Is linux free 4984

So decades ago, when I bought a commercial buttembler, and wanted to print things out to put in a binder, I had to disbuttemble the code and figure out where I needed to patch things, and then patch things.

WIth open source, I can simply look at the source that must be released, and it is far easier to figure out what needs fixing, and then compile that code. Plus, I can share that with others, while my modifying that commercial code probably violated the license agreement (in that case, there was a clause against disbuttemblying it).

I can go to the same pool of kernel, utility and applications and put together my own distribution. With commercial software, if I needed a special commercial program (such as a run time package), I'd often have to pay in order to distribute it.

When someone sends me a bloated file that was issued from Microsoft Word, it is useless to me since I don't run Microsoft software. Microsoft wants such details secret, so people are forced to buy their products (and they are fairly successful at this, because too many people are afraid of using some alternative because they won't be compatible). Open Source is about being open, using standards that are either standards or become standards because their makeup is distributed well and anyone can find the specs and write programs to deal with them.

Way too often in recent years, people who have helped Microsoft become so monolithic, decide that they've been duped so they look to Linux-GNU as an alternative. But they make the mistake that the alternative is simply that they don't have to pay Microsoft for the software. They don't make the switch because Linux is based on Unix which is a different operating system with a long history, and they don't switch because Linux is open source, and they don't switch because there is something inherently revolutionary when people do become more than consumers.

All they see is "free" and since they aren't all that capable then they are just as dependent on the commerical distributions of Linux as they were dependent on Microsoft.

They need to move beyond that in order to see the benefits of Open Software.

Michael