Software is one of the biggest and most expensive nuisances when buying a new computer. New copies of useful programs like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop can total up to hundreds of dollars in extra costs. But what if it were possible to get the same functionality or better, for free?
It's not piracy. It's the open-source movement. While open-source has been around for years, recently the use and creation of open-source software has grown immensely. It is now possible to find open-source alternatives to satisfy many different needs.
Open-source projects can originate with groups of programmers, non-profit organizations, or even established corporations. The principle of open-source dictates that software source code be available for users to build upon, to customize, and for them to make their own contributions. Generally, open-source software is available free of charge.
One recently successful program is Mozilla Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox). The wildly popular Web browser, originally released by the Mozilla Foundation in 2004, is the closest competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer (which comes bundled with Windows), currently commanding 15 percent market share, according to a recent industry report.
The efficiently designed browser touts the ability for users to choose from over 2,000 different add-ons available from the Mozilla Web site that do everything from block advertisements to check Facebook.
OpenOffice.org is, as the name would suggest, a full open-source suite of office programs. Every program a student ever needs is in here, from a writing program to a presentation creator similar to PowerPoint. The suite was originally developed by Sun Microsystems and was aimed solely at providing a free alternative to Microsoft Office. It is compatible with and can save files as any Microsoft Office format.
It has become so popular that Microsoft now makes a compatibility pack to open OpenOffice.org files in its own program.
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulator Program, www.gimp.org) is a powerful image-editing program, much like Photoshop. While it lacks some tools, most users concur that it is perfect for most personal uses. Though the interface is slightly confusing and some functionality just isn't there, when Photoshop can be found online for $85 or more, it's a perfect alternative.
One of the most prominent examples of the open-source movement, however, is Linux. The open-source operating system "kernel," created in 1991 by Finnish engineer Linus Torvalds, has spun dozens of derivative software builds over the years. While there are other open-source operating systems, Linux is by far the most widely used.
Currently, the most popular version of Linux for desktop users is Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com). It has seen such a wide adoption since its introduction in 2004 that computer manufacturer Dell recently announced plans to sell desktops and laptops with Ubuntu pre-loaded onto them, instead of Windows.
For those worried about the effects of switching operating systems, it's not that big a problem. Programs such as Wine (www.winehq.org) allow users to run Windows programs on Linux and similar systems.
As the open-source community continues to grow, the software will become more refined. The software industry is slowly moving in a new direction where someday, individual users will be more in charge of the direction a project takes than the original designers. However, the end result for the casual user, is free, dependable software.
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