license

Mozilla has finished work on version 2.0 of its Mozilla Public Licence, updating the agreement for the first time in more than a decade to fit better with other free software and open-source licences. Read More »

For years, I've wondered why anyone still bothers with proprietary software. Around the turn of the millennium, they might not have found an open source alternative, but today, that situation is rare enough that it comes as a surprise. Force of habit is a likely explanation, but often users simply don't know what they don't know. In fact, thanks to obsolete rumors, sometimes what users believe about open source is the exact opposite of the truth. By contrast, here are x reasons, both practical and philosophical, why I do all my computing with open source software...

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The biggest problem any open source company has is maintaining motivation. You don't just want money. You also want mindshare. The attention paid you, in the form of developer time, is a currency that grows both the project and the customer's devotion to it. At the same time, the benefits of open source flow most freely when you become more than a customer. Read More »