Free Software
I am a free software enthusiast!
Free software is free in the sense that use and distribution of source
code is unrestricted. It is also often free in the sense that it costs
no money. Some of the advantages for users of free software are...
- You can port it to whatever system you have.
- You can fix small problems quickly.
- You can implement your own additions to the software.
- You can benefit from other peoples' fixes and additions.
- You can incorporate portions of the software in other applications.
Most free software is maintained by someone, often the original author.
When you change the software, you can send your changes to the
maintainer who may include them in later versions of the software. This
is how free software packages improve and grow. You can also write
software from scratch and then make it freely available.
If you are using or creating software, you should check what is and
isn't allowed. There are several types of free
software that you may encounter.
There are many free software packages available on the internet. I have
a personal top ten list of favourite free
software and I have even written some free
software of my own.