One of the coolest things I discovered my freshman year in
college was a new operating system for my computer, Linux. Having grown up a Windows user I was only ever exposed
to the dogma of proprietary software. In
my complete ignorance I believed that all software was owned by the companies
such as Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe. In my
search for programs I looked to these mentioned names paying ridiculous amounts
of money to use their products. This all
changed thanks to a certain Penguin.
Running a Linux system for the first time left me in quite a
state of shock. All the software for it
was free to use developed and supported by the community!
Problems in this free software were constantly being looked after online, and the
source code was available for anyone who wanted to add to it. I started learning about Open Source and the projects
such as GNU which stress free code. GNU in particular makes it a binding
contract with users allowing them to use their software for free as long as the
software stays that way.
Today, after seeing my fair share of code I now understand the
importance of Open Source. It pushes
proprietary software to stay fresh or be replaced. There are some disadvantages to Open Source
though. A program is only as good as it
is maintained. Where companies will
maintain their legacy software, when an open source project loses the support
of the community it can become useless. An
example of this is libraries for programming languages. If the languages keeps updating but a library does not stay maintained, the library become obsolete and no longer functions properly with respect
to the new language.
In the end, I believe Open Source software is pivotal to the
success of computer science going forward.
Open Source programs have been instrumental in my education as well as
many others. Offering everything from languages like Java, to free operating systems such as Linux, Open Source ideas have changed the way programs and knowledge is shared.
As an end note, as
important and cool as I think Open Source projects are I still believe that
companies should charge for programs on the basis that I want to code for a
living and I hope to get paid for doing it!
First of all, I like the title you come up with. In this post, it is very informative and nice experience you have on the Linux. I am also one of big fans on Linux. The most amazing thing I learnt in Linux is about its security. “ Walls and flexible file access permission systems prevent access by unwanted visitors or viruses. " When I was using Windows, I always got trouble with system crush and update problems, but after I used Mac, every single problem about system crush has gone. By the way, very good English writing skills and technical writing. Also best blog I has reviewed in this week.
ReplyDeleteHi Joseph,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog post quite interesting. To be honest I have not thought of Open Source in that way, of how it pushes its proprietary software counterparts to continually stay “fresh or be replaced.” You also point out a very prominent disadvantage of Open Source which is that it can die and become obsolete when its community dies. As a newbie to Open Source I find myself wondering how its community stays alive through long periods of time. It certainly must be passion projects the ones involved. I like how you projected your feelings of Open Source in your post.
Great job on your blog post!
Very well written post! I too did not know about open source until I came to the university. I liked the in depth explanation you gave as to how open source programs survive and how the can possibly “die.” You presented both the pros and cons of open source, which I find great because you are giving your readers the chance to make their own decision about open source software.
ReplyDeleteI very much like your story about how you got into using open-source software. The information about the GNU license is very helpful to know. Your reasoning about why proprietary software companies are still alive is very thoughtful. The analogy between open source software and libraries in a programming language is also very interesting. I think you should not worry too much about not getting paid because of open source software. That's because companies that use these software usually charge customers by the services they provided, not the software.
ReplyDelete