Free Software - What's Really Free?

Free Software. What's Really Free? © 2004 William Riopelle

We live in the digital world.

The magic of the Internet has created a world where you can get just about anything you desire. Even for free!

It's possible to research the Internet and find many "gems." Certainly many of these gems are in the form of "freebies" these days.

Especially software. I'm talking about high-quality, commercial-grade software. Not something thrown together by someone with little experience with Visual Basic (nothing against these people, as there are many high quality programmers using Visual Basic for designing great software tools.)

Just as information on the Internet is offered in infinite styles and formats, it's possible and often relatively easy to find high-quality free software.

The question I have regards the software that's of the highest quality. Of the highest use and desire amongst the public. Can it really be obtained free without charge? Or is this software only available as trial versions?

I've spent much time on a mission to research the Internet for this kind of free software.

After researching this subject for quite some time I've come to the conclusion that anyone can find high-quality free software, available on the Internet relatively easily.

However, to obtain the opportunity to download this high-quality commercial software without burdensome obligation is still very difficult.

The only way I've found that one can download commercial software packages, such as Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat-the full version, the full software package of Microsoft Office XP, including Microsoft Publisher and FrontPage, is through a process of steps using a unique tool.

Unless you use this tool, it is virtually impossible to get many of these programs unless you download the "try before you buy" versions. And some of these packages are not even available as a trial basis any more.

Programs such as many of Microsoft's software suites. More on this tool in a minute.

I found you must jump through a series of hoops to get Microsoft to agree to let you "try before you buy." And even then, you must wait for a disk in the mail and complete paperwork for them.

However, in the midst of my mission of scouring the Internet for free information, specifically free software, I also was able to uncover a very special tool or I like to think of it as a "gem."

This gem is a unique tool that allows you to network with other Internet users within a "peer to peer" community.

This unique peer-to-peer community allows thousands of computer users to connect to each other and share virtually any file or program each one has stored on their hard drive.

For example, if I purchased the program Microsoft Word and installed it on my computer and saved the CD disc as a .iso image on my hard drive, I could certainly make it available to my Internet peers.

They could simply download the .iso image, burn it to a disk, pop it in their CD-ROM drive and install just as I did.

It's that simple. And this is what I found while researching the Internet for free software.

This simple tool has allowed me to download Adobe PageMaker and Microsoft Office XP to my computer in under an hour.

After I restarted my computer and saw the icons on my desktop, double clicked them, and watched the beautiful splash screen appear, followed by the graphical interface of the program - I was totally convinced of it's value.

As I began using these very familiar programs to me tears almost came to my eyes. I thought about how expensive these programs are and how easy and quickly I had just installed them on my own computer.

I would have to say that I'm very happy that my computer is well-stocked with the latest, most advanced technological computer software available today. This is all because of a simple program tool that is available to anyone for download. This leads me to another subject.

Is this legal?

Well, from all the research I was able to do, I found that it is legal. However, at this point in time is a very "fine-line" legal.

I believe something very similar will happen with this program as did Napster. Once the numbers of people using the program become so large that the large corporations begin to take notice of their potential profit loss - changes will most likely occur.

However, just as in the case of Napster, there was a period of peer to peer "bliss;" we will be able to enjoy all of the amenities of downloading the latest in commercial software before something happens to reverse this privilege.

It has not happened yet, but will probably happen sometime within the next two to four years.

In conclusion, just as we have free speech in this country, perhaps we do have free software - briefly.

_______________________________________________ William Riopelle is dedicated to researching free software, thus benefiting the Internet community! Send a blank email to mailto:subscribe@freesoftwarecenter.com http://www.freesoftwarecenter.com AOL Users Click Here

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