Software Freedom Day

This is the first annual Software Freedom Day. If you've never used free software before, today's the day to try it. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) comes with the right to use it for any purpose, including commercial use. Anyone has the right and access to examine the programs' designs, in the form of source code, and make any changes he or she may wish to make. Anyone can redistribute the software to others, either in the original form or with modifications. If you have no interest in source code, you may ask why its availability matters. One reason is that the release of source allows other self-interested users who understand source code to inspect the inner workings of the program, which means that you can be confident that the program treats your private data with care. Simply surfing the 'Net can show you that the most privacy- and security-conscious folks in the world frequently run FOSS, because they can know for themselves that the source code is robust. Another reason is that proprietary software often creates a problem by hiding your own data in a proprietary, "secret" file format, which means that you may eventually be forced to upgrade to newer versions of that software to retain access to your data. This does not happen with FOSS, because when the source code for opening and saving files is available, a third party can easily write an import filter for the next generation of software, ensuring that your data will always be available. Finally, the release of source code has in some cases spawned large communities of volunteer developers who have in turn provided the world with highly useful, and entirely free software such as GNU/Linux, OpenOffice, and Mozilla. These are then available free of charge to schools or anyone else who may not have a large budget available for software. So, freedom of software is important for everyone, not just software developers.