Free Software
You would think that if something is free, that demand for it would be high to unlimited. In the most commonly used areas free software is better, for multi-media work proprietary problems slow development, but applications are getting better all the time.
How would you feel if you bought a car, but were prohibited from working on it ?
How often do you have to agree to End User License Agreements (EULAs) that you may need a lawyer to fully interpret, that you barely have time to read because you have your own work to do, and you cannot proceed without agreeing. Feels like extortion doesn't it ? This does not happen with free software. You are not interrupted to determine if your software is legal or paid up. You do get polite notifications when upgrades are available.
Free software isn't just low cost, it has advantages in auditability, security, extensibility, quality, and performance.
Treacherous Computing
Because free software is open source, anyone can examine the code. The effect is the same as peer review. There is much less opportunity for malware.
For most products purchased from private suppliers, secrecy prevents disclosure of many details. If your cable box tracks your viewing habits, your computer camera can be turned on to monitor you, your automobile tracks your location, your voting machine is hackable, your telephone is routinely surveilled, or your media controls what you are allowed to see, well... that's just the 'free market' for you. Worse, some products can actually be hazardous. Toyota may have software problems, but, without the ability to look at the code, who can find that out ? You would want assurance that the wireless device that can be implanted in your chest because you have a heart condition can't be hacked.
Here are some recent anecdotes that demonstrate why we need free software:
School Cameras schools activated webcams in school issued laptops...in students home.
Voting Machines can be hacked. Since the code is proprietary, the public is not allowed oversight.
Disgruntled Ex-Auto Dealer Employee Hacks Computer System To Disable Over 100 Cars
Hackers can give you a Heart Attack...Literally.
NSA Has A Massive Database of American's Phone Calls
If you followed the links, you will agree that software does not always do what you want. It sometimes has bugs, and other times it works on behalf of the vendor...not you.
If malfunctioning software can have public safety implications, that software should be made available to a reviewing authority for evaluation. The better solution is to demand free, and open source software.
Malfunctioning Machines
Who Should Use Free Software ?
Everyone is trying to save money or facing massive budget cuts: consumers, schools, all levels of government. We can get better results for far less money by going to free software. There is not much reason to pay for software any more.
Free software has been getting easier to use and there are now distributions friendly enough for most consumers. The Knoppix distribution has excellent hardware detecting and is frequently used as a diagnostic tool for failing computers.
Free software in schools. (See Sugarlabs, Planet Sugarlabs, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)...could replace the need for textbooks. Free textbooks require no paper, no cost, and weigh nothing.) The OLPC project gave rugged laptop computers to millions of children in underdeveloped countries. It also gave them free textbooks, internet access, and free software.
Free software in government (see also the OpenPlans site.)
What is Free Software ? (John Sullivan video.)
Benefits
The marginal cost of free software is zero. Everyone can have access to educational tools, the ever increasing digital libraries, open source textbooks, and even courseware from major universities.
Freedom
Free Software never requires a subscription fee. Instead of a long EULA that you must accept, there is a carefully drafted license which allows you to modify, copy, give away the software. More about this below.
Performance
Performance is better. Aside from the fact that it is cost free, it is faster because there is no hidden functionality and because it is, in effect, peer reviewed. Software bloat gets identified and removed.
Auditability
Free software is auditable. Anyone can see the source code. Hidden traps can be exposed as long as the code is completely open.
Security
Free software is more secure. SELinux is security enhanced linux that made it acceptable to NSA.
Privacy
If you were required to write all of your mail using postcards, you would mind. If you are not encrypting your email, your messages are just as open as if they were on a postcard.
Need for encryption for consumers and for business. About PGP.
Extensible
Free software is more extensible. Because code is freely available, developers can build on software that is already written. There are some remarkable applications. Because it is Open, it can be peer reviewed, modified, and used for still further development.
The GNU Project defends software freedom: the user's freedom to run it for any purpose, share it with neighbors, improve it for your own purposes, modify it and redistribute it for the benefit of the whole community.
Links
FSF (Free Software Foundation)
League for Programming Freedom
FSF recommended complete systems
Linux runs the fastest computers.
Adobe AIR applications for Linux
League for Programming Freedom
The Road Ahead for Open Source
End Software Patents (wiki)
Why Free Software ?
A video message from renowned free software programmer and FSF member Jeremy Allison:
Richard Stallman put it this way:
"I could have made money [by joining the proprietary software world],
and perhaps amused myself writing code. But I knew that at the end of my
career, I would look back on years of building walls to divide people,
and feel I had spent my life making the world a worse place." Richard
Stallman, GNU Project (http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html).
Richard Stallman defines free software in this video.
Why Free Software Is Better: Eban Moglen video (about an hour)
Licenses
See videos
Standards
Many companies, especially Microsoft, create proprietary file formats that may be of limited life expectancy. After a few years the formats change, the software evolves, and some of the older data may no longer be accessible.
Older versions of documents stored as Microsoft word files are no longer supported and you may no longer be able to read them. Since the format is encumbered by patents, you are pretty much bound to the whim of the MS developments. MP3 files, JPEGs, and many other formats are patent protected, proprietary and subject to change at the whim of the vendor.
