What Free Software offers

Free Software offers freedom, security and reliability in the long-run. But this is not all. Free Software offers many more advantages. Free software is inexpensive. Free Software is stable, it features minimal incidence of errors and low virus vulnerability. Free Software has the potential to grow, it offers strategic advantages, it represents a possibility of equality and, above all, it offers everybody the chance to have a free knowledge plus.

Economic advantages

Free Software is a new chance for local markets.

The ever-growing demand to install Free Software has originated a growing demand for software experts and assistance service providers in the field of Free Software. In this sense, Free Software fosters and strengthens local IT markets. Furthermore, Free Software supports those involved in software development, because this means making their know-how available to the local market and enabling them to establish themselves in the community as experts in software solutions that are relevant to their context. Several service providers and development experts have already become aware of these economic possibilities that are linked to the dissemination of Free Software. However, Free Software is not just a catalyst for the local economy, in that it also favours an increase in investments by big IT companies, e.g. IBM, Sun Microsystems, Novell, HP and others.

Free Software increases competition.

Free Software has been in the public domain for a long time. In France, there are plans to install Free Software in one million computers of the public administration, so as to cut in half the public spending increased by licence rights. For the local governments of big cities, such as Munich and Bern, the issue of autonomy from software producers has become crucial. The Regional Authorities in South Tyrol (northern Italy) have recently planned to introduce OpenOffice.org as the standard software for the computers of all its regional offices. Thus, all those opting for Free Software will contribute to greater competition and reduce the risk of the formation of a monopoly.

Free Software increases company profitability.

More and more companies are choosing to install Free Software, among other things, for obvious economic reasons. Furthermore, reducing licence expenses also favours the establishment of new companies. But this is not all. The purchase cost advantage is not the only reason that makes the use of Free Software interesting for companies and institutions, such as schools and universities. Free Software offers even more economic advantages. For example, Free Software can be copied and installed in a great number of computers, whereas proprietary software often requires one licence for every single computer. Against this background, Free Software fosters and favours the development of new work arrangements, such as, for instance, working from home.

Free Software offers an advantage over purchase costs.

Usually, the first and more evident reason behind the use of Free Software by private subjects, companies and institutions is the considerable advantage over purchase costs. Free Software has no licence costs and in almost every case it is available free of charge – if downloaded from the Internet or copied on a CD. It is worth emphasising that in this context “free” is not necessarily equal to free of charge. Free Software can also be sold, not just be given for free. After all, Free Software needs to be installed and configured. Similarly, assistance, maintenance, training for users and appropriate disposal may be necessary.

Free Software guarantees best start-up price.

Should an entirely new IT structure be set up, Free Software has no rivals. With Free Software it is possible to obtain a whole new structure at the lowest possible cost and with the highest standards of flexibility and autonomy from producers of any other proprietary system.

Free Software does not fear the challenge of so-called indirect costs.

Deciding whether to be for or against the use of certain software often depends very much on indirect costs. These are frequently unexpected and may be due to installation, administration, training courses, support services, assistance or disposal. Generally, these costs in Free Software solutions are not higher than those found in proprietary software.

1. Installation and administration: A comparison between installation and administration costs cannot be drawn in general, in fact this should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Indeed, it is necessary to take into consideration a number of technical details within the system, e.g. the homogeneity of the IT infrastructure, the choice, the combination and the technical properties of the software.

2. Using Free Software is easier and easier, as demonstrated by the fact that today there is no difference between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office anymore. This, together with the ever-growing use of Free Software, has currently reduced the incidence of costs related to training or professional development to learn how to use software.

3. Support and assistance services: Contrary to proprietary software, Free Software does not entail any supplementary expense for support or assistance services (i.e. actions to eliminate errors or update services). Needless to say, by comparing costs there is a clear advantage for most companies and institutions using Free Software. Furthermore, support and assistance services are often offered free of charge by the Free Software community. Alternatively, they can be bought from experts operating in the area.

