Open Source software has come a long way - from being treated as frivolous, buggy and inferior software to being embraced wholeheartedly as solid, stable, usable and cutting edge software that are challenging even their commercial counterparts. Here’s an endorsement of this fact:

“THE NSW Government has made official its push into open source, launching a $1.5 million deployment of what may be the state's largest-ever rollout of open source software on the desktop.” [Australian IT, June 24, 2004]

In this article, I’ll define open source software and list some popular ones that you can use for everyday computing tasks.

What is open source?
The term “open source” means that the source code (actual computer code) of the software is freely available for all to see and modify. Thus, you can not only download and use the software for free, but also can tweak the software and customize it to your needs. Contrast this with commercial software where the source code is fanatically protected (e.g. MS Office).

For more on open source licenses, check out this entry in Wikipedia (the popular and free encyclopedia).

When source code is out there in the open, magic happens. Many programmers from all around the world take the responsibility to maintain and upgrade the code on a regular basis. And when this happens for a sustained period of time, the open source software may even challenge the best of what the commercial world has to offer. Case in point: the open source Linux operating system, which is now a serious competitor to Microsoft Windows operating system.

Why do programmers work on open source projects when there aren’t any direct monetary rewards involved?
Answer: to make the world a better place by providing users like you and me with free software so that we have the best tools to work with to pursue our goals.

Well, that was the idealistic part of the answer. Here is a list of more realistic reasons:

• Programmers learn a lot from the knowledge and experience of the community of programmers already involved in an open source project.
  
• Open source projects give programmers opportunities to get recognized – the ego boost they get from being recognized is a powerful motivator.
  
• Programmers get opportunities to work on challenging problems, which may be hard to come by in professional work.
  
• Although there are no direct monetary rewards involved, many indirect monetary benefits can be realized. For example, business organisations using some specific open source software regularly call on (and pay) programmers who have worked on that software to customize it for their internal needs.
  
• Also, there’s money to be made by repackaging open source software and selling it for profit. This is usually done by providing services such as customization, support and training around the software. Read The Open Source way to fame and fortune for more on this strategy.

Note that open source software is not junk software. Many open source software programs have features that match, and at times surpass, those found in commercial applications.

Here are some interesting references on open source software:

• Ten Myths about Open Source Software
• Open Source definition from Wikipedia

Open source vs. Freeware
Open source is not the same as freeware. The comparison table below will help make this clear.

Open Source	Freeware
Software is free to use	Software is free to use
Source code is free (open) to use, modify and customise.	Source code is protected (closed).
Open source usually has many user groups that can help answer support oriented queries.	There may not be any support associated with the freeware.
Open source is usually constantly updated and revised.	No guarantees that the freeware will be updated or revised.
There are no hidden agendas with open source software.	Freeware usually has a business agenda (the freeware is usually just a “lite” version with full features available in the commercial version.)

This is not to say that freeware is bad. The RSS newsreader that I use on my Mac - NetNewsWire Lite - is freeware and is one of the best newsreaders available on the Mac platform. But note that as this is still a “lite” version, I do not have the full list of features available in the commercial version.

With this distinction out of the way, let’s take a look at some neat open source software we can use for doing everyday computing tasks.

Some open source productivity tools to try out:

Audacity
Description: This is a rock solid sound editor. You can use this to record and edit your audio files. This software would be ideal for inserting audio into your presentations or providing and introduction to a topic.
Operating Systems:  Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/Unix
URL: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Blender
Description: For those of you who want to experiment with 3D graphics, here’s an irresistible program for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.
Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, Irix, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD or Mac OS X.
URL: http://www.blender3d.org/

HTMLDOC
Description: This software converts HTML files into PDF or Post Script. It is useful for creating manuals. For example, you selected 10 individual HTML files and this program will create a single manual file, complete with a table of contents, title images and other metadata.
Operating Systems:  Windows
URL: http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/

GIMP
Description: This is good image editing software (like Adobe Photoshop). It has all the functions of Photoshop. There are several reference books  [http://www.gimp.org/books/] written on it.
Operating Systems:  Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/Unix
URL: http://www.gimp.org/about/

Open Office
Description: This is a free productivity suite (like Microsoft Office). It has text, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing software all included in one package. What’s more, it also talks with MS-Office.
Operating Systems: Windows, Sun Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X X11
URL: http://www.openoffice.org/

Jabber
Description: Simply put, this is an instant messaging (IM) platform that allows you to merge all your other IM buddies from AOL, Yahoo!, Messenger, ICQ etc. into one integrated IM client. There are many, many clients built on this platform.
Operating Systems: Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS and many more.
URL: http://www.jabber.org/software/clients.php

VLC Media Player
Description: This is a multimedia player supporting many, formats. It can play DVDs, VCDs or read a stream from the network. It plays DivX/MPEG-4 files too.
Operating Systems: Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X and many more.
URL: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Conclusion
There’s no doubt about it, the open source movement is here to stay. It’s a movement in the sense that it represents a new way of doing things - groups of people from across the world collaborating on their own initiative to give the rest of us free software (read opportunities). But, as we have seen, it is not all about altruism; there’s some serious business opportunities involved in doing so.

I’ve just listed a few open source software, but there’s a lot of them out there. UNESCO’s Free Software Portal is a good place to start searching for more.

Have fun!

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Links used in this article:

Australian IT endorsement
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9939948%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Open Source Licence entry in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_license

The Open Source way to fame and fortune
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/06/29/2127239&tid=3

Ten myths about Open Source software
http://opensource.oreilly.com/news/myths_1199.html

Definition of "open source" from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

NetNews Wire Lite
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/

UNESCO's free software portal
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=12034&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201