Tux Paint
Encyclopedia
Tux Paint is a free
and open source bitmap graphics editor (a program for creating and processing raster graphics
) geared towards young children. The project was started in 2002 by Bill Kendrick
who continues to maintain and improve it, with help from numerous volunteers. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License
, and seen by many as a free software alternative to a similar proprietary
educational software
product, Kid Pix
.
operating system, as there was no suitable drawing program for young children available for Linux at that time. It is written in the C programming language
and uses various free and open source helper libraries, including the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)
, and has since been made available for Microsoft Windows
, Apple Mac OS X
, BeOS
and other platforms. (See the Tux Paint downloads page.)
or Photoshop) that it was designed to be usable by children as young as 3 years of age. The user interface
is meant to be intuitive, and utilizes icons
, audible feedback and textual hints to help explain how the software works. The brightly-colored interface, sound effects and cartoon mascot (Tux
, the mascot of the Linux kernel) are meant to engage children.
Tux Paint's normal interface is split into five sections:
A simple slideshow
feature allows previously-saved images to be displayed as a basic flip-book animation
or as a slide presentation
.
and text. Tux Paint provides multiple levels of undo
and redo, allowing accidental or unwanted changes to be removed while editing a picture.
or how to deal with files
. The "Save" and "Open" commands were designed to mimic those of software for personal digital assistant
devices, such as the Palm handheld. When one saves a picture in Tux Paint, they do not need to provide a file
name or browse for where to place it. When one goes to open a previously-saved picture, a collection of thumbnail
s of saved images is shown.
Similarly, printing is typically a 'no questions asked' process, as well.
Tux Paint includes a number of 'filters' and 'special effects' which can be applied to a drawing, such as blurring
, fading, and making the picture look as though it was drawn in chalk
on pavement. These are available through the 'Magic' tool in Tux Paint. Starting with version 0.9.18, Tux Paint's 'Magic' tools are built as plugins that are loaded at runtime and use a C
API
specifically for creating such tools.
A large collection of art
work and photographic
imagery are also available (under a license
allowing free redistribution), and may be placed inside drawings using Tux Paint's "Rubber Stamp
" tool. Stamps can be in either raster (bitmap)
format (in PNG format, supporting 24bpp
and full alpha transparency), or as vector graphics
(in SVG
format) on many platforms Tux Paint supports. As of mid-2008, over 800 stamps are included in the stamps collection.
As features are added to Tux Paint, configuration
options have been added that allow parents and teachers to disable features and alter the behavior to better suit their children's or students' needs, or to better integrate the software in their home or school computing environment. Typical options, such as enabling or disabling sound effects and full-screen mode are available. There are also options that help make Tux Paint suitable for younger or disabled children, such as displaying text using only uppercase letters or ignoring the distinction between buttons on the mouse.
into numerous languages, and has support for the display of text in languages that use non-Latin character sets, such as Japanese
, Greek
, or Telugu
. As of June 2008, over 80 languages are supported. Correct support for complex languages requires Pango
. Sound effects and descriptive sounds for stamp imagery can also be localized. Tux Paint includes its own form of input method
support, allowing entry of non-Latin characters using the 'Text' tool. Japanese (Romanized Hiragana
and Romanized Katakana
), Korean (Hangul 2-bul
) and Traditional Chinese are currently supported.
has a project to create artwork for Rubber Stamps of human figures which turn Tux Paint into a storyboarding program for kids to storyboard their movies.
