Open Source Technology for Your Computer

Some people say “there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.”This saying is old, wise, and, thanks to the Internet, obsolete. There's still a great deal of wisdom in looking for the hidden strings attached to anything "free," but the collaborative nature of the Internet has birthed a new movement, called by such names as "open source" and "free software." Is this so-called free software really different from the proverbial free lunch? Let's find out.

"But all my software is free, it came with my computer."

Not so fast! Chances are your computer includes Windows, for which a portion of the price of the computer was paid to Microsoft. If it includes (Microsoft) Office or (Corel) WordPerfect, the same applies. And what about all those other "free" applications that came with your computer? Either you paid for them or they're crippled demo versions - or, worse, spyware.

"If what I thought was free isn't, then what is?"

When a computer programmer wants to get something done, he writes his own program to do it. Programmers are all about efficiency, though, and prefer not to re-invent the wheel. So when a group of them have similar needs they'll often write the software together, sharing the workload.

"Well, then, that sounds great for the programmers, but what does that do for me?"

What do you do with your computer? Write letters, watch videos, surf the web? Well, programmers need to do the same things you do. In fact, there's free software out there to do virtually anything computers can do. Here are just a few examples:

Here is a list of software you could pay for, followed by the free alternatives.:

Microsoft Windows
Ubuntu (Linux)

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.)
OpenOffice, NeoOffice, or Libre Office

Microsoft Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox

Microsoft Outlook
Mozilla Thunderbird

Windows Media Player
VLC or MPlayer
Adobe PhotoShop
GIMP or SeaShore

Adobe PhotoShop
PDFCreator

MSN Messenger, AIM, etc.
Pidgin, aMSN, or Adium

Nero Burning Rom
K3b or ImageBurn


"You get what you pay for! How do I know this free stuff isn't inferior?"

That's a fair question. Consider another old maxim: if you want something done right, do it yourself. The folks writing free software are doing it themselves! There's also a new maxim that's popular in the free software community: given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. When enough hackers are using the software every day and checking each others' work, problems are found and fixed quickly.

"Wait a minute, you're telling me to trust all these hackers? How do I know they won't steal my money or spy on my family?"

This is where the term "open source" becomes meaningful. Your computer executes machine code, meaning the computer can understand it but humans can't. Source code, what programmers actually produce, is human-readable instructions that are then converted into the machine code. Only by reading the source can you know what a program does behind the scenes. Open source simply means that along with the machine code needed to run the program, you also get the source code needed to understand it. Hackers don't want to be spied on any more than you do, so they check each others' work very thoroughly. But don't try to get the source code for that "free" stuff (e.g. Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect) that came with your PC, that's illegal!

"So how do I get this free software?"

A simple Internet search for "open source alternative" and the name of the software you're using now should produce quite a few results.

Byline:  Charles Nettleton is a proponent of using online technology to enhance ones work and education experience, which is why he uses online project management to manage work tasks.