What is NVu?
NVu (pronounced "in view") is an open source software, meaning
it's totally free to download, use, distribute, reference,
document, etc. The term open source means that the actual source
code behind the software is available to anyone who wants to take a
peek or even those who have the skills can add to the source code
to help make the program better. With that said, some open source
developers welcome input codes from various users. On the other
hand, other open source developers welcome you making additions to
your own copy of the software, but only release your codes in the
"release" package if they are really good ideas for the
software.
NVu is a website editor. It has been compared throughout the
Internet to be comparable to Adobe DreamWeaver CS3; however this
comparison is quite laughable. NVu is still in rather early stages
of development. It has wellknown bugs, crashing at the worst
possible times, and is even known to corrupt your HTML files. Also,
because it is still not yet very mature, it lacks in many features
that would make the program so much better. However the vision the
developers had in mind for NVu was admirable, NVu has lost interest
from the developers and has been abandoned for about 3 years now.
It appears however, that a similar program called KompoZer is
picking up where NVu left off and is gaining ground quickly, with
an active release cycle.
So if you are looking for a very free, very simple, potentially
frustrating piece of software, go ahead and download it. But some
things are just better left to the professional (proprietary -
meaning retail) counterparts, and this is certainly the case when
creating website from a professional environment because there is
yet to be a decent, comparable alternative to Adobe DreamWeaver
CS3. KompoZer may get close one day.