. It is also a standard package in educationally-oriented Linux distribution
s, such as Debian
Jr. and Edubuntu
, as an optional package in numerous other Linux distributions, as well as part of numerous educationally-oriented Linux Live CD
s. It is included in various software collections for Windows (such as GNUWin II
and Open Source Software CD
), as well as in portable software
collections for Windows, since it can be run as a stand-alone application (without needing to be installed system-wide). Tux Paint is also available as an activity within the free and open source educational suite GCompris
.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and open source bitmap graphics editor (a program for creating and processing raster graphics
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
) geared towards young children. The project was started in 2002 by Bill Kendrick
Bill Kendrick
Bill Kendrick is an American software engineer best known for creating and maintaining Tux Paint, an open source bitmap graphics editor for children. He is also co-founder of the Linux Users' Group of Davis in Davis, California...
who continues to maintain and improve it, with help from numerous volunteers. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
, and seen by many as a free software alternative to a similar proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
educational software
Educational software
Educational software is computer software, the primary purpose of which is teaching or self-learning.-Early History, 1940s - 1970s:The use of computer hardware and software in education and training dates to the early 1940s, when American researchers developed flight simulators which used analog...
product, Kid Pix
Kid Pix
Kid Pix is a bitmap drawing program aimed at children. Originally created by Craig Hickman, it was first released for the Macintosh in 1989 and subsequently published in 1991 by Brøderbund...
.
History
Tux Paint was initially created for the LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating system, as there was no suitable drawing program for young children available for Linux at that time. It is written in the C programming language
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
and uses various free and open source helper libraries, including the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
, and has since been made available for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Apple Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, BeOS
BeOS
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
and other platforms. (See the Tux Paint downloads page.)
Selected Milestone releases
- 2002.06.16 (June 16, 2002) - Initial release (brushes, stamps, lines, eraser), two days after coding started
- 2002.06.30 (June 30, 2002) - First Magic tools added (blur, blocks, negative)
- 2002.07.31 (July 31, 2002) - Localization support added
- 0.9.11 (June 17, 2003) - Right-to-left support, UTF-8 support in Text tool
- 0.9.14 (October 12, 2004) - Tux Paint Config. configuration tool released, Starter image support
- 0.9.16 (October 21, 2006) - Slideshow feature, animated and directional brushes
- 0.9.17 (July 1, 2007) - Arbitrary screen size and orientation support, SVG support, input methodInput methodAn input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...
support - 0.9.18 (November 21, 2007) - Magic Tools turned into plug-ins, PangoPangoPango is an LGPL licensed open source computing library used by software developers for laying out and rendering text in high quality, emphasising support for multilingual text...
text rendering
Features
Tux Paint stands apart from typical graphics editing software (such as The GIMPGIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
or Photoshop) that it was designed to be usable by children as young as 3 years of age. The user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
is meant to be intuitive, and utilizes icons
Icon (computing)
A computer icon is a pictogram displayed on a computer screen and used to navigate a computer system or mobile device. The icon itself is a small picture or symbol serving as a quick, intuitive representation of a software tool, function or a data file accessible on the system. It functions as an...
, audible feedback and textual hints to help explain how the software works. The brightly-colored interface, sound effects and cartoon mascot (Tux
Tux
Tux is a penguin character and the official mascot of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux distributions depict Tux in various styles. In video games featuring the character, female...
, the mascot of the Linux kernel) are meant to engage children.
- Toolbox, containing the various basic tools (see below) and application controls (undoUndoUndo is a command in many computer programs. It erases the last change done to the document reverting it to an older state. In some more advanced programs such as graphic processing, undo will negate the last command done to the file being edited....
, save, new, printPrintingPrinting is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
) - Canvas, where the imagesDigital imageA digital image is a numeric representation of a two-dimensional image. Depending on whether or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or raster type...
are drawn and edited - Color palettePalette (computing)In computer graphics, a palette is either a given, finite set of colors for the management of digital images , or a small on-screen graphical element for choosing from a limited set of choices, not necessarily colors .Depending on the context In computer graphics, a palette is either a given,...
, where colors can be chosen (when applicable to the current tool) - Selector, providing various selectable objects (e.g., brushes, fonts or sub-tools, depending on the current tool)
- Information area, where instructions, tips and encouragement are provided
A simple slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
feature allows previously-saved images to be displayed as a basic flip-book animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
or as a slide presentation
Presentation
Presentation is the practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or learner. Presentations come in nearly as many forms as there are life situations...
