I’ve been using Linux now for some 23 years. My first reaction after loading RedHat 5.1 was “What the heck am I getting myself into?”. But the open source world gradually matured, and now there are very few reasons not to use free or open-source software (FOSS).
I won’t go into all of my reasons for using FOSS. I worked for several decades as a software developer. So I know full well what goes into developing, selling, maintaining, and supporting software. For companies that sell software, the unfortunate reality is that their number one priority is profit. Once a software product is developed, in the worst case, they will fix defects and enhance the product only if there is a business case for it. And of course, to maximize profit, they will hire the lowest cost developers they can.
I think most of us know of software defects that have gone unfixed for years. I myself have been burned buying shoddy software. That’s one reason I really appreciate the good quality, open-source software that I rely on daily.
To illustrate, let’s look at some of the programs in the “Favorites” category of the application menu on my Linux system:
First, there’s Google Chrome. This is clearly one of the biggest success stories in the FOSS world. And it’s very likely that you too already use Chrome. At one time, Microsoft Internet Explorer had a massive dominant position among web browsers. But now, even Microsoft has abandoned IE, and now uses the open-source Chromium engine to power its Edge browser.
Next, there’s LibreOffice Writer. While Microsoft has ceded the battle for browser supremacy, they still vigorously defend their office suite cash cow. However, here’s a case where the FOSS alternative to Microsoft Word is clearly superior. LibreOffice Writer isn’t just as good as Word, it has more functionality than Word. Writer is considered as desktop publishing application, while Word is not.
Then there’s the GIMP, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program. This is a program I use almost daily. It provides almost the same functionality as PhotoShop, but at a price hundreds of dollars cheaper. While a professional photographer or graphic designer can write off the cost of an application like PhotoShop, an amateur like me cannot. I simply can’t justify the high price of PhotoShop given the availability of a powerful program like GIMP that more than satisfies my image processing needs.
MuseScore is an amazing application that every musician or songwriter should know about. This isn’t just a music score editor. While you’re composing your musical creation, you can hear what the piece sounds like. You can have as many instruments as you want, you can change instruments, transpose keys, and once you’re done, you can record the composition. The user interface isn’t the easiest, but I think that probably goes with the territory. Music composition isn’t easy to begin with, and there is definitely a learning curve to get past.
In the realm of genealogy, it’s (unfortunately) especially important to consider the reputation and integrity of any vendor. That’s why open-source is very important in this realm. Gramps is a full-function genealogy application that supports pretty much the whole GEDCOM data model. In addition, it includes a framework for supporting user-written extensions. You can find some of my own Gramps extensions at my GitHub page.
The latter application illustrates an important point about FOSS. It’s not just one company supporting a piece of software. In the open-source realm, it’s a whole community. Frankly, as a programmer, I have no inclination whatsoever to improve the quality of a program if it just adds to the profits of some company. On the other hand, the open-source community is full of people willing to contribute to the benefit of other users. Everyone is free to use the software without obligation, but also, everyone is invited to contribute in any way that they are able to.
I could go on describing other FOSS applications I use either regularly or occasionally. Such as Audacity for audio editing, Kdenlive for video editing, or Komodo edit for developing software. But I think this list should provide enough justification for considering open-source software instead of buying commercial software.