Open Source: The Personification of Evil?

There seams to be this view from the large majority of computer users both professional and home that Open Source Software is the personification of evil even virus ridden. I suspect I know why these users got this view with the established software companies bad mouthing open source software and association of Open Source with more politically active side of the computer world.

But from personal experience this is far from truth and I have found Open Source software to be of the same standard and even better than the commercially brought software especially over the past decades. While most commercial software has got more bulky with many unwanted features Open Source software functionality and usefulness has grown over the same time.

This to a point now I do not have to buy any commercial software to do what I want on my computer as I will find an Open Source equivalent to do the same job most of the time far better than the commercial equivalent. Even the operating system I use now are Open Source because they are far more stable and usable to the commercial equivalents.

As for the perception that Open Source are virus ridden or has an association with likes of Hackers that is far from the truth. Yes some Open Source software is associated with such groups but the large majority of people who are associated with Open Source have far more noble ideals in so much they want to bring computing and choice to all users.

Biggest irony of all the commercial software creators now use Open Source software to create their products to sell to the public but they are hypercritical as on the same hand they discourage their users to use Open Source software under the pretence it is not as good as their creations and as safe.

In conclusion Open Source software is not evil cousin of the commercial software but a serious contender which is constantly improving and allows people to use their computers more effectively especially those who are short of money like myself.

Let put it this way this is written on a laptop which only has Open Source Software on it and if anything more stable than a laptop with commercial brought software and it did not cost me a penny without a loss of functionality!

Open Source Revolution?

What still amazes me are the amount of people who use computers who still buy and use software from the major corporate software makers rather than use the free open source versions of the said same software!

This considering the brought versions of the software are overpriced and on the while it can be bug ridden with ill thought out front ends which make the software difficult to use. While there are free alternatives which actually do the job with more user friendly front ends available.

I am not saying all brought software is bad or all open source software is good just the fact you don’t have to always pay over inflated prices for software to do the job you actually want which for people like myself who have little money means we can get tools to do what we need for free.

The sad fact is most computer users are far to lazy or simply frightened to try anything different other than what is recommended by the computer manufactures themselves. This not helped by a small band of so called computer experts who claim open source software cannot be good because it is free frankly a silly but effective argument with less informed computer users.

Those of us who are brave enough to use open source software actually find it is actually easy to use and remarkably stable as software goes plus most of all it is easy on the pocket. Myself the only software I now buy are Internet Security and PC Tune up software even on a windows computer as in both cases the brought software is better than most of the open source versions currently.

The following are some of my recommendations of open source software most of which I currently use on my computer:

Audacity – An open source audio editing package.
Clementine – A good open source alternative to iTunes.
Gedit – An open source text editor.
GIMP – A good open source drawing package.
Google Chrome – The fastest and most stable web browser to use.
Inkscape – A good open source vector drawing package.
LibreOffice – An office suite which shoots Microsoft Office products out ofthe water for ease of use.
PeaZip – An open source version of WinZip which unlike WinZip is a full version of the software.
Thunderbird – A good email package though with minor glitch and to.


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Microsoft Please Take Note!

What I find a little strange in the past 5 years Linux, in all it’s variations, has developed from an operating system which at the start could only be used by the very technically minded to a series of operating systems whose stability and ease of use that surpasses that of Microsoft Windows and Apple o/s!

All this done under the auspices of of Open Source Software that is without the backing of a major Software Corporation, other than few donations, and on people’s own time with less resources than their collogues within the major Software Corporations. Add to this they have in this time have also shown more innovation and inventiveness than the so called major Software Corporations.

Then you get around to the major Software Corporations like Microsoft and Apple whose operating systems to be frankly have not really changed in the background for the last 30 years bar some so called performance improvements and modifications to the front ends and you have to ask them what have they been doing for last 30 years?

As observer from the outside of both Microsoft and Apple both major corporations have become very complacent and stale over the last 30 years because of their strong market positions. Both in their different ways show contempt to their users and markets with a we know better than the user attitude. This has been borne out by Microsoft’s recent fiasco of Windows Vista a terrible operating system and Apple’s iPad which was only successful because it has the Apple name and not because it was actually innovative and new!

But as I have said you have to question what these big corporations have been doing while the Open Source community, especially in Europe, have been making big strides in development of Linux and software in general at a fraction of the cost over the last 5 years. As I have said before if the likes of Microsoft or Apple do not embrace, rather than currently give lip service to, the Open Source community in the end both Corporations will find themselves in the cold eclipsed by people working in their own time creating both stable, easy to use and innovative software!

In conclusion Microsoft, Apple and all major Software corporations should take note of the Open Source community as it is not going away and becoming a real force in the software industry in general. What company in it’s right mind is now going to pay large amounts of money to the likes of Microsoft for licences for software when there are free equivalent  Open Source software out there which does the job as well?


Please note: If  want to see my second life journal then go to the Journal of a Spectral Traveller.

Vive La Revolution!

Well it was a nice surprise I found an interesting Twitter from someone I now cannot remember.

It seems that OpenOffice team have recreated themselves as The Document Foundation who now are creating a new OpenOffice Productivity Suite with the name Productivity Suite which is a direct descendant of Sun Systems now Oracle’s OpenOffice itself.

Those of you who are not in the know OpenOffice is, it is an Open Source Productivity Suite which includes a Word Processor and Spreadsheet which currently rivals Microsoft’s Office Suite with one major bonus in so much OpenOffice is free and in my opinion far more easier to use than Microsoft’s Office.

OpenOffice was originally developed by Sun Microsystems as an Open Source package which was taken on by Oracle when they took over Sun Microsystems since when I suspect that large majority of OpenOffice users where waiting for Oracle to pull the plug on it as like Microsoft, Oracle tend to put profits first and customers/users last!

So the formation of The Document Foundation by the OpenOffice Team came as a very pleasant surprise as it finally frees the OpenOffice Productivity Suite, be it in another name, from the clutches of large American Software House who we all suspected all along would like to charge everyone to use OpenOffice.

One other thing has also come out of this formation of this foundation it looks as if it is run by people who are largely based outside of the United States and in Europe the heartland of the new wave of Open Source Software both it’s development and use! You might say OpenOffice has come home.

So now I will start to use LibreOffice Productivity Suite by The Document Foundation and stop using Oracle’s version of OpenOffice Productivity Suite as I will support true Open Source Software as in the end we all will benefit from their work.

Myself I would urge people out there  to do the same and start to use LibreOffice Productivity Suite over OpenOffice Productivity Suite so we as a whole can encourage the growth of Open Source software and for once get decent working software we all deserve!

VIVE LA REVOLUTION!

 

Please note: If you want to see an archive of my older blog entries then go to my blog The Thoughts of Chairman Turner. Otherwise if you just want to see my second life blog then go to my blog Journal of a Spectral Traveler.