Open Source

Free/Libre Open Source Software, or simply "open source" is a class of software defined by two very important principles:

The easier of the two to explain is often described "free as in beer".  Essentially, the software is free of cost for you to download and use.  Quite the refreshing change from what most of us are used to!

The second, and far more important principle is "free as in speech".  Not only do you get the software for free but you have far more rights than you get with typical "commercial" software:

• You have the right to use the software however you like.  Run it on your computer.  Run it on all your computers!  Find a way to run it on your phone?  That's fine, too!
• You have the right to redistribute the software.  In fact, you're encouraged to share it with others.
• You have the right to the source code that makes the software work.  This is the gibberish the people who created the software had to type to create it.  If you understand it, you can evaluate it for security, errors, quality, etc.  If you don't, you can be sure someone else has!
• You have the right to modify the software to better suit your needs or to fix any issues you encouter.  This is a huge no-no with typical commercially licensed software!

There are a lot of other advantages as well.  Most open source software packages get "ported", or converted, to run on different types of computers, devices, and operating systems.  If you depend on open source software, you're never tied to a single platform.  And because it's free, you can always download and install it on any system you may end up using.
For more information than you could ever want, please visit (and support!) the Free Software Foundation.