Free software formats are open, standard, and unencumbered by patents. Public domain, standard formats are important.
Free software transparency allows it to be fully audited. Because anyone can access, examine, explore and modify the source code, functions can not be hidden. This should be a requirement for at least some applications...like voting machines. Manufacturers of voting machines are all right-wing partisans, and they insist that the software on their machines is a proprietary, trade secret. You can't see it and it is not auditable as a result. Yes, they can steal elections. As voters, insist on open source.
Standardized formats that are open are necessary for long-term accessibility. Government (and everybody else) should insist on open formats for their long-term IT documents.
Pot, meet kettle: a response to Steve Jobs' letter on Flash
Massachusetts favors Open Source software
Join the FSF Campaign for OpenDocument
Software Patents: Summarizing the Problem
Eban Moglan: How I discovered Free Software and Met RMS
Commercial software appears to the consumer as a black box. You do not know what is inside it. Eban Moglan spoke to the Free Software Foundation:
"This is really about who is going to have the keys to the home next decade. ...At what point do you want to admit onto your network ... computers which run software you can't see, can't understand, can't control and which reports to other people what is going on your network without your ability to interrupt or do anything? What point do you want to bring a box like that home and put it down on the desk that your child needs to do his homework? ...Those boxes, general purpose computers, running software you can't see, can't control, ...are called intruders. Do you want to have an intruder in every room of your house in ten years or don't you... ?"
Software Patents
Free Hardware
13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More (video)
Make Magazine Gift Guide for the Arduino
Applications
Linux
Survival Guide (from
Planet CCRMA)
Once you begin exploring the thousands of applications that are now available, you begin to wonder why you ever actually paid for software. Some of the best include:
Graphics: Gimp, Inkscape, Blender, KPaint, Karbon14, Papervision.
Email: Evolution, Kmail, Kontact, postfix
Office Applications: Open Office,
Web Browser: Firefox, Konqueror, Mozilla, Galeon, Iceweazel.
Web Editor: Apache, Bluefish, Composer, Quanta Plus, Screen
News Reader: Pan
Audio: Jack, Pulseaudio
Media Player: Amarok, Kino, MPlayer, Totem, Xine, XMMS, Audacity, gnash
Music: LilyPond, OOLilyPond, Synthesizers, Midi sequencers (see Rosegarden), Hydrogen, Nyquist, Waon. See PlanetCCRMA (only for Fedora).
Project Planner: MrProject
Content Management: Drupal, Zope, MediaWiki
Blogging: Laconi.ca
Telephone: Asterisk or BLASTERISK, Symbian,
Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL
Programming Tools: Python, Lisp, ADA, Fortran, Assembler, C, C++, Haskell, PHP, Perl, GLADE, wx, and other support tools:
Games: a wide variety and also machine emulators that allow you to continue to run the old Atari and Commodore software.
Video Editing: Blender, OpenShot, KDEnlive, Cinelerra, Kino. ArtistX, TVPaint
System: Samba
For others see http://directory.fsf.org/
Distributions
There is a proliferation of distributions, and that is partly because there are different concerns addressed by each of them. Some are for old machines, others for small ones, some for freedom from proprietary ties, many have proprietary hooks, and so on.
Many you can try without even installing by booting from a live cd.
Download a free, live CD from these websites. Burn the CD as an iso, then run it directly from your CDROM drive without even installing. Running from the CD will be somewhat slow, but actual installation will improve performance considerably. If you have a slow internet connection, it could be easier to buy cds from a good vendor: for example, LinuxCollections or frozentech sells them for a nominal fee.
Pick one distribution, and do not attempt to mix any components from others unless you know exactly what you are doing.
Knoppix may be the easiest live CD to boot. It has very good hardware detection and it can be an excellent diagnostic tool.
Debian is the parent of the best distributions. Choose the stable version if you are not adventurous.
Ubuntu installs easily. Audio is not so easy to configure. See videos.
Mepis
DSL: Damn Small Linux can bring an older machine back.
Puppy Linux
Planet CCRMA offers a suite of audio applications that can only be installed on certain Fedora distributions. It is, by far, best for audio.
64Studio: optimized for audio, but a branch of Debian. There is a 32 bit version that can run on many late-model PCs. Hardware detection (December 2008) is lacking.
Gentoo is a distribution for those who like to compile everything from scratch.
The distributions that are most free are:
Most of the above distributions have compromises in their use of non-free software. Understandably, manufacturers do not want to erode their competetive edge by disclosing everything about their products.
The most freedom is from Distributions recommended by the FSF
Free, in this case, means no proprietary software components. If you choose one of these distributions, some functionality may not be available (including newer media, since many include DRM.)
GNULinux, click here.
Software As A Service
Hardware Support
Need for Free Machines.
Freedom Included a small company that will sell you a free machine.
Los Alamos Computers works with the FSF to offer systems preinstalled with a free operating system.
Where to get help
Open source documentation is now excellent thanks to publishers like Oreilly and others.
As always, support is available for a fee.
Links
Magazines
Full Circle Magazine (on-line)
Linux Journal (great magazine.)
Bibliography
Math You Can't Use, Ben Klemens
For more information see here.