.
Basic drawing tools
Like most popular graphics editing and composition tools, Tux Paint includes a paintbrush, an eraser, and tools to draw lines, polygonal shapesPolygon
In geometry a polygon is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain orcircuit.A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments...
and text. Tux Paint provides multiple levels of undo
Undo
Undo is a command in many computer programs. It erases the last change done to the document reverting it to an older state. In some more advanced programs such as graphic processing, undo will negate the last command done to the file being edited....
and redo, allowing accidental or unwanted changes to be removed while editing a picture.
Interacting with the operating system
Tux Paint was designed in such a way that the user does not need to understand the underlying operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
or how to deal with files
Computer file management
The term computer file management refers to the manipulation of documents and data in files on a computer.----Specifically, one may create a new file or edit an existing file and save it; open or load a pre-existing file into memory; or close a file without saving it. Additionally, one may group...
. The "Save" and "Open" commands were designed to mimic those of software for personal digital assistant
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
devices, such as the Palm handheld. When one saves a picture in Tux Paint, they do not need to provide a file
Computer file
A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...
name or browse for where to place it. When one goes to open a previously-saved picture, a collection of thumbnail
Thumbnail
Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words...
s of saved images is shown.
Similarly, printing is typically a 'no questions asked' process, as well.
Advanced drawing tools
Gaussian blur
A Gaussian blur is the result of blurring an image by a Gaussian function. It is a widely used effect in graphics software, typically to reduce image noise and reduce detail...
, fading, and making the picture look as though it was drawn in chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
on pavement. These are available through the 'Magic' tool in Tux Paint. Starting with version 0.9.18, Tux Paint's 'Magic' tools are built as plugins that are loaded at runtime and use a C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
specifically for creating such tools.
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
work and photographic
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
imagery are also available (under a license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
allowing free redistribution), and may be placed inside drawings using Tux Paint's "Rubber Stamp
Rubber stamp
Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized, onto a sheet of rubber. The rubber is often mounted onto a more stable object such as a wood, brick or an...
" tool. Stamps can be in either raster (bitmap)
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
format (in PNG format, supporting 24bpp
Color depth
In computer graphics, color depth or bit depth is the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. This concept is also known as bits per pixel , particularly when specified along with the number of bits used...
and full alpha transparency), or as vector graphics
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
(in SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics
Scalable Vector Graphics is a family of specifications of an XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic . The SVG specification is an open standard that has been under development by the World Wide Web Consortium since 1999.SVG images and their...
format) on many platforms Tux Paint supports. As of mid-2008, over 800 stamps are included in the stamps collection.
Parental and teacher controls
Computer configuration
In communications or computer systems, a configuration is an arrangement of functional units according to their nature, number, and chief characteristics. Often, configuration pertains to the choice of hardware, software, firmware, and documentation...
options have been added that allow parents and teachers to disable features and alter the behavior to better suit their children's or students' needs, or to better integrate the software in their home or school computing environment. Typical options, such as enabling or disabling sound effects and full-screen mode are available. There are also options that help make Tux Paint suitable for younger or disabled children, such as displaying text using only uppercase letters or ignoring the distinction between buttons on the mouse.
Localization
Tux Paint has been translatedTranslation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
into numerous languages, and has support for the display of text in languages that use non-Latin character sets, such as Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, or Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
. As of June 2008, over 80 languages are supported. Correct support for complex languages requires Pango
Pango
Pango is an LGPL licensed open source computing library used by software developers for laying out and rendering text in high quality, emphasising support for multilingual text...
. Sound effects and descriptive sounds for stamp imagery can also be localized. Tux Paint includes its own form of input method
Input method
An input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...
support, allowing entry of non-Latin characters using the 'Text' tool. Japanese (Romanized Hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
and Romanized Katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
), Korean (Hangul 2-bul
Hangul
Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...
) and Traditional Chinese are currently supported.
