgml-based content, like html or xml. It's not WYSIWYG: it's powerful.

As for Flash: dump the old thing and embrace an SVG + XForms future...

New rule

[booch]

Here's a thought. Anyone asking for free (as in beer) software should explain WHY they think they are entitled to software at no cost. For example: they've contributed significantly to the community, they're running a non-profit for underpriveleged youth, or Mommy hasn't given them their allowance this week.

As other posters pointed out, you can't realistically expect a $0 program to be equivalent to a $1000 program. You have to be willing to give something up. Sometimes if you've contributed to the community, or are working for a non-profit, people will see that you are giving something, and help you out. Other times, they'll see that you're just being a selfish jerk. It would help us out a lot if you could provide us with some more details to help us make that determination.

Re:New rule

[skryche]

Entitlement? What the hell are you talking about? That's the great thing about free software: everyone's entitled to it!

“As other posters pointed out, you can't realistically expect a $0 program to be equivalent to a $1000 program.”

“Equivalent” is too tricky a word to argue with, but Apache and Linux easily compete with $1000 products.

What you really want is...

[leonbrooks]

...Quanta Plus AKA KDEwebdev, but I'm betting that you're also too lazy to change from MS-Windows. (-:

Re:Be a professional

[HappyDrgn]

Are you a professional web developer? Then use a text editor.
 
Are you serious? I can't remember the last time I sat down with a professional and had them open a terminal with VI or whatever. Professional web developers are hardly the static HTML page designers of the early 90's. Sure for a personal site, a couple pages, a text editor would work fine. But these days professionals develop code in PHP, ASP.NET, CFML and Java. Professionals write websites like Amazon, Google, MSN and CNN. These websites are mostly an HTML framework powered by databases and endless lines of code created by teams of professionals. VIM, GREP, AWK and SED are hardly a match for a full blown IDE like ZendStudio or VisualStudio. For example, try tracking down an object you can't remember (or never knew) the name of in a full blown web application using a text editor. Having trouble? Open an IDE and browse the objects tree! Want to bug test a couple of functions without uploading a whole application? Use the run from here command, the built in interpreter or compiler will handle the rest for you. IDE's certainly do have their place, and more often than not it's with the professionals.

You're a professional?

[rathehun]

<elitism>

You forgot to close your tag.

</elitism>

Welcome,R.