Free Software - Part 1 (of 2)

Subtitle:  “Buyer” Beware

This topic has been on my brain for several months.  I am ready to expound.

Who works for free?  Actually a lot of people.  Well meaning volunteers.  People like my fellow Lions Club members and people who work at my wife’s FAITH Food Pantry.  Both organizations helping people in time of need.  I could list other examples that would fill my hard drive…well, not really…but you get the idea

Who writes software for free?  Anyone who does not have to pay the rent/mortgage or buy groceries from the effort.  This means they have a source of income. Examples:

1 - People who have a “day job.”  Professors and students being particularly good examples.
2 - People who have a working spouse/companion.
3 - People who have “cashed in” from a successful business,
4 - People, like me, who are retired.

Any of the above could have a passion for writing software and are generally safe sources for free software.  Finding these programs can be a bit daunting.  Type “free software” into Google and you get (as of this writing) 177,000,000 hits!  As usual the top hits bore instant fruit, www.fsf.org and www.freewarefiles.com to name two.  Avoid free-to-try sites, it is not the same as free software. Get a copy of PC Magazine (March 2008) where they list the 157 Best Free Software programs.  You can trust this magazine.

The last source is:

5 - Volunteers who ban together to form an Open Source community which grew out of the vision of MIT’s Richard Stallman.  Software like Linux, Apache, and the “dynamic duo” of MySQL and PHP are not only free they are industry standards in their own rights and offer alternatives from the Microsoft money machine.

There are also companies where software is a sideline and they simply want your eyeballs to always be on their Web site.  Google is a classic example.  They give away a good entry level 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) package called SketchUp.  You can get it at: http://www.google.com/sketchup/index.html.  From what I can tell Google’s real motivation is to put this modeling tool in the hands of everyone as a means to add buildings and structures to Google Earth, also is also free at: http://earth.google.com/.  If you  want support and additional features you need to buy the Pro versions.  Based on Google’s reputation this does not seem to be a bait and switch tactic, they have more money than they know what do with.   Although I admit the smallish white Download button is not as attractive as the big green Download button for the Pro version.  I guess they could not resist the temptation to get a few buck from me.  I have been “playing” with the free version and like it.

……..to be continued in Part 2

Comments

[Jim Willis]

Great post Chuck. I have two additional thoughts to add to yours:

1) One of the very best pieces of open source software I've used is my blogging/CMS platform: WordPress. It has taken the blogging world by storm and continues its rapid rise in popularity. This software was created by Matt Mullenweg, who created WordPress and is founder of the company that still guides its development (a company called Automattic).

2) There is a shift underway from enterprise or download & install software, to hosted or "web application" software. Many of these webapps, as they're called, are free for users (check out Zoho Office Suite as one example of an excellent alternative to MS Office). How do these companies make money? Some offer extended features for a price. Some embed advertising in the free product. Some graduate to requiring a yearly subscription fee, usually under $50. The entire space is evolving--and exciting to watch!

Bonus Extra Thought: Once upon a time, maybe 12 years ago (an eternity in Internet years), Sun had a vision of producing an Internet "appliance" that would connect via high speed to "the cloud" and all of your software would run off servers in distant lands and it would make no difference where you plugged in. The appliance would not need a hard drive to run programs. Of course, Sun's vision included Java at the heart of powering all of this great software.

Sun's dream is finally becoming reality. No, Java is not at the center of the dream, although it is an important player. Today, if you have a good Web browser, you can almost dispense with a hard drive. Witness the rise of the Asus Eee PC Linux laptop starting at $299. http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm

[Andrew David]

Dear sir,

you have a great site and i want to list your main product on www.freedownloadsplace.com with review,images,video.

Your product will be promoted for 15 days in top of his category and subcategory eg. http://www.freedownloadsplace.com/Windows/Internet/File-Sharing-Software/643-1.htm ,with red links on all pages on our international sites freedownloadsplace.fr it,de,nl,es,ru,cn,jp (in the right).

Put an award link to www.freedownloadsplace.com (use image http://www.freedownloadsplace.com/awards-pics.htm ),tell me the url where is my award link,tell me one product name to be listed on my site and you have my confirmation in max. 2 working days.

best regards,
andrew

[Emmanuel]

This is indeed great!I am an avid fan of opensource programs and freeware and I love it!