Open source software is exactly what it implies; the source code that makes it work is freely available to download, review, tweak or adapt, and pass on, subject to the terms of the licence agreement. Most such software is written and distributed under the GNU Public Licence (GPL) which is a universally accepted licence agreement for the development, amendment and distribution of open source software.
Linux is open source but not all open source is Linux, or even even Linux-compatible. It need not even be an operating system. The chances are that you're already aware of, and perhaps even using, open source software already - there are open source equivalents of Microsoft's favourites which are designed to run on Windows and address some of the perceived failings of Redmond's software development.
Arguably the most widely known suite of open source software, although many people don't perhaps actually know that it is open source, is the Mozilla internet suite; commonly referred to as Firefox (web browser) and Thunderbird (email client). Following wide-spread condemnation of the inherent security flaws in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, or more importantly, the lack of speed exercised by Redmond in addressing substantiated vulnerabilities, Firefox and it's sister product Thunderbird quickly seized a sizeable chunk of the market share, outstripping longer established alternatives.
Firefox and Thunderbird are no less prone to bugs and/or vulnerabilities but, and herein lies perhaps the most convincing argument for using open source software, they are fixed rapidly by the developers, often before the bug/vulnerability is even widely publicised - they don't wait until the monthly patch download. It's that, and the dynamic development of extensions, themes and plug-ins by third party developers that appears to have made Mozilla so popular.
Another very convincing argument for open source software is its very nature; the code is freely available and therefore it's very difficult to hide malicious code snippets in it. Something that appears to be far more prevalent in the open source than in the proprietary world is the validation of downloads using an MD5Sum. This is a simple validity check, but not infallible. If a download fails the MD5Sum check, it's usually either corrupt or tampered with and shouldn't be loaded either way.
A lesser known but equally useful open source software suite is Open Office, the free version of Sun's Star Office, cited as the main rival to Microsoft Office. Being perfectly honest, and a Power User of Microsoft's offering, it has to be said that Open Office is not ready to take on it's rival in a toe-to-toe battle royal; it lacks quite a lot of the more advanced functionality and polish.
That said, Open Office wins over its Microsoft rival on three fronts, at least for the average user:
- It's free; free to download, free to install on as many machines as you want, free to use
- It will open the files of it's rival. even though they are proprietary and closed source. It will even produce files of the same format, readable by it's rival
- It will also produce web pages and PDF (Portable Document Format) files natively, that is without having to buy additional software to do so or clear out pages of redundant code
So, you may not be ready for a whole new operating system but you like the ideas, morals and ethos behind the open source movement. You can download, install and use two suites of programs which cover off the bulk of the average users' needs, without spending an additional penny.
This post has been sparked by a couple of interesting articles posted on the BBC Technology News site, so it would be churlish not to link back to them in order that you can read an alternate viewpoint.
- BBC News Programs Click Getting the most from open source
- BBC News Technology Questions for Microsoft on open formats
More on other open source alternatives next time.