Free Software contributes to saving money on hardware-related costs.

Possible hardware-related cost reductions lead more and more companies and institutions to opt for Free Software solutions. On the one hand, saving may be due to the fact that, with Free Software, companies can rely on hardware for a longer time. For instance, GNU/Linux can be run using just the kernel of the operating system, without graphic interface. Thus, it can be installed in machines that would not be used any longer. On the other hand, Free Software does not need expensive and high performance computers. Rather, it is possible to achieve excellent levels of performance by simply using hardware at limited costs and with standard performance.

Technical advantages

Free Software is generally not designed to meet commercial targets, but rather technical needs. Users receive what they need at a technical level, and not what producers consider to be important and appropriate from a market-oriented strategy perspective. Free Software does not undergo planning strategies, it is not influenced by financial constraints or by corporations’ aims. This makes it especially successful in terms of quality, stability, security and virus vulnerability.

Free Software is secure.

Free Software is generally considered to be secure. Free Software is not only secure, it is also reliable and stable. This is due to the fact that the source code is secure and error free, not because of its secrecy. Proprietary software constantly runs the risk of being violated, i.e. an evil-minded cracker may find a fault in the system and manage to exploit it for a long time. On the contrary, Free Software is based on the open-code principle. Anyone can study it, change it and, thus, improve it. For this reason, possible security faults are quickly found and eliminated, and undesirable functions are not usually found in programming.

Free Software is stable.

Software stability is as important as its security. Also from this point of view, Free Software has an excellent image. Stability reduces the chances of possible interruptions, as well as of expenses related to assistance and administration activities. For example, GNU/Linux is as stable as all other comparable Unix operating systems. Compared to previous Windows versions, the GNU/Linux counterparts were clearly superior, whereas in current versions the difference is not so marked anymore.

Free Software has grown in technical terms.

Free Software products are usually the result of programmers’ needs to solve a problem or of the pleasure they find in programming. For this reason, Free Software does not undergo any production-related pressure and it is ready when it really is. Free Software has no deadline and its programmers take all the time necessary to create them, which is why Free Software can be full-grown when released. Thanks to this sort of maturation process, it is possible to find and eliminate errors affecting security, thus creating high-quality programs.

Free Software shows low incidence of errors.

All software may contain errors and, obviously, some of them can be critical in terms of security. Possible errors affecting Free Software can be found by anyone and then eliminated, which is not the case with proprietary software. This is possible because everybody can have access to the source code, modify it according to their knowledge and thus improve it. This way, the time it takes to discover an error (i.e. a fault in security) and to prepare a possible solution is reduced and, consequently, the exposure time of the entire system to cracking is much shorter. Free Software users do not need to rely on the producer’s updating times.

Free Software is virus-resistant.

Free Software is healthy software, in that viruses have little chance to attack it. This is due to the very accessibility of the source code: thanks to the efforts made by the members of the community, viruses cannot nest for long in Free Software, they are quickly found and eliminated. On the other hand, some software experts claim that greater distribution means higher vulnerability to viruses. From this point of view, considering distribution standards, Free Software would run the same risks as proprietary software. However, it is worth emphasising that Free Software distribution entails a spontaneous increase in the number of programmers who work to assure fast elimination of security faults. This is exactly the opposite of what happens with proprietary software.

Free Software is easy to use.

Initially, most Free Software programs used to be specialized programs, which were developed by experts for experts, without paying much attention to simplicity of use. After the introduction of user interfaces, such as KDE or Gnome, Free Software has gained considerable ground in terms of simplicity of use and now it can stand up to comparisons with proprietary software.

Free Software is reliable.

Editors of Free Software and Free Software packages pay considerable attention to use software from reliable and secure sources. Thus, the risk of having software containing spyware, malware or adware is very limited with Free Software. Furthermore, anyone can detect these problems and eliminate them, so as to proceed to a new release.

Free Software is interoperable.

