Tech Talk: Open Source Software
 | Author:
Victor Sample
Vic Sample: MT43 News Treasurer |
Tech Talk
Open Source Software
My first professional programming job was with the Montana Power Company in 1977. At that time IBM Mainframes were the most used computers in the world; personal computers were strictly for hobbyists. Companies “bought” software to run on the IBM mainframes (they really just bought the right to use the software) and then paid an extra fee to get maintenance for the software. The maintenance agreement allowed them to get access to customer support and fixes for any problems they encountered and also to get new releases. Software products and maintenance agreements generally ran tens of thousands of dollars.
When PCs suddenly burst onto the computing scene in the early 1980s the software model changed. PC software products were much cheaper, sometimes less than $100. The software companies made money selling high volumes of software. Generally speaking, there was no “maintenance”. You just lived with problems until the next release and then bought the new release.
In the 1990s a new software model appeared – open source software. The Linux Operating System (I wrote about that in an earlier article) that provided a Unix operating system on PCs was free. Then the internet became a worldwide phenomenon. Netscape was one of the first widely used browsers and you had to buy it but soon, browsers proliferated and were free. Microsoft provided Internet Explorer with Windows. If you bought a PC with Windows you got the browser for free.
The internet ushered in a new set of software that was free: Java, Javascript and PHP are all computer programming languages that were free to download and were used to build websites. The Apache web server software used to power many websites is free. WordPress used to manage websites is free. A multitude of new computer languages were being created and all were free to download. The software tools for programmers to use programming languages were made available for free downloads. Several database software products were offered as free downloads.
To be sure, not all software is offered for free. Many small businesses here in Townsend use Quickbooks – and it is definitely not free. However, most software products that have to be purchased have free alternatives. Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint) is not free. But Libre is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. Libre offers alternative programs to do word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and create publications. While there are differences Libre is very compatible with Microsoft Office.
Many of you already use free software: Gmail and Thunderbird are free email clients that a lot of people in town use. You should definitely think about using the Free software. I use quite a bit of open source software: Microsoft Visual Studio, Libre Office, Paint.net, video editing software, image conversion software, etc. Almost any task that I want to do I can find Open Source software for free.
Open Source, free software can save you a lot of money but be careful! You are downloading software onto your PC and that opens you up to installing MALWARE. Before you download any software you need to do research. Do your due diligence to make sure the software is reputable and that the download site is reputable.
