Free Software Alternative, The

Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Winter 2006 by Gualtieri, Devlin M

The primary advantage of using Microsoft Office is the ability to share documents because some file formats are kept proprietary by Microsoft. This practice has essentially kept a stranglehold on its user base. According to Reuters, Microsoft Office products accounted for $2.7 billion of its $9.7 billion revenue in the third quarter of 2005 and nearly half of its operating income. Yet Microsoft's advantage here is begining to erode. Late in 2005, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts endorsed open standards in the storage of office documents by mandating the use of the Open Document Format for its government business. This format is a proposed international standard for text, spreadsheet, and presentation documents. Such an open-file-storage standard promotes an easy sharing of documents across operating systems and application programs. The city of Paris has begun migrating its 46,000 employees and 17,000 computers to Open Office.

Open-file standards are an important step in keeping free software viable, but software patents are emerging as a major problem. Corporations have increasingly pursued software patents to maintain their proprietary positions. Software patents have been granted on extremely simple ideas, and free software advocates believe that this activity is stifling software innovation. Amazon.com, as one example, has been especially active in pursuing software patents. It was granted a "one-click" online-shopping patent that forced other online merchants to modify their online stores. Amazon recently was granted patents on consumer reviews of products and recommendations of related items, such as DVD documentaries on the same topic as a selected book. In response to the threat of software patents, the Open Source Development Laboratory, a consortium of companies interested in the future of Linux, has started a patent-commons library. Corporations such as IBM and Intel had pledged collectively more than five hundred patents to the commons library by the end of 2005. Future threats to free software include content-copyright protection standards that may be proprietary to certain operating systems. These standards would force users to adopt a particular operating system to download music, books, or other content.

Is Linux ready for all home computer users? At this point it probably is not. Some boxed Linux distributions are now available at low cost that offer easier installation than pulling everything for free from the Internet. However, Linux is best installed only if you have some nontrivial computer or programming experience, or if you have a generous neighbor or relative who does. Not all things that work in Windows will work in Linux. Many manufacturers of printers, scanners, and cameras, for example, write their device software only for Windows. Experienced programmers have written substitute programs for Linux for the most popular devices, but not for all of them. I am able to use my PDA in Linux but not an inexpensive scanner that I purchased. The Internet is full of Linux message boards where users post problems and others post solutions, but most of this information can be understood only by a knowledgeable computer programmer. Fortunately, you do not need to use Linux to take advantage of the most important free software. Windows versions of Open Office, GIMP, FireFox, and Thunderhird are available for free on the Internet. I have installed these on my Windows computer at work, and I can verify that they work as well as the Linux versions. Besides, who can argue with free?