Open Source: USE IT!

The open source community creates free (for the most part) software. Very few people, however, are aware these things exist and instead they fuel capitalism by buying software from the likes of Microsoft or some other corporations. In my opinion, open source is the most communist thing the world has going for it. The community consists of people who enjoy what they do so much that they would do it for free or let their code be seen by any one and everyone.

People have a lot of misconceptions of Linux. Most people think that you have to type in everything in order to get it to work. However, if you get the right distributions it can be as simple as Windows. I use Fedora Core 3 and I found it rather simple to learn. There are something you need to learn about Linux, such as installing non-RPM programs and getting your printer to work. For those of you who would like to try Linux, but don't want to install it you should try PHLAK or Knoppix - both are Linux distros that are bootable from a CD. If you have any questions, I can answer them at DCH.Bokk@gmail.com.

Not only does the open source community offer OS's, they also offer other types of software. For those of you who use MS Office, OpenOffice is similar - and free. MS Word also has a free and good replacement, AbiWord. If there's software that costs money, there is probably someone who made the same thing and is distributing it for free. For more open source (free) software, visit SourceForge.net.