David M Williams
Wednesday, 31 December 2008 12:23
Opinion and Analysis
Page 5 of 6
Education
It’s not only businesses who should pay attention to open source software.
High schools around the world have benefited from Linux deployments and
pre-schools can too.
Still, in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, the
state Government is presently looking at $AUD 500 laptops for senior high school students. To me, that spells Linux netbooks. Hardware expressions of interest close in mid January and it will be very interesting to see the submissions put forth – as well as to see if Microsoft are proposing slashed licensing to fend off any Linux advancement.
Why open source makes sense
There are good reasons you should opt for open source software. Fundamental above all else is you have transparency. Nobody can plant a virus in an open source package and get away with it. To illustrate, G-Archiver was a proprietary $US 29.95 shareware app that backed up your Gmail account. Oh, and by the way, it also e-mailed your Gmail username and password to the developer.
This wouldn’t have happened in an open source app.
Another crucial argument is that of democracy. If we all used electronic voting machines could you have assurance the victor was correctly declared? Such a statement may sound alarmist but it genuinely transpired that
Diebold counting software in the U.S. has been miscounting ballots for four years.
Such a thing wouldn’t happen in an open source system. Open source provides transparency and openness and with that confidence in its outputs.
If you’re keen to take up the cause of open source software you can join in many great projects or start your own. You don’t need to be a programmer: artists, marketers, ideas people, testers, passionate advocates are
all part of the team! It’s
easy enough to meet each other.
Heck, a survey even found that
open source programmers earn more than their proprietary colleagues and help combat trade deficit!
To be honest, if you aren’t enamoured with open source software then it’s possible you just don’t “grok” it. Do you
grok open source?
Netbooks –
page 1
Software releases, Windows Vista and open source advocacy –
page 2
The war against Microsoft’s war against Linux –
pages 3 and 4
Why Small Business Server sucks and Linux alternatives –
page 4
Education, why open source makes sense –
page 5
Hard-core tech, festive fun and 2009! -
page 6
