Free Software is Good, m'Kay

A few days ago a story was posted to FSDaily with the assuming title of "Can we please stop fighting FUD with FUD?" from Free Software Magazine. The gist of the article is the author's opinion that some, especially new, free software users have a habit of spreading FUD (Fear Uncertainty & Doubt) when comparing it to proprietary software.

In some ways he is right. Free Software usually wins on it's merits, if not it's philosophy. But I want to comment on a few of his statements.

If you’re to going run down Microsoft products then you need to be specific. What products suck, why and how do they suck?

Whoa, this may require more space than I really want to devote.

I see a lot of this type of thing that simply shows the proponent has rarely used the product in question. Aside from that, is this really a good argument to make?

It is a great argument, if the ways proprietary software sucks could easily be improved if it was released as free software.

Are we really going to be so arrogant as to imply that free software doesn’t suck at all? By running down the opposition aren’t we implying there are no issues with “our” software?

Excellent point, some free software does suck or has issues or both.
The only problem with this being that when we or someone else complains about how or why free software sucks, someone (the developers, you or anyone else) can come along and address those issues.

The article concludes by throwing down the gauntlet.

I—for one—would like to see more blogs and comments on why free software is good rather than why Microsoft is bad. So let’s start here. Your task is complete the sentence “Free software is good because…” in less than 50 words.

I pick up your gauntlet Mr Cartwright and offer my answer. Ahem...

Free Software is good because it offers you choices unavailable with proprietary software. It also eliminates vendor lock-in, patch dependence, forced upgrades, and per user license policing.

28 Words.

I would like to expound on the word choices above. These Choices or Freedoms give you the ability to :

Study the source code to learn how portions of the software work.

Modify the source code to adapt to your circumstances or fix problems.

Modify the source code to create new works and even compete with the original work.

Distribute the software freely, given that you follow the licensing terms.

Anyone who writes for Free Software Magazine already knows these points, but he felt it necessary to ask for them to be written, rather than write them again. I'm going to join Ryan Cartwright and ask that we all stop the FUD.

I mean really, hasn't Microsoft been through enough?

MrCopilot

Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games part2 RTS

Part 2 of the ongoing Open Source Gamer's Guide to Free Games. Up this time: A tour around the Free RTS gaming world. Including Dark Oberon, Globulation, WarZone 2100 and more.

Read More @ AC
Printable Version


After writing this article, I spent a little time at the upcoming StarCraft 2 website. Thus showing how far we have to go to catch up. The website alone should be considered a template on how to describe an RTS.

MrCopilot

Quick Review:Damn Small Linux 4.1

Also Published Today:

Damn Small Linux 4.1 - "Damn, that IS a small operating system" is not something you hear everyday*, After using DSL 4.1, you may just hear yourself saying it. The goal of the Damn Small Linux (DSL) project is to pack as much open source goodness in the form of a fully functional desktop operating system onto a business card cd. Additionally, DSL is designed to run on older "obsolete" hardware. DSL's current system requirements are as low as a 486 with 16MBs of RAM. You might think that it must be terribly crippled due to these constraints, but you would be wrong. After booting you'll be browsing the web, listening to music and playing games in no time at all.

*As an embedded linux engineer, I actually hear it quite often.

Read More @ AC
Printable Version

Open Source Gamer's Guide to Free Gaming part 1

Free Quake: Open Source Gamer's Guide to Free Games

Open Source Video Games have come a long way in the last few years. This series of articles looks at the current state of games in the Free or Open Source World.

Part 1 focuses on Adaptations and Modifications of Id's GPL'd Quake Engines.




Read More @ AC
Printable Version
Sorry, AC has removed the ability to link to the Printable Version, Just look for the Printer Icon


With looks at Tremulous, Warsow, Nexuiz, and 5 more of the Best Open Source Quakers, it's easy to see the strong base idtech provides the community.

Part 2: Real Time Strategy
MrCopilot

Tech Gifts for the Holidays

Tech for Techs

This list is geared toward gift ideas for that techie friend or loved one in your life who is always ready to help you out when your computer or Internet goes down. Rather than a sweater, or gift card, Why not surprise them with a gift they actually want?

Read More @ AC
Printable Version

Also Known as My Christmas List. Anyone feeling Generous?

Get me, I'm a columnist.

Tech Articles:

After much thought and deliberation, a decision was reached to start writing thoughts down for the world to read all in one place.

Just to over analyze things, lets take another look at that sentence.

"much thought and deliberation"
A good week of discussions with all involved parties (mostly on the economic impact it would have on the "organization") was undertaken befor coming to this decision.

"Start writing thoughts down all in one place."
Heretofore tiny snippets of thought were left at various random places. Seemed a bit inefficient, looking for that thought at some later time. Would be useful to have one spot to catalog and retrieve those thoughts. Blogging would seem the perfect fit, but the format is far too freeform and Unfocused. Above all, these thoughts need to be focused, useful, and prepared for consumption. There is the economic angle as well, if these thoughts are useful then they are a commodity. How best to capitalize on these thoughts. Some people do it with advertising, few do it well, most do far to much. I prefer not to get involved. Although a great place to catalog them, this blog is not the place to house those thoughts. I don't want this place crawling with advertising. I think, 1 Google Adsense box should be good enough for any blog.

Associated Content was chosen as that place. From time to time, you will see announcements for articles on topics of technical interest. Articles are written for those who may be new to the subject matter. Posts will link to both the original AC page as well as the printable version. New articles will also appear in the MrCopilot@AC ticker above.

MrCopilot