Open
This post will not be covering anything particularly new, but I wanted to post about why I use open source software.
I have been a Linux user for years now. For a while I slipped into an Windows only environment I admit, but that was during a time when I thought the application support for Linux wasn’t up to the task of fufilling my needs.
However, I then came across an article written by a gentleman who was afraid that if he remained married to the Windows platform, sometime in the future Microsoft would basically force him to pay to access his own data because the file formats were closed. A light bulb went off in my head. I was using Outlook for my mail, Office for my documents, and, ugh, Internet Explorer because Netscape 4.7 was horrid. I immediately started moving my work, my information, my stuff, over to linux. I stopped using Outlook and started using Evolution. I bought a copy of Staroffice to deal with documents and such. And I started using Netscape on linux again. All my data was moved over into formats I could be sure would be open years in the future.
Now, years later, my Windows box is relegated to being a mixer for all my computer’s sound output and hosting the occasional Civilization III game. I use Firefox for browsing, Thunderbird for email, Gaim for instant messaging, and OpenOffice.org for my documents and such. It all works beautifully, and I know I’m using safe formats. Since OpenOffice 2.0 came out, I’ve moved everything over to the OpenDocument format, which means my documents now conform to an emerging ISO standard.
My setup would also work perfectly fine on a Windows box too. All the applications I listed are available for Windows.
To me, this has been the power and value of Open Source. There is great, free, and open software out there for people to use, and there is no longer any need to use anything from Microsoft for 90% of computer tasks. Does any student in highschool really need a copy of Word or Works? What about the parents who do their budgeting on a spreadsheet? Wouldn’t OpenOffice.org Calc work just fine? Of course it would. Open Source software creates all sorts of oppurtunities for people to really put computers to work. I will always be a big fan of the value Open Source has brought us.
