Open Source Software; A Rough Guide

As a quick thought, I thought I’d best mention Open Source Software, at some point.

The first Mac I got – my aging and long since gone G4 – I got second hand, and came with a then current copy of Ubuntu Linux, possibly one of the best known Open-Source operating systems* around.  It was also – for me, as a home user – very easy to use and interact with.

Amazingly, Ubuntu was free; – all I had to pay for was the Mac.

Which surprised me, not being as ‘au fait’ with the various bits and bobs floating around the tech scene, other the past few years.

What I learnt was that open source software is usually given away free, along with the  underlying source code – the program itself.

And, unlike closed source proprietary systems like Mac OS X, or Windoze — which, if I’ve understood what I’ve read of the End User License Agreements, are still technically owned by Apple, or Microsoft, regardless of the fact you own the computer their OS is on — you’re free to give away copies of open source software, or make changes to it, as needed.   You own your copy of an open source operating system, and can happily change it, as needed, and give copies away.   So long as you tell people what you’ve changed, and where you got the original software from, you’re usually ok if I’ve understood things correctly.

Now, there’s pros and cons to to both closed and open source ways of doing things.   And others can take you through that argument, much better than I can.   A very good place to start is at the Free Software Foundation, to give you just one example, or Ubuntu’s home page.   On top of that comedian, author and all round Egghead, Stephen Fry, is rather good at explaining it.   A lot better at it than I am.   I’ve also put a link to the relevant Wikipedia page, here.

But what caught me, and I believe will get the attention of anyone else on a budget, is the word ‘FREE’.

The various open source projects out there don’t want money from you, in other words.   (Although many of them will politely ask for a small, optional donation, though)

It’s not just operating systems, either.   There’s other open source software, too.   Web-browsers, games, office suites, email clients, media players, the list is endless.

I could go on!

But let me cut to the chase, and give you some links to the more popular and better known pieces of open-source stuff.   I’ve already included a link to Ubuntu, earlier.

You can download the Firefox web-browser here.   The security and privacy features on it are very good.

You can download OpenOffice.org from here.   (It’s a seriously good, and free alternative to MS Office.   Although I’d recommend my fellow Mac user’s to look at NeoOffice, from here, as I’ve found it to be a touch faster and more responsive.)

And you can download the open source media player, vlc, from here.   I tend to use iTunes for most of my music – the playlists functions are better organized, I find – but, for watching video, vlc can handle a lot more formats, and can transcode beautifully.

If you’d like to have a look at others, check out Sourceforge, the directory of open source projects, here.

Now, I love the stuff I can do with me Mac Mini, and I’m hoping to be able to pick a copy of iWork, when my finances allow.

But I will urge all of us on a budget to look at open source projects,  first.

There is a recession on.

And I don’t like spending money, unless I have to, either.

*   Just so you know, an operating system – like Mac OS X, whatever version of Windoze you happen to use, or the various flavours of GNU/Linuxº doing the rounds – is what lets you interact with your computer.   It lets you Operate your Systemª.   It tells the computer what to do when you press a button on the keyboard, move the mouse around, plug something into a USB port, or click on an on-screen icon.

º   That rather cuddly penguin is called Tux, by the way, and is the Linux logo.   It’s the Linux parallel to the little picassotron OS X smiley, or Windoze flag.

ª   Can you spell ‘Electron’?   Of course you can!   Sorry, I can never resist that!!