Interoperability is generally higher in Free Software than in proprietary software, as interfaces and formats can be compatible and used by anyone. Free Software programmers try to avoid looking for what has already been discovered. For this reason, they work to integrate already existing programs, e.g. enabling other Free Software products to perform tasks that are partially available somewhere else. These can then be included in the final software, so as to make the full range of possible functions always available. On the contrary, in proprietary software there are often attempts to go against interoperability, in order to limit market competition (e.g. Windows Media Player, Apple’s QuickTime and Real Player can run only their own formats!).

Free Software is light and of a small size.

Free Software is normally smaller and, consequently, it needs less memory and less working memory. This is possible, among other things, because Free Software programmers can use a great quantity of free libraries in the Internet. Thus, their programs are not only of higher quality, more secure and more stable, but also lighter and smaller in size.

Strategic advantages

The economic advantages and the qualitative aspects mentioned earlier provide a clear framework, which can be helpful to determine whether certain software is suitable for a company. However, there are also strategic aspects that are worth considering, as they play an important role.

Free Software guarantees autonomy from producers.

Free Software attempts to avoid being dependent on producers, thus preventing the so-called “lock-in-effect” with high costs and consequent dependence on specific products. Furthermore, the open source code and the strong orientation towards accessible standards make it impossible for a producer to generate dependence by setting particular standards. Such advantages are particularly evident with GNU/Linux. Since it can be run on standard hardware, companies do not receive any indication of a need to employ proprietary hardware when choosing GNU/Linux. This translates into a real possibility to choose among several options in a strongly competition-based market.

Free Software guarantees autonomy in support and assistance services.

Free Software offers greater flexibility and autonomy also in choosing support and assistance services. Companies and individual users are not forced to choose specific providers of these services. Obviously, users can decide to purchase these services from a different provider at any time. In case Free Software is installed within the framework of a contract with a local service provider, the latter shall also be in charge of making sure there are no difficulties while using the program. The same applies to support services.

Free Software guarantees autonomy through standard compliance.

Free Software also guarantees greater autonomy for users through compliance with standards. On the one hand, such compliance is guaranteed by a widespread distribution, which is platform-independent. On the other hand, there is a strong orientation towards standards. Furthermore, in principle, all Free Software interfaces come with documentation. In fact, standard compliance is present in proprietary software as well, but it is particularly evident in Free Software.

Free Software guarantees the possibility of making changes or adjustments on the whole range of functions.

The availability of the source code in Free Software stands as a kind of insurance. The source code has fundamental importance whenever producers decide to interrupt software development or stop support services. In that case, companies can contract other IT providers or they themselves may take on the software development and management process. This way, companies do not depend on producers to deal with changes or adjustments on functions.

Free Software also guarantees long-life purchases.

In case of obsolescence of one of its products, or in case of development of a new version, Free Software and, in particular, operating systems and server applications generally guarantee an automatic and free-of-charge update, which can be compatible with existing versions. With Free Software it is also possible to maintain programs together with a current situation of version control.

Social advantages

Free Software belongs to each and every person, thus it belongs to mankind. This asset is available to everyone, at a global level. It can be understood, used and modified by everyone. Every software program is a tool that can be used to process data and deliver information. Therefore it represents knowledge. For this reason, Free Software can help all people have equal access to knowledge and the possibilities it offers.

Free Software means equal opportunities.

Free Software is equally accessible by everyone at a global level. Therefore, Free Software means equal opportunities in terms of both access to knowledge and its processing.

Free Software treats all users equally.

Free Software makes no discrimination based on wealth, citizenship or social status. Proprietary software is different in this respect: some producers release limited versions for training or, for example, they offer poor countries limited versions, which require specific hardware arrangements.

Free Software favours free knowledge dissemination.

Free Software supports free knowledge. It stimulates and convinces an increasing number of people to share their knowledge, to make it available at a global level without limitations and to create more and more knowledge together and in freedom.