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Share via E-mailI attended Wordcamp San Francisco this weekend and had the unique opportunity to hear Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Operating System (and GNU General Public Licence) and Free Software Foundation project. He caused me to rethink my stance on software and I will share it with you today.
photo credit: nontelodiromai
Today’s Show
Types of Software
- Proprietary
- Donationware (or nagware)
- Free
- Open Source (multiple licences out there including GNU)
What makes software free?
Most popular types of free software
- Operating systems like Linux
- Productivity suites like Open Office
- Small apps that add features to a more popular proprietary, free or opensource application
- Antivirus
- Spyware protection
- Computer diagnostics
- Photo editing
- Audio editing
- Video editing
- Games
True cost of free software
Make sure to consider the following before you rush out to start using a piece of software based on it’s cost. Every piece of technology is like a seed. You plant it near sunlight, water it and if done right, watch it grow!
- Do a “needs analysis” to determine what you need the software to do
- Research your options (find 3-5 applications to try out)
- Compare these applications against your list of needs
- Test out the promising applications (have regular users test them as well)
- Estimate cost to implement, production time and value
- Get approval
- Implement solution
- Training for staff
- Maintain application/software
Whew! So as you can see, the cost of the actual software is just a small part of the process!
Risks with any new software
Ongoing development needs (open source rocks because it’s developed by a community)
Security (again, the more eyes the better)
Why are there software pirates?
