Open Source

Topic(s): computers
2004-02-22 01:21:26 PST

You can now reach this blog via http://pullmyefinger.com. Much thanks go out to Mr. Pollmann for recognizing that pullmyefinger.com was unregistered.

I've added links on the left. Adding links is a bit scary. Based on what links I provide you can deduce what sort of person I am. I'm opening myself up to total strangers, on the order of a few hundred keystrokes. As such, I was tight on the links. It's certainly not a complete list of sites I visit or use, but it is representive of the ones I consider requirements for this blog.

So, click away and read!

You should notice that there are several links to open source initiatives (Debian, OpenOffice, etc.). I'm quite sure most people, including my family, have no idea what open source is. So I'll take a few paragraphs to explain.

Let's start with Microsoft. Microsoft employs hundreds of software programmers. The programmers write programs such as Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Microsoft sells these programs to consumers. Now, think for a second what it is the consumers purchase.

The consumers have purchased software programmers' time. That is, software isn't like toothpaste or gasoline - with software there isn't anything tangible to purchase. Imagine if software programmers worked for free. Then software would be free. In fact, there are organizations where the software programmers work for free. In general, the community is loosely called the open source community.

You probably don't have any open source software installed on your computer. Your computer probably came pre-installed with Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, for which you paid a hefty monetary fee. However, you can choose to order a computer that does not come pre-installed with Windows products. You then can install open source products such as RedHat Linux and OpenOffice, all for free. I'm proud to say that the awesome city of Austin, Texas is doing just that: OpenOffice makes government inroads.

More open source means Microsoft loses money. Microsoft does not like the open source community:

"Roll argued that packages such as OpenOffice or StarOffice lack the sophistication of Microsoft's latest offerings, and instead 'replicate the Microsoft Office of six or seven years ago'".

A problem with Microsoft's products is the user buys "sophistication" whether the user wants it or not. That's right, you paid for Clippy when you purchased Microsoft Office.

Open source has many other virtues. I'm sure I'll write more about them in future blog entries.

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