On the merits of open source software
When I started drumming up support for open source software (OSS) during last year’s UNB Student Union election, the reaction I received from most students was a veritable “huh?” of confusion. My answer was usually “Firefox” and the person showed a glimmer of understanding.
So, the question is really “What is OSS and why is it important to me as a student?”
The “open” in open source software indicates that it is freely available for anyone to use or modify. That is, anyone can download and use this software for absolutely no charge or fee. Sweet.
“So what” you ask? “Internet Explorer is free and Microsoft Office is free if you steal it. What’s the difference?” The difference is that the programmers of OSS are concerned with making the best software they can instead of making a profit. Microsoft is very concerned with making sure that you’ve paid for that software and will continue to purchase upgrades, so your experience with it is likely to be hampered as a means to their end.
See, OSS is programmed by an online community of people who are donating their time for fun. They enjoy writing software and collaborating with one another. I think that this is really cool; an entire online community is working together, exchanging ideas, and improving on existing concepts.
Companies can benefit from OSS, and frequently do. For example, Apple’s OS X contains many different open source components. Apple improves on them and releases the improvements freely back to the OSS community. That way Apple doesn’t have to program these components from scratch. More importantly, with many programmers from different perspectives looking at the code, the chance that a stubborn bug in the software will go undetected is significantly reduced.
OSS programmers come from all sorts of backgrounds. They are students, professional programmers, professors, and everyday people. Anyone (even you) can contribute to OSS. If you find a problem or if you have an idea to improve a piece of software, then you have direct communication with the programmers and can effect a positive change.
This is what really excites me about OSS: the free interchange of ideas between everyone involved. Ideas are useless unless you share them, and OSS is a practical example of how people all over the world are collaborating together to achieve a common goal.
Additionally, OSS offers the support of open standards; these standards ensure that documents are able to be used for years to come. This is in contrast to a proprietary standard, like Word Perfect, that may result in expensive and lengthy translation when the program falls into disuse.
With the advent of Linux for netbooks and companies exploring means to cut costs, use of open source software is on the rise. The next time you need Microsoft Office and go to download an illegal copy of it, why not check out OpenOffice.org for a free equivalent. You’re guaranteed not to get a virus, not to get arrested, and you will probably be surprised when you see how good legitimately free software can be.
