What is Open Source Software, and why do I think it’s cool? From my perspective, and probably yours, it means free software for your computer. It’s usually free of spyware too, and has more features than software that comes included with Windows Operating Systems (like Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer).
If software can be free, why do so many people pay for it? Well, a lot of people don’t know they can get software for free, because their friends haven’t told them. It’s not like there are big ads on TV or on radio telling people to download Open Office or VLC. Where else are they going to hear about free software, other than from friends, family, and possibly workplaces?
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The Green Party supports open source software. They want schools and governments to use especially Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) to lower IT costs, and improve openness of government.
Here’s Green nominee Dan Grice explaining the struggle against closed software that uses Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and how FLOSS would benefit Canadians. Closed source software does not allow people other than the original writers of a computer program’s code, to improve the code, or use it in another similar program.
Presumably the federal NDP would be Open Source friendly too, however that was not the case in Saskatchewan, where the provincial government and education systems are mostly Windows based, and there’s no edict that I’m aware of to encourage civil servants to choose FLOSS over proprietary software alternatives. If someone has information on the federal NDP’s platform that covers software purchases, please come forward.
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ADDED: Michael Geist was blogging along the same lines the other day.
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jaybird | 30-Sep-08 at 1:43 pm | Permalink
The ndp.ca website was built with opensource (from what my techie friend tells me) something called droople??? He also mentioned that the translation programming for this platform was greatly enhanced by the work done on ndp.ca. Since I am not a techie I have to trust that this makes sense.
Cheers
Saskboy | 30-Sep-08 at 1:56 pm | Permalink
Drupal is the software. I would expect the NDP to be open source friendly where they have technical people who are very capable of avoiding Microsoft propaganda.
anon | 30-Sep-08 at 2:32 pm | Permalink
What I like most about open source software (besides the fact that it’s free!) is that those who develop and improve it are dedicated to their task purely for the sake of developing and improving it, not to make gazillions of bucks.
Sadie | 30-Sep-08 at 5:07 pm | Permalink
I paid for Vista on my laptop, after many frustrations and annoyances I finally removed it and replaced it with Linux, I can still do everything I did before.
It’s really hard to figure out why open source is not more common, although it probably has something to do with the fact that free software doesn’t have any advertising budget.
Saskboy | 30-Sep-08 at 10:16 pm | Permalink
I like that aspect of it too anon. I feel I can trust it more than paid software, because there’s no risk of being ripped off if the software is free and you only pay if you really like it.
Sadie, that is a major portion of it, and also is why Microsoft got labeled as being a monopoly when their “free” IE replaced Netscape as the browser on Windows computers. The people with money call the shots on computers that are sold.
Lore_Weaver | 01-Oct-08 at 8:42 am | Permalink
Open Source solutions for enterprise IT is epic fail. What every single one of us in the business has done at least once, and what you’re doing here, is neglecting the cost of ownership of these products.
As the UofS moves to Linux for a vast majority of it’s services, you’d think that was free, right? Well, not so right.
The software is free, but the cost of running it, maintaining it, and supporting it are not.
What works at home, doesn’t scale well institutionally. The same is true for NGO’s and Government offices.
That’s not to say that open source is never the right choice, sometimes it’s the best choice, however, when it comes to the workplace, it’s never truly free.
Lore_Weaver | 01-Oct-08 at 8:43 am | Permalink
“Open Source solutions for enterprise IT is epic fail.”
(should say, “is often epic fail.”)
Saskboy | 01-Oct-08 at 10:23 am | Permalink
Lore, what you didn’t point out is that paid and closed source software is often an epic failure too, and of course it also has a cost of ownership to take into account. Plus, if the company that OWNS the code wants to, it can throw its customer under a bus, while that CAN’T happen with well written open source because anyone else competent can be hired to maintain the systems.