People usually use different programs together with
different operating systems.
iTunes? Must be Apple OSX.
Office XP? Must be a Microsoft operating system.
OpenOffice.org? Must be Linux.
Must be?
If you have read this far, perhaps you have asked yourself "Why can I not use any program I like together with my hardware?"
Good question.
In principle it is possible to use nearly any program together with any operating system. There may be some technical issues to resolve, but these are usually much less problematic than the legal issues.
The most important obstacle to using a program in any way you like, or changing it so that it can be used together with other operating systems, is imposed by the programmer. By using the program, you agree to follow the programmer's rules (called the license), even if you have not signed any agreement.
If the program you are using is free software, you can use it any way you like, together with your choice of hardware and operating system. This flexibility is characteristic of free software. With free software, the only issues to be resolved are the technical issues, and the only question you need to ask is "Has someone made a version of this program that is suited to my hardware and my operating system?"
A good example is the OpenOffice.org software included with this CD. The CD contains two versions of the program, a Linux version and a Windows version. The Linux version is available by starting up Snøfrix, while the Windows version can be installed on your hard disk. There is also a Mac OS X version, but it is not included for lack of space.
Unlike OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Office is not free software, and it is not available for all operating systems. No one but Microsoft can make changes in Microsoft software, because the source code is secret. Microsoft Office exists for users of Windows and Apple operating systems, but not for Linux.
Why not? There is no technical reason why Microsoft Office should not be available for Linux. There is in fact no good business reason either, because there clearly are people willing to pay for this program, even among those who use Linux. The only possible explanation is that Microsoft is struggling to maintain its monopoly position [1] [2] in the software sector. But to do so, it must tie its users to the Windows operating system. If Microsoft programs could be run together with a Linux operating system, computer users would soon become much less dependent on Microsoft products.
Perhaps you are not interested in running Microsoft Office on Linux. But surely you would not object to paying less for Microsoft Office? Perhaps you never bought Microsoft Office for the simple reason that it costs too much? An important side effect of Microsoft's monopoly is the exaggerated price of Office software.
If you use Office software, you should take a closer look at the OpenOffice.org software included with this CD. OpenOffice.org is a valuable program, not only because it costs nothing, not only because is is Microsoft Office-compatible, but above all because it uses open file formats. When everyone agrees to use the same open file format, it is called an open standard.
What is an open standard? Open standard means that even if you have a different e-mail program than I do, you can read the e-mail you receive from me, because there is an international agreement about how e-mail should be formatted [3]. We do not have to know anything about each other's e-mail programs, we only need to agree on the format of a message. Open standards guarantee that different programs will cooperate with each other. There is no difficulty in using commercial software and free software together, if we use open standards.
Imagine that I send you a document that is unreadable, and that I then suggest that you should buy a special program to "unlock" the message I sent you! Even if you agreed to do so, you would probably be angry. A system of this kind would make communication and cooperation more difficult. But it happens every day! Every day, people buy special systems to read their own documents. In contrast to the e-mails you receive, a Word document (in .doc format) is in fact a secret document that must be "unlocked" before you can read it! There is no international agreement on the format of Office documents, as there is for e-mail (note added 2005-10-10: please read about OpenDocument).
If you were to ask how much money government and business have invested in teaching people how to write secret documents, and to compare with the amount of money spent on promoting open standards - by insisting on the open file format (.odt) offered by OpenOffice.org, for example, or by supporting the programmers who make OpenOffice.org - the result would be both shocking and embarrassing. Nevertheless, the majority of people are still more obsessed with the "necessity" of reading the secret .doc format than they are in promoting open standards.
You think perhaps that none of this concerns you. After all, you did not create the programs and you did not create the standards! But it is you who decides which programs you will use. And no one can prevent you from using free software with open file formats!
With free software, you are no longer dependent on a single vendor. You will no longer rent your software, you will own it. No software is perfect, but we believe that those individuals and organizations who begin using free software today will experience fewer problems and expenses during their future software upgrades.
We hope that this CD will convince you that the world of free software has much to offer. Free software is not necessarily the same as Linux. The OpenOffice.org software on this CD is free software, with open file formats, and it runs on Windows. This is perhaps the best argument for using free software: free software is flexible software.