Freedomwaaaaaaaaaaaaare
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| npan Aug 25, 2007 9:59 PM EDT |
Free software is about four specific user liberties - the right to use, share, improve and publish improvements to the software. Any computer program that fails to permit all four freedoms to the user is considered non-free. These four liberties are important because they allow the user to remain in full control of their own hardware. Free software also allows users to help one another because the users have the liberty to share and improve the software themselves - they can remain independent of the distributor or the author of the software. If you do not understand the importance of these liberties and the result that occurs when people accept non-free software, then you've missed the point of free software. Free software is not about gratis costing software. Free software is not about superior software development models. Free software is about the right to maintain complete control of our own systems and help other people by sharing software with them. |
| land0 Aug 26, 2007 10:30 AM EDT |
Ultimately what you say is very true and I agree with you 200%. Initially people are surprised and cannot quite believe that there could possibly be any software that is free as in no cost and worth using. This is a large part due to the false sense of security people tend to feel about the proprietary offerings. This sense of security is often times created in a large part by sophisticated marketing campaigns. From my personal experience many people cannot get past the free as in $$ part. While quality and security are not always the initial focus for creating freedomware it is a very real by product that I have had the pleasure of experiencing first hand for more than 6 years. This by product happens to contain value to the average person and small to medium business owners. These people are being hammered with shoddy applications and being forced to upgrade at a time where they just started to get the hang of how to use the last version. If the software that can cost thousands of dollars does not work how can software that costs nothing in terms of money possibly work better. It is kinda like which car would you want to drive. The one you paid 4-20,000 for or the free one that doesn't quite look or run right? The challenge we face in presenting freedomware is that in the software world the real world paradigm of you get what you pay for is turned on it's head. My thoughts on approaching the free as in $$ question is to say you cannot put a price on something that is in fact so one of a kind. Can we even begin to put a price on what one group of developers in the FOSS realm create? Take the Linux kernel the speed at which it is developed and the shear amount of work in man hours that goes into it. That is one out of thousands or tens of thousands (depending on your distro of choice) of pieces that make up the FOSS and FOSS based OS or as I am referring to it freedomware. I am finding that people really understand and catch onto the real world example that that freedomware is free as in priceless. This then opens the doors to the next step in the discussion which you so eloquently put forward. Thank you for adding that to the mix. :) |
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