Can’t complain, it’s free!
I like to read blogs/news items on Open Source/Linux related topics. Far too often, mostly in the comments, I sense the following sentiment:
I use [insert Linux distribution / some Open Source Software] and I love it! It fails in [insert some scenario/hardware/etc]. But hey, I can’t complain, it’s free!
I don’t know if this is a result of someone misinterpreting the term free or just not being responsible enough.
From what I understand, Free Software is software licensed such that anyone can freely copy, extend and redistribute it. It just so happens that with such a license, the software is easily available free of charge – so you don’t need to pay anyone any amount to install and use it.
What keeps free software alive is the community behind it. The community of developers (God bless them!) who make the software. Also the community of responsible users, who take it upon themselves to contribute in one way or the other. Many choose to make monetary donations to keep the development of free software funded, others choose to make contributions in form of testing. Using the software, reporting bugs when something doesn’t appear quite right, helping the project evolve and stay healthy.
Being free doesn’t mean it is any less in quality. In fact, price has nothing to do with quality. Look at Microsoft Windows and on the other end of the spectrum, look at Mozilla Firefox, Ubuntu or VLC to name a few good quality free software projects.
So when someone says – so what it’s broken, it’s free. You get what you pay for – it really bugs me. If you find something broken in any free software it should be reported to the developers. Most free software projects make it fairly easy to report bugs. Consider it your contribution to the software you use.
Users of free software who talk about the software they use on various platforms – blogs, comments, news websites, etc. – are also the marketing force for the free software. When we users are not careful of what we say about the free software we use, love and support, it is the project that is getting negative publicity.
Although free software is free of cost, it is – IMHO – not free of moral responsibility.
Kind of a rant, but had to say it!
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