This September 18th is the Software Freedom Day, an annual worldwide celebration which remembers the benefits of free and open software and promotes its use. Every third Saturday of September, this date is celebrated by thousands of people all around the planet, who reminds us the importance of sharing knowledge in computing field.
Free and Open Source Software (also called FOSS) is software that makes its source code available for everyone. So it is free to access, free to use and, in general, free to modify. Everybody with a minimum of programming knowledge can freely study how the program works and modify it in order to distribute copies of a better version with the aim of helping the others.
To make visible the relevance of free and open software, a few people organized in 2004 the Software Freedom Day event first, that was on 28th August. Since then, different teams from all over the world participate each year in the Software Freedom Day. Now, it is organized by the non-profit organisation Digital Freedom Foundation (DFF).
Advantages of Free and Open Source Software
According the Software Freedom Day webpage, the reasons for using free software, as GNU/Linux Systems, are numerous:
- – Open software promotes transparency and accountability. So you can know exactly what you are installing and using GNU/Linux systems are much more protected against viruses.
- – It’s the best way to avoid piracy.
- – Even if is not always free of cost, there is always a choice. So it is much more cheaper than private software.
- – No one can sell it because it doesn’t belong to any company.
- – FOSS encourages open standards (odt, png..).
- – It builds community and encourages collaboration, because everybody can share their knowledge and expertise and even can communicate with the people who developed the software.
- – It is ethical and fight against monopoly.
- – Everybody can try and play, so open so it pushes to innovation and creativity.
- – GNU/Linux systems are famous for reliability and stability. In fact, governments choose FOSS for its high level of security.
- – It has been a key player in the development of many technological and scientific innovations.
LinuxVixion has been always using Linux and helping our customers to work with it to take advantage of software we install for them. And we like to celebrate this day with all of you.