Intro to Free Libre Open Source Software

Samuel Coleman, Ed D.

Discussion Points A brief history A few key people to know Why you should consider FLOSS FLOSS alternatives to popular applications Everybody's using it Popular repositories for FLOSS Things to consider

A brief history

A few key people.

The Four Freedoms that define FLOSS

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Why you should consider FLOSS

Equity& Access Cost Promotes

collaboration Flexibility Not locked in to a

single vendor Discourages software

piracy

FLOSS Alternatives to popular applications

Microsoft OfficeInternet ExplorerSPSSPhotoshopWindowsMedia PlayerQuickBooksVisio

LibreOfficeChromium/ChromePSPPGIMPVLCGnuCashDia

Everybody is doing it

IBM Google CISCO Kaiser Panasonic Tommy Hilfiger Toyota US Army The US Postal Service

Popular Repositories for FLOSS

www.Schoolforge.net

Fsf.org

Also Google “floss alternative to ...”

Things to consider

FLOSS is'nt for everyone's use case

There are good and not so good FLOSS applications

Concentrate on your needs not wants or brands