Free Open Source Software

There has been a lot of debate regarding the concept of free software and open source software and there has been no end to it yet.Some people think that both terms refer to one and the same thing, while others seem to make a good distinction between the two of them.
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Apparently the term "free software" refers to the freedom of using the software, not the free of charge meaning. Some person put it in a very explicit plastic way :" free software is like in free speech, not free beer". So you may use the software even for a small price. It's like getting a license to using the software, while the producing company has all the copy rights.  The open source software, on the other hand, is the software that totally leaves the user to change it and edit it, improve it or do whatever they want to without restrictions. From this point of view you would say they give the users a license to use the software the way they like it provided they specify the source code. They may even sell the software they changed without any requests from the original source. There is not such a big difference between open source software and free software and some people believe that when you choose one term over the other you just make clear what your purposes are. However, they are all different from the term "freeware" that means software totally free of charge.


The free software movement began in 1983 and has gained a lot of adepts in time. Now, especially after the huge development of the internet and its spreading all over the world, you can find a lot of free software for download. Some people say that "free software" is better, while others that "open source software", but I think they both come for the users ' advantage. And I guess it's just a matter of words after all. But more about "open sourcesoftware " definition and meaning directly on their web site - www.opensource.org.

There are a lot of web sites that offer free open source software for download and you can choose there exactly the type of software that you need or find interesting. www.econsultant.com is such an example. www.sourceforge.net hosts a wide variety of open source software and even offers you the possibility to look for a certain open source software thanks to a search engine. If you want to download and use the software here you must open an account and only after that you can use it to search and download different kinds of software you might need and that are classified here in many sections.


www.weblogs.us presents a list with the free and open source software they use by the Cass District Library: Edubuntu, xubuntu, dansguardian, Public IP, Open Office, hMail Server, Squirrel Mail, Internet station manager and WMWare server.

www.opensourcewindows.org is a special web page listing the some of the many open source software applications that are compatible with Windows operating system. Here are a few examples: Mozilla Firefox for web browsing, Miro -video player, Pidgin - instant messaging, Skin screen - download helpers, Mozilla thunderbird - email, RSSOwl -RSS, Cabos and Gnucleus - -eer-to-peer file sharing, VLC, MPlayer, Media Player Classic - video playbackAbiWord - word processing, Juice -podcasting, etc.