Ku keystone article
From Kutztown-LUG
Text as posted by keystone online: http://www.keystoneonline.com/archives%5Cstory.asp?Art_id=2189
April 19, 2007 edition of The Keystone - Page 3
Open Source Software for all
By Joe Roth - News Writer, The Keystone
The discs contained compilations of Open Source and Free Software, which faculty members can use on their Windows machines, and links to software for those using Macs.
The idea of Open Source has been around for decades. Open Source Software describes any software whose source code is also available under the same produce license. Under this license, users can customize, change or add to the code and are free to redistribute it under the same product license.
One program included on the CDs is Open Office, an Open Source alternative to Microsoft Office. In most practical applications around a college campus, like writing an essay or designing a spread sheet, Open Office works just as well as Microsoft Office.
This point is important to Open Source enthusiasts since schools like Ku spend thousands of dollars to purchase commercial software for computers around campus, which they could replace with Open Source software for no cost at all.
The discs contained software that would have totaled the price of each at approximately $60,000, if commercially available alternatives were used.
One advantage of Open Source software is that a person, or company, can modify a piece of software to fit their exact specification and remove any features which they do not want or need.
Another advantage is the speed and quality of updates and bug fixes. Because any user can view the source code, any bugs or updates can have an unlimited number of programmers working on it, each sharing their fixes with one another.
The group hoped to make the point that Open Source software works just as well, if not better, than commercial software, which most faculty members already use on their computers.
The group also hopes to eliminate the myth that Open Source Software is only available on Linux, an Open Source Operating System used by many as an alternative to Windows and Apple's OS X.
According to Christopher Waid, a senior Computer Science Majr, and president of the GNU/Linux User Group, the blank CDs cost the group approximately $150. Aside from that, the only cost was the labor to burn and distribute the CDs, which members of the group did for free.
