Is it really free?
Posted By margaret on February 23, 2009
Does the word “free” brighten your day, or are you skeptical? If I were to tell you of websites with “free” software, would you then be skeptical? Would it make a difference if I changed the term to “open source” software? A clear cut explanation of the term open source may be found at www.opensource.org, so I won’t attempt to explain all the nuances of the definition; however, open source software means the source code is not proprietary, but open and transparent for people to see kind of “what’s under the hood”.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to know what’s under the hood, I just want the computer software to work. Low cost is good, but no cost is better.
As quilters, we can certainly incorporate software into our days to simplify procedures, help us to be more productive, or globally communicate with fabric lovers, not to mention the availability to spend more time quilting!
If you visit www.opensourcewindows.org or www.opensourcemac.org some of the open source (free) software is very similar to software costing hundreds of dollars. I’ve captured just a couple of images to illustrate what’s available for download.
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