The future is open source

Mozilla Firefox, one of the worlds leading browsers

Close your eyes and let your imagination run wild. Imagine a world that granted you the power to extend your creativity farther than ever before. A world where opportunity was more abundant than ever, and there were a greater number of resources at your disposal. A world where everyone in it had endless potential.

Now open your eyes. Slowly but surely, that imagination is transforming itself into reality. That reality is being driven by an ever-growing movement of computer users worldwide. The move to Open Source software.

We’ve noted, many times before, Microsoft Excel’s open source alternative, OpenOffice’s Calc. But what other open source alternatives are there? An alternative to Microsoft Word? Try OpenOffice’s Writer. An open source alternative to Photoshop? Try GIMP.  There are even open source alternatives to Microsoft Windows (ever heard of a neat little thing called Linux?).

What makes it even better is that, because the source code used to create programs is open and free, anyone is free to modify the source code themselves.  This means there are often many different features added by other users – and these can help you to improve your experience. The best example of this is the browser, Mozilla Firefox. With scripts in Firefox being so easy for people to create and modify, there are literally thousands of small extensions that can be added to the browser if the user desires, allowing you to enhance your browsing experience.  Eric here hasn’t seen an intrusive online ad in a long time, thanks to the Adblock Plus plugin.

But that’s not the only advantage. As most open source software is offered for free (many open source projects run on donations), it allows greater opportunity for those growing up in poorer areas of society. Suddenly, the large costs often associated with proprietary software are not so much of a barrier anymore, allowing for significant reductions in crime and illiteracy.  By running open source software, the cost of a new computer can sometimes be reduced by a good 40%:  running Linux instead of Microsoft Windows, OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, and ClamAV instead of your normal antivirus program of choice – that could easily be a saving of five hundred bucks!

Richard Stallman (‘rms’), free software advocate

So who – or what – do we have to thank for all of this? For the most part, we have to thank a man named Richard Stallman (otherwise known as ‘rms’), who has been one of the main advocates for the free (free as in freedom, not monetary terms) software movement. In 1989 rms created a copyleft (a play on the word copyright, where it requires a program and any additional versions of that program to be kept free) license known as the General Public License (GPL)  The GPL was designed to protect the right of individuals to copy, distribute, and modify the source code of any open source software created under the terms of the license. It also protects the software from being exploited for financial gain, so that everyone has a right to experience its benefits. The GPL has been revised over time, with the third version of the license being used at the moment.

Like anything in life, there are also drawbacks to the use of open source software. One of the larger drawbacks that we face is that of abandoned projects – often, if we’re looking for a tool to solve a particular problem, we can easily find three or four open source projects started already.

Unfortunately, because many open source solutions start out as a lone programmer in the night, these smaller projects are often abandoned once the original writer reaches their desired outcome; leaving future visitors faced with an incomplete program and nobody to help.  Fortunately, these are easy to spot.  If you’re considering adopting an open source package, look at its stats:  was the last update in early 2006?  is it still in alpha stage?  does it have a community of active users, or do the forums only contain one dusty comment from a long-forgotten poster?

These are all signs to indicate that a project may have been abandoned.  This is not to say that they should always be avoided – sometimes there’s still enough there to make things work fine – they’re just items to consider.

Many people feel that, because the source code is freely available, that hackers would have an easy time to locate and utilise security vulnerabilities for their own nefarious goals:  Since anyone is able to see the code, potential attackers are given free range to dissect every mechanism in the program to find their “attack vectors”.

There is still concern that the freely available code of open source software could leave it vulnerable to internet attacks

However, this argument falls short due to a couple of key features of the open source community:  freely-displayed source code enables more people to view the code, yes.  However many of these are white-hat security professionals, who work day and night to identify and report security vulnerabilities in products that they use.  When a bug is spotted, it is often announced loudly and openly to those who maintain the codebase, allowing them to patch the issue before it is used to compromise safety.  The sheer numbers of participants also helps because of the old adage “many hands make light work”.  When a vulnerability is posted, anyone is able to create a solution (called a patch), and submit it to the code maintainers.  The maintainers then check the code to ensure it’s suitable, and merge it into the codebase.  Thus the problem is patched within days or even hours.  Closed-source applications often suffer patch cycles of months, sometimes years.

So there is just a brief overview of the phenomenon that is open source software. Though it does have its flaws, it is most certainly a suitable alternative to proprietary software, and can even perform better than proprietary software in some cases. Little or no cost, regular updates, a wide range of support, and almost endless customisation – with the many benefits that open source software provides, why not take the leap? You never know, it may just provide that little extra help to turn your imagination into reality.