Wikiversity Tux Paint Storyboard Artwork Project
WikiversityWikiversity
Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project, which supports learning communities, their learning materials, and resulting activities. It differs from more structured projects such as Wikipedia in that it instead offers a series of tutorials, or courses, for the fostering of learning, rather than...
has a project to create artwork for Rubber Stamps of human figures which turn Tux Paint into a storyboarding program for kids to storyboard their movies.
Gallery
The Tux Paint website includes an online gallery of over 500 drawings submitted by over 150 children and adults.Availability
Tux Paint is included with the software that comes with the ASUS Eee PCASUS Eee PC
The Asus Eee PC is a subnotebook/netbook computer line from ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated, and a part of the Asus Eee product family. At the time of its introduction in late 2007, it was noted for its combination of a light weight, Linux operating system, solid-state drive , and relatively low cost...
. It is also a standard package in educationally-oriented Linux distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
s, such as Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
Jr. and Edubuntu
Edubuntu
Edubuntu, also previously known as Ubuntu Education Edition, is an official derivative of the Ubuntu operating system designed for use in classrooms inside schools, homes and communities....
, as an optional package in numerous other Linux distributions, as well as part of numerous educationally-oriented Linux Live CD
Live CD
A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
s. It is included in various software collections for Windows (such as GNUWin II
GNUWin II
GNUWin II was a large collection of free software for Microsoft Windows created by the Linux User Group of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne...
and Open Source Software CD
Open Source Software CD
The Open Source Software CD was a collection of about 150 open-source programs for Microsoft Windows. It contained programs for software development, fun and games, Internet, multimedia, productivity, security, text editing, and utilities. It was last updated in December 2005, and is no longer...
), as well as in portable software
Portable application
A portable application , sometimes also called standalone, is a computer software program designed to run independently from an operating system...
collections for Windows, since it can be run as a stand-alone application (without needing to be installed system-wide). Tux Paint is also available as an activity within the free and open source educational suite GCompris
GCompris
GCompris is a suite of free educational software for children aged 2 to 10., and is currently part of the GNU project.It is available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and other systems...
.
See also
- GComprisGComprisGCompris is a suite of free educational software for children aged 2 to 10., and is currently part of the GNU project.It is available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and other systems...
- Kid PixKid PixKid Pix is a bitmap drawing program aimed at children. Originally created by Craig Hickman, it was first released for the Macintosh in 1989 and subsequently published in 1991 by Brøderbund...
- List of raster graphics editors
- Comparison of raster graphics editorsComparison of raster graphics editors- List :- General information :Basic general information about the editors: creator/company, license etc.- Operating system support :The operating systems on which the editors can run natively , meaning which operating systems have which editors specifically coded for them - List :- General...
- TuxTuxTux is a penguin character and the official mascot of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux distributions depict Tux in various styles. In video games featuring the character, female...
(Linux mascot penguin) - Tux TypingTux TypingTux Typing is a free and open source typing tutor created especially for children. It features several different types of game play, at a variety of difficulty levels...
- Tux, of Math CommandTux, of Math CommandTux, of Math Command is an open source arcade-style video game for learning mathematics, initially created for Linux. The game-play mechanic is based loosely on that of the arcade game Missile Command, but with comets falling on cities, rather than missiles...
- CanvasticCanvasticCanvastic is a graphics and text publishing software for students and teachers in grades K-8. It allows for desktop publishing of pages and exporting to common image formats. It provides for on-screen slideshows also....
External links
- Tux Paint official website
- "Tux Paint" project at SourceForge.netSourceForgeSourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
- Tux4Kids
- Tux Paint localisation
- TuKsi Koti la Rangi (Tux Paint in Swahili) SwahiliSwahili languageSwahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
translation project - Tux Paint in Norwegian Nynorsk NorwegianNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
NynorskNynorskNynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
translation project - Tux Paint Localizzazione in Italiano (it_IT l10n) ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
translation project - "Tuxpaint Stamps for Australian Schools" project at SourceForge.netSourceForgeSourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...