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Free (Libre) Open Source Software (FOSS)
This software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software.
That is, anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way,
and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.
This is in contrast to proprietary software,
where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.
FOSS maintains the software user's civil liberty rights (see the Four Essential Freedoms, below). Other benefits of using FOSS can include decreased software costs, increased security and stability (especially in regard to malware), protecting privacy, education, and giving users more control over their own hardware.
Free and open-source operating systems such as Linux and descendants of BSD are widely utilized today, powering millions of servers, desktops, smartphones (e.g., Android), and other devices. Free-software licenses and open-source licenses are used by many software packages. The free-software movement and the open-source software movement are online social movements behind widespread production and adoption of FOSS.
Software should be free as in Beer, Freedom, Speech, and "Virus Free". Above all it must respect your freedom and privacy. You should be free to use it on all your devices, modify it, and share it with others in your community.
Free software is distributed under terms of General Public License v3 and later. In a nutshell, this means:
- You are free to use it for any purpose.
- You are free to distribute it.
- You can study how it works and change it.
- You can distribute changed versions of it.
Free open source software (FOSS) can be defined as computer software for which the human-readable source code is made available under a copyright license (GNU GPL or an arrangement such as the public domain) that meets the Free Open Source Definition. This permits users to use, change, or improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner.
See gnu.org for details.
Free (Libre) Open Source Software Applications
For your convenience, we've provided a list of free software applications, most have cross-platform versions available for GNU Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.
Ubuntu Linux Operating System
Super-fast and great-looking, Ubuntu is a secure, intuitive operating system that powers desktops, servers, netbooks and laptops. Ubuntu is, and always will be, absolutely free.
ubuntu.com
ClamWin Anti Virus
ClamWin is a Free Antivirus program for Microsoft Windows. It comes with an easy installer and is open source code. You can download and use it free of charge. Virus database is automatically updated daily via the Internet.
clamwin.com
LibreOffice.org Productivity Suite
LibreOffice.org is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
libreoffice.org
Mozilla Firefox: Rediscover the Web
Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more safely and more efficiently than with any other browser. It imports your "Favorites", bookmarks and other information.
mozilla.com
Mozilla Thunderbird: Reclaim Your Inbox
Thunderbird is Mozilla's next generation e-mail client. It makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before. Thunderbird 2 features many new enhancements to help you better manage your unruly inbox, and stay informed. It scales to the most sophisticated organisational needs while making it easy to find what you need.
thunderbird.net
Mozilla Seamonkey Suite
Web browser, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple. All your Internet needs in one application.
seamonkey-project.org
VLC Video Lan Client
VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols. This very versatile free cross-platform media player supports many codecs.
videolan.org
VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software.
virtualbox.org
The GIMP
GIMP is a powerful piece of photo editing software with many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, a expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, a image format converter, and more.
GIMP is very expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
The GIMP acronym stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, a freely distributed piece of software running on Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, and Windows.
gimp.org
Genuine Software - Make Sure It's Legal
Companies risk making their IT systems vulnerable by using closed source (proprietary)
software, i.e. software that comes without source code for their IT staff to inspect and with complicated software licenses.
Install Free Open Source Software (FOSS)
Open Source Software is provided with a license that gives the end user the right to deploy it freely for private or commercial use. You also have the right to inspect and even modify the underlying source code. You can deploy it on all your systems and copy it freely throughout your organisation.
Genuine Software Advantage
Free Open Source software saves you money in many ways.
A single GNU Linux distribution contains most applications you're likely to need and can be installed on many systems. It's the ultimate volume discount. In addition, online update systems provide productivity enhancing upgrades, bug fixes, security enhancements and special add-ons.
Organisations that manage their software effectively standardise employees on common platforms. All users have high-quality, fully functional software and can receive online support if they have questions.
You can get rid of obsolete, expensive legacy systems and manage assets more efficiently, resulting in fewer IT support calls, lower administration costs, and higher user satisfaction.
With Open Source Software you have the assurance that you are protecting your company
from the legal fees, financial penalties, and bad press that accompany piracy lawsuits.
Safety in Numbers
When programmers can read, redistribute worldwide, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. This can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.
This evolutionary process produces better software than the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque block of bits. Co-operation between various projects and software integration is easier since they all have the source code.
Free Software Stops Piracy
For those outside the software industry, it can be difficult to appreciate the scope and impact of one of the industry's biggest problems,
counterfeit software.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has estimated that 35 percent of all PC software used worldwide is counterfeit or otherwise illegal.
Unlike other things you purchase, the software applications you buy don't belong to you.
Instead, you become a licensed user, you purchase the right to use the software on a single computer.
You can't use copies on other machines, pass it on to colleagues, or modify the software to suit your needs.
Unlicensed users do not receive quality documentation and are not entitled to receive technical support or product upgrades,
patches, or updates.
Organisational productivity also suffers when employees use pirated products.
Pirated software often leads to version control problems that prevent employees from efficiently sharing files,
while driving up IT support costs.
You better delete it now and move on to Open Source Software.
If you're not 100% sure on any of these points, remove any proprietary or unlicensed software from your computers
and replace it with Free Open Source Software alternatives.
This will save you time, legal hassles, and money on license fees.
Contact me if you need assistance in these matters.
The best way to protect consumers is to educate them about the issue of software piracy,
then help them to spot counterfeit software and pick an open source alternative instead.
Software piracy is the illegal reproduction and distribution of software applications, whether for business or personal use.
The negative impacts of counterfeiting and other forms of software piracy extend from
the companies who wrote the software through the ecosystem of local resellers worldwide who depend on software sales,
through to individual consumers.
Counterfeit software can even expose consumers and businesses to spyware, viruses, faulty code and identity theft.
Pirated Software Hazards and Costs
With increasing piracy it is becoming harder to ensure that computer software is genuine and properly licensed.
As a result, the software may contain outdated code or licenses or may not function at all.
It could possibly contain bugs or hidden viruses affecting entire company IT networks, not just the one
computer that the software is installed on.
Software License Audit
Please spend a moment to consider how your company manages its software.
This will help you assess if you could benefit from moving to
Free Open Source Software under the
GNU General Public License. See gnu.org
Take Action Now
Software Migration
Open source software is used at all levels of our organisation and has replaced various flavours of Microsoft® Windows™ and Apple Mac OSX.
Linux servers and workstations now provide a number of benefits: