Why open source is good

Posted February 2, 2006
Filed under: Tech |

Most people don't care about open source software. They are used to the using the software that they have on their computer, and when I mention open source alternatives I can see their interest level flatlining. But open source software isn't just for computer geeks — it's just that computer geeks are usually the only ones that are able to see why it's so valuable.

Not anymore. In this post, I'm trying to give a succint summary of why everyone should at least augment their toolkit with some open-source software. If you had to distill the case for open source down to one word, it would be "freedom." Specifically,

  • Freedom to work. If you're a knowledge worker, you create and store your life's work on a computer. If you use open-source software, you can do that work on almost any computer, anytime, anywhere. You don't have to worry about activating software or licensing.
  • Freedom to own your data. You have to save your work in some kind of format. The question is, do you want to keep it in a proprietary format that you're not guaranteed to be able to open? Or an open source format that many programs can read? If it's important to you, you'd be wise to choose the latter.
  • Freedom from expensive licensing regimes. Increasingly, software companies do not "sell" you software, they let you license it. That means that you have to keep paying them over and over just to maintain access to your intellectual property. This isn't the case with open source software. Most of it is 100% free (of charge). Burn it on a CD and you own a copy. As long as you have that copy, you can continue to view your old work and create new work.
  • Freedom to use and improve. Open source software developers form a community with those that use their applications. They are much more responsive to fixing bugs or adding/modifying features than commercial developers. And they don't make you pay for the upgrades before you can benefit from the changes that they've made. In fact, if you know how to program, you can even make your own changes to the software.

For me, these are the most important reasons to use open source applications. Sure, sometimes commercial applications are better, though sometimes not. The point of open source software is to ensure that your work remains accessible no matter what. And if you value your work, that's a pretty appealing point.