Why I Love Linux and FOSS
It embraces all of the important freedoms-- the freedom to create, share, invent, collaborate, learn, and change, all without penalties or artificial barriers.
It promotes transparency and accountability.
Everyone can play.
It promotes honesty.
It is a powerful force against tyranny.
It is a powerful force against shoddiness, and a powerful force for quality.
It doesn't force me to choose between my important personal principals and a paycheck.
Its success does not depend on people being stupid or deceived.
It brings people together from all over the planet.
It benefits everyone, even its enemies.
It is the one and and only savior from a rapacious, proprietary, locked-down micro-managed intrusive computing landscape.
It opens doors everywhere.
It rewards skill, ingenuity, and willingness to learn.
It rewards cooperation.
It doesn't provide hiding places for guilty parties to hide.
It succeeds on its own merits.
It puts powerful tools in the hands of anyone who wants to learn how to use them.
It accomodates all skill ranges, from beginner to guru.
It does not support pretense.
That's about all I can think of for now. Why do you love Linux and FOSS?
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The first thing I do when I sit at my computer everyday is to check out the latest articles in my favorite feeds and every now and then I come across a keeper that just begs to be spread far and wide. This particular post by Carla Schroder at Linux To... Read More
Because they suit my style.
Because the basic assumption is that the user is a friend.
Proprietary software's basic assumption is that I am enemy.
As for Linux (though most of these fit to FOSS in general too):
Because it works.
It's empowering.
It's from each according to his ability, to each according to his need (and no, I dont mean to mix political views into this, the sentence just works here).
With all of it's complexity, power user (and beyond) capabilities, etc. it is also very easy (if wanted) and very very light :)
What's not to love?
Because GNU/Linux and FOSS promotes freedom of choice. Not having the unfortunate circumstance of limited decision and dealing with bloated systems that fail me at each turn is my idea of that freedom.
For all the reasons you give, Carla, the use of FOSS is a no brainer for any person wishing to improve the human condition. What I have trouble understanding is why some people don't see any value in such ideals. Some even actively reject them and find nothing wrong with promoting artificial scarcity. I tend to think this is a result of our capitalistic society.
You wrote:
Its success does not depend on people being stupid or deceived.
Thinking people need no further evidence, reason - motivation.
Carla's tribute to FOSS hit all the good stuff, but the bad stuff also needs to be pointed out.
Here is a more balanced picture, IMO.
FOSS benefits for software developers:
- create programs
- modify programs created by others
- publish programs for others to use and modify
- work with less fear of patents and copyrights
- share knowledge and benefit from shared knowledge
FOSS benefits for software end-users:
- use any FOSS program at no cost
- choose from competing applications meeting almost any need
- participate in open forums to learn and share skills
Other FOSS benefits:
- crapware cannot be propagated by marketing hype
- real innovation tends to be recognized and copied
- keen competition among rivals keeps things moving forward
FOSS problems:
- accountability is mainly pride of authorship, and some proud
authors create bugs that endure months without being fixed
- 10 ways to do everything (quality varies)
- no overall coordinated plan leads to gaps and 5th wheels
- creative freedom sometimes leads to chaos
- volunteers treasure their freedom, are hard to manage
- standardization committees too weak, fractured, slow
- hard to make software compatible with many Linux flavors
- user support based on web forums and volunteer experts
(effectiveness varies)
- some programs need fussing with arcane configuration files
or simply do not work for mysterious reasons
- FOSS promoters are less than forthright about these issues
Proprietary software benefits:
- free market competition and profit motive can be very
effective drivers of innovation and quality
- user guides are paper booklets instead of web documents
- telephone and web support included in price
- normally installs and runs without problems
Proprietary software problems:
- marketing hype sometimes substitutes for substance (vista)
- often overpriced (vista + office + photoshop > $1000)
- proprietary standards and user lock-in (windows, mac)
- pollution of public standards for competitive advantage
- lack of honest quality referees (paid-for analytic reports,
publications with ads from sellers of reviewed products)
- monopoly power of Microsoft has kept their profits high
despite extensive quality and security problems
- Microsoft power is focused on eliminating competitors
by means other than free market competition
- Microsoft has huge security problems and apparently has
little motivation or capability to fix this
- users must forever spend time and money to combat malware
I just spent 10+ hours working on an old Dell, put in a new hard drive, reinstalled Windows (twice), tried to get online, tried to figure out why nothing was working, looked for and installed drivers, even called a friend who is a tech who told me to buy a new computer. Then I spent 1 hour downloading (on another computer, of course), burning, and installing Linux. Instantly everything worked. I didn't even have to configure my modem. I am in LOVE.
Very well said!
I Love Linux because it offers me choice. It gives me the power and freedom to choose not only what I use, but how I use it. Products that stifle choice and competition are simply not going to be as good as those that foster them.