robotgeek

//Even if you are not a geek, please go on and read this blog post. Or atleast look at the links on the bottom of the post, especially the “Digital Imprimatur” one. //

Since I spend so much time on Free Software, and it’s a topic very close to my heart, I though I should post my thoughts (again) about Free Software. Not Open Source, but Free Software. The end product might be the same, but the philosophies are wide apart. The Free Software movement aims to preserve the users freedom, the Open Source movement considers it to be superlative method of developing code(where more eyes see less bugs).

I love the freedom it has given me. If I want to modify something to my preference, the source code is out there. And yes, I have done it on more than one occasion.

I love that I can file bugs on packages, talk directly to the guy/team who has written the program and get it fixed. This works because the programmer who has written the code has written cause he likes what he is doing. Try doing this with your favorite proprietary software company. I bet that you will be put on hold.

I love the fact it ‘just works’. This might be a suprising claim, but it has been that way for me. It was not that way initially, but like all Free Software, it’s bound to get better with time as more people join the movement. For instance, Ubuntu works with my mac ibook very nicely. Almost everything works just as it should, discounting proprietary formats which I do not use.

I love it that anyone can translate it to his/her language. This might not be a very important thing for you, but remember that English is not the only language in the world, and there are others too. Imagine if farmers/others in India/other could get on the internet and use it their betterment, all without having to learn English.

I love the fact that my data is in a open standard (either text or xml), not a proprietary closed format for which I have to upgrade my application and be locked into their proprietary formats forever. For example, Word/Pro-E files (Most of these get reverse engineered since).

I love the fact that Free Software has started a new free culture, where we can share our code, ideas, writing.

I hope that this goes on to develop into a culture where anyone can access knowledge of any kind, without restrictions placed on it. A good starting point is the MIT Open Courseware, where you don’t pay for the information, but for the privilege of sitting in a MIT class room, and getting taught by the teachers.

I hope that we soon get open hardware standards so that I can mess with the hardware I paid good money for. This would make projects like [[http://linux-bcom4301.sourceforge.net/ Broadcom Reverse Engineering]] unnecessary. Already companies like Atheros and Ralink have implemented this, and also sun with it’s Open Sparc project.

All the above talk must have led you to wonder. What happens to proprietary software companies? This part I haven’t really thought through, at least to make reasonable conclusions. One options could be supporting software, or a feature based product (you pay for what you want). The other ugly option is that they will implement stuff like DRM, and TPM to lock you in. See the Digital Primartur link below.

We do live in interesting times.

**Read More**
~- http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html
~- http://opencollector.org/Whyfree/
~- http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/
~- http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
~- http://www.ubuntulinux.org
~- http://linux-bcom4301.sourceforge.net
~- http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html