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I am an avid supporter of free software for various reasons. Mainly because
I personally have gained so much from having come into contact with it.
I no longer have to spend exportionate amounts of money to get hold of
compilers for C/C++, Ada, Java you name it. I no longer have to pay even
for my operating system (as it is free software). These days free software
is available to do almost anything that commercial vendors provide except for
free. For me, this has allowed me to learn, and develop my computer
skills without paying for lots of expensive software. I have even
contributed to the free software movement in the form of my own computer game
and by helping develop code on other free software projects such as the
Freeciv project.
Do you mean free as in freedom, or free as in costing nothing? Both...usually. Free software comes under a license called the GPL (General Public License). This is an excellent license that enables the code that you write to be kept open and free forever. It is a breach of license for a company to take code that you write and generate a product without making the source code for that product available. There has been a little controversy over if this license is fair, but to be perfectly honest, if a company doesn't want to abide by the rules of a license then it should just develop its own version (this is true of all licenses). What operating systems are available for free? Lots, although probably best known is the Linux operating system. There are many Linux distributions including RedHat Linux, Suse Linux, Turbo Linux...the list goes on, but they are all based on the Linux kernel and a large number of utility programs that are part of a set of tools known as GNU which starts for "Gnu's Not Unix" (which is a recursive definition). GNU and Linux systems are commonly referred to as GNU/Linux systems because they are based on GNU, but use a Linux kernel. Other GNU systems exist such as GNU/Hurd, which you'd correctly assume uses a Kernel called Hurd. Hurd is based on a better architecture than Linux, but is as yet quite immature and is not as wide spread as Linux...yet! The various distributions are ok if you are new to the whole thing and can make getting set up nice and easy, but if you want pure and simple unix compliance then I would certainly suggest trying Slackware. Many distributions have GUI's trying to simplify all the configuration processes. In my experience however I find that many of these have been bolted on and are quite error prone. I much prefer using a simple Unix like distribution such as Slackware where I can simply edit configuration files (and how to do this is usually very well documented). A great source of info when using Linux is the Linux Documentation Project. Are software patents harmful to free software? Very much so, the reasons for this are explained very well in a speech made by Richard Stallman (founder of the Free Software Foundation). Software patents are also harmful to small businesses as large corperations use them to wipe out competition. In England the majority of the ecomomy is made up of small to medium sized companies. Software patents in this country would be extremely harmful. Where can I get hold of free software? There are lots of places to get hold of free software that you can try today, even if you have a non free operating system. To begin with you can get software from the Free Software Foundation webpage (they have a directory of free software from compilers to graphics tools). If you want to get yourself a free operating system then you can get cheap Linux CD's from Max Tux. |
Support free software 
Slackware is great! Accept no nonsense! 
Freeciv is a great game, and its free software 
The GIMP is an excellent free graphics package |