[A2k] Free Software

[James Love]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/free-software_b_126303.html

Free Software, The Huffington Post
James Love
September 14, 2008

Like nearly everyone else these days, I use computers to write, read
email, browse the web, store music and photos, and generally organize my
life. Unlike most people, I'm using a free operating system, rather than
Microsoft's Windows/Vista, or Apple's Mac OS. Specifically, I'm using
Ubuntu, a popular distribution of GNU/Linux.

Ubuntu is but one of many free software distributions. Distrowatch lists
10 major and more than 100 minor Linux and free BSD distributions, many
of which are minor remixes of a handful of the major distributions.

I would encourage others to think about migrating to Linux. It's now
possible to buy laptops from Dell with Ubuntu pre-installed, or to
install Linux on one of your computers, either as the sole operating
system, or as one that co-exists with Windows or the Mac OS.

Why would anyone try Linux? Well, it does put some fun back into
computing, and the newer distributions are both powerful and elegant,
with eye candy, cool programs, a very good usability. There's more,
however. Linux is truly a "free" operating system, with an emphasis on
freedom. It is created by and for users, and as a platform, it creates a
different relationship between the users and the Internet than do the
Microsoft or Apple commercial alternatives. It's also an important
experiment in how information technologies are created and managed, and
the success of the experiment depends somewhat on the ability to attract
users.

It's hard to explain the experience without trying it. Using any Debian
type Linux distribution (such as Ubuntu), it is very easy to find,
install and update software. Pretty much everything I use is available
at a zero price. Linux isn't a program, but rather a collection of
thousands of programs that work together, each maintained by different
communities. Most share the source code they develop, allowing others to
copy, modify and incorporate code into new and even competing programs.

The most popular office productivity software is now from
OpenOffice.Org, a project supported by Sun, IBM and many individuals and
small firms. Version 1 of Open Office was lousy. Version 2 was much
better, and I'm looking forward to Version 3, which will be released
soon. Firefox is the most important of more than a dozen web browers
that run on Linux. An increasing number of commercial products work on
Linux, such as Google Earth, Google' Picaso, Adobe's Acrobat Reader and
Flash. Most of what people expect on a laptop already works well on
Linux, but that is not really the main point. Linux is a possible
future, one that isn't controlled by Microsoft or Apple, and one that
responds to a different set of values. Ubuntu is so good that it now
seems plausible to anticipate a significant shift from Apple and
Microsoft to Linux. This would be no small thing, increasing the odds
that the Internet will continue to develop in ways that empowers users.
Linux provides a powerful counterweight to companies or governments that
undermine innovation, privacy and freedom, benefits that should not be
taken for granted or undervalued.

Both Microsoft and Apple want Linux to fail as a "client" operating
system. Apple has yet to support the open document format (ODF), or make
its popular iTunes or Safari programs available for Linux. Microsoft has
not released its widely used Microsoft Office program for Linux, and is
pushing for a series of proprietary or Microsoft controlled file formats
that are not fully implemented on the Linux platform. Governments can
help by using procurement policies to ensure that data formats can be
implemented by more than one software program in at least the three
leading operating systems, something that will be explored in some
global forums.

In general however, it will be important for individuals to switch to
Linux, not only from Microsoft, but also from Apple. Today many free
software proponents don't use free software themselves. Because of this,
they often don't fully understand or appreciate the ways the platform
works, the policies (by individuals, organizations, regulators or
governments) that would make it work better, or the interesting ways
that innovation is created and managed in an environment where knowledge
becomes community property. I'd like to use analogies to better explain
the difference between talking about free software and using free
software, and I'm sure there are plenty -- is reading about sex the same
as having sex? Can you really understand foreign policy without visiting
foreign countries?

Today there are enormous pressures to monopolize data formats, control
multimedia content delivery to users, introduce deep systems of
surveillance into the networks, and other disturbing trends. There are
also very powerful examples of the benefits of more openness, freedom,
competition and collaboration. There is, I believe, an increasingly
important social aspect of personally embracing the use of free
software. There are of course some challenges, rough edges here and
there -- nothing like even a few years ago, but they do exist. But they
are manageable for many users.

Because of the stakes, people should increasingly be thinking of free
software as a social movement. It is not only about a small number of
programmers and engineers. It is about everyone who cares about the
future of knowledge ecosystems.

--
James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org | mailto:james.love at keionline.org
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